The Unfinished Obelisk in the Aswan quarries was a failure as a monument, but provides valuable information on stone quarrying and obelisk carving.
Author: hannahpethen
Having completed my PhD in archaeology at the University of Liverpool, I am now a freelance archaeologists working with landscape and topographic survey and satellite imagery. I specialise in GIS, GPS, desk-based assessment and landscape projects and have a particular interest in Egyptian archaeology.
Does the Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill matter for archaeology outside the UK?
Changes to UK legislation will have a negative effect on attitudes to and protection of archaeology overseas?
The cairns of the red mountain: Cairns and comparative anthropology
Cairns are a common enough feature of the Egyptian landscape, but one I find fascinating. They are apparently ordinary and innocuous, are easy to build and hard to date, and have recently been subject to the serious archaeological research they deserve (Riemer 2013). So I was intrigued to meet some very familiar looking cairns while …
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Fakes and conspiracy theories: A cautionary tale for users of facebook archaeology pages.
This post is dedicated to all the hard-working volunteer admins who monitor facebook pages and online forums. The experiences I detail below emphasise how important your hard work is, so thank you. The internet is a marvelous thing for archaeology. Most people would agree, certainly anyone who's had to track down an awkward journal article …
Surveying in the Mansion of Gold; The Hatnub travertine (Egyptian Alabaster) quarries near Minya
The Hatnub travertine quarries comprise an area of the Eastern desert of Egypt, roughly 17km south-east of the famous site of Amarna. Since 2012 a joint mission from the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale and the University of Liverpool have been working in the largest quarry, Quarry P (below, looking west). The primary aim of the Hatnub …
When diorite is gneiss; Products of the Gebel el-Asr quarries
Gebel el-Asr does not appear to be a typical Egyptian archaeological site. There are no pyramids (not even small mudbrick ones), no temples and no large structures. You could easily drive past it without noticing, but you will certainly have seen its products in museums and on television programmes. Gebel el-Asr is the only quarry …
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Gebel el-Asr quarries: Discovery and excavation
The Gebel el-Asr quarry is an almost invisible site in the south-west of Egypt, located some 65km north-west of Abu Simbel. It is also known as Chephren's Quarry and Chephren Diorite Quarry after the famous statue of Khafre, which is now in the Cairo Museum and was carved from stone quarried at the site. This …
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Scribe in the House of Life: Hannah Pethen Ph.D. 