Kyffin

Wednesday 13th March 2013

Jo Kyffin (Egypt Exploration Society)

‘Into the Chamber of Secrets: Archives and the Harris Magical Papyrus’.

Critical reading and analysis of a text involves situating a text in its historical, historiographical and material context. This can require a great deal of digging in the archives of various museums and institutions, and long hours poring over reams of correspondence. This paper will explore the dusty world of the archive, and the way in which the information found there can illuminate our reading of a text such as the Harris Magical Papyrus in unexpected ways.