- Art History Department
Emory University
128 Carlos Hall
581 South Kilgo Circle
Atlanta, GA 30322
USA
Rune Nyord
Emory University, Art History, Faculty Member
- Linguistic Anthropology, Cognitive Linguistics, Phenomenology, Ritual, Egyptology, Anthropology of Knowledge, and 26 moreMedical Anthropology, Anthropology of the Body, Ancient Religion, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Ancient Grammar, Gilles Deleuze, Early Christian Apocryphal Literature, Gnosticism, Coptic (Languages And Linguistics), Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of the body, Deleuze and Religion, Semantics, Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts, Ancient Egyptian Religion, Egyptian Ritual Texts, Egyptian language, Ontology, Archaeology of death and burial, Mortuary archaeology, Coffin Texts, Anthropology of Religion, Ontological Turn, Virada Ontológica, Ancient Egyptian language, and Conceptual Metaphoredit
This Element offers a new approach to ancient Egyptian images informed by interdisciplinary work in archaeology, anthropology, and art history. Sidestepping traditional perspectives on Egyptian art, the Element focuses squarely on the... more
This Element offers a new approach to ancient Egyptian images informed by interdisciplinary work in archaeology, anthropology, and art history. Sidestepping traditional perspectives on Egyptian art, the Element focuses squarely on the ontological status of the image in ancient thought and experience. To accomplish this, section 2 takes up a number of central Egyptian terms for images, showing that a close examination of their etymology and usage can help resolve long-standing question on Egyptian imaging practices. Section 3 discusses ancient Egyptian experiences of materials and manufacturing processes, while section 4 categorizes and discusses the different purposes and functions for which images were created. The Element as a whole thus offers a concise introduction to ancient Egyptian imaging practices for an interdisciplinary readership, while at the same introducing new ways of thinking about familiar material for the Egyptological reader.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108881494
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108881494
Research Interests:
Concepts in Middle Kingdom Funerary Culture presents a collection of archaeological and philological papers discussing how ancient Egyptians thought, and modern scholars may think, about Egyptian funerary practices of the early 2nd... more
Concepts in Middle Kingdom Funerary Culture presents a collection of archaeological and philological papers discussing how ancient Egyptians thought, and modern scholars may think, about Egyptian funerary practices of the early 2nd millennium BCE.
Targeting the concepts used by modern scholars, the papers address both general methodological questions of how concepts should be developed and used and more specific ones about the history and presuppositions behind particular Egyptological concepts. In so doing, the volume brings to the fore occasionally problematic intellectual baggage that have hindered understanding, as well highlighting new promising avenues of research in ancient Egyptian funerary culture in the Middle Kingdom and more broadly.
Targeting the concepts used by modern scholars, the papers address both general methodological questions of how concepts should be developed and used and more specific ones about the history and presuppositions behind particular Egyptological concepts. In so doing, the volume brings to the fore occasionally problematic intellectual baggage that have hindered understanding, as well highlighting new promising avenues of research in ancient Egyptian funerary culture in the Middle Kingdom and more broadly.
Research Interests:
Proceedings of the Lady Wallis Budge Symposium 2017: Egyptology and Anthropology: Historiography, Theoretical Exchange, and Conceptual Development. Special issue of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 17 (2018). Open Access... more
Proceedings of the Lady Wallis Budge Symposium 2017: Egyptology and Anthropology: Historiography, Theoretical Exchange, and Conceptual Development. Special issue of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 17 (2018). Open Access at https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei/issue/view/1511
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts form a corpus of ritual spells written on the inside of coffins from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1650 BCE). The spells are part of a long Egyptian tradition of equipping the dead with ritual texts... more
The ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts form a corpus of ritual spells written on the inside of coffins from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1650 BCE). The spells are part of a long Egyptian tradition of equipping the dead with ritual texts ensuring the transition from the state of a living human being to that of a deceased ancestor.
The Coffin Texts provide a rich material for studying ancient Egyptian conceptions of the body by providing insights into the underlying structure of the body as a whole and the proper function of individual parts of the body as seen by the ancient Egyptians.
Drawing on cognitive linguistics and phenomenological anthropology, Breathing Flesh presents an analysis of the conceptualisation of the human body and its individual parts in the Coffin Texts. Also discussed are the ritual conceptualisation and use of powerful substances such as ‘magic’, and the role of fertility and procreation in ancient Egyptian mortuary conceptions.
Introduction, table of contents and errata are available from Museum Tusculanum Press: http://www.mtp.hum.ku.dk/details.asp?eln=202870
Reviews
• PalArch: http://www.palarch.nl/wp-content/moje_j_2010_review_of_nyord_r_2009_breathing_flesh_carsten_niebuhr_institute.pdf
• The History Association: http://www.history.org.uk/resources/general_resource_3410_73.html
• Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 106 (2011), pp. 80-83: http://www.oldenbourg-link.com/toc/olzg/106/2"
• Lingua Aegyptia 19 (2011), pp. 375-386
• Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 101 (2011), pp. 501-506: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/volltexte/2016/2874
• Bibliotheca Orientalis 71/3-4 (2014), coll. 403-406: http://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=3062121&journal_code=BIOR
The Coffin Texts provide a rich material for studying ancient Egyptian conceptions of the body by providing insights into the underlying structure of the body as a whole and the proper function of individual parts of the body as seen by the ancient Egyptians.
Drawing on cognitive linguistics and phenomenological anthropology, Breathing Flesh presents an analysis of the conceptualisation of the human body and its individual parts in the Coffin Texts. Also discussed are the ritual conceptualisation and use of powerful substances such as ‘magic’, and the role of fertility and procreation in ancient Egyptian mortuary conceptions.
Introduction, table of contents and errata are available from Museum Tusculanum Press: http://www.mtp.hum.ku.dk/details.asp?eln=202870
Reviews
• PalArch: http://www.palarch.nl/wp-content/moje_j_2010_review_of_nyord_r_2009_breathing_flesh_carsten_niebuhr_institute.pdf
• The History Association: http://www.history.org.uk/resources/general_resource_3410_73.html
• Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 106 (2011), pp. 80-83: http://www.oldenbourg-link.com/toc/olzg/106/2"
• Lingua Aegyptia 19 (2011), pp. 375-386
• Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 101 (2011), pp. 501-506: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/volltexte/2016/2874
• Bibliotheca Orientalis 71/3-4 (2014), coll. 403-406: http://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=3062121&journal_code=BIOR
Research Interests: Ancient Egyptian Religion, Egyptology, Anthropology of the Body, Conceptual Metaphor, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and 9 moreAncient Religion, Cognitive Linguistics, Lexical Semantics, Phenomenology of the body, Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, Book of the Dead, Middle Kingdom (Egyptology), Conceptual Blending, Image Schemas, and Coffin Texts
"Papers from a seminar held at the University of Copenhagen in September 2006. From the book's Preface: The papers presented in this volume are the results of a seminar held at the University of Copenhagen in September 2006. As... more
"Papers from a seminar held at the University of Copenhagen in September 2006.
From the book's Preface:
The papers presented in this volume are the results of a seminar held at the University of Copenhagen in September 2006. As implied by the title of the seminar, ‘Being in Ancient Egypt – Thoughts on agency, materiality and cognition’, we wanted to create a forum for presenting and discussing research on ancient Egypt dealing with questions of a more abstract or theoretical nature than those commonly posed in Egyptology and Egyptian archaeology.
The theme of the seminar was inspired by the recent theoretical advances in anthropology, archaeology and cognitive linguistics dealing with, inter alia, the topics of agency, materiality and cognition mentioned in the subtitle of the seminar. In our view, such theoretical perspectives offer an important way to supplement more traditional empirical studies of ancient Egyptian sources, as well as raising a number of questions that – while they are not necessarily easily answered – provoke considerations of importance to our understanding of ‘being in ancient Egypt’.
The seminar offered opportunities for discussing questions of perception and experience, choice and agency, and conceptions and consciousness from a number of different perspectives. Some of the papers presented here draw overtly on theoretical frameworks from outside the field of Egyptology, while others raise questions of a similar nature without explicit reference outside the field. A common feature for all the papers presented here is their attempt to open up new ways of approaching old questions or to pose completely new questions to well-known material.
Contents:
1) A New Look at the Conception of the Human Being in Ancient Egypt (John Gee)
2) Between Identity and Agency in Ancient Egyptian Ritual (Harold M. Hays)
3) Material Agency, Attribution and Experience of Agency in Ancient Egypt: The case of New Kingdom private temple statues (Annette Kjølby)
4) Self-perception and Self-assertion in the Portrait of Senwosret III: New methods for reading a face (Maya Müller)
5) Taking Phenomenology to Heart: Some heuristic remarks on studying ancient Egyptian embodied experience (Rune Nyord)
http://cambridge.academia.edu/RuneNyord/Papers/183823/Taking_Phenomenology_to_Heart._Some_heuristic_remarks_on_studying_ancient_Egyptian_embodied_experience
6) Anger and Agency: The role of the emotions in Demotic and earlier narratives (John Tait)
7) Time and Space in Ancient Egypt: The importance of the creation of abstraction (David A. Warburton)
Index of Egyptian and Greek words and expressions."
From the book's Preface:
The papers presented in this volume are the results of a seminar held at the University of Copenhagen in September 2006. As implied by the title of the seminar, ‘Being in Ancient Egypt – Thoughts on agency, materiality and cognition’, we wanted to create a forum for presenting and discussing research on ancient Egypt dealing with questions of a more abstract or theoretical nature than those commonly posed in Egyptology and Egyptian archaeology.
The theme of the seminar was inspired by the recent theoretical advances in anthropology, archaeology and cognitive linguistics dealing with, inter alia, the topics of agency, materiality and cognition mentioned in the subtitle of the seminar. In our view, such theoretical perspectives offer an important way to supplement more traditional empirical studies of ancient Egyptian sources, as well as raising a number of questions that – while they are not necessarily easily answered – provoke considerations of importance to our understanding of ‘being in ancient Egypt’.
The seminar offered opportunities for discussing questions of perception and experience, choice and agency, and conceptions and consciousness from a number of different perspectives. Some of the papers presented here draw overtly on theoretical frameworks from outside the field of Egyptology, while others raise questions of a similar nature without explicit reference outside the field. A common feature for all the papers presented here is their attempt to open up new ways of approaching old questions or to pose completely new questions to well-known material.
