Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Free Hybrid Lecture
Speaker: Victoria Almansa-Villatoro, Junior Research Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows
Advance registration required
In ancient Egypt, iron harvested from meteorites was used to create ritual objects associated with royalty and power. An iron dagger from the tomb of King Tutankhamun is one of the oldest Egyptian objects verified to be of meteoritic origin.
In this lecture, Almansa-Villatoro will discuss Egyptian texts, iconography, and religious writings that associate iron with the sky and stars, indicating that ancient Egyptians were aware that meteorites came from space. This knowledge—most likely shared with other ancient civilizations that connected iron and sky in their texts—was lost in modern times, as it was only until the eighteenth century that meteorites were confirmed to be of extraterrestrial origin.
Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
About the Speaker
Victoria Almansa-Villatoro is Junior Research Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows (2022–2025). She holds a PhD in Egyptology from Brown University, a MA cum laude in Egyptology and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Pisa, and a BA in History from the University of Seville. Her dissertation explored how ancient Egyptian royal discourse promoted and exploited community values to justify the king’s authority in the Old Kingdom. One of her secondary research interests is the embeddedness of cultural memory and knowledge in iconographical script, and how small, inscribed objects, like scarab seals, contribute to the network of traveling ideas in the ancient Mediterranean world. Besides her dissertation monograph, she is also preparing a sociolinguistic grammar of Old Kingdom letters and decrees that investigates the role that social context plays in linguistic variation. She has authored more than twenty publications of articles, edited volumes, and book chapters with a primary focus on ancient Egyptian philology, but also archaeology, and language. Her research has been awarded grants from the American Research Center in Egypt, and the Stiftungsfonds für Postgraduates der Ägyptologie, among others. She has participated in excavations in Egypt, Sicily (Italy), and worked on the publication of primary sources, such as collections of Egyptian and Egyptianizing scarabs in Italy and Spain, Old Kingdom papyri from Elephantine, and 4th Dynasty sealings from Giza. Victoria currently collaborates with the Ancient Egypt Research Associates expedition in Giza (Egypt) as an archaeologist at the Menkaure Valley Temple, and a member of the sealings team. She is Assistant Director to the Royal Necropolis and Pyramids of Nuri Expedition (Sudan), and Assistant Editor of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections.
