Amany visited London in July 2023 to undertake research for her doctoral thesis on ‘The Pottery Discovered in The Thary Cemetery at South of the Giza Plateau: A Comparative analytical Study’. For a full list of scholars awarded places to carry out research in London in 2023, please see here.

In the Department of Greece and Rome in the British museum.

During my month in London in July 2023, I collected data for my PhD dissertation in several museums and archives. The Robert Anderson Trust, at whose Kensington premises I stayed, generously supported this research stay. I would like to share some of my experiences from that wonderful month.

My PhD research focuses on The Thary Cemetery, which is located on the Southeastern Giza plateau, and was excavated by Flinders Petrie in 1906-7. After Petrie, further excavations were undertaken at the site during two seasons in 1945-46, by Abd el-Moneim Abu Bakr who had cleared and confirmed that most of the tombs on this slope date to the Saite and Graeco-Roman periods. During the previous excavations, significant amounts of material were taken out of Egypt. More than 21 museums and universities have now acquired these pots, most of them located in the UK and the United States. A research stay in London was necessary therefore, and proved to be very beneficial.

At the British Museum.

As part of my dissertation, I aim to analyze all the ceramic material found in the Thary Cemetery, to gain a better understanding of the nature of the site and the activities carried out there in the past. This will enable me to gain a more comprehensive view of the history of the wider region and how it has evolved over time.

With Professor Stephen Quirke at UCL.

With the help of Prof Stephen Quirke, I registered as a user of the UCL library. I also had the chance to meet with Professor Quirke to discuss accessing UCL’s archives and asked him about my research topic and he gave me some valuable insights. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more about UCL’s library resources.

With Dr Anna  Garnett at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

The British Museum’s Dr Loretta Kilroe and Petrie Museum’s Dr Anna Garnett, both of whom have similar interests in ceramics but differing experiences, also met me personally, and we discussed my PhD thesis, which was extremely useful for me.

Also, I am involved as a volunteer in another unrelated project called “NUBTI”. Its goal is to gather and cross-check all available information about the ‘Great Cemetery’ of Naqada during the Predynastic period. You can find more information about this project at https://www.ifao.egnet.net/recherche/operations/op23354/.

This was my opportunity to view a few objects from Naqada. It would be helpful to assess the typology of these objects in two museums, Petrie and Ashmolean.

In the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge

The chance to study pottery outside of Egypt was too appealing to pass up. For pieces like this, I had to spend the majority of the month travelling between the British Museum, Petrie Museum, and Cambridge. The employees handed me artefacts from the storerooms to analyse, photograph, and measure. Handling ancient Egyptian shards was a fascinating experience and a fantastic learning opportunity for me. I learned more about ancient Egyptian history and culture. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this activity.