Raworths Salon North: Harrogate event hosts Egyptologist Dr Campbell Price, Dr Daisy Dixon and Professor Ben Alderson-Day
Egyptologist Dr Campbell Price will join fellow academics in Harrogate. He tells John Blow about challenging assumptions when it comes to the anicent world.
The smell of antiquity hit Dr Campbell Price as he walked, as a child, into Glasgow’s flagship Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Or that’s how he remembers it. True or not, he’s been hooked on the history of Egypt ever since.
“I have visceral memories of going in as really a child, and smelling the smell of what I assumed were ancient Egyptians. I mean, there were ancient Egyptian bodies in there. There aren't anymore, but the smell is still there, and it might be the floor polish or something. But it really stuck with me and, I don't know, when you're a kid, especially associating places with certain smells, is a thing. And it genuinely never left me.”
Now 42 and a Curator of Egypt and Sudan at Manchester Museum and an author, he will join fellow academics in Harrogate on Thursday for the latest Raworths Salon North. The intimate cabaret style evening is back at The Crown Hotel, bringing together thought-provoking speakers challenging assumptions, sparking conversations and helping us better understand the world.
Dr Daisy Dixon will examine “the boundaries between aesthetics and ethics”, and why certain artworks unsettle or shock people, asking what makes a piece of art “dangerous”.
Meanwhile, Professor Ben Alderson-Day, a leading voice in psychology and the science of perception, will explore an intriguing human experience – the unsettling sense of a presence when we are alone – and what it reveals about consciousness, imagination and reality, say organisers.
Dr Price’s role at the Salon, hosted by TV producer and presenter Natasha Knight, is to take the audience on a journey through ancient Egypt, explaining a vivid world that still fascinates people thousands of years later.
It is “a brilliant night out,” says Simon Morris, managing partner at law firm Raworths. “It’s entertaining, thought-provoking and you always leave with a new perspective on life and feeling a little bit more enlightened.”
Dr Price left his native Glasgow after school to attend the University of Liverpool, which has one of the biggest Egyptology departments in Europe, and went on to study for a PhD and is now an Honorary Research Fellow of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the institution.
The Egypt-inspired character of Mumm-Ra in Thundercats, and the Liverpool-set soap Brookside, left an impression on him as a youngster – so the heady mix of mummies and Merseyside, where he still lives, seemed fated.
“I only had to pay £1,000 pounds, at the time, to go to university in England. But all of my friends who stayed in Scotland had free tuition fees. So there was a real mystery among school friends and teachers. Like, why would he want to go to Liverpool University? I'll be clear. I'm very glad I did.”
It led to amazing opportunities including trips to Egypt itself, conducting fieldwork at Saqqara and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. When it came to applying to museums, he submitted applications for jobs in New York and Cairo, but it was closer to home that he stayed, and still loves.
One draw of Manchester Museum, where he has worked for 15 years, is its “progressive ethos,” he says. “A very strong collection, very supportive of its staff, and also the opportunity to push back on some received ideas about Egyptology.”
Dr Price adds: “I think Egyptologists often boast or compete amongst each other (about) who was the youngest when they discovered this great love. ‘Oh, I was 10 years old’. ‘I was eight years old’. ‘I was six years old’. I was a foetus and I just knew that I wanted to be an Egyptologist’. But the problem, the flipside to that, quite seriously, is that if you get into something as a child, you have that kind of childish perspective on it, and so you don't necessarily think critically about the concepts or the way society works. So I think there are Egyptologists that have very rose-tinted glasses when it comes to ancient Egypt and the ancient Egyptians. So that's something I might try and tease out.”
It is a fine line for museums and people like Dr Price – the author of books such as Ancient Egypt: Everything You Wanted to Know But Forgot to Ask, among other titles – who want to keep their subjects popular but also apply facts and academic rigour to their field.
“Obviously the museum wants to bring in punters, so you have to collude with some stereotypes to an extent, but then maybe you can gently push back on (them),” he says, adding: “Ancient Egypt is socially pretty complex. I mean, pretty stratified. I don't think it would have been pleasant. A school child at one of our regular school sessions asked me: ‘Would you like to live in ancient Egypt?’ I said: ‘Absolutely not. I wouldn't fancy it’.”
Turning to his night at the Salon, there is also the joy of having his own ideas questioned by academics from other fields.
“To meet people that come from a totally different perspective is like intellectual gymnastics. You literally can feel yourself thinking outside your comfort zone, dealing with these volleys of ideas,” he says.
The event on Thursday will be the last of the year, before it continues in March 2027. Sharon Canavar, Chief Executive of Harrogate International Festivals, said: “Salon is all about making interesting and sometimes complex ideas accessible in a relaxed and welcoming setting. I’m really looking forward to hearing from our latest trio of guests, who will no doubt bring the curtain down on this year’s Salon series in style.”
Raworths Salon North, The Crown Hotel, Harrogate, Thursday, 12 November, 7.30pm. Tickets (£18) are available from harrogateinternationalfestivals.com or by calling the Box Office on 01423 562 303.