Natasha Ayers | Austrian Academy of Sciences (original) (raw)
Papers by Natasha Ayers
Vanessa Davies (ed.), The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Naga ed-Deir, Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500, 2020
Christine Lilyquist, Excavations at Thebes: The Earl of Carnarvon and the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Carnarvon 62 and Surrounds. With contributions by Natasha Ayers, Marcel Marée, Daphna Ben-Tor, Deborah Schorsch, Fredrik Hagen, Rachel Sparks, Malte Römer, and Salima Ikram. Digital publication, 2020
I contributed two essays and corresponding databases for the pottery from Carnarvon 62. Download ... more I contributed two essays and corresponding databases for the pottery from Carnarvon 62. Download the complete digital publication: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/individual-scholarship/individual-scholarship-christine-lilyquist
"Excavation at Thebes is a digital site report on work undertaken by the Earl of Carnarvon and The Metropolitan Museum of Art at Thebes from 1911 to 1916. Below Ptolemaic, Late Period, Ramesside, and Hatshepsut-era remains was a large Middle Kingdom court tomb, Carnarvon 62. According to finds and conditions, that tomb was cut at the end of Dynasty 11 or beginning of Dynasty 12 (ca. 2000 B.C.) and used into Dynasty 13. Following a period of abandonment, it was then heavily reused from the late Second Intermediate Period into the joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, whereupon the site was sealed (ca 1470 B.C.). Both early and late architecture and finds introduce philological and archaeological information. Much of the material from the period of reuse was intact and is especially relevant for colleagues working in the late Middle Kingdom-early Dynasty 18 period, a formative period at Thebes. Specialists contribute essays and information for catalogues. The history of early 20th century excavation in Egypt is touched upon."
Christine Lilyquist, Excavations at Thebes: The Earl of Carnarvon and the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Carnarvon 62 and Surrounds. With contributions by Natasha Ayers, Marcel Marée, Daphna Ben-Tor, Deborah Schorsch, Fredrik Hagen, Rachel Sparks, Malte Römer, and Salima Ikram. Digital publication, 2020
I contributed two essays and corresponding databases for the pottery from Carnarvon 62. Download ... more I contributed two essays and corresponding databases for the pottery from Carnarvon 62. Download the complete digital publication: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/individual-scholarship/individual-scholarship-christine-lilyquist
"Excavation at Thebes is a digital site report on work undertaken by the Earl of Carnarvon and The Metropolitan Museum of Art at Thebes from 1911 to 1916. Below Ptolemaic, Late Period, Ramesside, and Hatshepsut-era remains was a large Middle Kingdom court tomb, Carnarvon 62. According to finds and conditions, that tomb was cut at the end of Dynasty 11 or beginning of Dynasty 12 (ca. 2000 B.C.) and used into Dynasty 13. Following a period of abandonment, it was then heavily reused from the late Second Intermediate Period into the joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, whereupon the site was sealed (ca 1470 B.C.). Both early and late architecture and finds introduce philological and archaeological information. Much of the material from the period of reuse was intact and is especially relevant for colleagues working in the late Middle Kingdom-early Dynasty 18 period, a formative period at Thebes. Specialists contribute essays and information for catalogues. The history of early 20th century excavation in Egypt is touched upon."
The Hyksos Ruler Khyan and the Early Second Intermediate Period in Egypt: Problems and Priorities of Current Research. Proceedings of the Workshop of the Austrian Archaeological Institute and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Vienna, July 4 – 5, 2014, 2018
Vienna II - Ancient Egyptian Ceramics in the 21st Century: Proceedings of the International Conference held at the University of Vienna, 14th-18th of May 2012, 2016
Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, 22-29 May 2008, 2015
Nubian Pottery from Egyptian Cultural Contexts of the Middle Kingdom and Early New Kingdom. Proceedings of a Workshop held at the Austrian Archaeological Insitute at Cario, 11-12 December 2010, 2012
Ägypten und Levante XXI (2011), 2011
Books, Edited Books, and Edited Journal Sections by Natasha Ayers
by Barbara Horejs, Christoph Schwall, Roman Gundacker, Felix Höflmayer, Bettina Bader, Uroš Matić, Natasha Ayers, Reinhard Jung, Birgitta Eder, Mario Gavranovic, Michael brandl, Clare Burke, and Michaela Zavadil
8 Years of OREA, Annual Report, 2020
This special issue of the annual report includes an overview of the 8-year history of the Institu... more This special issue of the annual report includes an overview of the 8-year history of the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences with research highlights from the Palaeolithic to the early Iron Age. The research results and reports from the year 2020 are summarizing outreach activities, excavations, surveys, analyses, material studies and current publications from all groups and labs working in 17 countries. All publications of 8 years OREA institute are additionally listed at the end of the report.
