Pre - x-mas update

I am keeping busy as ever. Cannot wait for x-mas, going home to Peine on the 23rd, flying to Hannover, where - hopefully - someone will come and pick me up!
Need some rest, proper food, some time for me and some time to get some more work done! Beforehand I shall be presenting my research at a work-in-progress seminar on Thursday which I find rather scary as I have never really spoken about it. Presentation's almost done, though, so could be worse. Once that's done I will have to prepare another presentation for the following Thursday, the essay for which I will have to write over x-mas. The topic for that one is 'Bubastis until the end of the Middle Kingdom' which I find rather nice, as I have visited the site before, in 2003, when I was working at Qantir, also in the north-eastern Delta.
The topic for my presentation this Thursday is "Mass-Production in New Kingdom Egypt - Capital Cities of the New Kingdom and their industries", and I shall introduce my research, which is still in its youth, talk about my intentions and then focus on the larger industries at Amarna and Piramesse, trying to find some conclusions in how far mass-production can be identified and how these related to the city and then contributed to its development and status. Check out The Amarna Project website for some more information.

I was working all day yesterday, sitting at my desk at home. When I first looked out of my window I had a nice surprise: There's an empty site opposite my (third) house, which had been cleared recently - for a new building, I thought, and some strange metal frames had been set up - Turn out they're using it to see x-mas trees! :-)
Enjoy the view I had yesterday: The busy Smithdown Road can be seen in the background.






This morning, whilst waiting for and on the bus, I had a good laugh - loads and loads of Santas were driving, walking through the city. On the bus I realised that they were all on their way to a charity event, running through Liverpool!
...the best picture I could get - sneakily shot from the back of the bus!

The Liverpool Museum's New Egyptian Gallery has opened!

My department has a christmas tree in its lobby - reminds me that it's not actually that long to go and I should better stop writing and get some more work done!


All the best!

No Papercuts!

Not with digital maps, anyway!

I have begun my GIS project which will (hopefully) form a large part of my PhD, aid me with my observations and conclusions and - as an additional feature - look rather pretty ;-)

The software I use for this is none lesser than the renowned gvSIG which has been used by OA for a while now, and has undergone some development by the IT crowd. The version I use is the newly released OA Digital Edition, all nice, polished and open source. You can download it here. It certainly is my recommendation when picking open source GIS tools for any use! It even comes with a userguide - enjoy!

Enough advertising. I commenced my project by downloading the maps from the Digital Egypt website for the purpose of basemapping.
My initial problem during the georeferencing was the projection. In the end I decided that WGS 84 would be the best choice, as the info provided on these maps was given in lat/long. This worked well enough until I realised that some of the co-ordinates which should have been on the corners are missing. Oh well, some maps worked through guessing, many will (hopefully not) have to stay unreferenced for the time being...

Here's an impression of the Delta:











Some of the margins so not fit properly and it would take some time getting them all to match...

I decided to look elsewhere:
Maproom has a nice collection of data from all over the world. An abundance of information, especially in terms of administrative boundaries, is available - not all necessary, but free and nice to have. Problematic is the fact that the data comes in ArcInfo format, which is old and not very nice to use at all. Furthermore it is proprietary to ESRI and it can be a hassle to convert it. Please read here to see how the nasty route via ArcGIS and the likes can be avoided! ;-)

Maplibrary is also very useful. I like the georeferenced satellite images in particular, but the other data, boundaries mostly, is very nice. It comes in ESRI shapefile format (not only, but in my opinion the most sensible) and can be added to one's GIS project easily.

Last but not least, the CGIAR-CSI provide free SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Data for the whole of Egypt, which I used as well.

Here's an initial shot of SRTM data with Maproom on top. Funky stuff, but rather simple for now:











The current "state of affairs" - The cropped satellite image with a shapefile I made - sites of special interest to my research. The metadata is contained in the .dbf file:











I have played with contour line creation and the like but have not come very far yet. Please be patient, further updates on this front are to follow soon!

