CANCELLED - Jennifer Westerfeld -"Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination" - Foy Scalf

 

 

Jennifer Westerfeld discusses Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination. She will be joined in conversation by Foy Scalf. Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

 

At the Co-op

 

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About the book: Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination examines the stories that were told about Egyptian hieroglyphs and hieroglyphic inscriptions in the centuries after genuine literacy in the ancient Egyptian script had been lost. From the late Roman period until the decipherment of hieroglyphs in the early 19th century, hieroglyphic inscriptions could not be read with any degree of accuracy, but they remained an object of widespread fascination. Late antique interpretations of these inscriptions range from the fantastic to the polemical and are often wildly inaccurate from the perspective of modern Egyptological scholarship, but they all serve to reflect their authors’ attitudes toward Egypt’s pharaonic past. Whether hieroglyphs were condemned as tools of the devil or celebrated as the key to unearthing hidden treasure, their representation in late antique literary sources offers a unique window into the reception of pharaonic Egyptian culture in the period of Late Antiquity.

 

About the author: Jennifer Westerfeld is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Louisville. She received her PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 2010. Her research focuses on the cultural and religious history of late antique Egypt, and she is the author of several articles on the reuse and reinterpretation of pharaonic Egyptian sites and monuments by later Christian communities. Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination is her first book.

 

About the interlocutor: Foy Scalf is Research Associate and Head of Research Archives at the Oriental Institute. He received his PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago and curated the special exhibit "Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt" in 2017. He has published widely on religion, language, and society in ancient Egypt.