The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (MELC) invite you to attend a lecture by Jess Johnson, UC Berkeley
The Iconographic and Spatial Role of Gate Guardian Demons in Deir el-Medina Tombs
Sunday September 21, 2025, 3 PM Pacific Daylight Time
MELC Lounge/Rm 254 Social Sciences Building (formerly Barrows Hall), UC Berkeley
Because of nearby construction, please allow extra time to find a place to park.
This is an in-person lecture and is not virtual. No registration is required. The lecture will be recorded for later publication on the chapter's YouTube channel.
About the Lecture:
Material culture from Deir el-Medina [DeM] contains multiple representations of demons. Yet there exists little study on how demons fit into religion in the settlement. While the broader scholarly definition of demon remains fluid, conceptual ideas include aspects of protection, liminality, and the relationship between location and capability. Gate guardian demons (Book of the Dead [BD] 144-147), in particular, are often cited because of their frequent textual and visual representation in papyri and, notably, Deir el-Medina tombs. These artisans equipped themselves with BD 144-147 in their tombs, including text and wall paintings of the gate guardians, thus prompting questions about the function of the visual representations (wall paintings), the function of gate guardians in the BD, and the location of the scenes within the architectural space of the tomb. This talk uses materiality theory to study the relationship between text, visual representation, and architecture within the burial chambers in seven DeM tombs, and considers how these factors influence DeM artisans’ visual representation and conceptualization of demons. Through this study, we can better understand patterns of artistic production and preference, and how and why texts and scenes were mapped onto tomb walls.
About the Speaker:
Jess Johnson is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures department at UC Berkeley. She received her B.A. in Art History from New York University in 2013 and her M.A. in Egyptian Art History and Archaeology and a Graduate Certification in Museum Studies from the University of Memphis in 2016. Her dissertation takes advantage of the commonly overlooked vignettes and tomb wall paintings of the Book of the Dead and the intriguing demonic entities mentioned within it. Jess is also interested in the museological well-being of Egyptian collections. She has over ten years of experience working in museums within university settings, galleries, and auction houses. She hopes to continue both her Egyptological and Museum Studies passions interchangeably through pursuing a career as a Curator.
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Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in lots around the Social Sciences Building, and in lots along Bancroft. A map of the campus is available online at
http://www.berkeley.edu/map/ .
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE,
https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE,
https://arce-nc.org,
https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, and
https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to
https://arce.org/membership/ and select "Berkeley, CA" as your chapter when you sign up.
Also check out other Arts events in Berkeley, Fine Arts events in Berkeley.
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