Eastern Desert - new books and conference

Thanks to Hans Barnard for the news that the the Costen Institute of Archaeology volume on "The Archaeology of Mobility" finally went to press. Also Hans Barnard's own monograph on Eastern Desert Ware, pottery likely made by pastoral nomads in the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, will go to press (Archaeopress, Oxford) some time next week. He adds details about the Eastern Desert conference:

Meanwhile, our conference on the "History of the Peoples of the Eastern Desert" is taking shape. Please visit the project's website <http://www.archbase.org/ED/> to view the outline of this project, a timeline and the 18 abstracts now accepted. . . .

There may still be room for a few more participants in Cairo, all are encouraged to file abstracts for a chapter in the proceedings that will be the final product of this endeavor. Kindly keep in mind that the main perspective of this conference is from the desert outward, rather than the usual perspective of outsiders. We are interested in all data and conclusions relevant to the study of the Eastern Desert, but mostly in those pertaining to the history of the indigenous inhabitants of the region. Another angle that merits attention is the theory behind the (archaeological) research of nomadism. These could be combined into contributions on ethnicity; the comparison of historical, ethnographic and archaeological data; or the interaction between the outsiders and the natives, and their influence on the cultural or natural environment.