Research
I am interested in combining Egyptology with research agendas in social archaeology, anthropology and cultural history. My research revolves around questions of ancient Egyptian society and culture at a local level. I use material, visual and written sources to understand long-term transformations in North-Eastern Africa and overlapping and diverging ideas and practices of pharaonic elites and commoners. My chronological focus is on the „classical“ periods of ancient Egypt, from late prehistory to the New Kingdom, i.e. the Bronze Age, but I am also interested in earlier and later developments.
I have written a book on the community shrines of the third millennium, examining how central administration penetrated into local milieus. I am currently writing a book entitled The Archaeology of Pharaonic Egypt. The book will synthesise discussions of Egyptian society and culture from the Old to the Middle Kingdom. It addresses questions of urbanism, temple development and funerary practice, and is designed to fuel comparative discussions of early civilizations. I am directing a project on the seals and seal impressions from Hierakonpolis to investigate Administrative practice and society in early Egypt. I am also a co-director of the archaeological fieldwork project Zawyet Sultan: archaeology and heritage in Middle Egypt that explores life of a local community from prehistory up to the present day.