"egyptology" blog posts

Excavations at the Mut Precinct in Luxor, Egypt

Excavations at the Mut Precinct in Luxor, Egypt

Since 2018, the University of Liverpool in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University, has been working in the southern part of the Temple of Mut in Luxor, Egypt. PhD student, Liz Thomas has had the amazing opportunity to join the Mut Temple Precinct Project during the 2023/24 season, through the AHRC NWCDTP’s Student Development Fund.

Posted on: 11 March 2024

Sexuality in the Past: Niankhkhnum and KhnumhotepTomb of Niankhkhnum & Khnumhotep

Sexuality in the Past: Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep

Despite living in our modern age, members of the LGBTQ+ community have been and continue to be subjected to forms of prejudice and oppression, from insults, to suppressive laws and legislation. But did these prejudices and a lack of understanding for LGBTQ+ people occur in the ancient past? Within this blog I explore Egyptologists’ findings from the joint tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, and how examining the past can help to create a more inclusive present.

Posted on: 12 February 2021

Welcome to Liverpool! 5 tips for Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology students new to University of LiverpoolStudents in object handling session in The Garstang Museum of Archaeology

Welcome to Liverpool! 5 tips for Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology students new to University of Liverpool

Welcome week runs from 28 September – 2 October 2020 and is set to be a little different this year, however there are still tons of events and tools that you can use to interact with the department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (ACE) and get to know the University of Liverpool as a new student. Here are 5 tips for ACE students during Welcome Week to help you get settled in and enjoying university life from week one.

Posted on: 26 September 2020

The Hunt for Cleopatra's TombGlenn Godenho records audio for The Hunt for Cleopatra's Tomb

The Hunt for Cleopatra's Tomb

Early last year, a TV production company dropped me a line, inviting me to present a documentary on ‘The Hunt for Cleopatra’s Tomb’ (to be aired tonight (Thursday 16th July) at 9pm on Channel 5). The opportunity to get back to Egypt, and pure curiosity, got the better of me, so I decided to get involved.

Posted on: 16 July 2020

After University: Graduate Pathways from ACE (Week 4)Archaeology BSc and MSc graduate Edward Clark

After University: Graduate Pathways from ACE (Week 4)

In the fourth and final part of our series, we got in touch with Archaeology BSc and MSc graduate Edward Clark.

Posted on: 8 May 2020

After University: Graduate Pathways from ACE (Week 3)Palaeoanthropology MSc and Evolutionary Anthropology PhD graduate Dr Shelley Farrar Stoakes

After University: Graduate Pathways from ACE (Week 3)

In the third part of our series, we got in touch with Palaeoanthropology MSc and Evolutionary Anthropology PhD graduate, Dr Shelley Farrar Stoakes.

Posted on: 1 May 2020

After University: Graduate Pathways from ACE (Week 2)Egyptology MA graduate Edward Lewis

After University: Graduate Pathways from ACE (Week 2)

In the second part of our series, we got in touch with Egyptology MA graduate Edward Lewis, to hear about his career pathways from student at the University of Liverpool to Head of Programme at Jersey Overseas Aid.

Posted on: 24 April 2020

Free online Egyptology lectures and podcasts to keep you busySketch of an Egyptian wall carving

Free online Egyptology lectures and podcasts to keep you busy

For those of you with an interest in ancient Egypt, Egyptology PhD student Megan Clark has put together a list of free online Egyptology lectures and podcasts to check out.

Posted on: 23 April 2020

After University: Graduate Pathways from ACEArchaeology of Ancient Civilsiations BA graduate Aisling Serrant

After University: Graduate Pathways from ACE

We got in touch with some of our former students to ask how their degree from the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology helped them get to where they are today. Over the next few weeks, you’ll hear about the diverse and wide range of career pathways our graduates have taken.

Posted on: 17 April 2020

A selection of collections from your living roomGarstang Museum of Archaeology

A selection of collections from your living room

Sadly with the lockdown, it means getting out to see your favourite artefacts and collections in person is off limits. However, lots of institutions have a fantastic array of alternate ways to visit online, and access artefacts and collections digitally for free! We’ve put together a short list of online museum and collections, but there are plenty more out there to explore.

