IDK Visits State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich

As part of their introductory seminar of the second funding period, the doctoral students, associates, and postdocs of IDK Philology had the opportunity of participating in a guided tour through the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich by the Egyptologist and PI of IDK, Prof. Martin Stadler (JMU Würzburg). The tour served as an introduction to the Egyptian writing system and its historical development.

Based on prepared readings on Egyptian literacy and its conventions, the IDK philologists became acquainted with the mediality, conventions, and applications of hieroglyphic writing. From votive epitaphs and funerary texts that were repeatedly revised over several millennia, to illegible “pseudoglyphs” from the Roman period, a wide spectrum of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing could be covered at the Egyptian Museum.
To the researchers from a range of disciplines, the visit raised questions about various applications of writing and scribal culture. Particular emphasis was put on the relation between the scribe and the text, as well as the impression of the text towards its viewers. The group was particularly fascinated to learn that writings could acquire agency and power as efficacious artefacts on their own, without being connected to a scribe or requiring literacy.
Besides all the hieroglyphs in different kinds of cursive handwritings, the philologists of IDK admired one of the rare, preserved falcon shaped cult statues from Egypt. In an exhibition of many anthropomorphic coffins and a long book of the dead papyrus on display, Erik Kiesel (JMU Würzburg), one of the doctoral students, took the opportunity to present part of the foundation of his doctoral project using two objects from the museum.

We would like to sincerely thank Prof. Martin Stadler as well as the team of the State Museum of Egyptian Art for the visit!

Text: Erik Kiesel

Image: Marco Pouget