by Barbara Horejs, Christoph Schwall, Bogdana Milic, Dominik Bochatz, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Roman Gundacker, Felix Höflmayer, Annik Wüthrich, Bettina Bader, Natasha Ayers, Aaron de Souza, David Aston, Reinhard Jung, Teresa Bürge, Laura Burkhardt, Jasmin Huber, Elina Kardamaki, Mario Gavranovic, Benedikt Biederer, Julia Budka, and Holger Kockelmann
OREA Annual Report, 2019
Research results and reports from the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the Aust... more Research results and reports from the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences of the year 2019 including outreach activities, excavations, surveys, analyses, material studies and current publications from all research groups and labs working in 17 countries.
OREA Annual Report, 2019
This report covers the activities of the research group Material culture in Egypt and Nubia in 2019.
Talks by Natasha Ayers
(e-lecture, YouTube link: https://youtu.be/-YlbmfD-nYU) While excavating the large Early Dynastic... more (e-lecture, YouTube link: https://youtu.be/-YlbmfD-nYU)
While excavating the large Early Dynastic mastaba tombs at Saqqara, Egypt in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Walter B. Emery uncovered a number of intrusive New Kingdom burials with a complex combination of material culture and burial practices traditionally interpreted as signifiers of distinct cultural groups. Modes of burial documented by excavation records and photographs show some persons buried in coffins and others, more surprisingly, on so-called “Nubian style” wooden beds.
So far, only one of the Saqqara burials has received much attention from scholars, due to that assemblage containing a rare faience rhyton of Minoan shape, a Cypriot Base Ring I jug, Egyptian pottery, and Nubian or “Nubian style” pottery. The scholarly disagreement over the date of this burial, as well as the overly simplistic cultural historical description of many of these burials as Nubian soldiers by Emery, demonstrates a fresh appraisal of the Saqqara intrusive burials with a material culture theory perspective is overdue.
A larger aim of this project is to elucidate the socio-cultural sphere and possible processes that resulted in the complexity in material expression and practice documented at Saqqara, without imposing a rigid paradigm or label to this community and their active burial choices. This lecture will present preliminary observations on several specific burials, in addition to the character of the intrusive burials as a group, based on original excavation documentation used in combination with recent study (2019-2020) of the objects now held in U.K. museums.
The recent discoveries at the settlement of Tell Edfu, especially the discovery of sealings ... more The recent discoveries at the settlement of Tell Edfu, especially the discovery of sealings of Sobekhotep IV and the Hyksos ruler Khayan in the same layers, have generated a new discussion about the chronology of the Second Intermediate Period. The previous assumption that these sealings belong to a late Second Intermediate Period context cannot be supported when these sealings are considered alongside the pottery found within the stratified and sealed archaeological layers. Any discussion of these intriguing sealings from Tell Edfu must not divorce them from their archaeological context.
This paper will present the early Second Intermediate Period pottery within the context of the continuous occupation and changing function of this area of Tell Edfu. An overview of the ceramic assemblages will begin with the 12th Dynasty pottery from the founding of the administrative building complex and end with the late Second Intermediate Period – early18th Dynasty pottery that fills the huge silos of the abandoned granary courtyard. Both the Egyptian pottery and the imported wares will be presented and discussed. Considering the archaeological context in conjunction with the associated ceramic assemblages will show the implausibility of dating the Khayan sealings to the late Second Intermediate Period. I will argue that the study of the Tell Edfu pottery supports the necessity of further discussion and re-evaluation of the chronology of the Second Intermediate Period.
Recent conference lectures and publications about the Tell Edfu excavations (Oriental Instit... more Recent conference lectures and publications about the Tell Edfu excavations (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) have focused primarily on the administrative building complex in use from the first half of the 12th Dynasty into the early Second Intermediate Period, as evidenced by sealings bearing the cartouches of Sobekhotep IV and the Hyksos ruler Khayan. But what happened after the abandonment of this administrative complex? The function of this area changed and an extensive silo courtyard was constructed in the late Second Intermediate Period. Once the silos ceased to be used, they were filled with large quantities of pottery deposited at different intervals from the late Second Intermediate Period through the early 18th Dynasty. This is a challenging period for ceramic studies, as evidenced by pottery from many tombs and settlements being assigned the broad datation of late Second Intermediate Period to Tuthmosis III, which encompasses a period of about 100 years. During the 2012 excavation at Tell Edfu, I focused on analysis of the pottery from the late Second Intermediate Period through the early 18th Dynasty. The corpus includes Egyptian and Nubian pottery, as well as imported wares (predominantly Canaanite amphorae).
