Claus Jurman

I studied Egyptology and Classical Archaeology at the University of Vienna. After receiving a master’s degree I went to the University of Birmingham in order to deepen my knowledge of Egyptian history and archaeology of the 1st millennium BC. In 2012/2013 I completed my PhD studies in Egyptology at the University of Vienna. From 2007 to 2014 I was working at the Department of Oriental and European Archaeology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. From 2015 till 2016 I was a post-doc researcher at the Institute for Egyptology of the University of Vienna. In addition, I had numerous teaching positions at the Universities of Vienna and Salzburg.

My research activities focus on history, arts and society of Egypt during the first half of the 1st millennium BC – a time when Egypt was subjected to different kinds of foreign rule and saw an influx of non-Egyptian population groups and foreign influence on an unprecedented scale. Several of my recent studies deal with the cultural dynamics of an ethnically and culturally diverse and very complex society. Among the topics which I am currently researching is the emergence and evolution of the phenomenon commonly referred to as ‘Late Period archaism’. The results of a comprehensive study on the city of Memphis during the so-called Libyan period (c. 1100–750 BC) will be published as a monograph (“Memphis in der Dritten Zwischenzeit”, Widmaier Verlag) this winter.

Other topics of recently completed or ongoing research include aspects of the chronology of the 25th Dynasty, the textual representation of individuals and objects within tomb decoration of the Middle Kingdom as well as the history of German and Austrian Egyptology in the first half of the 20th century.

At present I am preparing a research project focussing on social and cognitive aspects of writing culture and the synchronous use of different scripts in 1st millennium Egypt.