Guardians, Tricksters, Terrors: Demons of Ancient Egypt, Wednesday, Apr 15 from 7 pm to 9 pm | Eventbrite

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/guardians-tricksters-terrors-demons-of-ancient-egypt-tickets-1986103975455

Guardians, Tricksters, Terrors: Demons of Ancient Egypt

ByClio's Books

Clio's BooksOakland, CA

Wednesday, Apr 15 from 7 pm to 9 pm

A seminar with Rita Lucarelli.

When we hear the word demon, we often imagine malevolent, evil beings. But in ancient Egypt, demons could be protectors and punishers, guardians of sacred spaces or terrifying creatures lurking in the underworld. They appeared in spells, tomb paintings, and magical texts, shaping how people understood and experienced danger, illness, justice, and the afterlife.

Please join Rita Lucarelli at Clio's on April 15th to explore the fascinating world of Egyptian demons: strange hybrid beings with knives, animal heads, and supernatural powers who stood at the borders between life and death, order and chaos, safety and threat. Discover how ordinary Egyptians tried to control these forces with magic, why some demons protected mothers and children, and how others tested the souls of the dead.

With vivid images and stories from ancient texts, Rita will lead us through a hidden side of Egyptian religion—one rich in mystery and imagination, and populated by creatures that were neither gods nor monsters but something in between and beyond. This is an evening for anyone curious about ancient beliefs, mythology, and the dark corners of the ancient world.

Rita Lucarelli is an Associate Professor of Egyptology at UC Berkeley and Faculty Curator of Egyptology at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Her research centers on ancient Egyptian religion, especially funerary texts, demonology, and the modern reception of ancient Egyptian religion. She is currently completing a monograph on ancient Egyptian demonology and teaches courses on Egyptian and comparative religion through the Mount Tamalpais College program at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Her work highlights an interdisciplinary approach that blends digital innovation, public scholarship, and the study of ancient religious thought.

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Highlights

• 2 hours
• all ages
• In person
•   Tickets $10
•   Get tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/guardians-tricksters-terrors-demons-of-ancient-egypt-tickets-1986103975455

  Doors at 6:30 PM

Refund Policy: No refunds

Location

Clio's Books

353 Grand Avenue
Oakland, CA 94610

For a scrollable map, please click on the eventbrite web page link at the top of this email. 

Wi-Wi-Wi – How the Quail’s Call Influenced Hieroglyphs — University of Bonn

https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/wi-wi-wi-how-the-quails-call-influenced-hieroglyphs

In his new book, Egyptologist Prof. Ludwig Morenz traces the "long road to writing"

In the age of voice messages and videos, writing is easily forgotten. Yet for millennia, it has been the central medium of our cultural memory: it stores knowledge and tells stories. Simple symbols give rise to entire worlds in the mind—almost like cinema without popcorn. Whether painted or carved in stone, it lasts an astonishingly long time. Without it, we would know little about the past. Even before humans could read, they interpreted signs: they read animal tracks, navigated by the stars, and determined the time of day by the sun's position. Egyptologist Prof. Ludwig Morenz of the University of Bonn describes the long road to writing in his new book. 

Interplay of image, pictographic symbols, and writing: - detail from a royal field scene at Wadi el Malik (4th millennium BCE): Figurative bulls as images, above them the hieroglyph ARMS denoting an early king's name (Ka = "bull"); to the left of it, a bull's head as a pictographic symbol for the cow goddess Bat. © Redrawn by Johann Thiele

Download all images in original size The impression in connection with the service is free, while the image specified author is mentioned.

The origins of writing date back more than five millennia. Written characters emerged more or less simultaneously in the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia. "I don't view the development of writing as a single, isolated event, but rather as a process that spanned half a millennium and involved a correspondingly large number of participants who remain nameless to us," says Egyptologist Prof. Dr. Ludwig Morenz of the University of Bonn. Hence the title of his new book, "The Long Road to Writing."

No Straight Path

Accordingly, the development of writing did not follow a straight path, but rather a series of simple steps. Initially, these served to solve specific problems—such as the phonetically accurate recording of proper names. Gradually, however, they revealed a potential that led from various concrete individual solutions to the "system of writing." Researchers often seek a single reason for the emergence of writing. "In fact, however, we see various and interwoven socio-cultural drivers of the emergence of writing," says Morenz. These included both the staging of authority and administration, as well as communication about, with, and for the gods and the dead.

The book offers an attempt at a comprehensive cultural history of Egyptian writing, in which questions of media archaeology are explained in concrete terms using artifacts and placed within a cultural-historical context. "In doing so, I (re)construct 'significant small steps' along a developmental line that leads from image-as-representation and image-as-meaning to word-image and ultimately to sound-image," says the scholar, who is also a member of the transdisciplinary research area "Present Pasts" and the Cluster of Excellence "Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies" at the University of Bonn. 