Liverpool - The first impressions

I have just "survived" a rather stressful week with several trips to Lancaster to OA North whose lovely unit is located in an old mill building. Working from home proved to be a disaster on Wednesday, but through considering various options we have come to the conclusion that it is not quite impossible after all. Sleep was a rarity throughout the week and had to be caught up on. The collapse of my clothes rail was another factor of annoyance but even this has been resolved now...!
No, I feel I have started settling into Liverpool, my new house and Lancaster and am, in general, happy.

Yesterday I had the rare opportunity to visit Liverpool's City Centre. I had to do some shopping and wanted to be able to claim at least the knowledge of the High Street shops' whereabouts... Ended up bumping into a giant spider and getting covered in foamy snow!







This hydraulic spider operated by a minimum of six people, is a performance by the French group LaMachine within Liverpool's European Capital of Culture 2008 program of events.

ETANA Core Texts

Thank you, Chuck, for your comment!
here's a link to the full list of texts currently available on ETANA:

http://ancientworldbloggers.blogspot.com/2008/06/awol-ancient-world-online-6.html

ETANA - a tool for ANE research

ETANA stands for Electronic tools and Ancient Near Eastern Archives. It is an incredibly useful resource run by the following bodies:
American Oriental Society | American Schools of Oriental Research | Case Western Reserve University | Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State | Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University | Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago | Society of Biblical Literature | Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University | State University of New York at Stony Brook | Vanderbilt University | Virginia Polytechnic and State University

The purpose of this website is the online publication of archaeological monographs and journals, either as excerpts or whole publications. In addition to this a number of archaeological projects in the ANE have added in-depth information on their projects.

Originally intended for Ancient Near Eastern studies, it contains a good number of Egyptological publications. (e.g. see my link to Petrie's Memphis I on the left).

It is still under development and the merging of the ABZU and the ETANA databases is in progress.

I find the website slightly confusing as the listing and the interlinking is not very neat, but the sheer amount of resources more than makes up for this.

Look Left!

I'm referring to the links (haha, links means left in German) menu. I have spent some time assembling my favourite links inside and outside Egyptology.
I find them extremely useful for all sorts of things. Many of them lead are collections of further useful links.
Come time, I shall try and update and expand my collection.
Happy surfing!

Winckelmann Cup 2008

This is a copy of my text originally posted here: http://blogs.thehumanjourney.net/shapefile/entry/1

The purpose of this legendary journey was to participate in the Winckelmann Cup 2008 as part of the (rather international) team
CARDIFF DRAGONS.
The Winckelmann Cup is the Archaeology Football Worldcup and takes place every year in a different location.

The OA crew left Oxford at ca 9:45am on Thursday, July 3rd after piling into our beautiful grey hired minibus and collecting everybody one by one from a variety of locations within the city.
Once complete we started making our way towards Dover with Markus at the wheel, getting us to the ferry well in time.


The OA delegation!
Top row from left: Markus Dylewski (Graphics), Mike Donnelly (Fieldwork), Joseph Reeves (IT), Gary Jones (Geomatics); Bottom row from left: Anna Hodgkinson (Geomatics), Sergio Carvalho (Fieldwork), Rafael Martinez-Jausoro (Buildings).

Naturally, people wanted to ensure no weakness of stomach would take place on the boat and therefore the port's very own Burger King was destination number one.



After a "good" meal and some excitement from Joseph's side about all the VW vans in line for the boat which were all very nice and colourful, we were ready for some serious sea action.





As soon as we got aboard and the compulsory Dover-White-Cliffs shots had been taken, the first bottles of "Juice" were to be consumed by those lucky enough not to drive on that day. Juice, to be quite precise refers to beer and was one of the vital ingredients for a day's worth of fun, especially appreciated by the Scottish side of the team. The boardshop proved to be less exciting than expected, but time and fears from setting one's foot onto French soil had to be used up, before the journey off the ferry could be risked.
Off the boat, our journey took us through four different countries - that's five in one day ;-) - quite impressive, really: France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany, where we finally stopped and spent the night. Markus' parents were so kind as to let a horde of archaeologists step through their gates and drink their beer... We got pizza from a shop nearby and had some fun chatting to Markus' friends and brother.



