Thread by @aaronmdesouza

Dear Egyptology,
Egyptian Archaeology and the study of ancient Nubia *IS* Egyptology.
Egyptology is more than just texts and temples and tombs.
A thread…
#WeAreEgyptology

Recently I was a victim of the old-school out-dated idea that Egyptian Archaeology is not Egyptology. I was pinned as just a ceramics specialist, and worse still… a Nubian ceramics specialist. Apparently that's not Egyptology, but let's clear things up.

My work is about Egypto-Nubian relations, two cultures that are inextricably intertwined. Specifically I focus on the Nubians who lived and died in EGYPT, and how their identities changed as a result of contact with EGYPT & in turn how their presence impacted Egyptian society

Nubians were an integral part of the EGYPTIAN world. They didn’t have any written text of their own, so we are dependant on their material culture. It is the only avenue by which we can understand them, and their place in the Egypto-Nubian world.

I have been told so many times that I’m just a ceramicist, or that I’m not really an Egyptologist because I study Nubia. Frankly, I’m sick of fighting against this outdated attitude, so, to those people I say:

All of my field work for the last decade has been IN EGYPT: Helwan, Edfu, Hierakonpolis, Dendara, Aswan, Elephantine.

The title of my PhD was “Crossed Lines: The Pan-Grave Ceramic Tradition in Upper EGYPT, Lower Nubia, and Beyond”. In this work, I integrated the evidence from a huge region spanning Egypt AND Nubia and the surrounding deserts – *because it’s all connected*

My monograph expands on my PhD and further integrates the Pan-Grave tradition and their material culture with the historical narratives of EGYPT AND NUBIA, i.e. I used archaeological evidence from Egypt and Nubia AND Egyptian texts to review what we thought we knew.

These Nubians were an integral part of EGYPTIAN society. They worked in towns and in mines, gathering resources that made EGYPT so rich and powerful. They were soldiers fighting to defend Egypt’s interests, sometimes even against other Nubians.

Side note: I don’t just study pottery. I study all kinds of material culture, but also grave architecture and landscapes. Pottery means nothing without its context and the context means nothing without material culture. I also incorporate ancient texts and archival material.

And now, I would like to present just a few of my brilliant colleagues and friends, all of whom are Archaeologists AND Egyptologists, because you know what…? We can be both at the same time!
Note, there are MANY more, but I will limit myself to a core group.

Nadine Moeller is the incumbent Professor of EGYPTOLOGY at Yale and a brilliant archaeologist whose important work on ancient EGYPTIAN urban sites has changed how we understand the way ancient Egyptian people lived @univ2156

Greg Marouard (also soon to be Yale) has done fieldwork that is pivotal for understanding Old Kingdom EGYPT. He and his colleagues have found papyri at Wadi Jarf with texts relating to the building of THE PYRAMIDS. Yes… archaeologists can find and published texts! @archeogrego

Natasha Ayers is an Ab Fab ceramics and material culture specialist whose work is unravelling the complex interregional mish-mash that was EGYPT during the Second Intermediate Period @natashadayers

Emilie Sarrazin is an amazing young archaeologist who was integral in our recent discovery of an early New Kingdom domestic complex at Tell Edfu. An incredibly rare find that would mean nothing without painstaking excavation and documentaion @sarrazin_emilie

Sasha Rohret is a zooarchaeologist whose work explores what the ancient Egyptian people ate, and what this in turn tells us about their natural environment, how they related to it, how it impacted their lives, and how their lives impacted it @sasharohret

And then there are colleagues working on Egyptian sites and material in Sudan:
@jubudka @lemossrennan @BBinCairo and some not on Twitter including Kate Spence, Laurel Bestock and many many many more. Their work is essential in understanding how Egypt and Nubia co-existed.

Side note: The current Keeper of Ancient Egypt and Sudan @britishmuseum excavates in Sudan... but also note that the name of the Department is "Egypt AND Sudan", and that the museum doesn't just keep texts and papyri in its collection. Shock - they even have pottery sherds!! 😱

Egyptology is more than just temples, tombs and texts.

Those temples and tombs were built by people, and those texts were written by people.

Those very same people lived in towns made of mud bricks, ate from pottery vessels & discarded rubbish (incl. bones).

We can only understand those people and their worlds by putting together ALL of the evidence – material culture AND texts.
Those texts wouldn’t be in museums if archaeologists didn’t get them, and they would mean nothing if an archaeologist didn’t record where they came from.

So, to summarise:
- Archaeology and Egyptology go hand in hand.
- Egypt and Nubia are part of the same world.
- Material culture is just as valid as texts for understanding ancient societies.

And can we all finally please agree that #WeAreEgyptology

In my calm but genuine outrage, I forgot to hashtag things, so: #Egyptology #Archaeology #Egypt #Nubia #MaterialCulture #AncientEgypt