The subject portal on the history of the reception of ancient Egypt aims to provide an overview of the diverse research on this topic.

“Reception of ancient Egypt” refers to linguistic, pictorial, material, and performative references to ancient Egyptian culture that have arisen or been handed down in other cultures and are not primarily attributable to scientific Egyptology, i.e., the effort to understand ancient Egyptian culture itself as well as possible. Egyptology itself can also be understood as part of reception of ancient Egypt but differs from it in its particular interest in knowledge and the truth practices of the historical sciences.

The historical framework depends on the respective notion of reception of ancient Egypt. Egypt's trade contacts mark the beginning, as they led to the export, adaptation, or recontextualization of Egyptian forms and objects outside Egypt. The first textual evidence can be found in Homer or Aeschylus, but in terms of historical impact, they are overshadowed by Herodotus' account of Egypt. The reception of ancient Egypt does not end with the establishment of scientific Egyptology and the deciphering of hieroglyphics in the 19th century but continues to this day. The number of publications on the AE is many times higher than that of scientific Egyptology; esoteric literature, music videos, feature films, video games, fiction, and various art forms reach an audience of millions, and even expectations for visitors of scholarly exhibitions and popular science literature are largely shaped by the history of reception of ancient Egypt.

In Western cultural history, reception of ancient Egypt has a long and diverse tradition that has not developed as a coherent discourse. Rather, Egypt has become a topic in various contexts, even though these discussions were often related to each other. This thematic diversity of ancient Egypt and its sub-areas is therefore also examined in different academic disciplines. Approaches to an independent discourse on the history of reception of ancient Egypt have existed since the 1960s, and since the turn of the millennium, the number of publications and research projects has increased significantly. Currently, research on the subject appears to be undergoing a transformation characterized by “digital humanities,” collaborative forms of work, global history, poststructuralism, and postcolonialism, as well as a greater appreciation of material culture and pop culture. 

The focus of this subject portal is on the journal "Aegyptiaca. Journal of the History of Reception of Ancient Egypt,“ which has been published online in open access since 2017 and is dedicated to researching the history of the reception of Egypt, as well as the ”Encyclopedia of the Reception of Ancient Egypt" (ERAE), which recently began its work and will compile a comprehensive online open access encyclopedia in the coming years.

In addition, there are other academically outstanding projects that explore important aspects of the reception of Egypt:

Egypopcult is dedicated to the reception of Egypt in popular culture.

Early Egyptian Travel Accounts explores travelogues published before the Napoleonic expedition (1798-1801).

Antiquitatum Thesaurus: Antiquities in European Visual Sources from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, in particular Module 1: Egypt.

To be continued soon...