Using GPS to survey a mudbrick pyramid at Dra Abu el-Naga, Luxor.
Having completed my PhD in archaeology in 2015 I am currently Honorary Fellow at the University of Liverpool, researching the ancient Egyptian alabaster quarries at Hatnub, as part of the Hatnub Epigraphic Project, and the landscape of the ancient Greek site of Olynthos. My areas of interest include Egyptian religion, Egyptian settlements, mines and quarries, landscape archaeology, satellite imagery topographic and archaeological survey, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and GPS.
Before beginning my PhD I worked for 6 years in contract archaeology in the UK for Cambridge Country Council Archaeological Field Unit and Museum of London Archaeology Service (now Museum of London Archaeology) as an excavator and a Senior archaeologist undertaking desk-based assessments of archaeological sites and larger landscape projects funded by English Heritage. These included the Assessment of archaeological resource in aggregate areas on the Isle of Wight, which was completed in 2011 and is available from uk/archives/view/iofwaggs_eh_2011/” target=”_blank”>http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/iofwaggs_eh_2011/. This project involved the analysis of geological and archaeological data relating to areas suitable for commercial aggregate extraction on the island, the identification of areas of particular archaeological sensitivity and the strategies which could be used to mitigate these impacts.
My PhD research followed on from my MA dissertation on the Middle Kingdom ritual site at Stelae Ridge close to the carnelian mine of the same date in the Gebel el-Asr quarrying region near Abu Simbel in Egypt. I investigated the visual relationships between the cairns at Stelae Ridge and the surrounding landscape using GIS ‘viewshed analysis’to model visibility in the ancient landscape.
I have undertaken archaeological work in Egypt since 2006, at the New Kingdom settlement and Harem Palace at Gurob (www.gurob.org.uk), at the alabaster (travertine) quarry of Hatnub near Amarna, at Stelae Ridge, and at Dra Abu el-Naga in the West Bank necropolis at Luxor.