Contents:
1) A New Look at the Conception of the Human Being in Ancient Egypt (John Gee)
2) Between Identity and Agency in Ancient Egyptian Ritual (Harold M. Hays)
3) Material Agency, Attribution and Experience of Agency in Ancient Egypt: The case of New Kingdom private temple statues (Annette Kjølby)
4) Self-perception and Self-assertion in the Portrait of Senwosret III: New methods for reading a face (Maya Müller)
5) Taking Phenomenology to Heart: Some heuristic remarks on studying ancient Egyptian embodied experience (Rune Nyord)
http://cambridge.academia.edu/RuneNyord/Papers/183823/Taking_Phenomenology_to_Heart._Some_heuristic_remarks_on_studying_ancient_Egyptian_embodied_experience
6) Anger and Agency: The role of the emotions in Demotic and earlier narratives (John Tait)
7) Time and Space in Ancient Egypt: The importance of the creation of abstraction (David A. Warburton)
Index of Egyptian and Greek words and expressions."
Research Interests:
[First paragraph] The study of masks and masking in ancient Egypt is fraught with difficulties.1 On the one hand, the evidence is sparse and somewhat ambiguous, leaving considerable room for interpretation. On the other, the question of... more
[First paragraph] The study of masks and masking in ancient Egypt is fraught with difficulties.1 On the one hand, the evidence is sparse and somewhat ambiguous, leaving considerable room for interpretation. On the other, the question of masking is — or at least can be — connected to large and contentious questions including the nature and experiences of the divine world in ancient Egypt, and the cultural affinities between Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa. Together, these conditions have made room for a relatively wide range of interpretations of ancient Egyptian masking practices with little hope of reconciliation, from assuming their significant prevalence in the cult to denying them any relevance outside of a few narrowly circumscribed cultural domains.
Research Interests:
This is a comparative exhibition about the human body, and in particular about one body part, the ‘guts’. For these purposes, ‘guts’ refers to everything found inside the lower torso, the organs and parts traditionally linked to nutrition... more
This is a comparative exhibition about the human body, and in particular about one body part, the ‘guts’. For these purposes, ‘guts’ refers to everything found inside the lower torso, the organs and parts traditionally linked to nutrition and digestion, but also endowed with emotional, ethical, and metaphysical significance, depending on the representation and narrative.
By offering access to culturally, socially, historically, and sensorially different experiential contexts, Comparative Guts allows the visitor a glimpse into the variety and richness of embodied self-definition, human imagination about our (as well as animal) bodies’ physiology and functioning, our embodied exchange with the external world, and the religious significance of the way we are ‘made’ as living creatures. This dive into difference is simultaneously an enlightening illustration of what is common and shared among living beings.
Exzellenzcluster Roots at the CAU Kiel
By offering access to culturally, socially, historically, and sensorially different experiential contexts, Comparative Guts allows the visitor a glimpse into the variety and richness of embodied self-definition, human imagination about our (as well as animal) bodies’ physiology and functioning, our embodied exchange with the external world, and the religious significance of the way we are ‘made’ as living creatures. This dive into difference is simultaneously an enlightening illustration of what is common and shared among living beings.
Exzellenzcluster Roots at the CAU Kiel
Research Interests:
[First paragraphs] The funerary objects published in this volume testify amply to the cultural importance of burials in ancient Egypt. In a fundamental sense, what was at stake was the transformation of the deceased person into an... more
[First paragraphs]
The funerary objects published in this volume testify amply to the cultural importance of burials in ancient Egypt. In a fundamental sense, what was at stake was the transformation of the deceased person into an ancestor,
and powerful texts, images, and objects all supported this process.
In older scholarship, the overwhelming surviving evidence of ancient Egyptian funerary culture led scholars to think of something like a morbid obsession with death, and it was imagined that the goal was a kind of eternal salvation along the lines of well-known Christian beliefs. But, by
situating Egyptian burial practices within the social setting of the interactions between living descendants and deceased ancestors, it may become easier to appreciate the central importance of the ancestor cult in ancient Egyptian society.
The funerary objects published in this volume testify amply to the cultural importance of burials in ancient Egypt. In a fundamental sense, what was at stake was the transformation of the deceased person into an ancestor,
and powerful texts, images, and objects all supported this process.
In older scholarship, the overwhelming surviving evidence of ancient Egyptian funerary culture led scholars to think of something like a morbid obsession with death, and it was imagined that the goal was a kind of eternal salvation along the lines of well-known Christian beliefs. But, by
situating Egyptian burial practices within the social setting of the interactions between living descendants and deceased ancestors, it may become easier to appreciate the central importance of the ancestor cult in ancient Egyptian society.
Research Interests:
In the late Middle Kingdom a number of cult stelae dedicated to ancestors (in tombs and Abydos shrines) are inscribed with ritual spells first known from the tomb chambers of royal pyramids in the 5th and 6th Dynasties over half a... more
In the late Middle Kingdom a number of cult stelae dedicated to ancestors (in tombs and Abydos shrines) are inscribed with ritual spells first known from the tomb chambers of royal pyramids in the 5th and 6th Dynasties over half a millennium earlier. This paper begins by tracing this phenomenon in terms of the contents and cultural context of the spells in question, and discusses the significance of the occurrence of the ‘same’ text in rather different surroundings: First, in the sealed burial chamber of the royal family, and later as displayed on the focal point of the ancestor cult performed for private individuals. While some of the texts are clearly offering spells and thus fit quite seamlessly into the context of the mortuary cult, others look like texts usually read as dealing with the
deceased’s manifestation in the next world, which raises important questions concerning the understanding (by the ancient Egyptians as well as Egyptologists) of the subject matter of the spells. In turn, such considerations can provide input to ongoing discussions about the relationship between myth and ritual in ancient Egypt.
deceased’s manifestation in the next world, which raises important questions concerning the understanding (by the ancient Egyptians as well as Egyptologists) of the subject matter of the spells. In turn, such considerations can provide input to ongoing discussions about the relationship between myth and ritual in ancient Egypt.
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian funerary texts have been a source of fascination since their discovery. But do these varied texts describe a coherent vision of an afterlife, or is that a 19th century academic projection?... more
Ancient Egyptian funerary texts have been a source of fascination since their discovery. But do these varied texts describe a coherent vision of an afterlife, or is that a 19th century academic projection?
https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2021/12/ancient-egyptian-texts-afterlife
https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2021/12/ancient-egyptian-texts-afterlife
Research Interests:
This paper offers a publication of the stela of Nebetitef with a letter to the deceased owner of the stela on the back. The letter was first published by Edward Wente more than four decades ago after he had seen it briefly in the Cairo... more
This paper offers a publication of the stela of Nebetitef with a letter to the deceased owner of the stela on the back. The letter was first published by Edward Wente more than four decades ago after he had seen it briefly in the Cairo Museum, and this publication has formed the basis for all subsequent discussions of the letter, in which the writer notably refers to wishing to see the deceased in a dream. A study of the front of the stela along with a re-examination of the hieratic letter, under more favourable circumstances than those available to Wente, yields new insights into the letter, its writers and its recipient. In particular, the re-examination calls into question Wente’s original identification, followed almost unanimously in the subsequent literature, of the main writer of the letter as the husband of the deceased, altering the social backdrop for the interpretation of the letter.
Research Interests:
[First paragraph] In the middle of the 24th century BC E, the ancient Egyptian king Wenis introduced an innovation in burial practice that would influence Egyptian mortuary religion profoundly during the following millennia. The interior... more
[First paragraph]
In the middle of the 24th century BC E, the ancient Egyptian king Wenis introduced an innovation in burial practice that would influence Egyptian mortuary religion profoundly during the following millennia. The interior of earlier royal tombs had remained largely undecorated, while the decorative programme in the mortuary temples where the cult of the dead king was performed focused mainly on the status and achievements of the king on the one hand, and on the performance of his cult on the other.
In the middle of the 24th century BC E, the ancient Egyptian king Wenis introduced an innovation in burial practice that would influence Egyptian mortuary religion profoundly during the following millennia. The interior of earlier royal tombs had remained largely undecorated, while the decorative programme in the mortuary temples where the cult of the dead king was performed focused mainly on the status and achievements of the king on the one hand, and on the performance of his cult on the other.
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian funerary texts have traditionally been read as providing detailed, literal descriptions of afterlife beliefs, but various aspects of this view have begun to be questioned in recent research. The present article reviews... more
Ancient Egyptian funerary texts have traditionally been read as providing detailed, literal descriptions of afterlife beliefs, but various aspects of this view have begun to be questioned in recent research. The present article reviews such contributions in contrast to the classical view of funerary texts as established by Kurt Sethe (1931), arguing that it is possible in several respects to extend their stances and conclusions. The resulting view is one in which the very notion of “funerary texts” as a text genre sui generis is questioned, along with the defining feature that such texts contain literal descriptions of a transcendent, personal afterlife. Instead, it is suggested with reference to both Egyptological and interdisciplinary ideas that funerary texts can fruitfully be viewed as sharing their structure and function with other ancient Egyptian ritual texts. In questioning the intuitive reading of the texts as descriptions of the afterlife, such an approach opens up new interpretive possibilities of relevance both within Egyptology and in cross-cultural comparison.
Research Interests:
[First paragraph] Texts for healing and protection form a relatively clearly delineated category of texts in the Pharaonic period. They are characterized by their concrete concern with securing the wellbeing usually of a single person... more
[First paragraph] Texts for healing and protection form a relatively clearly delineated category of texts in the Pharaonic period. They are characterized by their concrete concern with securing the wellbeing usually of a single person with very occasional exceptions, such as rituals for protecting
an entire house. This casuistic concreteness distinguishes this group of texts from many other ritual texts, while the concern with health and wellbeing provides a contrast with other ‘scientific’ texts. Some of the closest parallels in structure, contents, and vocabulary may be found in funerary texts, where the difference is mainly one of different domains. However, as recent work on funerary documents has increasingly questioned their exclusive relevance for the dead, this neat distinction may become muddled in the years to come.
an entire house. This casuistic concreteness distinguishes this group of texts from many other ritual texts, while the concern with health and wellbeing provides a contrast with other ‘scientific’ texts. Some of the closest parallels in structure, contents, and vocabulary may be found in funerary texts, where the difference is mainly one of different domains. However, as recent work on funerary documents has increasingly questioned their exclusive relevance for the dead, this neat distinction may become muddled in the years to come.
