Josef William Wegner (born October 1967) is an American

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and Professor in

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Ancient Greek, Greek , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian History of Egypt, history, Egyptian language, language, Ancient Egypt ...

at the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Egyptology in 1996. He specializes in Egyptian Middle Kingdom archaeology (circa 2050-1650BCE). His father is the astrophysicist, Gary A. Wegner. He is noted for his continued research at Abydos, where he excavated the tomb of pharaoh

Sobekhotep IV Khaneferre Sobekhotep IV was one of the more powerful Egyptian kings of the 13th Dynasty (c. 1803 BC to c. 1649 BC), who reigned at least eight years. His brothers, Neferhotep I and Sihathor, were his predecessors on the throne, the latter havi ...

in 2013 and discovered that of Pharaoh Seneb Kay in 2014.Discovery of the tomb and nomen of the pharaoh
on the Luxor Times. Later, he excavated an entire royal necropolis dating to the

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period dates from 1700 to 1550 BC. It marks a period when ancient Egypt was divided into smaller dynasties for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a Secon ...

, possibly belonging to kings of the Theban sixteenth dynasty or witnessing the existence of the

Abydos dynasty The Abydos Dynasty is hypothesized to have been a short-lived local dynasty ruling over parts of Middle and Upper Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period in Ancient Egypt. The Abydos Dynasty would have been contemporaneous with the Fifteenth ...

. Wegner published an analysis of the Sunshade Chapel of

Meritaten Meritaten, also spelled Merytaten, Meritaton or Meryetaten () (14th century BC), was an ancient Egyptian royal woman of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Her name means "She who is beloved of Aten"; Aten being the sun-deity whom her father, Pharaoh ...

from the House-of-Waenre of

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton ( ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning 'Effective for the Aten'), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eig ...

in a university museum monograph that was abstracted in 2018. His research has been funded by "the American Research Center in Egypt, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, nd theAmerican Philosophical Society."

Career

Wegner was raised in New Hampshire, but he regularly traveled to the nearby

Penn Museum The Penn Museum is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City, Philadelphia, University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, at the intersection of 33rd and Sout ...

to admire its expansive Egyptian collections as a child. He attended the

as an undergraduate student, graduating with a double major in Anthropology and Egyptology in 1989. He returned to Penn for his graduate degree, completing his Ph.D. in 1996 with a dissertation on the formation of the Osiris cult in Abydos region during the Middle Kingdom (circa 2000-1600 BCE). His excavation project in South Abydos was the first significant project in the region in nearly a century. In 2002, Wegner was appointed Associate Curator in the Egyptian division at the Penn Museum. He is currently a Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania's Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department and Curator at the Penn Museum. His recent fieldwork has focused on topics such as Pharaoh Senwosret III's burial site and cult settlement in South Abydos, including a 2021 paper published by the Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt entitled, "A Late Middle Kingdom Temple Bakery at South Abydos."

Selected works

* ''The mortuary complex of Senwosret III : a study of Middle Kingdom state activity and the cult of Osiris at Abydos'' Ph.D. thesis, (1996) *''Searching for Ancient Egypt'' (author David P. Silverman), contributor (1997) *''Akhenaten and Tutankhamun : Revolution and Restoration'', coauthor (2006) *''The Mortuary Temple of Senwosret III at Abydos'' (2007) *''Archaism and Innovation'', coauthor (2009) *''The Sphinx That Traveled to Philadelphia : The Story of the Colossal Sphinx of Ramses the Great in the Penn Museum'', coauthor (2015) *''The Sunshade Chapel of Meritaten from the House-of-Waenre of Akhenaten : Penn Museum E16230'', (2017) *''King Seneb-Kay's Tomb and the Necropolis of a Lost Dynasty at Abydos'', coauthor (2021) ISBN 978-1-94-905710-2

References

External links

University of Pennsylvania profileFaculty Profile
at UPenn's

Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World The Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World (AAMW) is an interdisciplinary program for research and teaching of archaeology, particularly archaeology and art of the ancient Mediterranean (Greece and Rome), Egypt, Anatol ...

Meet the curatorsPapersJosef Wegner , The Pharoaohs of Anubis-Mountain, 28 October 2015, YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wegner, Josef American Egyptologists 1967 births Living people