The next morning was a bit headachy and getting out of bed was not so happy... but we made it and yet again boarded the minibus which was to carry us to the Czech Republic. This leg of the journey was longer than expected due to Markus' clever GPS which had the tendency to request U-turns rather than re-calculating the route. After a long stop in Chemnitz (East-German city still awaiting some serious development) and a tour through the centre of Prague which ensured the compulsory sight-seeing to be covered ;-)

We arrived in Podoli just after 8pm, after following random instructions and finally finding a way to the sportsgrounds via a field of sunflowers.


(this is not Podoli, by the way, but similar.)

Tent City was almost completely erected by the time of our arrival, awaiting just the addition of OA's Cardiff Dragons' tents.





The team was complete with the actual Cardiff delegation, and so the first night was simply spent celebrating everyone's arrival. We missed the opening ceremony, and therefore needed to catch up on getting to know everybody over Czeck Juice, the price of which is very different from that available in the UK.
For me it was surprising and fun to meet up with some of the guys I went to university with in Berlin (HU) "back in the day" and who had come to play as well. Gladly, as we found out, we were not in the same group as them! There was a hog roast, the remains of which were plundered by the team from Würzburg and the heads placed onto stakes just outside their tents.

Saturday morning, getting up was painful and with the sun beating down onto the tents, turning each of them into a roasting tin, heads were sore, and not just from that. Breakfast consisted out of *proper* bread, cheese and meat and coffee, good for some, not so great for others, but everyone seemed grateful for some food. After breakfast the team gathered:



Nick, Ian, Martin, Nao and David from Cardiff joined us, and we ended up having a good selection of substitute players. The unfortunate thing was that Nao has been playing football practically all her life and I haven't. It is compulsory for every team to have at least one girl on the pitch at all times and due to the fact that I had to substitute for Nao, the chances for scoring went down by quite a percentage...

Our first match on Saturday was against a German team in green t-shirts and was won by us - well, I was in the field for a grand total of 3 minutes, at the end of the second half. It must be mentioned at this point, though that each half consisted of ten minutes.

We won this match with a lot of glamour, same as the second one, in which I was allowed onto the pitch a bit longer.



some more action shots:





The last match in the qualification series was lost against the only Polish team. Did I mention that most of the other teams were German, as the Winckelmann Cup originates from there? There was one team from the US and another from Italy and a few other nations were represented as well.
The fact that we lost against Poland did not matter too much, as we had won the first two which qualified us for the eigth-finals which were to be played that very evening.

Every match was a challenge for Joe, as he *insisted* on a different hairdo per match. A shame that there was no best-hair award to be won.


Some floral bits and pieces were added to the ensemble afterwards.

Throughout the day some minor injuries were acquired by several of our players and took them off the pitch temporarily or indefinitely. Tears were not involved, but pain and grief - as in proper football... People either recovered with the intake of juice, painkillers or cigarettes, or promised to sort themselves out once back under the caring grasp of the NHS.



We played our eigth-final match against the notorious BFC Spartacus Berlin. This bunch of tough boys did attempt to tire us out, but the hardiness of the Dragons did not fail and it came to a penalty-shootout which we, quite unfortunately, lost. It was not that nobody accepted Spartacus' victory, but rather the fact that they, over the years, had become quite infamous for their style and there have been rumours that their team might not be represented by the number of archaeologists required for a "legal" team... The fact that they made it to the final did not make it any better...

The longest match of that day was our friendly against the above-mentioned "Würzburgers" who bet us something like 30:2. Good job nobody was watching!

That night everybody gathered for some late-night football and drinking action which lasted rather long and produced new friendships and some headaches on Sunday morning.

Sunday, the final day proved to be just as exciting as the others, as it was the day for a) friendly matches for those teams who did not qualify or lost in the eigth-finals and b) the quarter-, semi- and *finals. We won one of these matches and lost against a team consisting almost in its entirety from girls.


Here's Nao in her element. She and Martin were later off-hired to Spartacus Berlin to play for them in the final due to their goal-scoring abilities.