The Quail's Call as a Model

Despite decades of research, Prof. Morenz still encountered surprises: "I was amazed to discover that some monosyllabic signs, whose origins had not yet been explained by previous research, can be interpreted as onomatopoeic imitations of animal sounds." For example, the quail's call "wi-wi-wi" above the bird hieroglyph QUAIL represents the sound "w." The owl ("m") and the vulture ("alef") are also frequently used single-consonant signs. Because these bird images are so striking, Egyptian writing was even referred to from the outside—for example, in Arabic—as "bird writing."

For the scientist at the University of Bonn, single-consonant signs are, so to speak, the keystone in the long process of the phoneticization of the image. "They embody the phonographic principle of one sound value—one consonant. In doing so, they introduce an elementary phonetic dimension into the pictographic signs." This initially began in a very sporadic manner and as a means of problem-solving. The complete inventory of all phonologically relevant consonants then required an understanding of the phonetic structure of the language. "It was only about 300 years after the first beginnings of phonetic marking—around 2950 B.C.—that this developed into a 'system.'"

Away from the center, toward the periphery

For the author, the work of various archaeological missions, as well as his own research both north of Aswan and in the southwest of the Sinai Peninsula, has led to a shift in perspective: In addition to major centers such as Abydos or Hierakonpolis, from which the central monuments of early writing originate, the Egyptologist is increasingly turning his attention to the socio-cultural periphery and highlighting the relatively significant role of the surrounding regions in the development of writing.

Morenz envisions a long-term history of writing as a distant research goal, spanning from the beginnings of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing (as a mixed pictographic-phonetic script) and alphabetic writing (as largely phonetic) through the return of pictorial elements in pictographic scripts since the Renaissance to the present day, amidst digits, emojis, and pictograms. Morenz: "I find it truly sensational to get to the bottom of the origins of a communication technology as central today as writing."

The Nile Valley in the Fourth Millennium – divine symbols replace verbs: - An anthropomorphized Seth-beast (bottom left) hands a bow and arrow to the archer King Horus (right); a Horus falcon with a human arm holds conquered land—personified by a head—on a rope. The scene is intended to visualize divine activity in the human world. © Illustration: Ludwig Morenz/David Sabel

Publication

Ludwig D. Morenz: Vom langen Weg zur Schrift – Über Abstraktion und Sedimentierung im Niltal des Vierten Jahrtausends. Thot. Beiträge zur historischen Epistemologie und Medienarchäologie, EB-Verlag, 176. S, 38,00 Euro

Contact

Prof. Dr. Ludwig D. Morenz
University of Bonn
Department of Egyptology
Tel. 0228/735733
Email: lmorenz@uni-bonn.de 

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Ancient monastic complex uncovered in Egypt's Nile Delta - Christian Today

https://www.christiantoday.com/news/ancient-monastic-complex-uncovered-in-egypt-s-nile-delta

Ancient monastic complex uncovered in Egypt's Nile Delta

Egyptian archaeologists unearthed a 1,500-year-old monastic complex in the Nile Delta, Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced. (Photo: Egypt Ministry of Tourism and Archives)

Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed a 1,500-year-old monastic complex in the Nile Delta, including a fifth-century building believed to have served as a reception facility for pilgrims, Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced.

The discovery was made at the Al-Qalāyā site in Beheira Governorate, where an Egyptian mission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities has been excavating since 2023, according to the announcement.

Officials called the find significant for understanding the origins of organized monastic life.

The newly uncovered structure contains 13 rooms that served multiple functions, including individual and communal monastic cells, spaces for hospitality and education, a kitchen, and storerooms.

Architectural elements added during later historical periods were also identified, indicating the building was modified and repurposed across subsequent phases of use.

A large hall in the northern section of the building features stone benches decorated with botanical motifs and was likely used to receive visitors, including senior monastic figures and those seeking to study monastic life. The building extends along a north-south axis, with a prayer room oriented to face east. A limestone-carved cross is set within the eastern wall.

Hisham El-Leithy, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, identified Al-Qalāyā as the second-largest known monastic gathering site in the history of Christian monasticism. He said its architectural style reflects "the earliest nucleus of monastery establishment."

El-Leithy said the decorative motifs and illustrations found at the site are among the most significant sources for the study of early Coptic art, offering historical and archaeological evidence about the nature of monastic life and artistic development in its earliest stages.

The discovery also shows the evolution of monastic architecture from solitary dwelling to communal housing and, ultimately, to facilities designed to receive visitors, he added.

