Orly Goldwasser is an Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i Egyptologist, professor of Egyptology

Egyptology

Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...

 at the Hebrew University.

Orly Goldwasser received her B.A. at Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...

, continued studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she was awarded her M.A. and PhD degrees. She occupies the chair of Egyptology at the Hebrew University, and is a Honorary Professor at the University of Göttingen, she was guest professor at the University of Göttingen, Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 and at the Collège de France

Collège de France

The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...

.

Her main interests are the semiotics

Semiotics

Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...

 of the hieroglyphic script, intercultural relations: Egypt and the Levant

Levant

The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

, metaphors and literary images in ancient Egyptian literature

Ancient Egyptian literature

Ancient Egyptian literature was written in the Egyptian language from Ancient Egypt's pharaonic period until the end of Roman domination. It represents the oldest corpus of Egyptian literature...

 and the origin of the alphabet. She is the discoverer of the classification system in the hieroglyphic script.

Selected publications

• From Icon to Metaphor, Studies in the Semiotics of the Hieroglyphs, OBO 142, Fribourg & Göttingen 1995;
• Prophets, Lovers and Giraffes: Wor(l)d Classification in Ancient Egypt, Göttinger Orientforschungen IV. Reihe Ägypten 38, Wiesbaden 2002;
• Canaanites Reading Hieroglyphs. Horus is Hathor? - The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai, Egypt and the Lvant 16, pp. 121–160, 2006;
• How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs, Biblical Archaeology Review 36, No. 2 (March/April), pp. 40–53, 2010;

External links

• Goldwasser's page at HUJI
  Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...