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Mariam Ayad

  • Position: Associate Professor of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology
  • Department: Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology
  • Email: [email protected]
Brief Biography

Mariam Ayad is a graduate of The American University in Cairo’s Egyptology program (BA ’94) and returned to AUC after many years of studying and teaching abroad. Before her return, she was a tenured associate professor of art history and Egyptology at the University of Memphis in the United States, where she also served as assistant director of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology from 2003 to 2010.

At the University of Memphis, Ayad taught Middle and Late Egyptian grammar and literature, Coptic and ancient Egyptian historical texts in Hieratic, as well as an introductory world art course. At AUC, she teaches Middle Egyptian grammar (Egyptian hieroglyphics), graduate seminars on Egypt in the first millennium BC, Nubian cultures and society and ancient Egyptian women in temple ritual. She also offers courses in Coptic, Egyptian literature and Late Egyptian historical texts.

Ayad is the director of the Opening of the Mouth Epigraphic Project at the Tomb of Harwa (TT 37) in Luxor. She also serves as a peer reviewer for the American Journal of Archaeology, the Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt and AUC Press.

She earned her MA in ancient Near Eastern civilizations from the University of Toronto in 1996, specializing in the Egyptian language and literature with a minor in Egyptian archaeology, before pursuing her PhD in Egyptology at Brown University. Her doctoral research focused on mortuary texts, the Third Intermediate Period, and the role of women in temple hierarchies. Her dissertation, The Funerary Texts of Amenirdis I: Analysis of their Layout and Purpose (2002), integrated these three areas of study.

Research Interest
  • Social history and religion in the Third Intermediate and Late Periods
  • Transmission and layout of Egyptian funerary texts (including Opening of the Mouth, Pyramid and Coffin Texts, Solar Hymns, Books of the Hours of Night and Day) on New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period monument
  • Status and Iconography of women in ancient Egypt
  • The role of ancient Egyptian women in temple ritual
  • The significance of the titles Gods Wife of Amun and God's Hand
  • Egyptian grammar and language (Old Egyptian through Coptic)
  • Survival of ancient Egyptian idioms in modern colloquial Egyptian Arabic
  • Epigraphy


Selected Publications

  • “Contextualizing Shepenwepet II’s Sed-Festival celebration,” in: J. Iwaszczuk, K. Kapiec, and J. Popielska-Grzybowska (eds.), Rites, rituals and festivals as instruments of stability of the royal power (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2025).
  • “Introduction,” in: M. F. Ayad (ed.), Studies in Coptic Culture & Community (Cairo and New York: AUC Press, 2024),1–10.
  • “The Widow’s Plea: Rhetorical in Coptic Personal Letter SB Kopt I.295,” in: M. F. Ayad (ed.), Studies in Coptic Culture & Community (Cairo and New York: AUC Press, 2024),137–166.
  • “Neith: A Female Archer? Some Observations on a Fragment in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo (JE 41476)” in: J. Kamrin, M. I. Khalid, Ch. Leitz (eds.), Kingdom of the Mummies: Essays in Memory of Ramadan B. Hussein (Cairo: Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, 2023).
  • “Moving Beyond Gender Bias,” in M.F. Ayad (ed.), Women in Ancient Egypt: Revisiting Power, Agency, and Autonomy. (Cairo and New York: AUC Press, 2022), 1–25.
  • "De ‘Godsgemalinnen van Amon’: het pad naar legitimiteit” in: J. Koek (ed.), Mehen: Essays over het oude Egypte (Cairo & New York: Mehen, 2021–2022), 52–69.
  • "The Female Scribe Irtieru and her Tomb (TT 390) in South Asasif" in: E. Pischikova (ed.), The South Asasif Project (Cairo & New York: AUC Press, 2021), 273–283.
  • “On Being Generous as Only a Woman Can Be: On Mutiridis’ Choice of Epithets” in: Ch. Geisen, J. Li, S. Shubert, and K. Yamamoto (eds.), Patterns of Identity and Self-Presentation in Ancient Egypt. “The one perfect in years, who has sustained minds” – Essays in honour of Ronald J. Leprohon. Material & Visual Culture of Ancient Egypt. (Lockwood Press, 2021), 25–28.
  • “The God’s Wife of Amun: Origins and Rise to Power” in: E. Carney and S. Müller (eds.), Women and Monarchy in the AncientMediterranean World (London & New York: Routledge, 2020), 47–60.
  • “Women’s Self-presentation in Pharaonic Egypt,” in: H. Abdel Bassir (ed.) Living Forever: Self-Representation in Ancient Egypt(Cairo & New York: AUC Press, 2019), 221–245.

Monograph

  • God’s Wife, God’s Servant. London: Routledge, 2009

Dissertation

  • The Funerary Texts of Amenirdis I: Analysis of their Layout and Purpose (UMI Pub. No. 3087233)

