February 21, 2019
Rita Lucarelli, Associate Professor of Egyptology, Department of Near Eastern Studies; Faculty Curator of Egyptology, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
Ancient Egyptian texts and objects associated with funerary rituals often include references to “magic” and “demons.” Rita Lucarelli will look at how these concepts were defined and used in ancient Egypt, with a special focus on the roles that demons played in magical practices and spells. Through an examination of textual and material sources produced from the early Pharaonic to the Greco-Roman periods, she will also address how Egyptian beliefs about demons compare with those of other ancient cultures.
About the Speaker
Prior to joining the University of California, Berkeley, Rita Lucarelli was a research scholar and lecturer in the department of Egyptology of Bonn University and lecturer of Egyptology at the University of Bari, Italy. She has also been a lecturer of Egyptology at the University of Verona, Italy; and a visiting research scholar at Columbia University and New York University. Lucarelli is currently working on The Book of the Dead in 3D, a project to digitize Egyptian coffins at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and she is completing a monograph on demonology in ancient Egypt. Lucarelli holds a M.A. in Classical Languages and Egyptology at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” Italy, and a Ph.D from Leiden University, Netherlands.