About
Independent researcher with an interdisciplinary interest in (a) Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Near East, and (b) the nexus of magic, mythology and religion in the ancient and modern world. Education
BA (Hons) (Dublin), 1982
PhD (Cambridge), 1986 Work Shared in CORE
Articles
- A life in the balance: Divine judgement by weighing
- From Bethel to Pentecost: The Tower of the Tarot deck as the Tower of Babel
- The Exorcism in The Magical Book of Mary and the Angels (P. Heid. Inv. Kopt. 685, 9.13–24) opens with an invocation of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
- The sp tp.y (First Occasion) and the Dreamtime: Egyptian D.t as a parallel to Aboriginal tjukurrpa?
- Pre-Christian Ruins as Reservoirs of Supernatural Agency in Egypt, Ireland and Peru
- When Isis “moored” Osiris: The many meanings of mni
- The Moon Card of the Tarot Deck May Reprise an Ancient Amuletic Design Against the Evil Eye
- From Isis and Horus in the Delta to Mary and Jesus in Ireland
- Which Seth? Untangling some close homonyms from ancient Egypt and the Near East
- Consanguineous unions in the archaeology and mythology of the Neolithic passage-tomb at Newgrange, Ireland
- The iconography on the Paphos IAEW-amulet may draw upon the apotropaic ‘All-Suffering Eye’ motif
- “Bad Shepherds” of the Eastern Delta
- Similarities between North Mesopotamian (Late Halaf), Egyptian (Naqada) and Nubian (A-Group) female figurines of the 6-4th millennia BCE
- From Isis-kite to Nekhbet-vulture and Horus-falcon: Changes in the identification of the bird above Osiris’s phallus in temple ‘conception of Horus’ scenes
- A comparison of the anthropomorphic Vodun power-figure (West African bocio/bo/vodu/tro) with its Kongo counterpart (Central African nkisi)
- The Magic Symbol Repertoire of Talismanic Rings from East and West Africa
- A comparison of the Seven Seals in Islamic esotericism and Jewish Kabbalah
- Perseus, Mars and the figurae magicae of PGM XXXVI
- Iconographic similarities between Permian “goddess plaques” (Ural region, 7-8th centuries CE) and Horus cippi (Egypt, 8th century BCE – 2nd century CE)
- Three Saite-period shabtis of Wedjat-Hor, son of Ashsedjemes, with some idiosyncratic features
- A Shabti of “Tjehebu the Great:” Tjainhebu (Ṯ3y-n-ḥbw) and Related Names from Middle Kingdom to Late Period
- “Then a star fell:” Folk-memory of a celestial impact event in the ancient Egyptian Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor?
- Mythogeography and hydromythology in the initial sections of Sumerian and Egyptian king-lists
- Climate Change and the Rise of the Cult of Re in the Fifth Dynasty
- Did ancient peoples of Egypt and the Near East really imagine themselves as facing the past, with the future behind them?
- King’s Daughter, God’s Wife: The Princess as High Priestess in Mesopotamia (Ur, ca. 2300-1100 BCE) and Egypt (Thebes, ca. 1550-525 BCE)
- A comparison of the polychrome geometric patterns painted on Egyptian “palace façades” / false doors with potential counterparts in Mesopotamia
Other Publications
See CV. Memberships
Alumnus: Trinity College, Dublin; Trinity College, Cambridge; CSIRO Australia.
Associate Member, Societas Magica.
Macquarie University: Member, Macquarie Ancient History Association (MAHA); Member, University Students for Egyptological Research (USER); Member, Rundle Foundation of Egyptian Archaeology; Member, Society for the Study of Early Christianity (SSEC) & Committee Member 2016-18; Participant, Macquarie Ancient Languages School, 2015-present.
