Dr Juliet Spedding

Leverhulme Trust Post Doctoral Research Associate

Research Interests

I am a postdoctoral research associate on the Leverhulme Trust funded project  Biodiversity in Egyptian Archaeology during Societal Transitions (BEAST) which spans two departments of the university, Archaeology, Classics, and Egyptology (ACE) and Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour (DEEB).  Using the wealth of evidence from animal remains, depictions, and texts from ancient Egypt, this project aims to investigate how people of the ancient past interacted with and impacted on their environment and how their environment and changes in their environment could have driven historical events and cultural changes.  On this project I am working alongside, Dr. Ignacio Lazagabaster (also a postdoctoral research associate on the project), Dr. Jakob Bro-Jørgensen (University of Liverpool), Professor Chris Thomas (York University), Professor Salima Ikram (American University in Cairo), and Dr. Steven Snape (University of Liverpool). 

My background is in Ancient Egypt and Nubia (ancient Sudan) with my previous research focusing on the chemical analysis of ancient faience and glass from Nubia (c.2000BC-350AD).  A key part of this is looking at how material was traded as well as identifying potential sources for the raw materials.  This can provide an insight into how connected the ancient world was, how far materials and finished objects could and did travel across the ancient world, and how individuals interacted with the environment around them.

 

Education and Career

  • 2011-2014 BA (hons) Egyptian Archaeology, University of Liverpool
  • 2014-2015 MA Egyptology, University of Liverpool
  • 2015-2020 PhD Egyptology, University of Liverpool
  • 2022-present Postdoctoral Research Associate, Biodiversity in Egyptian Archaeology during Societal Transitions (BEAST), Leverhulme Trust, University of Liverpool

 

Publications

  • Juliet V. Spedding (In preparation), ‘‘“To See A World in a Grain of Sand”: Nubian Glass and the Ancient Mediterranean’ (Archaeopress).
  • Juliet V. Spedding (2022), ‘Lead Isotope Analysis of Meroitic Period Glass from Nubia with LA-MC-ICP-MS’, https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12780
  • Juliet V. Spedding (2019), ‘Indian Glass In Ancient Nubia’, Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 22, 11-27.
  • Juliet V. Spedding (2018), ‘A Preliminary Analytical Investigation of Nubian Glass of the Meroitic Period’, in Samantha Tipper and Gemma Tully, (eds), Current Research in Nubian Archaeology (Piscataway: Gorgias Press), 37-81.
  • With Matthew Ponting and Nicola George (2016), ‘Analysis by Scanning Electron Microscope with Energy-Dispersive Spectrometry of a Wax Sample’, in Roger S. O. Tomlin, Roman London’s First Voices: Writing Tablets from the Bloombery Excavations 2010-14 (Museum of London Archaeology, Monograph 22), 286.
  • Juliet V. Spedding (In press), ‘SEM-EDS Identification of Glass Groups in Meroitic-Period and Early-Nabodia Nubia’, (Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa).

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