Position:

Researcher in World Archaeology, Pitt Rivers Museum

Faculty / College Address:

Pitt Rivers Museum

Email:

alice.stevenson@prm.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests:

• Neolithic–Bronze Age Northeast African archaeology
• Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt and Nubia
• Funerary archaeology
• Social and disciplinary history of archaeology and anthropology
• Museum collections and archives

The primary sources for my research have always been museum collections and archives related to early excavations. Utilizing these resources I have explored a range of themes in prehistoric archaeology including burial rituals, social identities, long-distance exchange and material engagement. These collections and archives have also formed departure points for my related interest in the history of archaeology and anthropology. These two areas of research inform each other and I am interested in taking a comparative and historically informed approach to my writing and analysis.

Current Projects:

I am currently involved in a range of research projects focused upon the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum and on the distribution of archaeological finds from British excavations in Egypt to museums across the world in the period between 1880–1915. I am additionally undertaking research into a series of 4^th millennium BC Nubian A-Group sites uncovered during the 20^th century rescue campaigns that have remained largely unpublished since their excavation.  Collaborative ventures that I am involved in include a radiocarbon dating project entitled A New chronology for the Formation of the Egyptian State, which is funded by the Leverhulme Trust (http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/embed.php?File=egypt2.html). I am also a Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society (www.ees.ac.uk).

Courses Taught:

• Introduction to World Archaeology
• Egyptian Civilization and History
• Landscape and Ecology
• Mesopotamia and Egypt from Complex Society to 2000 BC
• Material Culture and Museum Ethnography
• Urbanisation and Change in Complex Societies
• Egyptian Foreign Relations

Recent Publications:

Books:

• 2009. The Predynastic Egyptian Cemetery of el-Gerzeh: social identities and mortuary practices. Leuven: Peeters Publishers (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 186).

Edited Volumes:

• with Hicks, D. forthcoming. The Museum as Field Site: Characterizing the Archaeology Collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum. Oxford: Archeopress.
• with Ohinata, F. and Coote, J. forthcoming. Catalogue of the Prehistoric Japanese Collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
• with Mairs. R. 2007. Current Research in Egyptology 2005. Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Symposium. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Articles and Book Chapters:

• in prep. Artefacts of excavation: the collection and distribution of Egyptian finds to museums
• in prep. The object of study: Egyptology and anthropology at the University of Oxford, 1860–1960. In Carruthers, W. (ed.) Histories of Egyptology: interdisciplinary measures. London: Routledge.
• in prep. Predynastic Egypt. In Insoll, T. (ed). The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• forthcoming. Locating a sense of immortality in early Egyptian cemeteries. In Renfrew, C., Boyd, M. and Morley, I. (eds) Death Has No Dominion: the archaeology of mortality and immortality. Cambridge.
• forthcoming. Egypt and Sudan: the Mesolithic to Early Dynastic Period. In Hicks, D. and Stevenson, A. (eds) The Museum as Field Site: Characterizing the World Archaeology Collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum. Oxford: Archeopress. [also co-author of chapters on Japan, Mesoamerica, and the Middle East]
• forthcoming. Predynastic burial rituals: citations and transformations. In Dann, R. and Exell, K. (eds.) Approaching Ancient Egypt. Ancient Histories and Modern Archaeologies. New York: Cambria Press.
• forthcoming. ‘Labelling and cataloguing at every available moment’: W.S. Blackman’s collection of Egyptian amulets. Journal of Museum Ethnography 26.
• in press. Egypt and Mesopotamia. In Crawford, H. (ed.) The Sumerian World, 618–634. London: Routledge.
• in press. The A-Group cemetery at Tunqala West. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 98.
• in press. Social complexity set in stone? The A-Group site of Afyeh. Sudan and Nubia 16.
• 2012 ‘We seem to be working in the same line’: A.H.L.F Pitt-Rivers and W.M. Flinders Petrie. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 22(1), 4–13.
• 2012 An amateur’s prehistory: a view from James A. Swan’s South African collections. South African Archaeological Bulletin 67(195): 52–58.
• 2011 ‘Yours (unusually) cheerfully, Gordon’: R.B.K. Stevenson’s letters from Gordon Childe. Antiquity 85, 1454–1462.
• 2011. The Lucy Gura Archive: the A-Group cemetery at Tunqala West. Egypt Exploration Society Newsletter 2, 3.
• 2011. Predynastic material culture. In Teeter, E. (ed.) Before the Pyramids: essays on earliest Egypt. 65–74. Chicago: Oriental Institute Museum Publications [also author of several catalogue entries].
• 2011. Pitt-Rivers and Egypt. In Petch, A. (ed.) Re-thinking Pitt-Rivers: analysing the activities of a 19^th-century collector. Pitt Rivers Museum: Oxford. http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/rpr/index.php/article-index/12-articles/495-pitt-rivers-and-egypt
• 2010. Ancient Egypt in the Pitt Rivers Museum. Egyptian Archaeology 37, 41–44.
• 2009. Social relationships in Predynastic burials. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 95, 175–192.
• 2009. Predynastic burials. In Wendrich, W. (ed.) UCLA Encyclopaedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2m3463b2
• 2009. The Predynastic cemeteries of Abydos. Egyptian Archaeology 34, 25–26.
• 2009. Palette. In Wendrich, W. (ed.) UCLA Encyclopaedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles http://repositories.cdlib.org/nelc/uee/1069.
• 2008. Ethnicity and migration? The Predynastic cemetery of el-Gerzeh. In Midant-Reynes, B., Tristant, Y., Rowland, J. and Hendrickx, S. (eds.) Origins 2: proceedings of the second international conference on Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt, Toulouse, France  September 2005. 543–560. Leuven: Peeters Publishers (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 172).
• 2008. Mace. In Wendrich, W. (ed.) UCLA Encyclopaedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles. http://repositories.cdlib.org/nelc/uee/1070.
• 2008. 2. Museum collections in England and Wales. In Keene, S. (ed.) Collections for People: museums’ stored collections as a public resource. 13–19. London: Institute of Archaeology UCL.
• 2008. 6. Collections and their uses. In Keene, S. Collections for People: museums’ stored collections as a public resource.  49–55. London: Institute of Archaeology, UCL.
• with Keene, S. 2008. Introduction: Context and Research. In Keene, S. (ed.) Collections for People: museums’ stored collections as a public resource. 11–12. London: Institute of Archaeology UCL.
• with Holloway, J. 2008. Leading theory through student publication? The history of the ARC. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 23(1), 9–24.
• 2007. The aesthetics of Predynastic Egyptian burial: funerary performances in the 4th millennium BC. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 22(1), 75–91.
• 2007. Introduction: the materiality of burial practices. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 22(1), 1–5.
• 2007. The material significance of Predynastic and Early Dynastic palettes. In Mairs, R. and Stevenson, A. (eds.) Current Research in Egyptology 2005. Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Symposium. 148–162. Oxford; Oxbow Books.