Reliving past glories

OK OK… I know. This blog has sort of slipped by the wayside.

Again.

The time has come – as the Australians say – to “pull my finger out” and get things moving.

The weird thing is that I have so much to write about, but so much of it needs to be reserved for formal publication, and there is a lot that would be academically inappropriate / unethical to put on a public forum such as this. So, what to do?

One thing I’ve caught myself doing quite a bit while in “lockdown” is looking back through photos from research trips that I undertook over the past year or so, before COVID-19 – the “year BC”, if you will (Sorry, that was awful 😕). Many of us had travel plans that had to be cancelled. Research opportunities were quashed, dream holidays were smashed to pieces, and so I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the experiences that I’ve had to have seen the things that I’ve seen.

And then it hit me. I had intended to (but obviously didn’t!) write blog posts for all of my research travels while I was doing the travelling, so why not do that now? I can revisit past happy memories, look forward to times when we can travel again, and maybe some of you out there will enjoy the ride, too.

From now on, there WILL be blog posts in which I return to my past research trips to Uppsala, London, Oxford, Manchester, Liverpool, Swansea, Cambridge, and finally Egypt. I guess the advantage of doing this now is that I’ve had time to reflect on the experiences, to process data, and to develop ideas, some of which I’d like to share. It’ll be a combination research blog and sometimes maybe just a travel diary, but hopefully it’ll be interesting, whatever it is. I’ll aim to post fortnightly at a minimum, and have just now set myself a reminder in my calendar so that I don’t forget!!

So… more to come. And this time, I actually mean it!!

Author: Aaron de Souza

Aaron de Souza is an archaeologist specialising in Nubian material culture of the Second Millennium BC. He obtained his PhD at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, with a dissertation on the ceramic traditions of the so-called Pan-Grave archaeological culture. Aaron is currently the Nubian ceramics specialist with the Tell Edfu Project (The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago), and has an ongoing involvement with the Hierakonpolis Expedition (University of Oxford), where he recently excavated two of the last remaining Pan-Grave cemeteries. Aaron has also recently worked with the Aswan-Kon Ombo Archaeological Project and the Swiss Mission to Elephantine, and has previously worked as ceramicist with the Dendara Necropolis Project (Macquarie University), and the Helwan Project (Macquarie University). Aaron has also conducted extensive museum-based research at the Museum Gustavianum (Uppsala University, Sweden), and at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago. For more information and a CV, visit Aaron’s Academia profile. View all posts by Aaron de Souza