Average Aussie Egyptologist

"The study of childhood in historical archaeology enriches interpretations of the past, but also has the potential for contributing to the understanding of methodological and theoretical issues in archaeology. Archaeologically, children are understudied relative to both their demographic and social importance, partly because children are viewed as difficult to discern in the archaeological record. Historical archaeology, with its access to historical documents to supplement and illuminate archaeological evidence, provides an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the ways children's daily lives in the past were expressed in historically changing types and patterns of material culture. Recent research presented in this volume contributes valuable perspectives for conceptualizing the historically changing social nature of childhood and methods for illuminating the roles of children. Case studies are designed to illustrate methodological and theoretical advances in the historical archaeology of materialized experiences, discourses, identities, places and their meanings associated with parenting and childhood.

The volume is organized into three sections devoted to case studies about 1) how childhood and parenting have been socially constructed cross culturally and temporally, 2) social ideologies of childhood in contested spaces, and 3) the relationship between children's experiences and adult expectations of childhood. Each chapter demonstrates advances in current methods or theories used in the archaeology of childhood. A final discussant, drawn from the broader field of research on the archaeology of childhood, provides a commentary on the ways the perspectives provided in the volume can be employed by researchers outside the sub-discipline of historical archaeology".

New Cambridge Element, Censorship of History by Antoon De Baets, out now! Read for free for the next 2 weeks at
https://cup.org/4fTJLAB

Congratulations to our director, Peter Der Manuelian, and Harvard archaeology professor Jason Ur on winning new Harvard funding for this ambitious project!

Their groundbreaking initiative—along with two colleagues—is transforming Harvard’s Giza Project The Giza Project at Harvard University into an active AI Innovation Hub, which will include revolutionary natural language processing of 6,500 pages of unique handwritten Arabic excavation diaries (1913-1947). By creating a "digital twin" of the Giza Pyramids and establishing ethical guidelines for AI reconstruction, this project is shaping the future of international AI research and development.

Read the full story below to see how they are turning an academic archive into a hub for global innovation:
https://tinyurl.com/FrontiersofInnovation

Read about all of the winners in the Gazette:
https://tinyurl.com/FrontiersInnovationGazette

We are delighted to share that the Tutankhamun Spatial Archive has been shortlisted as a finalist for the 2026 Digital Preservation Awards in the category of The National Archives (UK) Award for Safeguarding the Digital Legacy. (https://www.dpconline.org/events/digital-preservation-awards/the-finalists-award-for-safeguarding-the-digital-legacy)

Led by the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, and developed in collaboration with Agile Collective (https://agile.coop/), the Tutankhamun Spatial Archive reimagines one of the world's most important archaeological archives for the digital age. Through a new relational database structure, enhanced metadata, and improved search and discovery tools, the project connects photographs, object cards, diaries, plans, conservation records, and correspondence created during the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb.
The award recognises projects that apply digital preservation tools and principles to protect and sustain access to at-risk digital heritage. We are honoured to be recognised alongside the other outstanding finalists and look forward to meeting the judges in July.

Explore the archive: https://tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk/

A lecture about the Sheikh Muftiah culture at the Dakhla Oasis led by Nevin Wahid Soliman on 4 July 2026. Check time zone calculators to work out the time in your location.

SASA Master Class: Environmental Archaeology: Reconstructing Ancient Environments in Dakhla Oasis, Egypt | Save Ancient Studies Saturday, 4pm ET on July 4 Led by Nevin Wahid Soliman

Joint ARCE-ISAC lecture this Saturday, June 13, 5–6pm Central Time (live in Breasted Hall and available to stream over Zoom, but not recorded). Dr. Brian Muhs, Associate Professor of Egyptology at ISAC will give the lecture:
"Individuals, Households, Families, and the Law in Ancient Egypt." Most individuals in ancient Egypt lived as members of corporate households, though they might move from their birth household to another through marriage, adoption, or by founding a new household of their own. Each household was governed by a household head, whose authority was sanctioned by law and custom. Household heads controlled household revenues and allocated resources among household members, and could even arrange for succession to their headship and the distribution of their property after their own deaths. However, household heads could also be constrained by the expectations of and obligations to other household members and society, and by legal agreements with household members and outsiders. At the same time, individuals also belonged to families and kinship groups, by birth, marriage or adoption, which extended beyond their households, and which also played an important role in inheritance. This paper will explore how individuals, households, and families interacted with each other and with the law, especially in the New Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Periods.
Register here for Zoom attendance: https://bit.ly/ARCEISACMuhsZoom