Reading images in hieroglyphs: rethinking literacy in Ancient Egypt

The Theodore N. Romanoff Prize lecture

Date

Jun 11, 2024 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Location

Smith library

Sponsor

Salmagundi Library Committee
ARCE-NY

Admission

Open to the public
RSVP required

$25 | General admission
FREE | Salmagundi members
FREE | ARCE members with discount code

ARCE members receive discount codes via their own membership emails.
A shot of Egyptian hieroglyphs along a wall with birds, eyes, and vertical lines.

About the Event

It is assumed that only 1% of ancient Egyptians were able to read texts and that full literacy in the ancient world was only achieved after the introduction of the alphabet. This lecture challenges these ideas by showing how hieroglyphs could have been understood as images by Egyptians with different levels of education in the Old Kingdom (ca. 2700–2300 BCE).

The evidence collected comes from publicly displayed royal inscriptions that exempted temple communities from taxation and mandatory labor. It will be shown that the texts were composed using a range of visual and iconic strategies that made messages accessible to the broader population.

Hungry?

Salmagundi and ARCE members in attendance are also welcome to dine at Salmagundi. After purchasing your ticket, book a dining reservation in advance on our Reservations page. ARCE members must include a message with their reservation, signifying their member status with ARCE.

A blonde woman, wearing a warm colored scarf folds her arms with a confident smile. She leans against the base of an Ancient Egyptian structure.

About the Speaker

M. Victoria Almansa-Villatoro is currently a Junior Research Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, and will be starting as an Assistant Professor of Egyptology at Yale University in 2025. She earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from Brown University in 2022, where she was teaching courses on Egyptian language and archaeology.

She has authored books and articles on earlier Egyptian language, literature, religion, and archaeology. She has been a research fellow at the American Research Center in Egypt and the Stiftungdsfonds für Postgraduates der Ägyptologie. She is Assistant Director to the Expedition to the Royal Pyramids and Necropolis of Nuri (Sudan), and an archaeologist at the Giza Plateau Mapping Project with Ancient Egypt Research Associates.

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