Jan Assmann

Jan Assmann is an egyptologist. He studied classical archeology, Egyptology and Greek in Munich, Paris, Heidelberg and Göttingen. He then worked as a researcher in Cairo, Thebes and Luxor. From 1976 to his retirement in 2003, Assmann was Professor of Egyptology in Heidelberg. He then became Honorary Professor at the university of Konstanz. His book Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination (1992) is a classic of cultural studies. Among his many works are The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs (2003) and Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism (2008).