Tomorrow, Wednesday (22 February), the Limpsfield Decorative & Fine Arts Society will host renowned archeologist Louise Schofield for a fascinating lecture on temples, tombs and treasures. The former British Museum curator who has carried out many excavations in Ethiopia is also a director of the Tigray Trust.

The lectures take place tomorrow, Wednesday 22nd Feb at 2.30PM and 8PM in St Peter’s Hall. Guests welcome. 

In 2012 Louise Schofield led an expedition to Ethiopia that discovered a gold mine that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba of biblical legend derived her fabled treasures.

Sheba was a powerful incense-trading kingdom that prospered through trade with Jerusalem and the Roman empire. The Queen is immortalised in Qur’an and the Bible, which describes her visit to Solomon “with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold and precious stones … Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold and a very great quantity of spices.”

Although little is known about her, the Queen’s image inspired medieval Christian mystical works in which she embodied divine wisdom, as well as Turkish and Persian paintings, Handel’s oratorio Solomon and many Hollywood films. Her story is still told across Africa and Arabia and the Ethiopian tales are immortalised in the holy book, the Kebra Nagast.

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To find out more about the lecture and the Limpsifled Decorative & Fine Arts Society, visit their website – https://limpsfieldarts.org.