Research Interests:
[First paragraph] Traditional approaches to ancient Egyptian funerary practices are strongly shaped by Victorian ideas of a universal human quest for immortality, of which Egypt was thought to provide a paradigmatic example (Nyord 2018).... more
[First paragraph] Traditional approaches to ancient Egyptian funerary practices are strongly shaped by Victorian ideas of a universal human quest for immortality, of which Egypt was thought to provide a paradigmatic example (Nyord 2018). Correspondingly, grave goods are generally interpreted as finished objects of immediate use to the deceased in his or her personal afterlife, and, where this for one reason or another appears intuitively unlikely, the objects are interpreted to tell us something about the exotic nature of the Egyptian afterlife. In this chapter I discuss a particularly iconic category of grave goods, showing both how a new, broader understanding can emerge when an object is approached as an ‘image in the making’ and how such a new reading fits with ancient Egyptian ontology more widely. At the same time, I also address one of the recurring challenges in recent work on object ontologies (see e.g. the recent review in Caraher 2016), namely how concrete design features of an object, such as choice of material and use of specific decorative patterns, can be linked to the much more abstract considerations of different modes of being (cf. Robb 2015). It also exemplifies the particular possibilities offered by studying such questions in historical societies, where traditionally the main question has been whether there are written sources that inform us about what beliefs the makers of an object attached to it (e.g. van Walsem 2017: 252). By reframing the overall question in an ontological key, the range of relevant sources becomes at once both wider and narrower, since we may also be interested in broader patterns of thinking about the nature of the world, which are not necessarily directly translatable into a concrete ‘belief’ about a specific thing (cf. Nyord 2014).
Research Interests:
[First paragraphs] Health problems ascribed to the agency of dead human beings in ancient Egyptian healing texts offer a number of interesting perspectives on cultural classifications of illness and local epistemologies. On the one hand,... more
[First paragraphs]
Health problems ascribed to the agency of dead human beings in ancient Egyptian healing texts offer a number of interesting perspectives on cultural classifications of illness and local epistemologies. On the one hand, the problems are rarely described in enough detail to be of much use in discussions of universal versus ‘local biologies’ ( sensu Lock 2001 ). But, on the other hand, they offer a prime example of the ways in which illness is embedded within wider conceptual, experiential and social surroundings. This in turn stresses the need for approaches that allow us to sidestep intuitive dualistic notions of illness in order to come to a better understanding of ancient experience (cf. Nyord 2017 ).
A number of different problems are ascribed in Egyptian medicine to a group of beings known simply as ‘the dead’, often specified further as ‘a male or female dead’ ( Westendorf 1999 : 360–94; Kousoulis 2007 ). It is tempting to see such connections as a purely theoretical construct whereby illnesses are explained by reference to the ‘dead’ as an aetiological principle. In this chapter, I will try to broaden this understanding to include considerations of the ways in which such conceptual aspects interact with embodied experience in the Lebenswelt (‘lifeworld’) of the ancient Egyptians.
Health problems ascribed to the agency of dead human beings in ancient Egyptian healing texts offer a number of interesting perspectives on cultural classifications of illness and local epistemologies. On the one hand, the problems are rarely described in enough detail to be of much use in discussions of universal versus ‘local biologies’ ( sensu Lock 2001 ). But, on the other hand, they offer a prime example of the ways in which illness is embedded within wider conceptual, experiential and social surroundings. This in turn stresses the need for approaches that allow us to sidestep intuitive dualistic notions of illness in order to come to a better understanding of ancient experience (cf. Nyord 2017 ).
A number of different problems are ascribed in Egyptian medicine to a group of beings known simply as ‘the dead’, often specified further as ‘a male or female dead’ ( Westendorf 1999 : 360–94; Kousoulis 2007 ). It is tempting to see such connections as a purely theoretical construct whereby illnesses are explained by reference to the ‘dead’ as an aetiological principle. In this chapter, I will try to broaden this understanding to include considerations of the ways in which such conceptual aspects interact with embodied experience in the Lebenswelt (‘lifeworld’) of the ancient Egyptians.
Research Interests:
Ever since they first became widely known in the late nineteenth century, the wooden figurines deposited in ancient Egyptian tombs during the late third and early second millennium BCE have captured the imagination of modern audiences.... more
Ever since they first became widely known in the late nineteenth century, the wooden figurines deposited in ancient Egyptian tombs during the late third and early second millennium BCE have captured the imagination of modern audiences. Were they scenes of daily life or puppets that were they somehow meant to be used?
Research Interests:
The decoration of the so-called ‘marsh bowls’, found in tombs as well as temples, is fairly consistent in depicting a waterscape with plants and inhabitants which often relate them to Hathor. The author suggests that the technique of... more
The decoration of the so-called ‘marsh bowls’, found in tombs as well as temples, is fairly consistent in depicting a waterscape with plants and inhabitants which often relate them to Hathor. The author suggests that the technique of decorating the faience, with the glazing emerging from the paste, reflects the moment of creation when the world appeared from the depths of the primeval ocean and crops sprouted from fertile soil. It bears witness to a communal process of emergence when, having been dissolved or concealed in matter (faience, inundation, soil), phenomena (glaze, marshes, crops) become a visual form on the glittering blue surface. With their multiple layers of interpretation the bowls are more than pretty ornaments.
Research Interests:
[First paragraph] The papers collected in this volume were given at the Lady Wallis Budge Anniversary Symposium held at Christ’s College, Cambridge in January 2016. Upon the death of Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, the former Keeper of the British... more
[First paragraph] The papers collected in this volume were given at the Lady Wallis Budge Anniversary Symposium held at Christ’s College, Cambridge in January 2016. Upon the death of Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, the former Keeper of the British Museum’s Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, in 1934, he bequeathed generous sums for establishing Funds in the memory of his wife at University College, Oxford and Christ’s College, Cambridge to support Egyptological research at these institutions. In 1936, the first two Lady Wallis Budge Fellows were elected, and in the intervening eight decades, the Lady Wallis Budge Funds have provided generous and significant support for the field of Egyptology through Fellowships, Scholarships and grants, allowing very strong Egyptological traditions to develop at the two Colleges.
Research Interests:
[First paragraph] It is widely recognised that the concept of ka (kꜣ) is one of the most central in pharaonic Egyptian religion, especially in its earlier phases. However, modern interpretations of the concept have tended to go in one of... more
[First paragraph] It is widely recognised that the concept of ka (kꜣ) is one of the most central in pharaonic Egyptian religion, especially in its earlier phases. However, modern interpretations of the concept have tended to go in one of two directions: either a particular subset of the occurrences of the word is identified as being the most central and a hypothesis based solely on this more limited usage is presented, or (especially in introductions and encyclopaedia entries, etc.) the most frequent uses of the term are simply listed next to each other without any consideration of how they might possibly have been related in the Egyptian view. Methodologically, it seems that the former, more hypothetical, approach is the only alternative to the latter, purely escriptive, and the present paper belongs clearly in the tradition seeking a more or less unified general understanding. Important challenges to such attempts in the past lie not only in the singling out of a particular group of sources as the most important from the outset, but equally in a related tendency to sum up (or even ‘define’) the ancient Egyptian notion in terms of one or two modern concepts. In an attempt to avoid these problems, the interpretation undertaken here builds on the one hand on well-attested general Egyptian religious notions, while on the other broadening the scope enough to incorporate all of the main groups of sources in which the term occurs in the Old and Middle Kingdom.
Research Interests:
This paper examines the role of the beard in ancient Egyptian religious texts. Often used as a prototypical sign of divinity, the beard also plays a more specific role in certain mythological events, such as the primordial hypostasis of... more
This paper examines the role of the beard in ancient Egyptian religious texts. Often used as a prototypical sign of divinity, the beard also plays a more specific role in certain mythological events, such as the primordial hypostasis of the body parts of the creator god Atum. In this way, the roles of the beard also raise more general questions of the conceptions of divine bodies in ancient Egyptian thought.
Research Interests:
[First paragraph] Figurines like this, representing a woman naked but for jewellery and tattoos and carrying a child on her hip, were placed in ancestral tombs during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (c. 2000–1650 BC). e ancient Egyptians,... more
[First paragraph]
Figurines like this, representing a woman naked but for jewellery and tattoos and carrying a child on her hip, were placed in ancestral tombs during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (c. 2000–1650 BC). e ancient Egyptians, who regarded dead ancestors as a source of fertility and prosperity, treated the tomb as a site of great power that the living could harness. Depositing figurines in the tomb was one way of doing this, and the inscription on the right leg of this statuette asks that ‘A birth be granted to your daughter Seh’. The petitioner addresses the deceased father, or other male ancestor, of a living woman, invoking his power over his own offspring’s generative capacity.
Figurines like this, representing a woman naked but for jewellery and tattoos and carrying a child on her hip, were placed in ancestral tombs during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (c. 2000–1650 BC). e ancient Egyptians, who regarded dead ancestors as a source of fertility and prosperity, treated the tomb as a site of great power that the living could harness. Depositing figurines in the tomb was one way of doing this, and the inscription on the right leg of this statuette asks that ‘A birth be granted to your daughter Seh’. The petitioner addresses the deceased father, or other male ancestor, of a living woman, invoking his power over his own offspring’s generative capacity.
Research Interests:
This chapter examines some of the fundamental connections in Egyptian thinking about death and time. With a point of departure in the practice in ritual texts of identifying the dead with various mythological beings carrying out primeval... more
This chapter examines some of the fundamental connections in Egyptian thinking about death and time. With a point of departure in the practice in ritual texts of identifying the dead with various mythological beings carrying out primeval deeds, the interplay between mythology and time is discussed in central sources such as the calendars of lucky and unlucky days and funerary texts explaining ritual practices in terms of their mythological background or origin. It is argued that mythology in such connections can be understood as the technical language describing and manipulating the hidden processes of becoming (Egyptian kheper) that lie behind observable natural and cultural phenomena. Although the myths are typically narrated in the past, the time in which they take place is thus not located in the deep past before the beginning of chronological time, but rather the myths express continuously ongoing processes. This perspective on the relevance of myth in ritual leads to a new understanding of the mythological identifications of the dead in funerary texts, which can be taken at face value as embedding the deceased within the processes lying behind the world’s ongoing coming into being.
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian conceptions of images are examined through a discussion of the meaning of the root twt, ‘resemble’ etc. It is argued that the word is used of the capacity of a representation (whether in text, image, or performance) to... more
Ancient Egyptian conceptions of images are examined through a discussion of the meaning of the root twt, ‘resemble’ etc. It is argued that the word is used of the capacity of a representation (whether in text, image, or performance) to capture fundamental characteristics or propensities of what is represented, as opposed to referring to a correspondence of outward appearance.
