Hatnub: Quarrying Travertine in Ancient Egypt

by Ian Shaw

This book, the fieldwork for which was undertaken between 1984 and 1990, concentrates on the travertine (Egyptian alabaster) quarries at Hatnub, some 25 kilometres southeast of the modern town of Mallawi, in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Most of the archaeological remains date to the Old and Middle Kingdoms (c.2575-1650 BC), but there was also a significant encampment dating to the New Kingdom (c.1550-1070 BC). The book uses archaeological and textual evidence from Hatnub as a means of addressing some of the social and economic issues relating to ancient Egyptian procurement of materials from remote sites. Among the research questions addressed here are the provisioning and organization of Egyptian quarrying and mining expeditions, the nature of the key groups of workmen involved in quarrying, and the ritualisation of areas of remote, liminal human activity in the pharaonic period.

169 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2010

About the author

Dr. Ian Shaw (born 1961) is an Egyptologist and Reader in Egyptian archaeology at the University of Liverpool.

His field work was largely focused in el-Amarna, but in recent times, he has done extensive excavations of mining and quarrying sites from many different Ancient Egyptian periods. He primarily focuses his recent work on methods and mechanics of Egyptian craftsmen and laborers. However, he has produced several works regarding ancient Egyptian warfare; a topic that had long been ignored or only briefly commented on by other researchers.

Besides writing original books, he also has edited several "dictionaries" of Ancient Egypt (which might more correctly be labeled "encyclopedias"; they are in no way lexicons).