Coastal Carolina University professor Cheryl Ward, an internationally recognized maritime archaeologist, will discuss "Building Pharaoh's Ship" in an illustrated lecture at the Scholar's Forum at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 27 at the Georgetown Main Library Branch, 405 Cleland St. The talk is free and open to the public.

Ward, who specializes in ancient ships, will talk about the discovery of the remains of one of the world’s oldest seagoing ships in Egypt. She'll discuss how the remains were used to reconstruct a complete ship of the type that sailed more than 1,000 miles south in the Red Sea. The ship was traveling to Punt, or God’s Land, where the Egyptians could trade textiles, copper tools and weapons and wine for frankincense, gold and myrrh, among other things. Her involvement in the project was recently featured on a PBS episode of "Nova" that aired earlier this year.

In addition to community outreach programs, Ward is working to establish Coastal Carolina University's new Center for Archaeology and Anthropology.

She earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from Texas A&M University, a master's degree in bioarchaeology from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of London, a master's degree in anthropology from Texas A&M University and a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Texas Tech University.

Ward founded and co-directed the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in Egypt and has served as a national speaker for the Archaeological Institute of America.

For more information on Scholar's Forum, call the Georgetown at 843-237-1387.