Bust out your planners, calendars, and PDAs (if you are throwback like that), it’s time to mark your calendars for the HMNS events of this week! 

Lecture – The Mystery of the Pyramids: Recent Discoveries by Zahi Hawass 
Tuesday, Oct. 20 
6:30 p.m.
No other manmade monuments command such curiosity, awe and veneration as the pyramids of Egypt. Recent discoveries have shed new light on these mysterious ancient wonders. From the Great Pyramids at Giza, the emblem of the Fourth Dynasty, to the older but lesser known pyramids of the Third Dynasty, these monuments have captivated people from around the globe. Dr. Zahi Hawass will provide fresh insight into the civilization that developed on the banks of the Nile during the fourth and third millennia BC. He will detail the world that existed around the pyramids, on the lives of the workers who built them, and on the court dignitaries who were granted the privilege of a burial place near that of their king. Dr. Zahi Hawass is Egypt’s leading archaeologist and director of excavations at Giza, Saqqara, Bahariya Oasis and the Valley of the Kings excavation sites. In this special lecture at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Dr. Hawass will reveal recent, important discoveries at Saqqara. A book signing of Pyramids: Treasures, Mysteries, and New Discoveries in Egypt will follow the lecture.

Lecture – Rock Art and Tribal Art in India by Jean Clottes
Thursday, Oct. 22
6:30 p.m.
India is home to thousands of painted archaeological sites with spectacular images. Dating from 10,000 years ago to historical times, distinctive themes are found in the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and historical periods. While researching this rock art, leading authority on cave art, Dr. Jean Clottes studied tribes who continue to use traditional arts for protection and ceremonial purposes. He and his team collected testimonies on these rapidly vanishing practices and their meanings. Clottes will share how the persistence of age-old traditions in these local tribes have helped interpret the rock art and explain its deeper meanings.

NEW Special Exhibition, Out of the Amazon: Life on the River, Opens Friday, October 23
The Houston Museum of Natural Science has an unparalleled Amazonia collection. Priceless pieces of the collection—ceremonial objects, masks, body costumes, headdresses and more—are showcased in the new special exhibition Out of the Amazon: Life on the River.

Savage Garden
Oct. 5 – 31
Discover the renegades of the botanical world at the Cockrell Butterfly Center. These baddies eat meat, defy death and break all the rules. Learn how they grew to be so nasty and why they act the way they do. It’s a Halloween season creep-show you don’t want to miss! But hurry — the show ends Oct. 31.