Prof. Rita Lucarelli

University of California, Berkeley

"Guardians at the Threshold: Doorscapes, Demons, and the Making of the Underworld in Ancient Egypt and Etruria"

Prof. Lucarelli will be joining the Stanford AIA Chapter on Friday, October 9 at 7:00pm, Stanford Archaeology Center

Lecture is free and open to the public. Reception to follow.

Abstract:

The ancient underworld was anything but empty. In both ancient Egypt and Etruria, tomb paintings and funerary monuments depict a richly inhabited Beyond, where gates, doors, and liminal passages are guarded by powerful supernatural beings. Far from being merely terrifying figures, these guardians regulated movement between worlds, protected sacred boundaries, and enforced the cosmic order of the afterlife.

This lecture offers a comparative visual exploration of these "doorscapes", the architectural and symbolic landscapes of thresholds, and the demonic beings that inhabit them. By bringing Egyptian and Etruscan evidence into dialogue, I examine how each culture imagined the geography of the Beyond, the role of its guardians, and the symbolic significance of doors and gates as places of judgment, transition, and protection. Through this comparison, the lecture highlights broader questions of worldmaking, visual imagination, and the ways ancient societies conceived and represented liminal spaces between life and death.

For more information on Prof. Lucarelli: