Who we are

The project is led by Dr. Anna K. Hodgkinson (Institute of Egyptology, Freie Universität Berlin) and Dr. Frederik W. Rademakers (Department of Scientific Research, British Museum), with postdoctoral researcher Dr. Stephanie L.
Boonstra also based at Freie Universität Berlin. It is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Arts
and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

How do we work

This research combines fieldwork and scientific analysis to reconsider archaeological evidence. Focusing on broader pro-duction networks (réseaux opératoires) rather than individual material production chains (chaînes opératoires), it explores the extent of entanglement between different high-temperature technologies. By examining the flow of materials and people between different crafts, this project aims to fundamentally reshape our understanding of ancient societies.

Our key research questions

This project focuses primarily on the site of Amarna (ancient Akhetaten, Middle Egypt, 18th Dynasty, c. 1353–1336 BC),
which provides extensive evidence for different high-temperature crafts. It seeks to address three fundamental research questions:
• Can cross-craft interaction better explain New Kingdom
technologies?
• How were high-temperature crafts organised at Amarna?
• To what extent was craft organisation at Amarna different
from earlier and later New Kingdom sites?

Next steps

Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines archaeological fieldwork and scientific analysis of production remains
and finished objects, this project aims to assess craft entanglement and technological exchange along the Nile and the wider Mediterranean world. We aim to virtually reunite archaeological assemblages from Amarna that were dispersed between museum institutions at the turn of the 20th century, including those in the British Museum and the Egyptian Museum, Berlin, and to develop new interdisciplinary tools to analyse ancient Egyptian materials and high-temperature workshop contexts.