ARCE Chicago Chapter: "On the Path to the House of Rest": The Demotic Graffiti relating to the Ibis and Falcon Cult at Dra Abu el-NagaꜤ in Luxor

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6PM EST/ 5PM CST 

Lecture Information: 

The Spanish Mission headed by Dr. Jose Galan has been working at Dra Abu Naga’ since 2002. Focusing on the Tombs of Djehuty (TT 11) and Hery (TT 12), they have revealed numerous Demotic graffiti associated with the Ibis and Falcon Cult based there in the Ptolemaic Period. Many of these graffiti are “new”, others had already been published as handcopies in Marquis of Northampton, W. Spiegelberg, and P. Newberry, Report on Some Excavations in the Theban Necropolis During the Winter of 1898-9 (London, 1908), 19-25 (“The Demotic Inscriptions”). The Spanish Mission has emphasized the cleaning, conservation, and documentation of the graffiti. In collaboration with the colleagues of the Spanish Mission, Christina Di Cerbo (Epigraphic Survey, University of Chicago) and Professor Richard Jasnow have been engaged in the publication of all these texts. This lecture will present some of the results of their work. 

About Richard Jasnow:

Richard Jasnow is a specialist in the Late Period of Egypt, with a particular interest in Demotic Egyptian, the cursive form of the Egyptian script employed from about 750 B.C. through 450 A.D. While he is principally engaged in the publication of Demotic literary texts, he has also worked on legal and economic documents. His main project has long been the so-called Book of Thoth, a scholarly composition associated with the House of Life, the temple scriptorium. He has also worked for years with his wife, Christina Di Cerbo, on ancient graffiti in the Theban (Luxor) area, chiefly on behalf of the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Before arriving at Johns Hopkins University, he taught at the Institut für Ägyptologie (Universität Würzburg), and was also a senior epigrapher of the Epigraphic Survey for five years. He is now Professor of Egyptology and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University.