Ancient Egyptian Religion, Science, and Magic

Thursdays, August 20–September 24, 6:00–8:00pm on Zoom and recorded to watch later. $295 (nonmembers), $236 (ISAC members), $118 (Docents. Volunteers, and ISAC travelers and UChicago alumni), $74 (UChicago, Lab, and Charter School facuty, staff, and students)

Instructor: Kea Johnston, PhD, ISAC and Field Museum Post-doc

Every night and day the gods maintain the cycle of the sun and the moon. Every year they ensure that the river floods on time and that the land produces crops. In turn, the king ensures that the order of the universe is replicated on earth and that offerings are given in every temple. As for ordinary humans, they must also strive to maintain truth, justice, and the Egyptian way of life. The gods have also given them agency to protect themselves against the dangers in their smaller section of the cosmos: childbirth, wild animals, and jealous neighbors.

In this class, you will learn about Egyptian religion and gain insight into how the Egyptians saw the cosmos and their role in it. You will also learn about how, in opposition to modern Western thought where ideas of magic and science are considered separate and unequal concepts, in Ancient Egypt they are integrated parts of a complete worldview: a worldview which has unexpected relevance in the 21st century.

Bio: Kea Johnston is an Egyptologist and software engineer. She obtained a BA in Computer Science at Brown University in 2005 and received her PhD in Egyptian Art and Archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2022 with a dissertation on the workshops which painted and inscribed coffins at Akhmim in the 1st Millennium BCE. Her interests ancient Egyptian scribal and artistic practice, and the expression of Ancient Egyptian funerary tradition through art. She is currently a Joint Postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum and the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) at the University of Chicago, where she is authoring orchestration software to automate and speed up the process of building and archiving 3D models of artifacts with Photogrammetry.