Even I was allowed to wear a colour other than yellow, as the Würzburg team lacked a girl and thus I supported their numbers in a couple of matches. I even happened to kick the ball in the right direction once or twice...


The Würzburg team consisted about half-half from Würzburg Uni-students and archaeologists from a small archaeological unit associated with the university.

A special team who had arrived with the aim of gaining the so-called "Uschi-Cup", the award for the team who were most fun, were the Latene Lovers, Leipzig. These guys came dressed in pink t-shirts, equipped with drums and all sorts of other noisy equipment, and cheered for their favoured teams during the matches. Their support was greatly appreciated and I do hope they won this award!

We managed to pack most our things before the final, a spectacle which was observed and enjoyed greatly by everyone. The teams involved were the above-mentioned Spartacus Berlin and Maradona Napoli, with Nao and Martin representing the Cardiff Dragons under cover. This arrangement made it quite difficult to cheer, as we really favoured the Italian team, but wanted to support our teammates too... And nobody would have wanted to clash with Berlin's number 8 - I think he managed to gain himself 2 (is that possible - there shows how much I really know about football) yellow cards and fouled a player from the opposite team rather nastily.





Napoli won, so there was a great deal of cheering from the fans who had been sitting and standing around the pitch and then crowded on the same to congratulate the happy winners.



Unfortunately, the Cardiff Dragons could not afford to stay for the award ceremony which took place after the final, as our journey back was going to be a long one.
We made it to place 15 out of 30ish, a result which made us happy. Maybe next time, with a little more training, the Cardiff Dragons could make it to the final?!
The trip proved to take even longer, people requiring stretching breaks to cure their stressed limbs rather often and it was not until 11pm that we made it to a service station near (Kassel) where my brother collected me to take me home for a few days.

My part of the journey ends here, the rest of the OA part of the team, now including Nick and Ian, made their way back to Oberhausen, where they enjoyed a grand total of 3 hours of sleep, left Markus behind, and got back to Oxford the following day.

This trip was an exciting, very enjoyable and sporty adventure, unforgettable and, in short, fantastic! I think I am not the only one to say -

Bring on Winckelmann Cup 2009!!!!!
(in Bamberg, Germany)



Photos by: Anna Hodgkinson, Joseph Reeves, Sergio Carvalho

I'm back!!!

I have decided to stick my name on here now and stop being so stupid. Whoever wants to laugh can do so, but it's my project and I don't want to loose it.

Will be updating as I go along. I will be leaving Oxford in a month's time to move to Liverpool. Once there I will have another month to prepare and get used to things. I don't think their library is as extensive as the Sackler in Oxford, so part of my luggage will hopefully be a massive bunch of photocopies. Just trying to prepare as much as possible, acquire the most important material and get my brain into the mood.

I bought Jeffrey's Survey of Memphis I for a fiver the other day. Good plans, I'm quite pleased.

I have another blog, which I keep updating with random stuff, too. Just thought I'd stick a link on here, in case anyone's interested.

This is me, by the way:


One early evening on the Cowley Road


At the Winckelmann Cup 2008 in Podoli, near Brno, Czech Republic

Hooray!

News (well, a couple of weeks old) - I have now been accepted to do my PhD! I will be studying at Liverpool Uni and on a part-time basis, whilst I will be working at OA North. Can't wait to start!

Here is an excerpt from my proposal for whoever is interested:

My thesis will be concerned with capital cities in New Kingdom Egypt, focussing on major urban centres and their productivity. I intend to question whether and by what means a capital city could be defined and, in consequence, how far it contributed to Egypt's economy and wealth.
My core statement is that the presence of certain industrial establishments associated with an urban centre should be considered the major legitimisation of its status and wealth.
The outcome of my thesis will be an evolutionary model encompassing the emergence of urban centres in general and their industries until the end of the New Kingdom. Furthermore, I will be concerning myself with the establishment of a structural network based on the existence of industries within the cities of New Kingdom Egypt.
This approach will fill a significant gap in the current debate on Egyptian urbanism, providing an insight into relationships between industrial institutions and the seat of the administration and the king. My research will aid my career, preferably as a senior in fieldwork on an urban site, focussing on the development of major urban sites in Ancient Egypt.

