Elisabeth R. O'Connell

Elisabeth R. O'Connell is a Curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum with responsibility for Roman and Late Antique collections. She is particularly known for her work on Late antique Egypt and monastic communities.

Elisabeth R. O'Connell
OccupationMuseum Curator
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
ThesisTombs for the Living: Monastic Reuse of Monumental Funerary Architecture in Late Antique Egypt
Doctoral advisorSusanna Elm
Academic work
DisciplineLate Antiquity
InstitutionsBritish Museum
Notable worksEgypt: Faith after the pharaohs

Career

O'Connell completed her BA, MA, and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in the faculty of Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. Her PhD (awarded in 2007) examined how monastic communities in late antique Egypt re-used funerary architecture.[1] During her PhD, O'Connell was the Kress Fellow in Egyptian Art and Architecture (2005-2006) at the American Research Centre in Egypt[2] and received the Joan B. Gruen Essay Prize (2006) for her work Transforming Monumental Landscapes in Late Antique Egypt, the first year it was awarded.[3] O'Connell also produced two online exhibitions for the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri, part of the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley entitled Ethnic identity in Graeco-Roman Egypt and Readers and writers in Roman Tebtunis.[4][5]

In 2007, O'Connell joined the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum where she curates the collection of Roman and late antique objects from Egypt.[5] For the British Museum O'Connell has worked at the sites of Elkab and Hagr Edfu[6] in Upper Egypt, publishing the fieldwork reports in a series of articles with Vivian Davies.[7] She has also re-assembled previously unpublished objects collected during early 20th century fieldwork in Egypt for modern publication from the sites of Antinoupolis[8] and Wadi Sarga.[9] O'Connell's work in publishing and synthesising new and old work on late antique Egypt is an important part of a new wave of scholarship on a previously neglected period in Egypt.[10]

O'Connell curated the British Museum exhibition Egypt: Faith After the Pharaohs in 2015-2016,[11] which examined the different faiths in Egypt from the Roman period to the arrival of Islam. The exhibition started with objects from c.30 BC, when Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire after the death of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and then examined different faiths in Egypt until AD 1171 when the rule of the Islamic Fatimid dynasty ended.[12][13] The exhibition was described as 'trail-blazing' for its examination of religious history in Egypt.[14][15]

In 2017-18 O'Connell held a research fellowship from the Empires of Faith project.[16][17]

Select bibliography
  • with C. Fluck, and G. Helmecke eds Egypt: Faith after the pharaohs (British Museum Press, London, 2015)
  • Egypt in the First Millennium AD: Perspectives from new fieldwork. British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 2 (Peeters, Leuven, 2014)
  • 'Catalogue of British Museum objects from The Egypt Exploration Fund’s 1913/14 excavation at Antinoupolis (Antinoë),' in Antinoupolis II: Scavi e materiali III, ed. R. Pintaudi, 467–504 (Florence: Istituto papirologico “G. Vitelli,” 2014)

References
  1. "Elisabeth R. O'Connell | Ancient History & Mediterranean Archaeology". ahma.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  2. "American Research Center In Egypt | ARCE". American Research Center In Egypt | ARCE. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  3. "The Joan B. Gruen Essay Prize | Ancient History & Mediterranean Archaeology". ahma.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  4. "The Center for the Tebtunis Papyri | UC Berkeley Library". www.lib.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  5. "Elisabeth O'Connell". British Museum. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  6. "Hagr Edfu". British Museum. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  7. "British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan (BMSAES)". British Museum. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  8. "Antinoupolis at the British Museum". British Museum. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  9. "Wadi Sarga at the British Museum". British Museum. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  10. Cromwell, Jennifer (November 2015). "Review of: Egypt in the First Millennium AD: Perspectives from New Fieldwork. British Museum publications on Egypt and Sudan, 2". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. ISSN 1055-7660.
  11. "Egypt: Faith After the Pharaohs". British Museum. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  12. The British Museum (2015-10-08), Discover Egypt’s journey over 12 centuries, retrieved 2018-06-01
  13. Farrukh Younus (2015-11-12), Egypt Faith After The Pharaohs, retrieved 2018-06-01
  14. Thorpe, Vanessa (2015-10-17). "Of gods and men: how Egypt was a crucible for multiple faiths". the Guardian. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  15. "Egypt's Melting Pot of Religions on Display in British Museum - World Religion News". World Religion News. 2015-10-25. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  16. "Empires of Faith". Empires of Faith. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  17. "Friends & Collaborations". Empires of Faith. 2016-06-06. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
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