Ecology, Mimesis, and Humor: Shining A Different Light on Ancient Egyptian Frog Lamps

Ecology, Mimesis, and Humor: Shining A Different Light on Ancient Egyptian Frog Lamps

Sunday, April 19, 2026, 3 PM PDT
Room 223 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley
This is an in-person lecture, not virtual. This lecture will not be recorded.

About the Lecture:

In the Greco-Roman period, a rather curious form of oil lamp emerged—the Egyptian frog lamp. Much of the scholarship about “frog lamps” focuses on potential religious symbolism in Egyptian associations with frog deities, and how frogs as symbols might have functioned in early Christianity in Roman Egypt. In this presentation, I do not attempt to refute these lines of research, but rather to propose a different perspective, informed by Egypt’s ecology and by other examples of mimesis in Greco-Roman Egyptian antiquity. From these comparisons, I investigate how we might move beyond sacralizing approaches to more wholistically understand the function frog lamps had in Greco-Roman Egypt. This talk explores the many ways in which frog lamps mimic the real frogs and toads of Egypt. Additionally, by comparing the effect of Egyptian frog lamps to other mimetic, humorous artifacts from the ancient world, I argue that there is room for interpreting frog lamps as objects of visual humor—not merely humble light sources or objects of religious significance.

About the Speaker:

Clara McCafferty Wright is a graduate student at Cornell University in Classical Archaeology and Art. Her primary research foci include Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, and Greco-Roman reception of Egypt. She recently completed an MPhil degree in Egyptology at the University of Cambridge with a dissertation entitled, “Reconsidering Cleopatra VII: The Lost Narrative of Egypt’s Last Queen.” Clara earned her A.B. at Bryn Mawr College in 2019, where she double majored in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology & Classical Cultures and Societies. At Bryn Mawr, she was a Hanna Holborn Gray Research Fellow and authored a thesis on Cleopatra VII’s political influence on the Isis cult in Italy. During her undergraduate degree, she also studied in the Egyptology programs at the University of Pennsylvania and the American University in Cairo. In addition, she established The Bryn Mawr College Magic Lantern Slide Digitization Project. Clara currently serves as the Public Outreach Officer of The American Research Center in Egypt—Missouri Chapter, and a team member of the Egyptology State of the Field Survey Project. Clara is passionate about diversifying our understanding of the ancient world to one which includes the narratives of disenfranchised members of societies, including women, enslaved people, and the working class. She has a strong interest in using the study of the past to empower people today by making information on the ancient world accessible to rural and underprivileged communities.

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Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in the Lower Sproul garage near Dwinelle Hall, and in other nearby lots. A parking map of the campus is available at https://pt.berkeley.edu/…/campus_parking_map_august…. To find out how to get to room 223 in Dwinelle Hall, go to this website: https://dkess.me/dwinelle/. Not all entrances to the building will be unlocked, so it’s best to start from the main entrance.

About Northern California ARCE:

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