I plan the evaluation of material remains known from urban production sites, such as the glass production sites at Amarna and Piramesse and the (later) metal and faience workshops at Thebes and Memphis. I will establish a database, which will enable me to filter the collected data into quantitative, local and functional groups and to be classified. This evaluation will take place with regards to the archaeological context and setting of the workshops. Thus, I will be able to gain insight into infrastructure and organisation of the cities, urban planning, and how far the production sites and their surroundings related to one another.
In addition to the local understanding of production sites within the capital cities, national networking will be of importance to understand the role of the capital as administrative centre, and royal seat as well as centre of distribution. The location of the city and its access to resources needs to be considered.
A discussion on international trade networks will highlight the roles and functions of Egyptian capitals of the period and their Middle Eastern equivalents.

Bibliography:

Baines, J. and N. Yoffee 1998. Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. In Archaic States, edited by G. Feinman and J. Marcus, pp. 199-260. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

Bietak, M. 1975. Tell el-Dab‘a II, Der Fundort im Rahmen einer archäologisch-geographischen Untersuchung über das ägyptische Ostdelta, Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes; Band 1, Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie; Band 4, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Bietak, M. 1979. Urban Archaeology and the "Town Problem". In Weeks, K. (ed.) Egyptology and the Social Sciences. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 95-144.

Bietak, M. 1981. Avaris and Piramesse: Archaeological Exploration in the Eastern Nile Delta. [Mortimer Wheeler Archaeological Lecture 1979] Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bietak, M. 1984. Ramsesstadt, In Lexikon der Ägyptologie V, Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 128-46.

Bourriau, J.D., Phillips, J. (eds.) 2004. Invention and Innovation – The Social Context of Technological Change 2. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Dorner, J. 1983. Archäologischer Survey in der Umgebung von Tell el-Dab'a, Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Instituts. Beiblatt 54 (Grabungen 1982), Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 20-21.

Dorner, J. 1999. Die Topographie von Piramesse, Ägypten und Levante IX, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 77-83.

Friedman, F.D. (ed.) 1998. Gifts of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian faience. London: Thames and Hudson, c1998.

de Garis Davies, N. 1943. The Tomb of Rekh-mi-Re at Thebes. Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition 11. New York: Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition.

Habachi, L. 2001. Tell el-Dab’a I: Tell el-Dab’a and Qantir, the site and ist connection with Avaris and Piramese; aus dem Nachlass herausgegeben von Eva-Maria Engel, Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes; Band 2, Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie; Band 23, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Hassan, F. 1993. Town and Village in Ancient Egypt: Ecology, Society and Urbanization. In Shaw, T., Sinclair, P., Andah, B. and Okpoko, A. (eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge, 551- 586.

Hayes, W. 1937. Glazed Tiles from a Palace of Ramesses II. at Kantir, Metropolitan Museum of Art Papers; No. 3. New York: Ayer Company Publishers.

Hein, I., Janosi, P. 2004. Tell el-Dab’a XI: Areal A/V: Siedlungsrelikte der spaten Hyksoszeit,
Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes; Band 25, Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie; Band 21, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

Hodgkinson, A. 2007. The Final Phase of Per-Ramesses: The History of the
City in the Light of its Natural Environment. In Cannata, M. (ed.) Current Research in Egyptology VII: Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Symposium. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 99-115.

Kemp, B. 1977. The City of el-Amarna as a Source for the Study of Urban Society in Ancient Egypt. World Archaeology 9, London: Routledge. 124-139.

Kemp, B. 1989. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. London: Routledge.

Lacovara, P. 1997. The New Kingdom Royal City, Studies in Egyptology, London: Kegan Paul International.

Nicholson, Paul 2007. Brilliant Things for Akhenaten: The Production of Glass, Vitreous Materials and Pottery at Amarna, Site O45.1. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

O'Connor, D. 1993. Urbanism in Bronze Age Egypt and Northeast Africa. In Shaw, T., Sinclair, P., Andah, B. and Okpoko, A. (eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge, 570-586.

