Dr Luigi Prada: Ancient Egyptian divination and dreams (Hybrid lecture)

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‘Then his majesty saw a dream in the dark of night’: dreams and nightmares in ancient Egypt'

Dreams are a universal human experience and, as such, played an important role in the life—and subconscious—of the ancient Egyptians. Through the millennia, ancient Egyptian scribes recorded thousands of dreams, both real (experienced by private individuals and pharaohs alike) and fictional (e.g., as plot-twists in literary texts). At the same time, a complex art of dream interpretation was developped, which was used to unravel the secret meanings and warnings about the future that dreams were believed to conceal within themselves. Thus, ancient Egyptian dream interpreters came to be known as the best experts in this art across the ancient world. This lecture will introduce the public to this fascinating topic, and will present a number of still unpublished ancient sources, such as papyrus manuscripts preserving previously unknown dream interpretation handbooks.

Dr Luigi Prada is Associate Professor of Egyptology at Uppsala University, Sweden. He works primarily on textual and cultural-historical studies, with a focus on the later phases of Egypt's history and language(s) / scripts. Prior to Uppsala, he has held academic positions in the UK (Oxford), Germany (Heidelberg), and Denmark (Copenhagen). He is also active in the field, both in Egypt as Assistant Director of the Oxford-Uppsala Epigraphic Project in Elkab, and in the Sudan. He is an Honorary Research Associate in Egyptology at the Griffith Institute, Oxford, and is the President of Associazione Amici Collaboratori del Museo Egizio di Torino (Society of Friends of the Museo Egizio, Turin).

Host or Publisher Egyptology Scotland