Neubauer Collegium to Host Workshop on "The Magical Handbooks on Papyrus from Egypt"

Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society
5701 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60637

The Transmission of Magical Knowledge in Antiquity project has two main goals. The first is to carefully analyze the material and textual nature of the Demotic and Greek magical handbooks that survive on papyrus from Egypt with an eye to how scribes used lexical signs, drawings, symbols, coded language and other techniques in practical ways to preserve and in some cases to mystify magical knowledge and thereby transmit it to future generations in antiquity. The second goal seeks to compare these papyri handbooks to magical formularies on other media, for example, ostraka, metal or gems, and also to techniques of knowledge transmission used in the wider tradition of  technical handbooks -- agricultural or alchemical, lapidary or medical -- in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Rome and other ancient cultures.

This workshop will present research to date in both of the above areas in anticipation of a comprehensive fall conference.

Presenters: 

Christopher Faraone
The University of Chicago, Department of Classics

Raquel Martín Hernández
Complutense University of Madrid,
Department of Greek Studies and Indo-European Linguistics

Sofía Torallas Tovar
The University of Chicago,
Departments of Classics and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

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