Posted on: 8 April 2020

Top Podcasts You Should Listen to Right Now

Top Podcasts You Should Listen to Right Now

Sometimes throwing a podcast into the mix can be a really beneficial tool when studying.

Posted on: 25 March 2020

Understanding gender and sexuality through Dionysus

Understanding gender and sexuality through Dionysus

Ancient History and International Politics and Policy student Kian Goodsell illustrates how the figure of Dionysus serves as an example of sexual and gender fluidity in the ancient world.

Posted on: 23 March 2020

The Ancestral Shape Hypothesis

The Ancestral Shape Hypothesis

Dr Kimberly Plomp, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, explores the ancestral source of a problem faced by many people today: back pain.

Posted on: 17 March 2020

Talking mental health on your year abroad

Talking mental health on your year abroad

Third year Classical Civilisations and Egyptology student Charlotte Wylie discusses managing mental health issues during her semester abroad in Copenhagen.

Posted on: 11 March 2020

Amelia Edwards: An International Women's Day Special

Amelia Edwards: An International Women's Day Special

Amelia Edwards was a prominent travel writer and Egyptologist. On her travels throughout Egypt she famously wrote the travel text 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile' which provided a vivid and detailed account of the environment, monuments and local customs seen all over Egypt. In particular, Edwards' illustrations in this text opened up to new audiences the wonders and splendours of this little known country.

Posted on: 6 March 2020

Searching for a lost Medieval Manx Nunnery

Searching for a lost Medieval Manx Nunnery

The Isle of Man maintained only three monastic establishments during the later Middle Ages, one being a Nunnery on the edge of what is now the Island’s largest town, Douglas, where Harold Mytum and Rob Philpott have just completed an excavation on its possible site.

Posted on: 19 December 2019

Local Primary School Learns All Things Ancient History with IntoUni

Local Primary School Learns All Things Ancient History with IntoUni

Children from local schools in Anfield took part in a special week-long focus on Ancient History. Kristian Boote, PhD Student in Evolutionary Anthropology, provides an overview of the week.

Posted on: 16 December 2019

Alumni and Friends Fund for the ACE photogrammetry team — introducing this year’s projects

Alumni and Friends Fund for the ACE photogrammetry team — introducing this year’s projects

Ardern Hulme-Beaman, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow with the department, shares the progress of the ACE photogrammetry team and their plans for the future.

Posted on: 11 December 2019

Brownies Dig the Dirt on Archaeology

Brownies Dig the Dirt on Archaeology

Our Archaeology students welcomed a local Brownie group to learn all things Archaeology for the Science Jamboree with Merseyside Scouts.

Posted on: 4 December 2019

Gallery: Professor Keith Dobney travels inland to further explore Chinese archaeology and culture

Gallery: Professor Keith Dobney travels inland to further explore Chinese archaeology and culture

After several weeks in Shanghai, spent writing, lecturing and discussing labs and potential projects, I headed northeast and inland to Xi’an where I visited colleagues in the large Department of Archaeology, School of Cultural Heritage, Conservation and Restoration at Northwest University.

Posted on: 28 November 2019

Mapping Jersey’s forgotten military past

Mapping Jersey’s forgotten military past

Jersey is well known for its World War 2 military remains that are scattered across the island, relics of the Nazi occupation. Many are tourist attractions, and both local inhabitants and visitors are well aware of this aspect of Jersey’s heritage. Much less well known, however, is that Jersey’s contribution to the British war effort in World War 1 included not only sending men and women to join the armed forces, but also housing German prisoners of war.

Posted on: 18 November 2019

Gallery: Professor Keith Dobney invited to Institute of Archaeological Science at Fudan, China

Gallery: Professor Keith Dobney invited to Institute of Archaeological Science at Fudan, China

I’m here for the whole of November at the kind invitation of my good friend and colleague (Professor Yuan Jing) who is the Director of a newly established Institute of Archaeological Science at Fudan. I’ll be giving some public lectures, meeting students and staff, attending lab meetings, doing some guest teaching and discussing new facilities, research collaborations and links with ACE.

Posted on: 14 November 2019

Bio: Sydney Hunter, Fulbright Scholar at the University of Liverpool

Bio: Sydney Hunter, Fulbright Scholar at the University of Liverpool

During the academic year 2019-20 we are very happy to welcome to the department Fulbright scholar Sydney Hunter, who is pursuing an MA in Archaeology. The prestigious Fulbright program allows the exchange of knowledge and cultural experiences between the United States and the other participating countries. It is a life-changing opportunity that helps build stronger career profiles, and provides students with new connections to other scholars in the field and access to different approaches to research.