This paper will present preliminary results of the ceramic analysis and the chronological phases evident at Tell Edfu during this complicated and crucial period for ceramic studies, based on both the local pottery and the accompanying imported wares.
One of the many issues concerning the Second Intermediate Period is the difficulty in identifying... more One of the many issues concerning the Second Intermediate Period is the difficulty in identifying the early Second Intermediate Period archaeologically outside of Tell el-Dab’a. Recent excavations at the settlement of Tell Edfu have revealed continuous occupation from the late Middle Kingdom through early Dynasty 18, into the reign of Hatshepsut/Thutmose III. A large administrative complex of the late Middle Kingdom has been excavated with more than one thousand discarded clay sealings and much pottery found covering the thick mud floors. This administrative complex fell out of use during the early Second Intermediate Period and small areas of domestic activity briefly appeared before the entire area was covered by the construction of a huge silo courtyard that held the grain reserve of the town during Dynasty 17. The corresponding ceramic sequence to this fine stratigraphy provides an opportunity to define the transition from the the late Middle Kingdom tradition to the early Second Intermediate Period tradition, as well as study the characteristics of the settlement pottery in Upper Egypt. This paper will offer preliminary results of the pottery analysis from the well-excavated and secure archaeological contexts at Tell Edfu which provide new data for the discussion of the early Second Intermediate Period.
During the recent excavations at Tell Edfu, a large quantity of Nubian pottery has been discovere... more During the recent excavations at Tell Edfu, a large quantity of Nubian pottery has been discovered in late Middle Kingdom through early Dynasty 18 settlement contexts. This material includes a variety of shapes and decorative motifs from different Nubian traditions, as well as different manufacturing processes. What is the significance of this material in terms of a possible Nubian presence at the settlement? With many, as yet, unanswered questions about Nubian pottery, the material from Tell Edfu provides new insight into research concerning these various traditions and possible Nubian-Egyptian relations in the capital of the 2nd Upper Egyptian nome. The Nubian corpus will be presented within the chronological framework of the Egyptian pottery, discovered in secure archaeological contexts, which provides an opportunity to refine the dating of Second Intermediate Period and early Dynasty 18 pottery, and thereby the Nubian pottery.
Vanessa Davies (ed.), The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Naga ed-Deir, Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500, 2020
Christine Lilyquist, Excavations at Thebes: The Earl of Carnarvon and the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Carnarvon 62 and Surrounds. With contributions by Natasha Ayers, Marcel Marée, Daphna Ben-Tor, Deborah Schorsch, Fredrik Hagen, Rachel Sparks, Malte Römer, and Salima Ikram. Digital publication, 2020
I contributed two essays and corresponding databases for the pottery from Carnarvon 62. Download ... more I contributed two essays and corresponding databases for the pottery from Carnarvon 62. Download the complete digital publication: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/individual-scholarship/individual-scholarship-christine-lilyquist
"Excavation at Thebes is a digital site report on work undertaken by the Earl of Carnarvon and The Metropolitan Museum of Art at Thebes from 1911 to 1916. Below Ptolemaic, Late Period, Ramesside, and Hatshepsut-era remains was a large Middle Kingdom court tomb, Carnarvon 62. According to finds and conditions, that tomb was cut at the end of Dynasty 11 or beginning of Dynasty 12 (ca. 2000 B.C.) and used into Dynasty 13. Following a period of abandonment, it was then heavily reused from the late Second Intermediate Period into the joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, whereupon the site was sealed (ca 1470 B.C.). Both early and late architecture and finds introduce philological and archaeological information. Much of the material from the period of reuse was intact and is especially relevant for colleagues working in the late Middle Kingdom-early Dynasty 18 period, a formative period at Thebes. Specialists contribute essays and information for catalogues. The history of early 20th century excavation in Egypt is touched upon."
