Yossra Ibrahim, Archaeologist & Egyptologist

Yossra Ibrahim is an Egyptologist, specialising in archaeoastronomy. She received her B.A. majoring in Egyptology and minoring in Entrepreneurship and History from the American University in Cairo (AUC) and a Master’s Degree in Archaeology from Durham University with a dissertation entitled “Lights of eternity: Investigating Knowledge, Perception and Conceptualisation in the Early Astronomical Representations”. She is currently a Research Associate at the Research Training Group “Early Concepts of Man and Nature” and a Doctoral Candidate at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz researching the Ancient Egyptian Astronomical diagrams with a dissertation entitles “Lights of Eternity – Investigations into concepts, tradition and innovation in the ancient Egyptian sky diagrams”. She is interested in several topics such as Moral and societal change in the Ramesside period, religion, afterlife and ascension beliefs, women in Ancient Egypt, art and iconography, and ancient restoration of monuments. Her main area of speciality is concerned with the astronomical activity in the Ancient Egyptian society; particularly calendars, astronomical texts and depictions dating from the New Kingdom up to the Second Century A.D. as well as the relation of astronomy to religion. She worked with the leading Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass on several projects such as; Scanning the Pharaohs and also edited several books and articles. She also served as a cultural assistant for Laboratoriorosso. In 2018 She was appointed as an Egyptologist and founding member of the Egyptology unit at NADIM Foundation. She also worked as a Research Associate at Durham University and the American University in Cairo. She is currently conducting her first field survey on a number of ancient Egyptian astronomical ceilings in Thebes. Yossra has also been featured in a number of documentaries such as Unearthed, Nefertari The Life of an Egyptian Queen, and Kemet.