Overview
Perception of landscape has become crucial to how we recreate ancient experience, linking landscape to concepts of embodiment, identity, and dwelling, but the perception of weather has been absent from these discussions. While historical climatology has reconstructed past climates using quantitative methods, limited research has been done on the impact of weather phenomena, both mundane and extraordinary, on cultural experience and expression. This presentation will consider how we can study the 'weatherworld' of cultures far-removed from our own, and challenges our biases and assumptions about weather.
Ancient Egypt is a prime example of a culture whose weather landscape has been little explored, and at times outright denied, partly as an overcorrection from 19th and early 20th century Orientalist perspectives. This talk will specifically discuss sandstorms in ancient Egypt through the lens of landscape, considering how the ancient Egyptians would have experienced, conceptualised, and interacted with sandstorms, using archaeological, textual, and environmental data.
Speaker
Dr Caitlin Jensen has recently graduated from the University of Oxford with a DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, specialising in Egyptology. Her thesis was titled 'Perceptions of Meteorological Phenomena in Ancient Egypt'. She is primarily interested in the intersection between environment and culture, specifically how they impact each other in complex ways.
In addition to her own research, she is a member of the KV 11 Publication and Conservation Project (Humboldt-Universität), and also carries out prosopographic research for the Temple of Ptah Graffiti Project at Karnak. She is currently working as an editor for the Online Egyptological Bibliography.
Details
This is a hybrid event, which will take place in-person in the Gatsby Room (Chancellor's Centre) and also on Zoom.
If you would like to attend online, please .
Refreshments will be available for the in-person audience.
Access
This event will take place in the Gatsby Room on the first floor of the Chancellor's Centre. It has step-free access with a lift and there is an accessible toilet located each floor of the building.
Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çHumanities Society
The Humanities Society organises regular talks spanning a wide range of topics which take place every Tuesday during term time - please sign up to their to keep up to date with their upcoming events.
Image: Sandstorm approaching the sphinx at Gîza at sunset, Egypt. Coloured lithograph by Louis Haghe after David Roberts, 1849. Wellcome Collection. Source: .
