Lilith Apostel

Lilith Apostel is a Researcher at the Religious Studies Department at Ruhr University Bochum, affiliated with the CERES Center for Religious Studies and the Graduate School of Metaphor and Religion (GSMR). She holds a PhD in Prehistory and Early History from the University of Cologne and has conducted extensive fieldwork in Turkey, Sudan, and Germany. Her research focuses on the intersection of cognitive archaeology, prehistoric religions, and the evolution of consciousness, with a particular emphasis on sleep, dreams, and their relationship to ancient concepts of death and the afterlife.

Education includes a Master's in Religious Studies and Prehistory from Freie Universität Berlin and a PhD from the University of Cologne. She has held postdoctoral fellowships, including at Massey University (New Zealand) and the State Office for Monument Preservation in Saxony-Anhalt.

Her work explores how embodied experiences like sleep shaped prehistoric religious beliefs, using cognitive frameworks to analyze material culture and ancient texts. Key publications include The Dead Sleep Below (2022) and articles on conceptual metaphors in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. She is active in the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion and frequently presents at conferences such as the Annual International Dream Conference.