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). 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. Contact Lara Weiss at RMO: +31 (0)71 5163114 or l.weiss@rmo.nl.

More information about Lara Weiss

Research

My main interests concern to develop a theoretical approach towards individual/group religious practices in ancient Egypt and providing new perspectives on archival and archaeological sources.

• Lived Ancient Religion in Karanis (2012-2014)
• Persoonlijke religie in Deir el Medina (2010-2012)

NWO project: The Walking Dead: The Making of a Cultural Geography in Saqqara (2017-2023)

Teaching activities and supervision

I welcome (Research and PhD) students who wish to focus on Egyptian religion or any aspect that relates to either Saqqara, Deir el-Medina or the Egyptian collection of the National Museum of Antiquities (RMO).

CV

• Egyptology (undergraduate) in Berlin and Leiden; BA Leiden University 2005, MPhil Leiden (2007).
• PhD in Göttingen 2012
• Postdoctoral research in ERC Advanced Grant Lived Ancient Religion, Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, 2012-2015 
• Curator at the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden since 2014

Key publications

• Raja, R. and Weiss, L. (eds), The Role of Objects: Creating Meaning in Situations, Religion in the Roman Empire 1/2 (2015).
• Weiss, L., Religious Practice at Deir el-Medina, Egyptologische Uitgaven 29, Leiden/ The Netherlands Institute for the Near East/Peeters, Leiden 2015.
• Weiss, L., “The Consumption of Religion in Roman Karanis”, Religion in the Roman Empire 1/1 (2015), 71–94.
• Weiss, L., ‘The Power of the Voice’, in: B. Haring, O. Kaper, and R. van Walsem, (eds.) Studies in Hieratic and the Documents of Deir el-Medina. Egyptologische Uitgaven 28, Leiden 2014, 291-303.
• 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., ‘Personal religious practice: house altars at Deir el-Medina’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 95 (2009), 193-208.

Associations, boards, committees

• Advisory Board, ‘Huis van Horus’ Foundation, since 2015.
• Advisory Board, ‘Friends of Saqqara’ Foundation, since 2014.
• Member of the Scientific Committee of the Gate of the Priests Project, at the Center of Classical and Humanistic Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal since 2014
• Member of the Vatican Coffin Project, since 2014

Publications