Posted on: 12 November 2019

Achilles and Patroclus — more than friends?

Achilles and Patroclus — more than friends?

Charlotte Wylie (BA Classical Studies with Egyptology), Eleanor Fussell (BA Classical Studies) and Christian Shrier (BA Ancient History) ask whether there is more to the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus than meets the eye.

Posted on: 25 October 2019

SACE Digging Day at the Williamson Tunnels

SACE Digging Day at the Williamson Tunnels

Following their trip to the Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre, Megan Clark discusses a successful day spent digging by the Society of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology.

Posted on: 17 October 2019

Before Egypt app launch — bringing the Garstang collection to life

Before Egypt app launch — bringing the Garstang collection to life

Dr Ardern Hulme-Beaman and the ACE photogrammetry team introduce the Before Egypt app — a new augmented reality app from the University of Liverpool's Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology created to bring objects from the Garstang Museum's collection to life.

Posted on: 9 October 2019

Introducing the 2019/20 Work in Progress seminar series

Introducing the 2019/20 Work in Progress seminar series

The Work in Progress seminar series is a weekly selection of papers presented by postgraduate researchers to an audience of specialists and non-specialists alike.

Posted on: 2 October 2019

The crunch – and a time for dancing

The crunch – and a time for dancing

Larry Barham, Professor of African Archaeology at the University of Liverpool, is Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Deep Roots research project, which seeks to gain a greater understanding into the origins of human technology by excavating areas of interest in Zambia. Read an excerpt from his blog following an excavation that took place in the summer, and watch as an Early Stone Age artefact is uncovered at the site of Kalambo Falls.

Posted on: 30 September 2019

Q&A: The Society for Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (SACE)

Q&A: The Society for Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (SACE)

With Welcome Week now upon us, students may be looking to join societies and make new friends with similar interests. With this in mind we spoke with SACE, the Society for Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, to find out what the society has to offer.

Posted on: 17 September 2019

Local school pupils explore the past at the Ancient Worlds Taster Day

Local school pupils explore the past at the Ancient Worlds Taster Day

The Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology was delighted to welcome Key Stage 3 students from Weatherhead High School to an Ancient Worlds Taster Day on 15 July 2019. Organised by the Liverpool Schools Classics Project and hosted by Dr Ross Clare, the students enjoyed a series of sessions themed around the ancient past before getting the opportunity to ask the speakers any questions they wished about the University experience.

Posted on: 9 August 2019

Hafting and the development of combinatorial technology

Hafting and the development of combinatorial technology

Professor Larry Barham of the University of Liverpool's Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology explains how the use of experimental archaeology can be used to uncover the history of hafting, which gave rise to the combinatorial technology we rely on today.

Posted on: 10 July 2019

Kindling the flames of knowledge Cryptography 1

Kindling the flames of knowledge

When I was a little girl, my mother used to take me to the local library every week after school to look at books and magazines, and pick up new reads for the weekend. It was in those early bookish explorations how I first became fascinated by the Ancient World, and particularly by Egypt and her mysterious hieroglyphic script. I remember specifically one special issue of National Geographic that was devoted entirely to Ancient Egypt, with a wealth of photographs and illustrations that transported me several millennia back into the past. This magazine kindled a spark that developed over the years into a burning passion for Egyptology, which would in the end become my chosen career path.

Posted on: 27 June 2019

Follow the live-blog from our visit to Changchun, China Normal University campus in China

Follow the live-blog from our visit to Changchun, China

Members of the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology are currently in Changchun, China, to set up exchange links with the Northeast Normal University's Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations (IHAC). Follow the live-blog from the trip, updated by student Elissa Day.

Posted on: 25 June 2019

From el-Amarna to the English National OperaStudent visit to London

From el-Amarna to the English National Opera

Earlier this month, 10 Liverpool Egyptology students (both undergraduate and postgraduate), undertook a two-day visit to London – part-funded by a faculty prize for the quality of our Egyptology teaching. The trip was heavily oversubscribed, and students were selected by random ballot for the trip. We arranged the excursion around a visit to the English National Opera (ENO) to see Philip Glass' opera Akhnaten, based on the controversial pharaoh who abandoned Egypt's traditional gods, and instead devoted himself to the worship of the sun.