Christine Lilyquist, Excavations at Thebes: The Earl of Carnarvon and the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Carnarvon 62 and Surrounds. With contributions by Natasha Ayers, Marcel Marée, Daphna Ben-Tor, Deborah Schorsch, Fredrik Hagen, Rachel Sparks, Malte Römer, and Salima Ikram. Digital publication, 2020
I contributed two essays and corresponding databases for the pottery from Carnarvon 62. Download ... more I contributed two essays and corresponding databases for the pottery from Carnarvon 62. Download the complete digital publication: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/individual-scholarship/individual-scholarship-christine-lilyquist
"Excavation at Thebes is a digital site report on work undertaken by the Earl of Carnarvon and The Metropolitan Museum of Art at Thebes from 1911 to 1916. Below Ptolemaic, Late Period, Ramesside, and Hatshepsut-era remains was a large Middle Kingdom court tomb, Carnarvon 62. According to finds and conditions, that tomb was cut at the end of Dynasty 11 or beginning of Dynasty 12 (ca. 2000 B.C.) and used into Dynasty 13. Following a period of abandonment, it was then heavily reused from the late Second Intermediate Period into the joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, whereupon the site was sealed (ca 1470 B.C.). Both early and late architecture and finds introduce philological and archaeological information. Much of the material from the period of reuse was intact and is especially relevant for colleagues working in the late Middle Kingdom-early Dynasty 18 period, a formative period at Thebes. Specialists contribute essays and information for catalogues. The history of early 20th century excavation in Egypt is touched upon."
The Hyksos Ruler Khyan and the Early Second Intermediate Period in Egypt: Problems and Priorities of Current Research. Proceedings of the Workshop of the Austrian Archaeological Institute and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Vienna, July 4 – 5, 2014, 2018
Vienna II - Ancient Egyptian Ceramics in the 21st Century: Proceedings of the International Conference held at the University of Vienna, 14th-18th of May 2012, 2016
Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, 22-29 May 2008, 2015
Nubian Pottery from Egyptian Cultural Contexts of the Middle Kingdom and Early New Kingdom. Proceedings of a Workshop held at the Austrian Archaeological Insitute at Cario, 11-12 December 2010, 2012
Ägypten und Levante XXI (2011), 2011
by Barbara Horejs, Christoph Schwall, Roman Gundacker, Felix Höflmayer, Bettina Bader, Uroš Matić, Natasha Ayers, Reinhard Jung, Birgitta Eder, Mario Gavranovic, Michael brandl, Clare Burke, and Michaela Zavadil
8 Years of OREA, Annual Report, 2020
This special issue of the annual report includes an overview of the 8-year history of the Institu... more This special issue of the annual report includes an overview of the 8-year history of the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences with research highlights from the Palaeolithic to the early Iron Age. The research results and reports from the year 2020 are summarizing outreach activities, excavations, surveys, analyses, material studies and current publications from all groups and labs working in 17 countries. All publications of 8 years OREA institute are additionally listed at the end of the report.
by Barbara Horejs, Christoph Schwall, Bogdana Milic, Dominik Bochatz, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Roman Gundacker, Felix Höflmayer, Annik Wüthrich, Bettina Bader, Natasha Ayers, Aaron de Souza, David Aston, Reinhard Jung, Teresa Bürge, Laura Burkhardt, Jasmin Huber, Elina Kardamaki, Mario Gavranovic, Benedikt Biederer, Julia Budka, and Holger Kockelmann
OREA Annual Report, 2019
Research results and reports from the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the Aust... more Research results and reports from the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences of the year 2019 including outreach activities, excavations, surveys, analyses, material studies and current publications from all research groups and labs working in 17 countries.
OREA Annual Report, 2019
This report covers the activities of the research group Material culture in Egypt and Nubia in 2019.
(e-lecture, YouTube link: https://youtu.be/-YlbmfD-nYU) While excavating the large Early Dynastic... more (e-lecture, YouTube link: https://youtu.be/-YlbmfD-nYU)
While excavating the large Early Dynastic mastaba tombs at Saqqara, Egypt in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Walter B. Emery uncovered a number of intrusive New Kingdom burials with a complex combination of material culture and burial practices traditionally interpreted as signifiers of distinct cultural groups. Modes of burial documented by excavation records and photographs show some persons buried in coffins and others, more surprisingly, on so-called “Nubian style” wooden beds.
So far, only one of the Saqqara burials has received much attention from scholars, due to that assemblage containing a rare faience rhyton of Minoan shape, a Cypriot Base Ring I jug, Egyptian pottery, and Nubian or “Nubian style” pottery. The scholarly disagreement over the date of this burial, as well as the overly simplistic cultural historical description of many of these burials as Nubian soldiers by Emery, demonstrates a fresh appraisal of the Saqqara intrusive burials with a material culture theory perspective is overdue.
A larger aim of this project is to elucidate the socio-cultural sphere and possible processes that resulted in the complexity in material expression and practice documented at Saqqara, without imposing a rigid paradigm or label to this community and their active burial choices. This lecture will present preliminary observations on several specific burials, in addition to the character of the intrusive burials as a group, based on original excavation documentation used in combination with recent study (2019-2020) of the objects now held in U.K. museums.
