Research
Current research is focused on the use of both textual and archaeological sources to address the nature of the pharaonic regime, and to provide an informed study of non-elite life in pharaonic Egypt, focused on anthropologial approaches to law, economics, social organization and religion. This means to work outside the ideological presentation of Egypt as a bureaucratic and efficient civilization, and focus on non-monolithic interpretations of the Egyptian record, working from close analysis of specific data to approach the behaviour and status of individuals in context.
Current research is focused on the use of both textual and archaeological sources to address the nature of the pharaonic regime, and to provide an informed study of non-elite life in pharaonic Egypt, focused on anthropologial approaches to law, economics, social organization and religion. This means to work outside the ideological presentation of Egypt as a bureaucratic and efficient civilisation, and focus on non-monolithic interpretations of the Egyptian record, working from close analysis of specific data to approach the behaviour and status of individuals in context. This project has been funded by a Leverhulme Senior Fellowship, under the title Peopling Ancient Egypt: an Ethnography of Pharaonic Egypt.
A further strand of current work focusses on the publication of the epigraphic work from the tombs of Kairer and of Nakhtmin at Saqqara, and the historical and artistic issues related to the construction of these tombs.
Research Interest 1
Current research is focused on the use of both textual and archaeological sources to address the nature of the pharaonic regime, and to provide an informed study of non-elite life in pharaonic Egypt, focused on anthropologial approaches to law, economics, social organization and religion. This means to work outside the ideological presentation of Egypt as a bureaucratic and efficient civilization, and focus on non-monolithic interpretations of the Egyptian record, working from close analysis of specific data to approach the behaviour and status of individuals in context.
A specific strand of this work has focused on the history of the Egyptian language, as a purely linguistic study but more extensively on the nature and history of literacy: the use of documents in administration, of literature as a social activity for communication and performance, and of ritual as the anti-dogmatic and performative reality of personal and unofficial religious practice.
Research grants
Peopling Ancient Egypt: an Ethnography of Pharaonic Egypt
LEVERHULME TRUST (UK)
September 2018 - August 2021
Ancient Egyptian laments from the Old to New Kingdoms: origins, contexts and development.
BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)
September 2004 - August 2007
The use of documents in ancient Egypt.
ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL
February 2005 - May 2005