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian mortuary religion is full of ideas which, in their conventional Egyptological interpretation, are very difficult to take seriously, seemingly contradictory and naïve as they are. This has not been a major problem within... more
Ancient Egyptian mortuary religion is full of ideas which, in their conventional Egyptological interpretation, are very difficult to take seriously, seemingly contradictory and naïve as they are. This has not been a major problem within the field of Egyptology itself due to a disciplinary stance that tends to avoid engagement with the ideas ascribed to the ancient Egyptian actor, but in comparison with anthropological approaches — especially the recent “ontological turn” — such apparently absurd ideas raise a significant challenge. This paper argues that in order to “take seriously” ancient Egyptian practices, much of the Victorian baggage still with us in the traditional idea of the “quest for immortality” needs to be rethought.
Research Interests:
This chapter develops a conceptual framework for approaching special, technical uses of language found in ancient medical texts. As an alternative to the unwieldy intuitive distinction between so-called 'literal' and 'figurative'... more
This chapter develops a conceptual framework for approaching special, technical uses of language found in ancient medical texts. As an alternative to the unwieldy intuitive distinction between so-called 'literal' and 'figurative' language, medical use of terminology derived from other domains of experience is better approached as a question of intersection between axes of lexical centrality and ontological commitment. The advantages of this framework are then exemplified by an analysis of the role of heat in ancient Egyptian healing texts, demonstrating how a more nuanced understanding of ancient conceptions can be achieved by paying attention to uses of language derived from different experiential domains.
Research Interests:
This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding ancient Egyptian ritual uses of images, centred on a triad of image functions vis-à-vis the point of reference consisting of presentification, alteration and substitution. On... more
This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding ancient Egyptian ritual uses of images, centred on a triad of image functions vis-à-vis the point of reference consisting of presentification, alteration and substitution. On this basis, two late Middle Kingdom funerary practices are analysed as case studies, namely the use of shabti figurines on the one hand, and woman-and-child figurines on the other.
Through these two case studies, the paper illustrates the way in which the internal logic and referentiality of the image can be drawn upon to supplement more traditional iconographic, archaeological and textual approaches.
Through these two case studies, the paper illustrates the way in which the internal logic and referentiality of the image can be drawn upon to supplement more traditional iconographic, archaeological and textual approaches.
Research Interests:
Some aspects of Egyptian conceptions of time are explored through analysis of the expressions ˁḥˁw, ‘(life)time, period’ and ꜣt, ‘moment, impulse’, illustrating the interplay between chronological and non-chronological facets of meaning.... more
Some aspects of Egyptian conceptions of time are explored through analysis of the expressions ˁḥˁw, ‘(life)time, period’ and ꜣt, ‘moment, impulse’, illustrating the interplay between chronological and non-chronological facets of meaning. It is suggested that the hippopotamus head used as determinative of the latter word can be understood with reference to Egyptian views of this animal as a concrete manifestation of the creative force of the Nile flood, and hence a tangible image of the combination of time and ontology inherent in the meaning of the word.
Research Interests:
A brief note on the Lady Wallis Budge Anniversary Symposium and its background.
Research Interests:
Cognitive linguistics is an influential branch of linguistics, which has played an increasing role in different areas of Egyptology over the last couple of decades. Concepts from cognitive linguistics have been especially influential in... more
Cognitive linguistics is an influential branch of linguistics, which has played an increasing role in different areas of Egyptology over the last couple of decades. Concepts from cognitive linguistics have been especially influential in the study of determinatives/classifiers in the hieroglyphic script, but they have also proven useful to elucidate a number of other questions, both narrowly linguistic and more broadly cultural historical.
Research Interests:
Among the transformation spells in the Coffin Texts, where the deceased is transformed into various mythological beings, is a smaller group dealing specifically with becoming the “scribe” (sš) or “archivist” (ı͗ry-mḏ3t) of various gods... more
Among the transformation spells in the Coffin Texts, where the deceased is transformed into various mythological beings, is a smaller group dealing specifically with becoming the “scribe” (sš) or “archivist” (ı͗ry-mḏ3t) of various gods with the largest number of spells being connected to the goddess Hathor. Drawing on a particularly rich collection of such spells on a coffin in Basel not previously translated as well as similar texts published in de Buck’s Coffin Texts edition, this chapter examines the characteristic blend of ritual, mythological and ontological themes found in the texts, in order to elucidate the conceptual background of the notion of divine scribes. Translations of the spells for becoming a scribe of the gods and a typeset version of some of the ‘new’ spells are found in the appendices.
Research Interests:
The ka has been subject to many different interpretations over the years. By re-examining a variety of textual evidence the author attempts to define the all-important role of the ka as the potential essence of a human being and, at the... more
The ka has been subject to many different interpretations over the years. By re-examining a variety of textual evidence the author attempts to define the all-important role of the ka as the potential essence of a human being and, at the same time, as a totality of man's personal make-up, i.e. as being an independent as well as integrated part of him. The ka is thus a decisive factor in the ongoing process of creation which determines the behaviour of a person every day of his life.
Research Interests:
This paper presents an analysis of the semantic structure of body part terms occurring in compound prepositions in Sahidic Coptic. Based on the corpus of the New Testament translation and with a theoretical outset inspired by cognitive... more
This paper presents an analysis of the semantic structure of body part terms occurring in compound prepositions in Sahidic Coptic. Based on the corpus of the New Testament translation and with a theoretical outset inspired by cognitive linguistics, it is argued that each of the body part terms can be viewed as a conceptual category based on an embodied prototype with a greater or smaller number of extensions. Thus, rather than providing a list of possible English translations as is often done, the paper shows that it is possible to understand the compound prepositions based on a single body part as a closely related set of categories ultimately rooted in human embodied experience.
Research Interests: New Testament, Conceptual Metaphor, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Coptic Studies, Coptic (Languages And Linguistics), and 10 moreCognitive Linguistics, Sahidic Coptic, Prepositions, Coptic language, Grammaticalisation, Cognitive Linguistics (semantics of Prepositions), New Testament Studies, Sahidic and Bohairic Coptic Dialects, Image Schemas, and Body parts terms
In honour of Paul John Frandsen
Research Interests:
Middle Kingdom coffins with their extensive programmes of decoration and inscription constitute a rich source for studying Egyptian mortuary conceptions. Over the last decades this material has been the subject of a number of detailed... more
Middle Kingdom coffins with their extensive programmes of decoration and inscription constitute a rich source for studying Egyptian mortuary conceptions. Over the last decades this material has been the subject of a number of detailed studies, including two typological studies (Willems 1988; Lapp 1993) and a number of monographic case studies of individual coffins (Willems 1996; Meyer-Dietrich 2001, 2006). This surge of interest has gone a long way towards elucidating the religious, and especially ritual, context of the coffins. Nonetheless, certain significant questions are still left open, so that for instance the exact relationship between coffin and ritual is understood rather differently by the two authors of the coffin cases studies cited. Similarly an object such as a coffin is open to a number of different understandings (e.g. as medium for image and writing, as space, as house, as inherently connected to – or even notionally part of – the dead body), some of which are still deserving of further exploration. This paper takes up some of the open questions and seeks to address them from a number of different perspectives, complementing traditional philological and iconographical approaches with ontological and material culture perspectives drawn from archaeology and anthropology.
Research Interests:
In the wake of a review in this journal of my book Breathing Flesh, David Warburton and I have been engaged in an exchange spanning the most recent couple of issues. As it would appear that this discussion has run its course, I offer here... more
In the wake of a review in this journal of my book Breathing Flesh, David Warburton and I have been engaged in an exchange spanning the most recent couple of issues. As it would appear that this discussion has run its course, I offer here a few concluding remarks.
This paper explores some aspects of the interplay between vision and conceptualization in ancient Egyptian art. The characteristic appearance of Egyptian art is due in large part to a number of main principles observed in depictions, many... more
This paper explores some aspects of the interplay between vision and conceptualization in ancient Egyptian art. The characteristic appearance of Egyptian art is due in large part to a number of main principles observed in depictions, many of which can also be found in other artistic traditions. The possible significance of this fact has been debated in the scholarly literature related to the various artistic traditions without reaching a shared consensus. Approaching the question from the point of view of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s notions of the Visible and the Invisible and Alva Noë’s concept of perspectival properties, it is suggested that Egyptian and other aspective traditions aim to capture an experience of an object which is complementary to that presented by perspective images – without necessarily implying any deep-rooted cognitive differences between the cultures in question, as has occasionally been assumed in the past. It is argued that this way of representing objects opens up possibilities of incorporating conceptual contents in depictions, and some examples of a conceptual understanding of the principles of Egyptian art (e.g., in terms of categorization, partonymy and conceptual metaphor) are analyzed and related to corresponding phenomena in the Egyptian language.
Research Interests:
[First paragraphs] Death plays a crucial role in the ancient Egyptian monumental discourse, as some of the most enduring and iconic Egyptian achievements – pyramids, decorated tombs and mummies – are centred squarely on ancient Egyptian... more
[First paragraphs]
Death plays a crucial role in the ancient Egyptian monumental discourse, as some of the most enduring and iconic Egyptian achievements – pyramids, decorated tombs and mummies – are centred squarely on ancient Egyptian conceptions and experiences of death.
The Egyptian tomb serves, perhaps even more so than other fixed ritual locales, as a kind of lens capturing and refracting the past, present and future. The past life of the tomb owner is fused in a monumental shape with depictions serving as a matrix for the recurrent cult taking place there, while the tomb owner in turn makes promises for the future wellbeing of those serving in the cult. Perhaps the most striking example of the Egyptian attitude to time in death is found in the practice of mummification where the ‘eternally’ continued existence of the deceased is made possible by giving the dead body a new, permanent shape.
Death plays a crucial role in the ancient Egyptian monumental discourse, as some of the most enduring and iconic Egyptian achievements – pyramids, decorated tombs and mummies – are centred squarely on ancient Egyptian conceptions and experiences of death.
The Egyptian tomb serves, perhaps even more so than other fixed ritual locales, as a kind of lens capturing and refracting the past, present and future. The past life of the tomb owner is fused in a monumental shape with depictions serving as a matrix for the recurrent cult taking place there, while the tomb owner in turn makes promises for the future wellbeing of those serving in the cult. Perhaps the most striking example of the Egyptian attitude to time in death is found in the practice of mummification where the ‘eternally’ continued existence of the deceased is made possible by giving the dead body a new, permanent shape.
