ARCE Oregon lecture template

Demonology in Ancient Egypt

By Dr. Rita Lucarelli

University of California at Berkeley

Based on our contemporary frame of reference, the very term “demonology” connotes visions of supernatural beings. But, what is known about the character of ancient Egyptian demonology? Exploring magical spells, funerary culture, texts, rituals, objects, and iconography from the early Pharaonic through the Greco-Roman Periods, what questions arise about the definition, function and understanding of the term “demons” in ancient Egypt?

Dr Lucarelli will also explore and compare demonology concepts in ancient Egypt with other practices in the ancient Near East, Greece, and the Jewish world.

Thursday, January 28, 2016 at 7:30 pm in Room 238

Smith Memorial Student Union, Portland State University

Free admission; Open to the public.

Park Free in PSU parking garages after 7:00 pm

Dr Rita Lucarelli recently joined the Near Eastern Studies faculty at the Univ. of California at Berkeley. She is currently writing a monograph on demonology in ancient Egypt and is one of the coordinators of the Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project: http://www.demonthings.com.

She has been a lecturer at the University of Verona; a research scholar on the Book of the Dead Project at the University of Bonn; a visiting research scholar at the Italian Academy of Advanced Studies of Columbia University and at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU; and a research scholar and lecturer at the University of Bari, Italy. She holds an MA in Classical Languages and Egyptology from Univ. of Naples (Italy) and a Ph.D. from Leiden University (the Netherlands). Her thesis was The Book of the Dead of Gatseshen: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Religion in the 10th Century BC.

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ARCE is a private, nonprofit organization that supports research on all aspects of Egyptian history and culture, fosters broader knowledge among the general public, and strengthens American-Egyptian cultural ties. ARCE-OR – P.O. Box 15192 – Portland, OR 97214

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Lecture sponsored by the Oregon Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt in cooperation with the Middle East Studies Center of Portland State University.