Patch, D. 1991. The Origin and Early Development of Urbanism in Ancient Egypt: A Regional Study. PhD Thesis, University of Pennsylvannia.

Pusch, E. 1994. Divergierende Verfahren der Metallverarbeitung in Theben und Qantir? Bemerkungen zur Konstruktion und Technik. Ägypten und Levante IV, 145-170.

Rehren, T. and Pusch, E. 1997. “New Kingdom Glass-Melting Crucibles from Qantir-Piramesses”, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 83, London: Egypt Exploration Society, 127-142.

Shaw, T., Sinclair, P., Andah, B. and Okpoko, A. (eds.) 1993. The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge

Pusch, E. B., Becker, H., Fassbinder, J. 1999. Wohnen und Leben. Oder: Weitere Schritte zu einem Stadtplan der Ramsesstadt, Ägypten und Levante IX, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 155-170.

Pusch, E. and Rehren, T. expected 2008. Hochtemperaturechnologie in der Ramses-Stadt. Rubinglas für den Pharao. Forschungen in der Ramses-Stadt 6, Mainz: von Zabern.

Uphill, E. P. 1968. Pithom and Raamses: Their Location and Significance, in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 27, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 291-316.

Uphill, E. P. 1984. The Temples of Per Ramesses, Warminster: Aris & Phillips.

Uphill, E. P. 1988. Egyptian Towns and Cities. Shire Egyptology 8, Princes Risborough: Shire Publications.
Saldern, A.; von Oppenheim, A.L. et al 1970. Glass and Glassmaking in Ancient Mesopotamia, Corning, Corning Museum of Glass.

Shaw, I. and Nicholson, P. (eds.) 2000. Ancient Egyptian materials and technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shortland, A.J. and Tite, M.S. 2005. A technological study of Ptolemaic – early roman faience from Memphis, Egypt, Archaeometry 47/1, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 31–46.

Trigger, B. 1972. Determinations of Urban Growth in Pre-industrial Societies. In Ucko, P., Tringham, R. and Dimbleby, G. (eds.) Man, Settlement and Urbanism. London: Duckworth, 575-599.

Trigger, B. 1985. The Evolution of Pre-industrial Cities: A Multilinear Perspective. In Geus, F. and Thill, F. (eds.) Mélanges offerts à Jean Vercoutter. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 343-353.

Van den Brink, E. (ed.) 1988. The Archaeology of the Nile Delta: Problems and Priorities. Amsterdam: Netherlands Foundation for Archaeological Research in Egypt/Uitgeverij.

Wengrow, D. 2006. The archaeology of early Egypt: Social Transformations in North-East Africa, 10,000 to 2650 BC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Yoffee, N. 2005. Myths of the Archaic State: The evolution of the earliest cities, states, and civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


This is only an excerpt produced for an online-application which requires a resumee of the whole thing. I am not yet courageous enough to publish my name here. Thus I suggest leaving a comment in case anybody is interested in my research/co-operation/exchange of information etc. Many thanks!

Egyptian Archaeology

...is my thing, as I might have previously mentioned.
Have excavated on one urban site in Egypt (not telling which) and have come to understand the importance of cities in Ancient Egypt. My concentration lies on the New Kingdom and its so-called capital cities and urban centres.

I feel the necessity to look into the development of the so-called Egyptian capital cities from the time of their foundation to their decrease in importance throughout the New Kingdom, and, where applicable, before and after.

My focus will be the cities of Piramesses and Amarna, due to the amount of recent work undertaken there and discoveries especially in the realm of industrial archaeology - extensive workshops of mass-producing character have been discovered within the last 20 years. These range from pottery over metal and glass production to the making of faience and lesser goods.

In my opinion the evaluation of workshops and other industrial evidence is a valid starting point for the discussion of New Kingdom capital cities, their development and status and their roles and functionality within the country.

From here, one can also establish national networks and international trade routes of goods coming from these capitals, linking the ancient world at the time of the New Kingdom.

I shall be adding to this in time to come.