Research Interests: Ancient Egyptian Religion, Egyptology, Gilles Deleuze, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Ancient Religion, and 9 morePhilosophy of Time, Anthropology of Time, Old Kingdom (Egyptology), Ancient Egyptian Architecture, Temporality, Tomb decoration (Egyptian), Egyptian autobiographies, Ancient Egyptian Mortuary Cult, and Ancient Egyptian Ka-concept
"In 2012 professor Karen King of Harvard University drew the attention of the world to a fragment of papyrus with a Coptic text that allegedly mentions a wife of Jesus. This caused worldwide interest and some disbelief. Rune Nyord... more
"In 2012 professor Karen King of Harvard University drew the attention of the world to a fragment of papyrus with a Coptic text that allegedly mentions a wife of Jesus. This caused worldwide interest and some disbelief. Rune Nyord examines the evidence, the reading of the text, and discusses the authenticity of the document as far as it can be ascertained at the present moment"
Research Interests:
A recent review in this journal of my book Breathing Flesh provides the point of departure for a discussion of the possibility of approaching questions of conceptions of the body in ancient Egypt drawing on conceptual frameworks derived... more
A recent review in this journal of my book Breathing Flesh provides the point of departure for a discussion of the possibility of approaching questions of conceptions of the body in ancient Egypt
drawing on conceptual frameworks derived from outside the field of Egyptology. Along the way, this contribution also touches upon broader questions of the ideal nature of constructive scholarly debate, especially when dealing with attempts to offer new interdisciplinary perspectives on heavily entrenched traditional Egyptological positions.
drawing on conceptual frameworks derived from outside the field of Egyptology. Along the way, this contribution also touches upon broader questions of the ideal nature of constructive scholarly debate, especially when dealing with attempts to offer new interdisciplinary perspectives on heavily entrenched traditional Egyptological positions.
Research Interests:
Two case studies are presented to illustrate the usefulness of cognitive linguistic approaches to lexical semantics in ancient Egyptian. The first case study concerns the polysemous verb fḫ, “release” etc. in Earlier Egyptian. Making use... more
Two case studies are presented to illustrate the usefulness of cognitive linguistic approaches to lexical semantics in ancient Egyptian. The first case study concerns the polysemous verb fḫ, “release” etc. in Earlier Egyptian. Making use of cognitive linguistic notions such as image schemata and radial category structure, it is argued that the conceptual category of the verb is organized around a central prototype derived from the embodied experience of letting go of an object held in the hand. From this prototype the verb meaning is expanded by image-schematic variation and metaphorical extension to account in a principled way for all of the attested meanings of the verb. The second case study illustrates the notions of conceptual metaphor and cultural models by examining various metaphorical expressions of speech and thought based on the basic notion of the human body as a container for thoughts and words. On the basis of conceptual metaphor theory, it is argued that analyses of lexical semantics can fruitfully be complemented by studies on a much more general level than that of the individual lexical item. This case study argues that the various individual metaphorical expressions of speech, communication and understanding can be brought together in a cultural model representing one important way in which the Egyptians understood and talked about verbal discourse.
Research Interests:
Prepositions are traditionally treated in dictionaries and grammars by giving a list of usages, often corresponding more or less to the way the preposition is translated in the language of the modern work. This paper suggests an... more
Prepositions are traditionally treated in dictionaries and grammars by giving a list of usages, often corresponding more or less to the way the preposition is translated in the language of the modern work. This paper suggests an alternative way of approaching prepositions, derived from cognitive linguistics where prepositions are regarded as categories centered on a salient prototype from which various peripheral members of the category are derived. This perspective has the advantage of presenting the meaning of each preposition as a unified category with a specific central meaning and various extensions, instead of merely listing a number of unrelated senses. It is argued that Middle Egyptian prepositions can fruitfully be studied in this framework, and the method is exemplified by examining the conceptual structure of the two frequent prepositions m and r.
Research Interests:
Article on Sprogmuseet [the Language Museum] about ritual uses of writing in ancient Egyptian funerary practices (in Danish).
Research Interests:
This chapter presents an introduction to Amarna religion, beginning with some main features of pre-Amarna notions of kingship, especially the 18th Dynasty thoughts on the royal /ka/ and divine birth. The following sections describe the... more
This chapter presents an introduction to Amarna religion, beginning with some main features of pre-Amarna notions of kingship, especially the 18th Dynasty thoughts on the royal /ka/ and divine birth. The following sections describe the development in the name and features of the Aten from the earlier monuments in Thebes to the final forms later in the reign, followed by discussions of the view of the old deities of the traditional pantheon in the Amarna religion as well as the re-interpretation of the category of ‘god’ itself.
The final parts of the chapter discuss the practical aspects of the cult of the Aten as it is known from inscriptional, representational and archaeological evidence, and present an exposition of some central parts of the Great Hymn to the Aten.
The final parts of the chapter discuss the practical aspects of the cult of the Aten as it is known from inscriptional, representational and archaeological evidence, and present an exposition of some central parts of the Great Hymn to the Aten.
Research Interests:
This chapter discusses the evidence for mortuary conceptions in the Amarna period. After a brief discussion of the ideas underlying the establishment of the necropolis of Akhetaten, the layout and decoration of the king’s tomb is... more
This chapter discusses the evidence for mortuary conceptions in the Amarna period. After a brief discussion of the ideas underlying the establishment of the necropolis of Akhetaten, the layout and decoration of the king’s tomb is described. The bulk of the chapter concerns the mortuary conceptions of non-royal officials as evidenced by their tombs, especially the mortuary wishes inscribed there. The program of decoration and inscription in private tombs is discussed and contrasted to that of earlier periods.
The last sections take up a number of questions of a more fundamental nature. Here, the notion of /ka/ is presented as a central element in the Amarna understanding of the interconnections between humans, king and god. The place of non-royal people (living and deceased) in the Amarna religion is also discussed, and the traditional understanding that only the king had access to the cult of the Aten is reconsidered.
The last sections take up a number of questions of a more fundamental nature. Here, the notion of /ka/ is presented as a central element in the Amarna understanding of the interconnections between humans, king and god. The place of non-royal people (living and deceased) in the Amarna religion is also discussed, and the traditional understanding that only the king had access to the cult of the Aten is reconsidered.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
[Initial paragraph:] Det er kendetegnende, at de mest iøjnefaldende og velbevarede levn fra det gamle Ægypten udgøres af gravmonumenter, der vidner tydeligt om ægypternes optagethed af overgangen mellem liv og død. I ældre tid kunne man... more
[Initial paragraph:] Det er kendetegnende, at de mest iøjnefaldende og velbevarede levn fra det gamle Ægypten udgøres af gravmonumenter, der vidner tydeligt om ægypternes optagethed af overgangen mellem liv og død. I ældre tid kunne man karakterisere dette som en ”besættelse af døden” hos ægypterne, mens man nu om dage ofte vender denne formulering på hovedet og tværtimod opsummerer fænomenet som en optagethed af livet og særligt af dets fortsættelse og genkomst. I Ægypten finder sådanne tanker en række forskellige udtryk, idet man ofte i myter og ritualer forbinder menneskenes liv og død med cykliske naturfænomener som solens regelmæssige rejse over himlen og forsvinden om natten, Nilens årlige livgivende oversvømmelse, eller jordbrugets kredsløb af spiring, høst og såning. Fælles for disse erfaringsområder er, at de alle på hver deres måde giver struktur til den grundlæggende ægyptiske tanke, at ”overnaturlige” væsner og kræfter befinder sig i en skjult tilstand af potentiel væren uden for verden, hvor deres indflydelse indirekte gør sig gældende gennem forskellige manifestationer. En knap så hyppig, men ikke desto mindre klar og slående, forestilling findes i en række tekster og handlinger, der begrebsliggør forholdet mellem de levende og de døde ved hjælp af tankemønstre, der stammer fra seksualitetens og forplantningens domæne. Inden for dette erfaringsområde finder den dødes potentielle eksistens udtryk som seksuel potens og avlekraft, mens manifestationen af potentialet udtrykkes som det afkom, der kommer ud af den seksuelle aktivitet. I det følgende vil vi undersøge en række udtryk fra det ægyptiske Mellemste Rige (ca. 2000-1800 fvt) for de dødes seksuelle adfærd, der kunne betragtes og vurderes på ret forskellige måder afhængigt af sammenhængen og øjnene, der så.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Review of Kinship and Family in Ancient Egypt: Archaeology and Anthropology in Dialogue. By Leire Olabarria. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xv + 277 + 40 figures. $110 (cloth).
Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xv + 277 + 40 figures. $110 (cloth).
Research Interests:
[First paragraph] The use of theories from cognitive linguistics to analyse ancient Egyptian sources has slowly but steadily been gaining ground during the last two-and-a-half decades. Central notions such as the embodied nature of the... more
[First paragraph] The use of theories from cognitive linguistics to analyse ancient Egyptian sources has slowly but steadily been gaining ground during the last two-and-a-half decades. Central notions such as the embodied nature of the human conceptual system, the conceptual (and not merely linguistic) role of metaphor and metonymy, and the tendency of natural language categories to cluster around prototypes rather than being delineated by necessary and sufficient criteria, have all proven valuable in providing new perspectives on Egyptological questions.
Research Interests:
[First paragraph] The encounter between modern conceptual frameworks and ancient conceptions and experiences has traditionally been less reflexive and theorized in the field of Egyptology than it has in other comparable fields, and many... more
[First paragraph] The encounter between modern conceptual frameworks and ancient conceptions and experiences has traditionally been less reflexive and theorized in the field of Egyptology than it has in other comparable fields, and many of the central ideas in the discipline owe much to its nineteenth-century origins. This meeting of two very different conceptual worlds, those of ancient Egypt and modern Egyptology, is picked up as a red thread running through the volume under review here in its engagement with literal and metaphorical practices of wrapping and unwrapping, veiling and unveiling, in ancient Egypt, in the nineteenth-century roots of the modern discipline of Egyptology, and in recent and contemporary museum practice.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Egyptology and Stelae
Research Interests:
The modern understanding of the ancient Egyptians as bent on a quest for eternal life is the result of a long history of Western engagements with ancient Egypt. Associations like the preservation of bodies for eternity and initiation into... more
The modern understanding of the ancient Egyptians as bent on a quest for eternal life is the result of a long history of Western engagements with ancient Egypt. Associations like the preservation of bodies for eternity and initiation into religious mysteries interacted with textual sources of the Biblical and Classical traditions to shape images of the ancient culture that could be deployed in a variety of contexts for theological, ideological, colonial, and other purposes. This lecture examines some key formative moments in this tradition, suggesting that many aspects of the modern understanding of Egyptian afterlife beliefs owe as much to the contemporary concerns of the milieus that helped shape them as to the ancient Egyptian sources that were only gradually becoming known as these ideas were crystalizing.
