Unscripted: The Visuality of Monumental Script in Ptolemaic Egypt

Emily Cole

ISAW Visiting Assistant Professor

The Egyptian language is visually associated with its iconic Hieroglyphs. However, by the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BCE), the later form of Egyptian known as Demotic, which employed a different script, was commonly used in daily life. Hieroglyphs retained a prominent position and could imbue an inscription with prestige, but the multicultural shift of the Egyptian population by this period led to modifications in the vocabulary of social presentation. At this time, individuals creating inscribed funerary objects began experimenting with the elements of personal display by producing multilingual monuments in Egyptian and Greek as well as transcribing older texts into the Demotic script.

In this paper, I will discuss the creative ways that individuals wove Demotic into traditional Hieroglyphic texts using a group of funerary stelae from the Ptolemaic cemeteries at Panopolis, modern Akhmim. These stelae created different visual experiences for audience members, dependent on their level of literacy. By drawing on both the textual and iconographic elements on the stelae, I will show that the individual agency of the person or family commissioning these memorials offered a means of innovating within the traditional realm of Egyptian religious representation. The updating of older features on these stelae with new approaches highlights the broader effect of changes to mortuary practice at this time, and the struggle to guarantee the religious efficacy of ancient rituals. Through this material, I will assess how individuals modified the visuality of both text and image on monuments of personal commemoration to accommodate new modes of interaction in the Hellenistic world.

Emily Cole is Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU. She received her PhD and MA in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California, Los Angeles (2015), and her BA in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford (2007). Cole studies the social and cultural history of Greek and Roman period Egypt, specializing in how religious, political, and demographic change affected individual and societal language use throughout Egyptian history. Her particular areas of interest include translation studies, the transmission of text and knowledge, and the history of communication.

Registration is required at isaw.nyu.edu/rsvp

Admission to lecture closes 10 minutes after scheduled start time.  

Please check isaw.nyu.edu for event updates.

On a limited, first-come, first-served basis, ISAW is able to provide assistive listening devices at public events in our Lecture Hall. To ensure an optimal listening experience, we recommend that guests bring their own headphones (with a standard 1/8-inch audio jack) to connect to our devices. Please direct questions, comments, or suggestions to .