RESEARCH
My research focuses primarily on Ancient Egypt. However, since Ancient Egypt had contacts with her neighbours from the Neolithic on (6th millennium BC), it cannot be seen in isolation. Certain ceramic types from the Neolithic settlement of Merimde Benisalame in the western Nile Delta give evidence of these early contacts. Later, during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, Egypt became more and more involved economically with settlements along the Levantine coast as well as with others in Lower Nubia (today’s northern Sudan). Emerging élites in Egypt created a demand for luxury items, such as ivory and ebony from the south and building material, such as the gigantic cedar trees from the Lebanon. In the time of the Middle Kingdom, Egypt’s contacts with the Minoan world become strikingly visible in Aegean-influenced jewellery and the so-called Kamares ware, the Chinese porcelain of its time. During the time of the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC) Egypt’s Empire became a global player in the Eastern Mediterranean. In light of all this evidence it becomes clear that Egypt and also Egyptology cannot concentrate solely on the Nile Valley but has to address a broader field.
During my studies in at the Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg/Germany I always had the great privilege to attend classes in Egyptology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and Prehistory that very often had this cross-cultural approach. These studies resulted in my PhD thesis on expeditions that used material and written evidence to analyze the role of the procurement of raw materials in the New Kingdom.
I have been working on excavations throughout Egypt since 1988 working mainly for the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo, but also for the American Research Centre in Egypt, Macquarie University/Sydney, Yale University, University Museum of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Trust Altes Ägypten (Switzerland), and the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
1. The Stone Tool Industry of the Settlement on Elephantine Island, Archäologische Veröffentlichungen (AV) 121, forthcoming.
2. Das Expeditionswesen im ägyptischen Neuen Reich - ein Beitrag zu Rohstoffversorgung und Außenhandel, Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte des Alten Ägypten 21, Heidelberg 2001: Orientverlag
Review: I. Shaw, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 46, 3 (2003), 378-379.
Chapters in books
1. "Pharaonic Egypt”, in: D.M. Pearsall (ed.), Encyclopedia of Archaeology, 2007, forthcoming.
2. “The lithic industry at Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan – campaigns 2000-2003”, in: L. Khalil/R. Eichmann/K. Schmidt et al., Prehistoric Aqaba I, forthcoming.
3. “Chipped-stone artefacts from Operations 1 and 2”, in: E.C. Köhler, Helwan I – The Excavation Season 1997/98, Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte des Alten Ägypten, Heidelberg 2005: 63-72.
4. “Fremdes Importgut in Ägypten”, in: S. Petschel/M. von Falk (eds.), Pharao bleibt immer Sieger – Krieg und Frieden im Alten Ägypten, Catalogue for the exhibition in the Gustav-Lübcke Museum in Hamm (21.03. - 31.10.2004): 194-196.