Tasha's 2025 Egypt Research Fund

Hello family and friends,

As many of you know, I will be traveling to Egypt this Spring for a few months to work with my peers to conduct epigraphic studies at Karnak Temple and conduct research for my master's degree.

Since so many have expressed interest in my studies, I’d like to take the time to give you all a brief description of the work I’ll be participating in, as well as, my own research.

While at Karnak Temple, I’ll be learning and then conducting a process called epigraphy, which is, at its most basic level, the study of inscriptions. Our work will, more specifically, be comparing drawn reproductions of temple wall scenes to the walls themselves and identifying line by line any inaccuracies in the reproductions in order to provide the public and researchers with reliable data. My fellow peers and I will be looking at both hieroglyphs and imagery and will be providing translations of the language. This trip is part of a larger project through my institution and the Université de Québec à Montréal called The Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall Project and is currently headed by Dr. Peter Brand, whom I’ve had the privilege to study under during my time at the University of Memphis. For anyone interested further in this project, I have included the link below.

https://www.memphis.edu/hypostyle/

As for my personal research, I will be working on my MA capstone project, of sorts, and will be writing a no doubt VERY long paper on my findings for my last class. My research will focus on symbolic decoration on the ceilings of Egyptian tombs as expressive of unique afterlife conceptions. It is my plan to study the meaning and purpose of the texts and motifs of New Kingdom (~1550–1070 BCE) ceiling decorations of royal and private tombs, and select temples. These spaces feature many distinctive motifs that I believe deserve more attention than scholars have given them and may reflect differences in funerary conceptions between royal ideology and personal religion. My research will focus on identifying the symbolic elements of these spaces, the social and political status of their owners, their underlying mortuary significance, and how shared motifs were altered or modified from a royal context to suit local populations’ understanding of the afterlife.

In my preliminary research, I have not discovered a comprehensive work on Egyptian ceilings that discusses the many motifs found in these tombs and the implications for both royal and common conceptions of the afterlife. Many of these tombs remain unpublished, lacking photography as well as suitable descriptions, and might, at best, have line drawings that lack color. Thus, my observations might provide a much-needed resource for my research and any further study that I might conduct.

While I have applied for scholarships and received some funding from my institution, most of the trip and all expenses will come from Cody's and my own pockets. I've set up this GoFundMe to allow anyone who wishes to support my research and this incredible opportunity a space to donate. Any contribution will be extremely appreciated; I thank all my wonderful family and friends in advance for the love, support, and prayers I receive now and have always been blessed with as I embark on the trip of a lifetime!

If anyone would like to know more about my trip, what I'll be doing at Karnak, or my personal research, please feel free to reach out!