The recent discoveries at the settlement of Tell Edfu, especially the discovery of sealings ... more The recent discoveries at the settlement of Tell Edfu, especially the discovery of sealings of Sobekhotep IV and the Hyksos ruler Khayan in the same layers, have generated a new discussion about the chronology of the Second Intermediate Period. The previous assumption that these sealings belong to a late Second Intermediate Period context cannot be supported when these sealings are considered alongside the pottery found within the stratified and sealed archaeological layers. Any discussion of these intriguing sealings from Tell Edfu must not divorce them from their archaeological context.
This paper will present the early Second Intermediate Period pottery within the context of the continuous occupation and changing function of this area of Tell Edfu. An overview of the ceramic assemblages will begin with the 12th Dynasty pottery from the founding of the administrative building complex and end with the late Second Intermediate Period – early18th Dynasty pottery that fills the huge silos of the abandoned granary courtyard. Both the Egyptian pottery and the imported wares will be presented and discussed. Considering the archaeological context in conjunction with the associated ceramic assemblages will show the implausibility of dating the Khayan sealings to the late Second Intermediate Period. I will argue that the study of the Tell Edfu pottery supports the necessity of further discussion and re-evaluation of the chronology of the Second Intermediate Period.
Recent conference lectures and publications about the Tell Edfu excavations (Oriental Instit... more Recent conference lectures and publications about the Tell Edfu excavations (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) have focused primarily on the administrative building complex in use from the first half of the 12th Dynasty into the early Second Intermediate Period, as evidenced by sealings bearing the cartouches of Sobekhotep IV and the Hyksos ruler Khayan. But what happened after the abandonment of this administrative complex? The function of this area changed and an extensive silo courtyard was constructed in the late Second Intermediate Period. Once the silos ceased to be used, they were filled with large quantities of pottery deposited at different intervals from the late Second Intermediate Period through the early 18th Dynasty. This is a challenging period for ceramic studies, as evidenced by pottery from many tombs and settlements being assigned the broad datation of late Second Intermediate Period to Tuthmosis III, which encompasses a period of about 100 years. During the 2012 excavation at Tell Edfu, I focused on analysis of the pottery from the late Second Intermediate Period through the early 18th Dynasty. The corpus includes Egyptian and Nubian pottery, as well as imported wares (predominantly Canaanite amphorae).
This paper will present preliminary results of the ceramic analysis and the chronological phases evident at Tell Edfu during this complicated and crucial period for ceramic studies, based on both the local pottery and the accompanying imported wares.
One of the many issues concerning the Second Intermediate Period is the difficulty in identifying... more One of the many issues concerning the Second Intermediate Period is the difficulty in identifying the early Second Intermediate Period archaeologically outside of Tell el-Dab’a. Recent excavations at the settlement of Tell Edfu have revealed continuous occupation from the late Middle Kingdom through early Dynasty 18, into the reign of Hatshepsut/Thutmose III. A large administrative complex of the late Middle Kingdom has been excavated with more than one thousand discarded clay sealings and much pottery found covering the thick mud floors. This administrative complex fell out of use during the early Second Intermediate Period and small areas of domestic activity briefly appeared before the entire area was covered by the construction of a huge silo courtyard that held the grain reserve of the town during Dynasty 17. The corresponding ceramic sequence to this fine stratigraphy provides an opportunity to define the transition from the the late Middle Kingdom tradition to the early Second Intermediate Period tradition, as well as study the characteristics of the settlement pottery in Upper Egypt. This paper will offer preliminary results of the pottery analysis from the well-excavated and secure archaeological contexts at Tell Edfu which provide new data for the discussion of the early Second Intermediate Period.
During the recent excavations at Tell Edfu, a large quantity of Nubian pottery has been discovere... more During the recent excavations at Tell Edfu, a large quantity of Nubian pottery has been discovered in late Middle Kingdom through early Dynasty 18 settlement contexts. This material includes a variety of shapes and decorative motifs from different Nubian traditions, as well as different manufacturing processes. What is the significance of this material in terms of a possible Nubian presence at the settlement? With many, as yet, unanswered questions about Nubian pottery, the material from Tell Edfu provides new insight into research concerning these various traditions and possible Nubian-Egyptian relations in the capital of the 2nd Upper Egyptian nome. The Nubian corpus will be presented within the chronological framework of the Egyptian pottery, discovered in secure archaeological contexts, which provides an opportunity to refine the dating of Second Intermediate Period and early Dynasty 18 pottery, and thereby the Nubian pottery.