Prof. dr. Maarten J. Raven

Maarten J. Raven (1953) studied Art History, Archaeology, and Egyptian Language and Literature at Leiden State University, 1971-1978. Doctor of Letters, Leiden State University, 1984, on the basis of a thesis Symbols of resurrection: three studies in ancient Egyptian iconography.

He worked as Curator of the Egyptian Department of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities) at Leiden, The Netherlands, from 1978 to 2018, and is now honorary research associate of that institution. In this capacity he organized numerous exhibitions, especially on the Leiden papyrus collection, mummy research, Dutch excavations in Egypt, and Egyptian magic. He was also responsible for the new display of the Egyptian collection (2016). He wrote numerous books and articles on egyptological subjects, and was also active as tour conductor and lecturer. His special interests include the history of egyptology, egyptomania, and ancient Egyptian technology and symbolism. From 2012 to 2018, he was extraordinary professor for the museology of Ancient Egypt at Leiden State University.

While still a student, he became a team member of the Anglo-Dutch excavations at Saqqara (Egypt), organized by the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and the Egypt Exploration Society in London, in close collaboration with the Supreme Council for Antiquities at Cairo, from 1975-1998. From 1998 to 2017, after the withdrawal of the Egypt Exploration Society, he was director of the excavations of the National Museum of Antiquities and Leiden University in the same area (with the Turin Museum as third partner since 2015). The excavations concern a cemetery dating to the Egyptian New Kingdom (14th-13th centuries BC), which forms the original provenance of numerous objects acquired by the National Museum of Antiquities during the 19th century.

Main publications:

• Willem de Famars Testas, Reissschetsen uit Egypte (1858-1860), naar ongepubliceerde handschriften bewerkt en geannoteerd door Maarten J. Raven. Maarssen/‘s-Gravenhage, Gary Schwartz/SDU, 1988.
• The tomb of Maya and Meryt, II: objects and skeletal remains (65th Excavation Memoir, ed. N. Strudwick, Leiden/Londen 2001).
• (with W.K. Taconis) Egyptian mummies, radiological atlas of the collections in the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden (PALMA Egyptology 1, Turnhout, 2005).
• The tomb of Pay and Raia at Saqqara (74th EES Excavation Memoir, Leiden/London, 2005).
• Egyptian magic, the quest for Thoth’s book of secrets (Cairo 2012).
• (with R. van Walsem) The tomb of Meryneith at Saqqara (PALMA 10, Turnhout, 2014).
• The most prominent Dutchman in Egypt: Jan Herman Insinger and the Egyptian collection in Leiden, PALMA 19, Leiden 2018.
• The tombs of Ptahemwia and Sethnakht at Saqqara (PALMA 22, Leiden, 2020),