TORONTO.- From October 31 to November 2, 2008 the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) hosts the 34th Annual Symposium of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities (SSEA) entitled Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Golden Kingdoms of the Nile. On Saturday, November 1, 2008, join an international panel of scholars as they follow the tangled threads of competition and dominance that made up the complex relationship between the two great kingdoms of Nubia and Egypt, which grew and flourished side by side along the banks of the Nile. For over 5,000 years, these magnificent civilizations contended for supremacy in north-east Africa and produced some of the most stunning art and architecture in history. Cost for Saturday’s symposium: Public $90; ROM Member $80; Student $40; SSEA Members $80.

Two additional days of presentations, the Scholars Colloquium on Friday October 31 and Sunday November 2, are free to the public. International Egyptologists and ROM curatorial staff will explore the life, culture and religion of ancient Egypt through their most recent work.

All presentations take place in the ROM’s Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre. Guests are asked to enter through the Loblaws Entrance on the south side of the building.

Presenters include: Dr. Krzysztof Grzymski, curator of World Civilizations at the ROM and recent excavator of the ancient Nubian capital of Meroë; Prof. David O’Connor of the University of Pennsylvania, author of Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in Africa; Prof. Mariam Ayad of the Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology at the University of Memphis and author of an upcoming book on the priestesses known as God's Wives; Prof. Jean Revez of Université du Québec à Montréal, author of numerous articles on the 25th “Nubian” Dynasty in Egypt; Prof. Ronald J. Leprohon of the University of Toronto; and Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith, professor of Egyptology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Dr. Tyson Smith has authored several books on ancient Nubia and excavates at the site of Tombos in the Sudan. More lecturers are to be announced.