ARCE- GA: The Oldest Monumental Hieroglyphs by John Darnell

Lecture Information

The Elkab Desert Survey (a joint mission of Yale University and the Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels), has explored the Eastern Desert hinterland of Elkab for several seasons. During that time, work has identified many previously unknown archaeological and epigraphic sites. Some of the most exciting discoveries have been the large scale—even monumental—early hieroglyphic inscriptions that occur at a number of desert sites around the ancient city of Elkab. The early inscriptions reveal unexpected and exciting information regarding the origins and spread of writing in Upper Egypt around 3300 BCE.

Speaker Bio

Professor John C. Darnell

John Coleman Darnell is a member of the Yale University faculty. He joined Yale’s Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations as Assistant Professor in 1998; he became Associate Professor in 2004, and Professor of Egyptology in 2005. His interests include Egyptian religion, cryptography, the scripts and texts of Graeco-Roman Egypt, and the archaeological and epigraphic remains of ancient activity in the Egyptian Western and Eastern Deserts. The latter work has led to his interest in state formation, the use of rock inscriptions in the creation of “ordered” space, the development of iconographic syntax in the Predynastic rock art of the Egyptian deserts, and the economic status of the oases and the desert regions, particularly from the late Old Kingdom through the Third Intermediate Period.

Professor Darnell has considerable field experience in Egypt. From 1988 through 1998 he was epigrapher and senior epigrapher with the Epigraphic Survey of the University of Chicago in Luxor. In 1992 his mission, the Theban Desert Road Survey, began to explore the ancient tracks of the desert between the Qena Bend of the Niles and Kharga Oasis, helping create the study of ancient desert roads in Egypt. He has also worked in Kurkur Oasis and on the Sinn el-Kaddab Plateau (the Yale Toshka Desert Survey) and since 2014 directs the Elkab Desert Survey.

Professor Darnell’s field experience includes many discoveries such as the Scorpion tableau: the earliest alphabetic inscriptions in the Wadi el-Hol; a new Middle Egyptian literary text from the Wadi el-Hol; important archaeological remains of the Tasian culture; Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period, and New Kingdom outposts on the high plateau; and the earliest major occupation site thus far known for Kharga Oasis; the oldest monumental hieroglyphic inscriptions and numerous important epigraphic and archaeological sites in the desert hinterland of Elkab.