New EES publications

Egypt Exploration Society

The Society has just released four new publications. They can all be purchased through The Society Bookshop.

I'll have Ian Shaw's book on my Christmas list!

Fred Aldsworth. Qasr Ibrim. The Cathedral Church
EES Excavation Memoir 97. 2010. ISBN: 978-0-85698-1876. Price: £65.00 EES Members’ Price: £55.00

This book records the results of excavations and investigations undertaken by the Egypt Exploration Society between 1963 and 1998 on the largest surviving building, the Cathedral Church, on the significant site of Qasr Ibrim, one of the very few not totally destroyed by inundation following the construction of the Aswan Dam and the creation of Lake Nasser. It sets out the archaeological evidence, which has resulted from excavations and a detailed study of the surviving fabric, and provides an interpretation of that evidence for the construction of the Cathedral Church including its subsequent abandonment and use as a domestic dwelling and then an Ottoman Mosque. It also places the building and the site within the context of Medieval Nubia. This volumes includes a CD-ROM.


David Jeffreys. The Survey of Memphis VII. The Hekekyan Papers and other sources for the Survey of Memphis
EES Excavation Memoir 95. 2010. ISBN: 978-0-85698-192-0. Price: £65.00 EES Members’ Price: £55.00

The site of Memphis preserves the archaeological remains of the first capital of a unified pharaonic Egypt, including the site of the temple of Ptah which gives its name to the city and the country (Hikuptah – Aigyptos – Egypt). The Egypt Explorations Society’s survey of Memphis began in 1981 and has run up to the present. An exceptionally rich textual and pictorial archive is one important source of information available to us, and is presented here, highlighting the work of Joseph Hekekyan, a talented and pioneering archaeologist who worked at Memphis and many other sites in the 1850’s but who is – surprisingly – almost unknown today.


Janine Bourriau. The Survey of Memphis IV. Kom Rabia: The New Kingdom Pottery EES Excavation Memoir 93. 2010. ISBN: 978-0-85698-193-7. Price: £65.00 EES Members’ Price: £55.00

This volume is a study of ceramic change in a stratified settlement at Kom Rabia, Memphis, during the New Kingdom. Ceramic chronology of this period has traditionally relied on pottery associated with dated individuals, usually from burials. In contrast, this study presents quantified evidence from a random sample taken from all contexts. A corpus has been made up for each level or phase. Appendices show the distribution of pottery within single contexts and of types within the sequence. Dating, fabric, surface treatments and shape are described in detail and there is a critical appraisal of the methodology used.


Ian Shaw. Hatnub: Quarrying Travertine in Ancient Egypt EES Excavation Memoir 88. 2010. ISBN: 978-0-85698-187-6. Price: £65.00 EES Members’ Price: £55.00

This book, the fieldwork for which was undertaken between 1984 and 1990, concentrates on the travertine (Egyptian alabaster) quarries at Hatnub, some 25 kilometres southeast of the modern town of Mallawi, in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Most of the archaeological remains date to the Old and Middle Kingdoms (c.2575-1650 BC), but there was also a significant encampment dating to the New Kingdom (c.1550-1070 BC). The book uses archaeological and textual evidence from Hatnub as a means of addressing some of the social and economic issues relating to ancient Egyptian procurement of materials from remote sites. Among the research questions addressed here are the provisioning and organization of Egyptian quarrying and mining expeditions, the nature of the key groups of workmen involved in quarrying, and the ritualisation of areas of remote, liminal human activity in the pharaonic period.