Edited Volumes

Peer-reviewed Articles and Chapters in Books

  • Gender, Ritual, and Manipulation of Power: The God’s Wife of Amun (Dynasty 23-26) In: A. Lohwasser, M. Becker, A. I. Blöbaum (eds.), Prayer and Power. The God’s Wives of Amun in Egypt during the 1st Millennium BC. University of Münster, 25-27 June 2015. Münster: Institut für Ägyptologie und Koptologie Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 2016.
  • Reading a Chapel, in: A. Lohwasser, M. Becker, A. I. Blöbaum (eds.), Prayer and Power. The God’s Wives of Amun in Egypt during the 1st Millennium BC. University of Münster, 25-27 June 2015. Münster:Institut für Ägyptologie und Koptologie Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 2016.
  • The Pre-Christian Era, in: M. Lois Farag (ed.) Coptic Christian Heritage: History, Faith, and Culture. London: Routledge, 2013.
  • The Death of Coptic? A Reprisal in: M. Ayad (ed.), Coptic Culture: Past, Present and Future, Stevenage: CCOC, UK, 2012, 11-41.
  • Sacred Art -- What is it to 21st-Century Youth?, with Fadi Mikhail in: M. Ayad (ed.), Coptic Culture: Past, Present and Future, Stevenage: CCOC, UK, 2012, 215-219.
  • Re-figuring the Past: The Architecture of the Funerary Chapel of Amenirdis I at Medinet Habu: A Re-assessment. In: Zahi Hawass, Peter Der Manuelian, and Ramadan B. Hussein (eds.), Perspectives on Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Edward Brovarski. Supplement aux annales annales du service des antiquities de l'Egypte 40. Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities, 2010, 53–64.
  • Coptic Liturgy, in: Nadja Tomoum (ed.), Coptic Art Revealed. Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities, 2010, 166-189.
  • The Pyramid Texts of Amenirdis I: Selection and Layout in: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 43 (2007): 71–92. “The Transition from Libyan to Nubian Rule: The Role of the God’s Wife of Amun” in: The Libyan Period in Egypt: Historical and Chronological Problems of the Third Intermediate Period. Eds. Gerard P.F. Broekman, R. J. Demarée and Olaf E. Kaper. Leiden: The Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2009, 29–49.
  • Some Remarks on the Pyramid Texts Inscribed in the Chapel of Amenirdis I at Medinet Habu in: Essays Presented to Leonard H. Lesko upon his Retirement from the Wilbour Chair of Egyptology at Brown University, June 2005. Eds. Stephen E. Thompson and Peter Der Manuelian. Providence: Brown University, Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies, 2008, 1–13.
  • On the Identity and Role of the God’s Wife of Amun in Rites of Royal and Divine Dominion in: Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 34 (2007): 1–13.
  • The Selection and Layout of the Opening of the Mouth Scenes in the Chapel of Amenirdis I at Medinet Habu. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 41 (2004):113–134 [Published 2007]
  • Towards a Better Understanding of the ‘Opening of the Mouth Ritual in: Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists. Eds. J-C Goyon and C. Cardin. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 150. Leuven: Peeters, 2007, 109–116.
  • La sposa divina, la divina Adoratrice e il Clero di Amon durante la XXV dinastia, in: L’enigma di Harwa alla scoperta di un capolavoro del Rinascimento Egizio, eds. S. Einaudi and F. Tiradritti. Turin, 2004, 107–127.
  • Towards an Edition of the Chapel of Amenirdis I at Medinet Habu in: Nubian Studies 1998: Proceedings of the Ninth Conference of the International Society of Nubian Studies. August 21-26, 1998, Boston, Massachusetts. Ed. T. Kendall. Boston, 2004, 214–222.
  • Some Thoughts on the Disappearance of the Office of God’s Wife of Amun, Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 28 (2001): 1–14.
  • Nemty Nakht’s Warning to the Peasant, Göttinger Miszellen 152 (1996): 9–10.

Book Reviews

  • Review of Le tombeau de Pétosiris à Touna el-Gebel Relevé photograhique, by Nadine Cherpion, Jean-Pierre Corteggiani, and Jean-François Gout. Pp. v + 197, figs. 154, plans 2. Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 2007. €82. ISBN 978-2-7247-0426-6 (paper). In: American Journal of Archaeology Online Reviews 114.3 (July 2010): (downloadable .pdf file).
  • Review of The Churches of Egypt: From the Journey of the Holy Family to the Present Day. By Gawdat Gabra and Gertrud J. M. van Loon (with Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom). Edited by Carolyn Ludwig. Photographs by Sherif Sonbol. Cairo—New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 2007. ISBN: 9774161068. Pp. 328. In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 45 (2009: 429-431)
  • Review of From Slave to Pharaoh: The Black Experience of Ancient Egypt by Donald B. Redford (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 2004) Archaeology Odyssey vol. 8 no. 5 (September/ October 2005): 46–48.
  • Review of Les texts de la pyramide de Pépy Ier. By Catherine Berger-el Naggar; Jean Leclant; Bernard Mathieu; and Isabelle Pierre-Croisiau. 2 vols. Mémoires de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale 118/1-2. Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 2001. Journal of the American Oriental Society 124.1 (2004): 27–28.

Encyclopedia and Popular Articles

  • In: Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Editors: Roger Bagnall and Salima Ikram (2013 and 2021):
    • Egypt, the Kushite Period
    • Geb
    • God's Wife of Amun
  • In: Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World, Editor in Chief: P. Bogucki:
    • Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Egypt
    • Festivals in Ancient Egypt
    • Government Organization in Ancient Egypt
    • Collapse and Abandonment in Ancient Egypt
    • War and Conquest in Ancient Egypt
  • In: World and its Peoples Encyclopedia, Set 1, Vol. 8, ed. C. Carpenter (New York, 2006):

    • The Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period in Egypt,1032–1037

    • The Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period in Egypt, 1038–1040

    • The New Kingdom and Late Period, 1041–1049

    • Ptolemaic Egypt, 1050–1051

    • Roman Egypt,1052–1053