Hippo ivory inscribed with protective deities

Demon Things: Ancient Egyptian Demonology

Project Type Research Project
Status Active
Field Domain Humanities & Data Science
Time Period Antiquity
Regions Egypt

Overview

Demon Things is an ancient Egyptian demonology project about the imaginal realm of ancient Egyptian supernatural beings. This project serves as a portal for the subject of liminal entities in ancient Egypt from its earliest times (Predynastic ca. 3500 BCE) to the Byzantine Period (ca. 400 CE).

Demon Things logo showing Taweret

Demon Things Website

Explore ancient Egyptian demonology through articles and the DemonBase

Learn More

By the numbers

DemonBase brings together a growing body of textual, visual, and archaeological evidence for ancient Egyptian liminal beings. These numbers reveal the scale and diversity of the material, and the connections that emerge when it is studied together.

4K+

Demon Attestations

150+

Types of liminal beings

4

Source traditions represented

3K+

Years of Demon history

Explore the DemonBase

Behind every number is collaborative scholarship: beings identified, texts interpreted, images studied, and connections traced across more than three millennia of ancient Egyptian history.

Throughout runs the recognition of the importance of understanding the past history and provenance not only of the objects, but also of the history of our own study of the meaning and interpretations of rituals and beings.

Kasia Szpakowska Professor Emerita of Egyptology, Swansea University

The Demon Things Team

Demon Things is an international, interdisciplinary collaboration devoted tat brings together expertise in Egyptology, philology, iconography, and digital scholarship.

Demons in Ancient Egypt | Rita Lucarelli

Funding, Supporters, and Collaborators

  • Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures

  • University of Chicago

  • Univeristy of California, Berkeley

  • The Leverhulme Trust

  • Swansea University