Congratulations to ASOR member Rita Lucarelli on being awarded a National Endowment for Humanities summer stipend for research leading to the publication of her book Agents of Punishment and Protection. Assessing the Demonic in First Millennium BCE Egypt. NEH’s summer stipends are designed to support scholars in preparation of a book, article, translation, archaeological report, or digital publication.

Lucarelli is Associate Professor of Egyptology in the Near Eastern Studies department, Faculty Curator of Egyptology at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and Fellow of Digital Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley . She holds a MA in Classical Languages and Egyptology from the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” Italy and a PhD from Leiden University. Her dissertation, The Book of the Dead of Gatseshen: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Religion in the 10th Century BC, was published in 2006. Lucarelli’s current research centers around creating 3D models of ancient Egyptian coffins and examining the magical spells decorating these coffins as case-studies for investigating the materiality of the text in relation to ancient Egyptian funerary literature. She is one of the coordinators of Demonthings: The Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project and a frequent participant in ASOR’s Annual Meeting.

Detail from pedestal of inner coffin of Meretites, Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City MO, Inv. No.2007.12.2.A-B. (Photo by Kea Johnston.)

Agents of Punishment and Protection. Assessing the Demonic in First Millennium BCE Egypt

Demonology is an integral, though often neglected aspect of the ancient Egyptian religion. Defining “demons” poses issues of ontological classification, especially when dealing with an ancient civilization whose sources of study are not always descriptive neither comprehensive. In the ancient Egyptian magical texts and representations, a variegated series of liminal beings act as agents of punishment but also of protection towards the living and the dead. A contextualized and in-depth study of each of the available sources, which will be carried out in the proposed book-project, is necessary to understand the role that those agents played in the ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and how people would communicate with demons through magical practices and the help of professional ritualists. By assessing the existence of an ancient Egyptian demonology, the author will also attempt a comparative study with other discourses on demons in the ancient world.

The Book of the Dead, from Lepsius, K.R, Das Todtenbuch der Ägypter (nach dem hieroglyphischen Papyrus in Turin). (http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/467/)

This year the National Endowment for the Humanities provided $24 million in grants to support 225 humanities projects nationwide. The National Humanities Alliance released the following statement from its Executive Director Stephen Kidd on this April NEH announcement:

“The National Endowment for the Humanities will support Dialogues on the Experience of War programs for veterans in Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and Virginia. With grants for research, preservation, and curricular innovation, the NEH will continue its crucial support of the humanities in higher education. And in addition to supporting exhibitions and podcasts, grants for public programs will support a nationwide reading and discussion program on women’s suffrage.”

“We are immensely proud of the NEH’s impact across the U.S. and will continue advocating for increased federal support for future grants in 2021 and beyond.”

ASOR encourages all of our members to consider applying for NEH grants and fellowships. Applications for NEH’s 2022 summer stipends will be available May 5th. The deadline for submission is September 22, 2021. Read more about applying here.

Interested in promoting your research? Read the National Humanities Alliance’s tip sheet for working with your institution’s communications officer.