Reading, Pa.- Jonathan Elias, Ph.D., director of the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, will present Wrapped! In Search of the Essential Mummy on Thursday, February 5, 2009, at 6:30 p.m. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Campus Center South Lounge.

This ancient Egyptian mummy program will include content relating to mummy science, ancient diet, culture, health and wellness, and forensic facial reconstruction issues.  Audience participation and Q&A are part of the experience.

Interested in archaeological research since childhood, Elias has excavated at a variety of ancient Middle Eastern sites, including several in Egypt. He completed a master’s degree and doctorate at the University of Chicago while doing research on systems of magical inscription appearing on Egyptian coffins. This led to a special interest in the city of Akhmim and its ancient people. He studied his first Akhmimic mummy in 1987 as part of an exhibition developed by the Milwaukee Public Museum. In the years that followed he worked behind the scenes in different aspects of museum research and exhibit development.

Since 2001, Elias has specialized in computed tomography (CT) scanning and high-tech imaging of Egyptian mummies.

The Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium is an international project coordinating research on the Akhmimic population while promoting CT- based mummy studies and forensic facial reconstructions of the Egyptian population.

For more information or disabled assistance, please contact Lori Irwin at 610-921-7779. The Campus Center South Lounge is located on the Albright College campus at 13 th & Bern Streets, Reading, Pa.

Founded in 1856, Albright College is a nationally ranked, private college with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. The College’s hallmarks are connecting fields of learning, collaborative teaching and learning, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education. Albright College enrolls more than 1,650 undergraduates in traditional programs, another 500 adult students in accelerated degree programs, and 100 students in the master’s program in education. Albright College is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.