Egyptologist Rune Nyord offers a fresh reading of the ancient Egyptian guidebook to the afterlife, rooted in its cultural context.

Could some of our familiar ideas about the ancient Egyptian afterlife be more Christian than Egyptian? Recent studies suggest that themes we often assume to be central, such as judgment, salvation, and eternal life, were profoundly shaped by the Christian expectations of early Egyptologists. This poses a significant challenge for contemporary Egyptology: how should we think about ancient Egyptian religion when our basic framework has been shaped so strongly by Christianity rather than by Egyptian evidence? Rune Nyord proposes a new way forward that re-centers the social setting of the ancestor cult and considers funerary texts such as the Book of the Dead as ritual texts—continuous with other Egyptian ritual practices—rather than as “guidebooks” to the afterlife. Lecture by Rune Nyord, Associate Professor and Chair, Art History Department, Emory University

We often imagine the ancient Egyptians as obsessed with death and the afterlife. But what if the familiar story of judgment and salvation owes more to modern ideas than ancient ones?

A double sided icon from Egypt with St Paul on one side and an unidentified saint on the other. 7th-8th c. Housed in the Benaki Museum, Athens. For more photos, travel, and religion, follow me on Blu...

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Many scientific studies assume that the features of painted faces are the facts of the flesh-and-blood countenances to which they refer. This assumption is not only false; it is preposterous.

For the first time, you will be able to freely explore the entire Bayeux Tapestry scene by scene with a never seen quality of images !

The modern understanding of ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs has a deep and in some respects surprising history. The ways in which core concepts of the discipline of Egyptology continue to be shaped...