The international conference,  ‘Demon Things. Ancient Egyptian manifestations of liminal entities’ (21st-24th March 2016) which is being organised jointly by the Egypt Centre and the Department of History and Classics, Swansea University, will explore the range and variation of demonic entities the Ancient Egyptians believed capable of harm and help, from the Predynastic through the Coptic periods.

Speakers include Wael Sherbiny who is already well known outside Egyptology for his discovery of a  2.5 metre, 4,000-year-old artefact, containing spells and depictions of gods, the longest and oldest leather manuscript from ancient Egypt, Maria Nilsson who discovered a rare wall relief showing an unidentified pharaoh within the sandstone quarries of Gebel el Sisila, north of Aswan and Stuart Tyson Smith consultant for the Stargate, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns films.

While previous demonological conferences focused on issues related to definitions, The Egypt Centre is inviting scholars to discuss the manifestations of demons through iconography, objects, or textual descriptions.

Scholars are being encouraged to present their findings in the hopes that the conference will provide a creative venue for spotting links and patterns. By converging different areas of research a fuller picture of these multi-faceted entities may emerge.

The conference, 21-24 March 2016,is open to all. Events include an optional trip to the magical Gower Peninsula, a special Egypt Centre “Night at the Museum”, cheerful dinners, and more!

A list of speakers so far includes:

• Ladislav Bareš
• Zuzanna Bennett
• Erin E. Bornemann & Stuart T. Smith
• Augusto Cosentino
• Amr Gaber
• Carolyn Graves-Brown – Egypt Center Curator
• Jiří Janák & Renata Landgráfová
• Jay Johnston
• Panagiotis Kousoulis
• Nika Lavrentyeva & Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Aris Legowski
• Rita Lucarelli
• el Zahraa Megahed & Laure Pantalacci
• Maria Nilsson
• Arnaud Quertinmont
• Danielle Sass
• Renata Schiavo
• Wael Sherbiny
• Kasia Szpakowska
• Marie Vandenbeusch
• John Richard Ward
• Felicitas Weber
• John Wyatt
• Stuart Tyson Smith

For more information about the conference ‘Demon Things. Ancient Egyptian manifestations of liminal entities 21st-24th March 2016’ and how to register go to: http://www.demonthings.com/demon-things-conference-2016/

For more information about Liminality go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality 

For more information about the Egypt Centre go to: http://egypt.swan.ac.uk/

The History and Classics Department at Swansea University already has a strong ‘demon research’ programme going under Dr Kasia Szpakowska. They set up the Demonology2K Project. For more information go to http://www.demonthings.com/demonology2k/