The scholars leading research and teaching on the ancient world.
Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt; Visual and Material Culture; Clothing and Textiles; Identity and Cross-Cultural Communication; Temple Decoration; Materiality of Egyptian Art; Archaeometric Methods
Aleksandra Hallmann’s scholarship focuses on the visual and material culture of ancient Egypt, with particular emphasis on clothing and textiles, temple decoration, and the artistic practices of the first millennium BCE. Supported by a Bekker NAWA Fellowship, she currently serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. Her research examines how dress, visual strategies, and technical choices shaped identity and representation within the Theban sacred landscape.
Much of Aleksandra’s fieldwork centers on Luxor through ISAC’s Epigraphic Survey (Chicago House), where her work focuses on Late Period Medinet Habu, and through the Centre Franco Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak. She pairs the study of wall reliefs with scientific analysis and collaborates with scientific conservators, most recently with the Northwestern University and the Art Institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts, to investigate pigments, materials, and artisan methods. Her current research focuses on the monuments of the God’s Wives of Amun, integrating epigraphic study with archaeometric analysis to explore the visual and material strategies through which these priestesses articulated their religious and political agency.
Aleksandra holds a permanent position at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, and has received several major grants and fellowships, including NCN Harmonia 8 and Etiuda 1, the NEH–ARCE Postdoctoral Fellowship, the SMI CNRS Fellowship, and a postdoctoral appointment at ISAC. Her award‑winning monograph Ancient Egyptian Clothing presents a comprehensive study of dress in Late Period private representations, and she is the editor of Outward Appearance vs. Inward Significance, a multi‑author volume on dress, identity, and cross‑cultural communication.
Series / Volume
ISAC Seminars 15
Series / Volume
Studies in Ancient Cultures 3
Series / Volume
News & Notes 239
Books
Articles
Material Memory in Transition investigates artistic techniques and material practices in Late Period Theban monuments, focusing on pigment use, carving methods, stylistic choices, and workshop…
The rich material and visual culture of Ancient Egypt provide an opportunity to study costume from various perspectives and through a variety of sources. Contact with different groups of foreigners was always omnipresent in Egypt, and when they ruled the country (e.g. Hyksos, Libyan, Kushites, Assyrians, Persian, Greeks, Roman), they exposed Egypt to outward culture and fashion. This presents an opportunity to inquire if and how the political situation affected the way Egyptian dressed, as costume is a powerful means to assimilate and acculturate a wearer in society. This course will give a quick overview of the Egyptian costume through the lens of art historical sources as well as of the organic remains of textiles. It will demonstrate how to use clothing as a tool to investigate a distant civilization. By analyzing the clothing of Egyptians and foreigners, it will familiarize students with ancient wardrobe, as well as provide an overview of Egyptian art and material culture. It will investigate the importance of clothing as a marker of the self and its role as an expression and negotiation of identity. The attire will be set in a broad socio-cultural perspective where the meaning of dress in terms of various identities, whether social (including gender and ethnicity), political, and/or religious, will be questioned.
