Research
Research Interest 1
A great deal of my research is multidisciplinary and collaborative. Between 1994 and 2000, I collaborated on fieldwork at Gebel el-Asr and Sikait-Zubara/Gebel Umm Kabu with the geologist Dr Judith Bunbury (Dpt of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge)and the archaeologist Dr Elizabeth Bloxam (UCL). From 2003 to 2008 I collaborated with two Norwegian geologists (one a member of Geological Survey of Norway, Trondheim, the other based at Expert-Center für Denkmalpflege, Zürich) on geoarchaeological fieldwork at Gebel el-Asr. I currently collaborate with Dr Fredrik Hagen (University of Copenhagen) on a major international project concerning the Gurob harem-palace settlement in the Faiyum region of Egypt, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and the ERC (the latter in the form of a Marie Curie Research Fellowship awarded to Dr Valentina Gasperini at the University of Liverpool).
My archaeological research since 1997 has focussed on the following four field projects:
(1) Survey and excavation at Gurob, site of a Ramessid harem-palace settlement and associated cemeteries
(2) Survey and excavation at the Gebel el-Asr gneiss and chalcedony quarries (Lower Nubia)
(3) Survey and excavation at the Hatnub travertine (Egyptian alabaster) quarries (Egypt)
(4) Geoarchaeological survey of the Roman and Byzantine emerald mines in Sikait-Zubara and Gebel Umm Kabu (Egypt)
Research grants
Auger-boring at Gurob, Egypt
SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM TRUST (UK)
March 2010 - January 2012
Hatnub: the socio-economic context of Egyptian quarrying in the Old and Middle Kingdoms.
ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL
February 2004 - May 2004
The Gebel el-Asr gneiss quarries (the Chephren diorite quarries) in Upper Egypt.
BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)
April 2000 - March 2001
The Gurob Harim Palace Survey, Egypt
BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)
March 2007 - March 2008
The Gebel el-Asr (Chephren diorite quarries) in Upper Egypt.
BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)
March 2004 - April 2004
The Gurob Harim Palace Resistivity Survey
THE GERALD AVERY WAINWRIGHT (UK)
March 2009 - February 2010
The Gurob Harim Palace Survey, Egypt
BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)
May 2006 - May 2007
The Wadi Hammamat Survey
SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM TRUST (UK)
June 2014 - May 2015
Trade Roads in Ancient Deserts: An Egyptian Case Study. The unrecognized Late Bronze Age commercial route between Mediterranean and Middle Egypt
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
January 2014 - January 2016
Research collaborations
Dr Judith Bunbury
The University of Cambridge
In the Sikait-Zubara and Gebel Umm Kabu emerald-mining projects I am currently collaborating with Dr Judith Bunbury (Dpt Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge) on developing new provenancing techniques for ancient beryl artefacts.