Posted on: 2 April 2019

Alice in Wonderland - My trip to the stores of the World Museumartefact from the Liverpool World Museum

Alice in Wonderland - My trip to the stores of the World Museum

Egyptology MA student Alice Baddeley reflects on her opportunity to visit the storeroom of Liverpool's World Museum as part of her Masters study.

Posted on: 19 March 2019

New texts from an old site: discoveries from the September 2018 season at the Hatnub alabaster quarriesEntrance to Hatnub Quarry P

New texts from an old site: discoveries from the September 2018 season at the Hatnub alabaster quarries

Roland Enmarch is Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool and co-director of the Anglo-French Hatnub Survey / Mission de Hatnoub, along with Dr. Yannis Gourdon (IFAO). In this blog, Roland provides an overview of his visit to Hatnub, Egypt, examining the ancient inscriptions in the site's alabaster quarries.

Posted on: 9 October 2018

Georgia's Archaeological Adventures in AlaskaGeorgia Hetherington - Nunalleq

Georgia's Archaeological Adventures in Alaska

Georgia Hetherington, second-year BSc Archaeology student, recently had the trip of a lifetime during a three week excavation in Alaska. Read her blog and discover some of her amazing experiences.

Posted on: 24 September 2018

Mary Beard comes to Liverpool!

Mary Beard comes to Liverpool!

This summer, Prof Mary Beard came to Liverpool to give two lectures on the Meroë head of Augustus from the British Museum - which was temporarily on display at the Victoria Gallery & Museum on campus.

Posted on: 17 August 2018

University Archaeology Day and London Anthropology Day 2018University Archaeology Day and London Anthropology Day 2018 - Lego

University Archaeology Day and London Anthropology Day 2018

This year, the University of Liverpool's Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology was represented at the British Museum as part of University Archaeology Day 2018 and London Anthropology Day 2018.

Posted on: 10 August 2018

Five things to do in Merseyside for anyone interested in Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology this summerACE society

Five things to do in Merseyside for anyone interested in Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology this summer

With summer now upon us, you might be looking for things to do in Merseyside before the start of the new term (trust us, this will come around very quickly!). While teaching may be over until September, there’s still plenty of things to do and see in the area that relate to Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology: from Neolithic monuments to Egyptian treasures…

Posted on: 7 June 2018

Studying the past for success in the future: tips and tricks to get the most out of your degreeACE staff and student group photo

Studying the past for success in the future: tips and tricks to get the most out of your degree

Finishing university is daunting, especially when you’re not 100% sure which path you wish to take through life. For this reason, as a third year Evolutionary Anthropology student, I am always looking for new ways to improve my CV and ‘stand out from the crowd’. I have found plenty of opportunities through our Department, and so I have compiled some of the most crucial which have dramatically improved my applications.

Posted on: 19 April 2018

Surreal Egyptology and Egyptian Surrealism at Tate LiverpoolEgyptian illustration of figure and cattle

Surreal Egyptology and Egyptian Surrealism at Tate Liverpool

One of the things I have always been keen to explain, as both an Egyptologist and curator is that despite the popular view of the Egyptians as a civilisation obsessed with death, this is not exactly the case. They were obsessed with life.

Posted on: 30 November 2017

A tale of two universitiesHarris Manchester College, which I have always described as ‘chocolate box’. It’s one of the smaller colleges. Author’s own photograph, 04/05/2016.

A tale of two universities

Hey there, I’m Chloé. I’m studying Archaeology here in Liverpool this year. It’s been wonderful to get to know the department and the society over the last couple of weeks, after being so nervous about coming to a new university. As a thank you, I’m sharing my experiences about the transition between universities, and how postgraduate study compares to undergraduate study so far.

Posted on: 4 October 2017

Putting the ace in SACE: join the Society of Archaeology, Classics and EgyptologySACE outing at the Manchester Museum

Putting the ace in SACE: join the Society of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology

As a 1st year undergraduate at the University of Liverpool, both the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, and the Society of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (SACE) have played an instrumental role in my life at the university so far.

Posted on: 6 September 2017