Wall paintings recovered from the site depict monks, identifiable by their clothing, alongside geometric and plant-based decorations. These include braided ornaments in red, white, and black, as well as an eight-petaled flower. Officials said the works point to the richness of symbolic expression in early Coptic art.

One prominent mural shows two gazelles surrounded by vegetal motifs within a double circular frame, which is believed to carry symbolic meaning, Basilica News Agency reported.

The site offers evidence of a transition from eremitic life, in which monks lived in isolation, to communal monastic organization. The development occurred in a region distinct from the desert areas of southern Egypt, which have long been regarded as the cradle of early monasticism.

A complete marble column measuring 2 meters in length was also recovered, along with column capitals and bases. Pottery fragments bearing vegetal and geometric motifs, ceramic pieces inscribed with Coptic letters, bone remains of birds and animals, and a collection of oyster shells were found across the site. The bone remains and shells are consistent with food preparation and daily activities at the complex, according to officials.

Samir Razaq Abdul-Hafiz, head of the excavation mission, said researchers found a rectangular limestone piece at the entrance of one chamber bearing a Coptic inscription. An initial translation suggests the text is a funerary stele. The inscription refers to the death of an individual identified as "Apa Kyr, son of Shenouda," confirming continued human presence at the site during a period of flourishing monastic development in the region.

Since excavations began in 2023, the mission has also uncovered multiple clusters of monastic cells known as manshubiyyat, groupings of pottery vessels associated with monks' living quarters. Auxiliary service buildings were also found, indicating the presence of a large and organized monastic center.

Research at the site is ongoing.

© The Christian Post

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Northern Cal. Egyptology Lecture April 19 - Ecology, Mimesis, and Humor: Shining A Different Light on Ancient Egyptian Frog Lamps

The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a lecture by Clara McCafferty Wright, Cornell University: Ecology, Mimesis, and Humor: Shining A Different Light on Ancient Egyptian Frog Lamps Sunday, April 19, 2026, 3 PM PDT Room 223 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley This is an in-person lecture, not virtual. Lamp decorated with frog legs and wheat ears, baked clay - Museo Egizio Turin P 2126 (Courtesy Wikimedia Commons) About the Lecture: In the Greco-Roman period, a rather curious form of oil lamp emerged—the Egyptian frog lamp. Much of the scholarship about "frog lamps" focuses on potential religious symbolism in Egyptian associations with frog deities, and how frogs as symbols might have functioned in early Christianity in Roman Egypt. In this presentation, I do not attempt to refute these lines of research, but rather to propose a different perspective, informed by Egypt's ecology and by other examples of mimesis in Greco-Roman Egyptian antiquity. From these comparisons, I investigate how we might move beyond sacralizing approaches to more wholistically understand the function frog lamps had in Greco-Roman Egypt. This paper explores the many ways in which frog lamps mimic the real frogs and toads of Egypt. Additionally, by comparing the effect of Egyptian frog lamps to other mimetic, humorous artifacts from the ancient world, I argue that there is room for interpreting frog lamps as objects of visual humor—not merely humble light sources or objects of religious significance. About the Speaker: Clara McCafferty Wright is a graduate student at Cornell University in Classical Archaeology and Art. Her primary research foci include Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, and Greco-Roman reception of Egypt. She recently completed an MPhil degree in Egyptology at the University of Cambridge with a dissertation entitled, "Reconsidering Cleopatra VII: The Lost Narrative of Egypt's Last Queen." Clara earned her A.B. at Bryn Mawr College in 2019, where she double majored in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology & Classical Cultures and Societies. At Bryn Mawr, she was a Hanna Holborn Gray Research Fellow and authored a thesis on Cleopatra VII's political influence on the Isis cult in Italy. During her undergraduate degree, she also studied in the Egyptology programs at the University of Pennsylvania and the American University in Cairo. In addition, she established The Bryn Mawr College Magic Lantern Slide Digitization Project. Clara currently serves as the Public Outreach Officer of The American Research Center in Egypt—Missouri Chapter, and a team member of the Egyptology State of the Field Survey Project. Clara is passionate about diversifying our understanding of the ancient world to one which includes the narratives of disenfranchised members of societies, including women, enslaved people, and the working class. She has a strong interest in using the study of the past to empower people today by making information on the ancient world accessible to rural and underprivileged communities. --------------------- Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in the Lower Sproul garage near Dwinelle Hall, and in other nearby lots. A parking map of the campus is available at https://pt.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/campus_parking_map_august_2025.pdf. To find out how to get to room 223 in Dwinelle Hall, go to this website: https://dkess.me/dwinelle/. Not all entrances to the building will be unlocked, so it's best to start from the main entrance. About Northern California ARCE: For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select "Berkeley, CA" as your chapter when you sign up.