Wann: Montag, 02. Mai, 18.15h
Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos, erfordert aber eine Registrierung über folgenden Link: https://univienna.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Etcu-tqTMrE9dOIHiMiwF9T4Sk1UP87M62
Wann: Montag, 02. Mai, 18.15h
Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos, erfordert aber eine Registrierung über folgenden Link: https://univienna.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Etcu-tqTMrE9dOIHiMiwF9T4Sk1UP87M62
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian statues functioned as a vital point of contact to ancestors and gods. Since the 19th century, a recurring theme in Egyptological discussion has been how exactly we should understand this phenomenon. A dominant mode of... more
Ancient Egyptian statues functioned as a vital point of contact to ancestors and gods. Since the 19th century, a recurring theme in Egyptological discussion has been how exactly we should understand this phenomenon. A dominant mode of explanation ascribes beliefs to the ancient Egyptians according to which either of the two main “souls” in Egyptian religion is thought to inhabit the statue, thereby allowing it to function as a site of encountering the depicted entity. The first part of this lecture examines the two most prevalent such hypotheses by looking at the key evidence that has been marshalled in their support and the conceptual frameworks in which they are rooted. It is argued that for the vast majority of Egyptian history, there is ultimately no evidence for such beliefs, and that the perceived need for a soul in the statue is thus likely more indicative of modern concerns than of ancient Egyptian ones. Prompted by this conclusion, the lecture seeks to outline an image ontology based on what ancient Egyptian did with, and said about, statues, as alternative to the representationalist search for a ghost in the machine. It is argued that reconfiguring central concepts like mimesis and material presence allows us to understand both why the Egyptians created works that have traditionally slotted quite easily into Western categories of fine art, and at the same time why the stakes in ancient Egyptian imaging practices were nonetheless considerably higher than a representationalist approach would expect.
Research Interests:
Wooden models of servants, animals, buildings, and boats are among the most characteristic grave goods deposited in ancient Egyptian tombs of the late third and early second millenniums BCE. Since the late nineteenth century, their... more
Wooden models of servants, animals, buildings, and boats are among the most characteristic grave goods deposited in ancient Egyptian tombs of the late third and early second millenniums BCE. Since the late nineteenth century, their significance has been regarded as straightforward: The Egyptians believed that they would come to life in order to ensure the quality of the tomb owner’s afterlife – an interpretation which in turn implies very particular conceptions of both the image and the hereafter. As entrenched as this idea is, concrete evidence in its favour actually turns out to be very scant. This lecture takes the significance of the servant models up for renewed discussion in order to assess whether the traditional explanation is still the most preferable, including whether it may have motivated certain distortions of the evidence.
To answer these questions, the lecture brings together different strands of evidence. Most obviously, the iconography, layout, and inscriptions of the models themselves are of prime importance, along with the patterns of their deposition. Another relevant strand of evidence comes from the various more or less exact parallels of the motifs in other periods and media, as these have frequently been deployed to argue for the function or diachronic development of these motifs. Finally, broader Egyptian conceptions of images are important, as the notion of figurines coming to life is certainly attested in ancient Egypt, but only in very specific contexts. Such notions of what an image is and can do are discussed against a wider cross-cultural background as explored in anthropological and art-historical theorizations of the image. In this way, the funerary material can ultimately be allowed to speak to the notion of a ‘model’ also in a more fundamental, theoretical sense.
To answer these questions, the lecture brings together different strands of evidence. Most obviously, the iconography, layout, and inscriptions of the models themselves are of prime importance, along with the patterns of their deposition. Another relevant strand of evidence comes from the various more or less exact parallels of the motifs in other periods and media, as these have frequently been deployed to argue for the function or diachronic development of these motifs. Finally, broader Egyptian conceptions of images are important, as the notion of figurines coming to life is certainly attested in ancient Egypt, but only in very specific contexts. Such notions of what an image is and can do are discussed against a wider cross-cultural background as explored in anthropological and art-historical theorizations of the image. In this way, the funerary material can ultimately be allowed to speak to the notion of a ‘model’ also in a more fundamental, theoretical sense.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Egyptian images have often been regarded as a kind of substitute bodies effecting the corporeal presence of the being depicted. This raises the question of what Egyptian imaging practices can tell us about experiences and conceptions of... more
Egyptian images have often been regarded as a kind of substitute bodies effecting the corporeal presence of the being depicted. This raises the question of what Egyptian imaging practices can tell us about experiences and conceptions of the body as a complement to the healing texts and religious writings more usually drawn on in this connection. The paper’s point departure is the idea demonstrable in ancient Egyptian discourses about images that ancient Egyptian statues were never just passive registrations of what bodies looked like in the modern sense of a representation – a point made especially clear by statues of gods in composite figures, often drawn from a repertoire of several possible forms of manifestation. Rather, such images were the means to provide a being with the material attributes he or she needed for a particular context of interaction, most typically the cult devoted to gods or ancestors. In this way, the statue can be thought of as a ‘bundle of affects’ in much the same sense as a body can (Viveiros de Castro 2015: 109). Against this background, the paper argues that Egyptian thoughts about, and practices with, statues can inform our understanding of what it meant for the Egyptians – experientially and conceptually – to have a body.
References
Viveiros de Castro, E. (2015) The Relative Native: Essays on Indigenous Conceptual Worlds. Chicago: HAU Books.
References
Viveiros de Castro, E. (2015) The Relative Native: Essays on Indigenous Conceptual Worlds. Chicago: HAU Books.
Research Interests:
In the late Middle Kingdom, a number of cult stelae dedicated to ancestors (in tombs and Abydos shrines) are inscribed with ritual spells first attested in the tomb chambers of royal pyramids in the 5th and 6th Dynasties over half a... more
In the late Middle Kingdom, a number of cult stelae dedicated to ancestors (in tombs and Abydos shrines) are inscribed with ritual spells first attested in the tomb chambers of royal pyramids in the 5th and 6th Dynasties over half a millennium earlier. This paper begins by tracing this phenomenon in terms of the contents and cultural context of the spells in question, and discusses the significance of the occurrence of the ‘same’ text in rather different surroundings: first, in the sealed burial chamber of the royal family, and later as displayed on the focal point of the ancestor cult performed for private individuals. This phenomenon can be regarded as a ‘substitution’ in two primary ways. Either – from the point of view of the individual spell regarded as a unit – it may be seen as a substitution of the spell’s context, or – from the point of view of the decoration of the stelae into which the texts are fitted – the texts may be regarded as taking the place of other traditional elements of the decoration programme. This raises an important question regarding the extent to which these ‘substitutes’ can be understood as equivalent, as opposed to indicating a substantial change or reinterpretation of the substituted element. While some of the texts are clearly offering spells and thus fit quite seamlessly into the context of the mortuary cult, others look like texts usually interpreted as dealing with the deceased’s manifestation in the next world, which raises important questions concerning the understanding (by the ancient Egyptians as well as Egyptologists) of the subject matter of the spells.
Research Interests:
The weighing of the heart as depicted in the vignette of chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead has long been celebrated in Egyptology – and especially in teaching and outreach – as a concise and intuitively understandable illustration of... more
The weighing of the heart as depicted in the vignette of chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead has long been celebrated in Egyptology – and especially in teaching and outreach – as a concise and intuitively understandable illustration of how the ancient Egyptians believed salvation and eternal life were achieved. However, in more recent scholarship, converging evidence makes it increasingly likely that the vignette and its associated Egyptian ideas have their origin in the context of temple initiation rather than in eschatological beliefs. This reevaluation raises questions of how the traditional understanding came about in the first place, why this interpretation of the vignette has held such intuitive appeal, and how it came to be established as a certain fact. This paper seeks to answer these questions by tracing the history of understandings of the vignette from the early nineteenth century, examining the intellectual frameworks and milieus that helped shape the modern understanding.
Research Interests:
The ka is one of the most central concepts in ancient Egyptian religion, occurring in the majority of funerary inscriptions, but it is also one of the most difficult to understand in modern times. Connected to statues, compared to a soul... more
The ka is one of the most central concepts in ancient Egyptian religion, occurring in the majority of funerary inscriptions, but it is also one of the most difficult to understand in modern times. Connected to statues, compared to a soul or life force, or understood as a psychological “self”, the ka has proven extremely difficult to capture. This lecture gives an overview of the roles of the ka and suggests new possibilities for understanding the concept and its pivotal role in ancient Egyptian conceptions of the human being.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The transition between the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium in ancient Egypt saw a number of significant social changes. Among them, a central status is accorded in Egyptological scholarship to the apparent diffusion of ritual texts... more
The transition between the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium in ancient Egypt saw a number of significant social changes. Among them, a central status is accorded in Egyptological scholarship to the apparent diffusion of ritual texts inscribed in the tombs of the royal family of the late Old Kingdom. The fact that some of these texts are found, in more or less redacted versions, as part of a wider corpus of inscriptions in the coffins of elite members in the Middle Kingdom has thus been interpreted as evidence of a ‘democratisation’ of mortuary religion, where afterlife privileges once enjoyed only by the royal family became available to a much wider circle of the populace. This hypothesis has been strongly criticised and revised in recent scholarship, but this criticism has generally continued to take a static and reified conception of knowledge for granted, where the transmission of knowledge becomes a fairly simple question of the access or lack of same to a particular corpus of texts and the associated beliefs. This paper argues in favour of a more dynamic conception of knowledge and re-examines the changes in uses of funerary texts between the Old and Middle Kingdoms from the perspective that the texts are not simply transmitted more or less faithfully from one time and place to another, but that the knowledge they represent is continuously negotiated, reconceptualised, and recreated. Through case studies focusing on material, ritual and classificatory aspects of the texts, it is argued that such a dynamic view of knowledge not only allows for a more nuanced understanding of the changing contexts of the texts, but can also offer fresh input to the debate concerning the social processes evidenced by the texts’ distribution.
