Lara Weiss

Curator Egyptian Collections

Dr. Lara Weiss
tel: +31 (0)71 516 3114
e-mail: l.weiss@rmo.nl

Educational background and special fields of interest

Lara Weiss (b. 1980) studied Egyptology in Berlin and Leiden and was awarded her doctorate in Göttingen in 2012. She takes a particular interest in the everyday lives of the ancient Egyptians and their mode of religious experience. Both her Master’s dissertation and her doctoral thesis related to religion in Deir el-Medina, where the labourers who worked in the Valley of the Kings had their homes. Since 2012 she has been involved as a teacher and a researcher in the ERC Advanced Grant project ‘Lived Ancient Religion: Questioning “cults” and “polis religion”’, hosted by the University of Erfurt (Germany). Her research for that project focuses on religion in the Roman town of Karanis (in the Fayoum Oasis).

Reorganization of the Egyptian department and Saqqara

Weiss played a central role in the reorganisation of the Egyptian department at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in 2016 and will be involved in developing international travelling exhibitions. Furthermore, since 2018 she has been one of the excavation leaders of the research project that the National Museum of Antiquities is performing in the Egyptian town of Saqqara, in partnership with the Museo Egizio in Turin.

Areas of expertise

Interdisciplinary methods and ancient Egypt (especially religious studies and sociology/anthropology)
Deir el-Medina
museology

Major research projects

The Walking Dead at Saqqara. The Making of a Cultural Geography (2017-2022)
Lived Ancient Religion in Karanis (2012-2014)
Personal religion in Deir el-Medina (2010-2012)

Publications

Pdf’s van publicaties van Lara Weiss kunt u downloaden via haar pagina op Academia.edu

Monographs

Weiss, L., Religious Practice at Deir el-Medina, Egyptologische Uitgaven 29, Leiden/ The Netherlands Institute for the Near East/Peeters, Leiden 2015.

Edited Volumes

Kaper, O.E., Weiss, L., Baan , V. & Ter Keurs, P. (eds), LIBER AMICORUM. MARTINO RAVEN DECIESMILLE DIERUM OB STRENUAMFELICEMQUE ANTIQUITATUMAEGYPTIARUM OBLATUSCONTENTIONEM, Leiden 2018.
Weiss, L. (ed.), The Coffins of the Priests of Amun, Leiden 2018.
Raja, R. and Weiss, L. (eds), The Role of Objects: Creating Meaning in Situations, Religion in the Roman Empire 1/2 (2015).

Scientific articles (with peer-review)

J. Albrecht, Chr. Degelmann, V. Gasparini, R. Gordon, M. Patzelt, G. Petridou, R. Raja, A.-K. Rieger, J. Rüpke, B. Sippel, E. Rubens Urciuoli & L. Weiss, ‘Religion in the making: the Lived Ancient Religion approach’, Religion (2018).
Raja, R. and Weiss, L., ‘The Significance of Objects: Considerations on Agency and Context’, Religion in the Roman Empire (RRE) 2/3 (2016), 297-306.
Weiss, L., “The Consumption of Religion in Roman Karanis”, Religion in the Roman Empire 1/1 (2015), 71–94.
Weiss, L., ‘Domestic Cults and Family Religion in Roman Times’, in: M. Bommas (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Ancient Egyptian Religion, Malden (forthcoming, submitted in May 2014).
Weiss, L., ‘Personal religious practice: house altars at Deir el-Medina’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 95 (2009), 193-208.

Excavation reports

Raven, M., Weiss, L., Aston, B.G., Inskip S and Warner, N. ‘Preliminary report on the Leiden-Turin excavations at Saqqara, season 2015: the tomb of an anonymous official (Tomb X) and its surroundings’, Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux 45 (2014-2015), 3-17.

Conference contributions

Weiss, L. (2019). “Female Figurines in Roman Karanis: An Agentive Approach“. In Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Weiss, L. ‘Individuum und Gemeinschaft Methodologische Überlegungen zur Persönlichen Frömmigkeit’, in G. Neunert , K. Gabler and A. Verbovsek (eds.), Sozialisationen: Individuum – Gruppe – Gesellschaft. Beiträge des ersten Münchner Arbeitskreises Junge Aegyptologie (MAJA 1), 3. bis 5.12.2010, GOF IV/51, Wiesbaden 2012, 187-205.
Weiss, L., ‘Some thoughts on the false doors at Deir el-Medina’, in Horn, M., Hoven, C. van den, Kramer, J., Soliman, D., Staring, N.T.B. and Weiss, L. (eds.), Current Research in Egyptology 2010: Proceedings of the eleventh annual symposium which took place at Leiden University, The Netherlands, 5-8 January 2010, Oxford 2011, 197-205.
Weiss, L., ‘Markings on Oracle Ostraca of Deir el-Medina’, B.J.J. Haring and O.E. Kaper (eds.), with the assistance of C.H. van Zoest,Pictograms or Pseudo Script? Non-textual Identity Marks in Practical Use in Ancient Egypt and Elsewhere. Proceedings of a Conference in Leiden, 19-20 December 2006 (Egyptologische Uitgaven 25), Leiden 2009, 221-30.
Killen, G. and Weiss, L., ‘Markings on objects of daily use from Deir el-Medina – Ownership marks or administrative aids?’, in P. Andrássy, J. Budka and F. Kammerzell (eds.), Non-Textual Marking Systems, Writing and Pseudo Script from Prehistory to Modern Times (Lingua Aegyptia – Studia monographica 8), Göttingen 2009, 137-58.
Holwerda, E., Hoven, C. van den, and Weiss, L., “Summary of the Discussions”, in G.P.F. Broekman, R.J. Demarée and O.E. Kaper (eds),The Libyan Period in Egypt: Historical and Cultural Studies into the 21st-24th Dynasties: Proceedings of a Conference at Leiden University, 25 – 27 October 2007, Leiden 2009, 441–5.