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian objects with depictions of Nile landscapes exemplify a number of parallels between image-making and world-making. This is particularly true of the so-called ‘marsh-bowls’ from the Late Bronze Age which can be understood... more
Ancient Egyptian objects with depictions of Nile landscapes exemplify a number of parallels between image-making and world-making. This is particularly true of the so-called ‘marsh-bowls’ from the Late Bronze Age which can be understood as presenting a processual coming into being of the fertile environment of the Nile. An emphasis on flux and movement belying the apparently fixed and brittle nature of the objects is evident from the conceptual affordances offered by the materials, manufacture, shapes and decoration of the objects, as well as the likely practices in which they were involved. Drawing inspiration from on a suggestion by Alberti (2012: 21), such relational connections to the natural world and its coming into being are ‘not an analogue or metaphor, but are themselves enactments of it’.
To supplement such a theoretical reading, the paper further draws on the ancient Egyptian image-concept of seshemu, from a root meaning ‘to lead’ or ‘to guide’. The encounter between the modern notion of matter as processual and the ancient concept of (ritual) images as ‘leading’ or ‘guiding’ what they depict yields insight of potential interest beyond the ancient Egyptian material.
To supplement such a theoretical reading, the paper further draws on the ancient Egyptian image-concept of seshemu, from a root meaning ‘to lead’ or ‘to guide’. The encounter between the modern notion of matter as processual and the ancient concept of (ritual) images as ‘leading’ or ‘guiding’ what they depict yields insight of potential interest beyond the ancient Egyptian material.
Research Interests:
In the late Middle Kingdom a number of cult stelae dedicated to ancestors (in tombs and Abydos shrines) are inscribed with ritual spells first known from the tomb chambers of royal pyramids in the 5th and 6th Dynasties over half a... more
In the late Middle Kingdom a number of cult stelae dedicated to ancestors (in tombs and Abydos shrines) are inscribed with ritual spells first known from the tomb chambers of royal pyramids in the 5th and 6th Dynasties over half a millennium earlier. This paper begins by tracing this phenomenon in terms of the contents and cultural context of the spells in question, and discusses the significance of the occurrence of the ‘same’ text in rather different surroundings: First, in the sealed burial chamber of the royal family, and later as displayed on the focal point of the ancestor cult performed for private individuals. While some of the texts are clearly offering spells and thus fit quite seamlessly into the context of the mortuary cult, others look like texts usually read as dealing with the deceased’s manifestation in the next world, which raises important questions concerning the understanding (by the ancient Egyptians as well as Egyptologists) of the subject matter of the spells. In turn, such considerations can provide input to ongoing discussions about the relationship between myth and ritual in ancient Egypt.
Research Interests:
Guest lecture given at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 2 November 2017
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The ideal of ‘taking X seriously’, with X being either a particular group of people studied or certain ideas or practices of theirs, has become something of an anthropological trope. While it is not always clear exactly how one is... more
The ideal of ‘taking X seriously’, with X being either a particular group of people studied or certain ideas or practices of theirs, has become something of an anthropological trope. While it is not always clear exactly how one is supposed to realise this ideal, it generally involves an engagement with the wider implications of a human being thinking or doing what the observing scholar claims they think or do. In Egyptology, on the other hand, such engagement is rare, and this is especially pronounced than in the area of Egyptian religion. By subsuming religion under the category of ‘belief’, it is effectively protected from such engagement, since ‘beliefs’ cannot be compared or judged by outside yardsticks – especially where the ideas expressed can conveniently be ascribed to the afterlife. In the cases where this leads to ideas that are evidently very difficult to take seriously, such as Egyptological interpretations of shabtis or heart scarabs, this tends to be regarded as purely the fault of the Egyptians, not of the Egyptologist. In anthropology, by contrast, such apparently absurd ideas have traditionally spurred theoretical development from Lévy-Bruhl’s ‘prelogical’ thinking to the recent ‘ontological turn’.
This difference in stance between Egyptology and anthropology is used as a point of departure for a discussion of the colonial roots of the discipline of Egyptology which are nowhere more strongly felt than in the interpretation of mortuary religion. The paper argues that in order to ‘take seriously’ ancient Egyptian practices, much of the Victorian baggage still with us in the traditional idea of the ‘quest for immortality’ needs to be rethought, and that not only does recent anthropological work on ontology provide a useful inspiration for this, but the Egyptian material also has a lot to offer in such cross-cultural discussions.
This difference in stance between Egyptology and anthropology is used as a point of departure for a discussion of the colonial roots of the discipline of Egyptology which are nowhere more strongly felt than in the interpretation of mortuary religion. The paper argues that in order to ‘take seriously’ ancient Egyptian practices, much of the Victorian baggage still with us in the traditional idea of the ‘quest for immortality’ needs to be rethought, and that not only does recent anthropological work on ontology provide a useful inspiration for this, but the Egyptian material also has a lot to offer in such cross-cultural discussions.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian grave goods are traditionally understood as relatively straightforward evidence of the material needs of a human being in the afterlife, either literally (e.g. food and drink) or in various symbolic ways. A good example... more
Ancient Egyptian grave goods are traditionally understood as relatively straightforward evidence of the material needs of a human being in the afterlife, either literally (e.g. food and drink) or in various symbolic ways. A good example where such symbolic readings have dominated modern understandings is the well-known category of faience figurines of hippopotamuses from Middle Kingdom (Middle Bronze Age, early 2nd millennium BCE) Egypt. Drawing on the materiality of the object and the transformations it undergoes during fabrication, it is argued that the production technique based on chemical efflorescence offers a powerful conceptual model for the ontology of the image. The mode of fabrication where an internal potential is drawn out of the material by drying and heating on the one hand, and the surface decoration representing the lush aquatic environment of the river Nile on the other, both serve to add elements of flow and continuous becoming to the otherwise fixed and stable form of the glazed figurine, a tension which can be further influenced by the deliberate breaking of the finished figurine before deposition. This tension is mirrored in the ancient Egyptian ontological concept 3t, ‘moment, impulse’, which is written in the period under discussion precisely using a sign depicting the head of a hippopotamus, indicating a connection between the ‘conceptual affordances’ offered by the object and broader Egyptian ontological frameworks.
Video recording of session online at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RpLjnIHsAP0.
Video recording of session online at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RpLjnIHsAP0.
Research Interests:
This talk outlines an emic understanding of the relationship between myth, ritual, and efficacy in ancient Egypt. Two dominant Egyptological frameworks are discussed first, namely Ritner's interpretation of Heka ('magic') as a fundamental... more
This talk outlines an emic understanding of the relationship between myth, ritual, and efficacy in ancient Egypt. Two dominant Egyptological frameworks are discussed first, namely Ritner's interpretation of Heka ('magic') as a fundamental theological principle, and Assmann's concept of 'sacramental interpretation', identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. The attention is then directed towards a particular conceptual pattern found in Egyptian texts dealing with the relationship between myth and ritual, and it is argued that such texts can be used as a basis for reconstructing an emic model for ritual efficacy.
Research Interests:
This lecture discusses some of the central intersections between ancient and modern conceptions of gender drawing its examples from ancient Egypt, including the interplay between gender and other hierarchies and approaches to indigenous... more
This lecture discusses some of the central intersections between ancient and modern conceptions of gender drawing its examples from ancient Egypt, including the interplay between gender and other hierarchies and approaches to indigenous theories of gender. Two case studies are presented illustrating on the one hand the upscaling of gender from the level of human relations to function as an ontological category, and on the other conflicts between ancient conceptions and modern expectations in practices connected to fertility and reproduction.
Research Interests:
This talk discusses dominant ancient Egyptian conceptions of the body with particular focus on the religious domain. An underlying idea of great importance is the conception of the human body as a vessel whose contents is ordinarily... more
This talk discusses dominant ancient Egyptian conceptions of the body with particular focus on the religious domain. An underlying idea of great importance is the conception of the human body as a vessel whose contents is ordinarily hidden, but can be revealed under particular circumstances. This idea plays a role in the social and administrative sphere, where especially persons of authority show a great interest in techniques for revealing the contents of the bodies of those they rule. In religious practice, the model underlies widespread conceptions of the acquisition and use of ritual power, and in the funerary sphere, the transformation of the body and its contents becomes of key importance for the regeneration of life. The presentation also discusses the nature of bodily difference in ancient Egyptian thought, as well as attempting to tackle the difficult question of what we can mean with the notion of ‘body’ when dealing with a culture without the notion of a separate physical domain usually serving as the backdrop of the notion.
Research Interests:
This paper discusses the roles of the ‘dead’ (mwtw) as an etiological principle in ancient Egyptian healing texts. The dead range from forming part of very general lists of possible negative influences in incantations (‘the influence of a... more
This paper discusses the roles of the ‘dead’ (mwtw) as an etiological principle in ancient Egyptian healing texts. The dead range from forming part of very general lists of possible negative influences in incantations (‘the influence of a god, a goddess, a male dead, a female dead’, etc.) to much more specific causes of illness in particular body parts. The paper focuses on the experiential aspects of these roles in an attempt to elucidate the ‘local biology’ and lifeworld of which the dead form part.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper presents an analysis of the semantic structure of body part terms occurring in compound prepositions in Sahidic Coptic. Based on the corpus of the New Testament translation and with a theoretical outset inspired by cognitive... more
This paper presents an analysis of the semantic structure of body part terms occurring in compound prepositions in Sahidic Coptic. Based on the corpus of the New Testament translation and with a theoretical outset inspired by cognitive linguistics, it is argued that each of the body part terms can be viewed as a conceptual category based on an embodied prototype with a greater or smaller number of extensions. Thus, rather than providing a list of possible English translations as is often done, the paper shows that it is possible to understand the compound prepositions based on a single body part as a closely related set of categories ultimately rooted in human embodied experience.
Research Interests: New Testament, Conceptual Metaphor, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Coptic Studies, Coptic (Languages And Linguistics), and 8 moreCognitive Linguistics, Grammaticalization, Sahidic Coptic, Prepositions, Cognitive Linguistics (semantics of Prepositions), New Testament Studies, Image Schemas, and Body parts terms
Research Interests:
Seminar discussion on the basis of https://www.academia.edu/3050743/2013._Vision_and_conceptualization_in_ancient_Egyptian_art
Research Interests: Egyptology, Art History, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, History of Perspective in Painting, Conceptual Metaphor, and 9 moreMaurice Merleau-Ponty, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Cognitive Linguistics, Philosophy of perception, Categorization, Ancient Art, Ancient Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Alva Noe, and Aspective
This paper examines the role of the beard in ancient Egypt religious texts. Often used as a prototypical sign of divinity, the beard also plays a more specific role in certain mythological events, such as the primordial hypostasis of the... more
This paper examines the role of the beard in ancient Egypt religious texts. Often used as a prototypical sign of divinity, the beard also plays a more specific role in certain mythological events, such as the primordial hypostasis of the body parts of the creator god Atum. In this way the roles of the beard also raise more general questions of the conceptions of divine bodies in ancient Egyptian thought.
Research Interests:
A significant proportion of figurative practices in Middle Kingdom funerary material culture leave the exact entities represented by the images relatively obscure to the modern observer. However, in other categories of objects, notable... more
A significant proportion of figurative practices in Middle Kingdom funerary material culture leave the exact entities represented by the images relatively obscure to the modern observer. However, in other categories of objects, notable examples of which are shabti figurines and certain ‘fertility’ figurines, the ostensible point of reference is made clear by a combination of iconography, inscriptions and conceptual context. Still, the relation between representation and represented is not necessarily straightforward in such cases either, as e.g. when Schneider (Shabtis, 1977: I, 46) deduced a ‘double notion of the shabti as a substitute both for the master and the servant, but entirely in the former’s interest’. This paper explores the questions raised by such objects concerning the nature and function of representation, and the corollary potential for substitution for (and influence on) the ‘original’, in Egyptian funerary culture, with possible consequences for our understanding of the ontology of the image and the human being.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
An informal discussion at the Petrie Museum, opened by Stephen Quirke (UCL) and Rune Nyord (University of Cambridge)
Research Interests:
The role of the body in ‘gnostic’ worldviews is a notoriously ambiguous subject. On the one hand, body practices figure prominently in the Church Fathers’ descriptions of gnostic sects as fundamentally different, characterized either by... more
The role of the body in ‘gnostic’ worldviews is a notoriously ambiguous subject. On the one hand, body practices figure prominently in the Church Fathers’ descriptions of gnostic sects as fundamentally different, characterized either by exaggerated asceticism or, conversely, by a libertarian disregard for ordinary bodily norms—both consonant with the ‘gnostic’ reputation for radical dualism and hatred of the body. On the other hand, certain ‘gnostic’ mythological texts present a much more positive image of the human body as an earthly reflection of a higher spiritual form. To some extent, the recent focus on reading each text or group of texts on its own terms rather than primarily as a variant of particular ‘gnostic’ core values has helped to nuance this picture and dissolve some of its inherent paradoxes. One aspect which has not attracted much attention, however, is the use of the body domain to conceptualize things that do not from the outset have anything to do with the human body, in other words, body metaphors. A particular penchant for this mode of expression and thinking is shown by the group of texts usually connected to the school of the teacher Valentinus (c. 100–c. 175 CE). These texts often use body metaphors to conceptualize the divine reality and especially the nature and manifestations of the divine Father. This presentation provides an overview and preliminary analysis of such corporeal conceptualizations of the divine and discusses their implications for our understanding of the ontological status of the body in the texts.
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian mortuary texts are heavily concerned with ontological matters such as transformation and the various stages of fluctuation between existence and non-existence. It has long been recognized that such texts deal with... more
Ancient Egyptian mortuary texts are heavily concerned with ontological matters such as transformation and the various stages of fluctuation between existence and non-existence. It has long been recognized that such texts deal with ontological categories that differ to a large extent from those of modern translators and interpreters, as reflected inter alia in the core vocabulary of the texts. In recent years, the so-called ‘ontological turn’ in anthropology has put focus on the way in which cultures may differ, not only in terms of their ontological categories, but also more fundamentally regarding what the very notions of being and becoming entail. This presentation argues that insights from this broad movement in anthropology can improve our understanding of the sometimes difficult core vocabulary of Egyptian mortuary texts.
Arguably, one of the main challenges to a fuller understanding of ancient Egyptian mortuary religion lies in finding an appropriate conceptual framework for describing and analyzing the events and processes taking place between life and... more
Arguably, one of the main challenges to a fuller understanding of ancient Egyptian mortuary religion lies in finding an appropriate conceptual framework for describing and analyzing the events and processes taking place between life and death (and vice versa). This presentation takes its point of departure in the recent 'ontological turn' in anthropology and archaeology and takes up the question of the potential use of this theoretical reorientation for traditional hermeneutical work on ancient Egyptian mortuary texts. It is argued that the conventional Egyptological understanding of potential and manifest existence can be further refined by incorporating ontological work in anthropology and philosophy, notably that of philosopher Gilles Deleuze. These first steps towards an ontology of ancient Egyptian mortuary religion will be exemplified by some suggested advances in understanding central Egyptian religious concepts.
The ancient Egyptian mortuary cult served to maintain relations between the living and the dead ancestors. At death, the deceased went through an ontological transformation effected by the embalming of the body, the funerary ritual and... more
The ancient Egyptian mortuary cult served to maintain relations between the living and the dead ancestors. At death, the deceased went through an ontological transformation effected by the embalming of the body, the funerary ritual and the accompanying grave goods, into an akh, or ancestral spirit. Subsequently, the akh was summoned to offering services at calendric feasts, and the ancestor in turn ensured the general happiness, success and fertility of his descendants and could also grant more concrete wishes sometimes expressed in writing on objects left in the tomb. The ancestor whose mummy is lying unseen in the burial chamber, but who can be approached in the cult as incarnated in the tomb statue and can manifest his will in the visible world, is a being in many ways akin to a god in Egyptian thinking, and the interplay between hidden potentiality and manifest reality plays a central role in ancient Egyptian religion more generally. Rather than regarding such ideas as a purely abstract set of dogmas, this project takes a phenomenological approach in attempting to elucidate the experiential bases for the ontology underlying the Egyptian mortuary cult and conceptions of death and dying.
A primer in Old Egyptian grammar for undergraduate students familiar with Middle Egyptian, largely using the terminology and conventions from J.P. Allen's Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs (2nd... more
A primer in Old Egyptian grammar for undergraduate students familiar with Middle Egyptian, largely using the terminology and conventions from J.P. Allen's Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs (2nd ed., 2010). Developed for a course taught at the University of Cambridge during the academic year 2014/15.
Research Interests:
The origins of Egyptology as an academic discipline in the late 19 th century were rooted in anthropology. During the mid-to late-20th century, however, an increasingly isolated Egyptology emerged from the growing professionalization of... more
The origins of Egyptology as an academic discipline in the late 19 th century were rooted in anthropology. During the mid-to late-20th century, however, an increasingly isolated Egyptology emerged from the growing professionalization of these two fields and the specialization of Egyptologists into progressively narrower sub-disciplines. While there were some notable attempts by a few Egyptologists during this time to increase the engagement between Egyptology and anthropology, they remained resolutely separate, with Egyptology generally privileging cultural-historical approaches over the broader theoretical discussions that occupied researchers in anthropology. However, in a current academic climate that stresses the value of interdisciplinarity, there has been an increasing trend among Egyptologists to adopt a more outward-looking stance and reconnect their work to conversations in related disciplines by making use of anthropological frameworks. While attitudes to this development and the potential rewards it may bring are still divided within the field of Egyptology, such approaches have the potential to improve our understandings both of Egyptian material and of the discipline of Egyptology itself. This symposium will explore some of the recent developments in the use of anthropological theory in Egyptology, critically examining the advances such methods can offer to the understanding of a variety of Egyptian material, what potential problems the encounter between traditionally separate academic traditions may bring, and what contribution Egyptology may offer debate in the broader social sciences. We encourage scholars from a variety of sub-disciplines (including those that traditionally have had little interaction with anthropology or Egyptology) to share their research, to facilitate a broad-based conversation about the place of anthropological theory in Egyptology and its future direction.
Research Interests:
Lady Wallis Budge Anniversary Symposium
Concepts in Middle Kingdom Funerary Culture
22 January 2016, Christ’s College, Cambridge
Concepts in Middle Kingdom Funerary Culture
22 January 2016, Christ’s College, Cambridge
Research Interests:
https://egittologia.cfs.unipi.it/it/kitab/ The series Kitab – Egyptology in Focus (sub-series: Material culture of ancient Egypt and Nubia) seeks to provide space for very focused long articles or short books, being a scientific vehicle... more
https://egittologia.cfs.unipi.it/it/kitab/
The series Kitab – Egyptology in Focus (sub-series: Material culture of ancient Egypt and Nubia) seeks to provide space for very focused long articles or short books, being a scientific vehicle for those research topics which do not fit neatly into the format of a journal article or a book. Occasionally, the research is too short and concise for a full monograph but too long and structured for a journal article. Therefore, Kitab aims at acting as a focused “container”, which draws the right attention to important concise research, spotlighting the research subject by isolating it in single standing-alone volumes, thus avoiding the research being dispersed between miscellaneous articles in journals and collective volumes. Kitab will also help in speedily communicating the results of a focused research and it makes research outputs immediately available online and in printed versions.
The first sub-series is devoted to the “Material Culture of ancient Egypt and Nubia”.
The series Kitab – Egyptology in Focus (sub-series: Material culture of ancient Egypt and Nubia) seeks to provide space for very focused long articles or short books, being a scientific vehicle for those research topics which do not fit neatly into the format of a journal article or a book. Occasionally, the research is too short and concise for a full monograph but too long and structured for a journal article. Therefore, Kitab aims at acting as a focused “container”, which draws the right attention to important concise research, spotlighting the research subject by isolating it in single standing-alone volumes, thus avoiding the research being dispersed between miscellaneous articles in journals and collective volumes. Kitab will also help in speedily communicating the results of a focused research and it makes research outputs immediately available online and in printed versions.
The first sub-series is devoted to the “Material Culture of ancient Egypt and Nubia”.
Research Interests:
The conference is hosted by the Institute of Archaeology (UCL) and the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (UC Berkeley). With special thanks to the conference team: Rachel Barnas (University of California, Berkeley),... more
The conference is hosted by the Institute of Archaeology (UCL) and the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (UC Berkeley).
With special thanks to the conference team: Rachel Barnas (University of California, Berkeley), Beatrice De Faveri (University of California, Berkeley), Walid Elsayed (Sohag University), Maysa Kassem (Fayum University), Jason Silvestri (University of California, Berkeley).
The conference will be live-streamed on Thursday18, Friday 19 and Saturday 20, November 2021
With special thanks to the conference team: Rachel Barnas (University of California, Berkeley), Beatrice De Faveri (University of California, Berkeley), Walid Elsayed (Sohag University), Maysa Kassem (Fayum University), Jason Silvestri (University of California, Berkeley).
The conference will be live-streamed on Thursday18, Friday 19 and Saturday 20, November 2021