Karin SowadaMacquarie University · Department of Ancient History
Karin Sowada
PhD (Syd) BA Hons (Syd)
About
36
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202
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Citations since 2017
Publications
Publications (36)
Throughout the 4th to 6th Dynasties of the Old Kingdom (c. 2613-2181 BCE), liquid commodities were imported in ceramic combed jars made in workshops in the Byblos region, enabling proximal geographic identification of the original contents. Results of scientific, archaeometric, and archaeological research on a large corpus of jars found in elite to...
Karin Sowada and Matthew J. Adams (eds)
ALL PAPERS AVAILABLE ON OPEN ACCESS https://egyptianexpedition.org/volumes/vol-37-egypt-and-the-mediterranean-world-from-the-late-fourth-through-the-third-millennium-bce/
Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections (JAEI) special edition, publishing a number of papers delivered at an international conference...
The petrographic investigations of imported vessels from Abydos, published a few years ago in “Egypt and the Levant,” confirmed their origin from different regions of the Levant. In addition to vessels from Early Dynastic royal tombs and from Cemetery B, the samples also included five jars from Predynastic Cemetery U, especially from Tomb U-j. For...
A recent petrographic study of ceramic jars from Giza imported into Egypt during the 4th Dynasty of the Pyramid Age (c. 2613–2494 BCE) identified the original production zone as the Lebanese coast generally between Beirut and Tripoli, including the region of Byblos. The jars and their contents were imported to Egypt by maritime trade expeditions co...
Thin-section petrography on imported Combed jars from the 6th Dynasty Abusir tomb complex of Qar and his family identified the central Levant, between Beirut and Tripoli, as the production zone
of the vessels. Dating to the reign of 6th Dynasty king Pepy II (ca. 2278–2184 B.C.), the jars were made of the same mixed Cretaceous clay type used for imp...
CT scans of an unnamed mummified adult from Egypt, now in the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney (NMR.27.3), reveal it to be fully sheathed in a mud shell or carapace, exposing a mortuary treatment not previously documented in the Egyptian archaeological record. The carapace was placed between layers of linen wrappings thus it was not exte...
Abstract: Geoanalytical results on imported ceramics from Egypt demonstrate wide-ranging links between 1st Dynasty Egypt and different Levantine commodity production centres. This diffuse network contrasts with the highly efficient Old Kingdom supply chain, based on the maritime route to Byblos and the surrounding region in
northern Lebanon. A data...
Results of the Associated Regional Chronologies for the Ancient Near East Project (ARCANE) have produced a sweeping new dating schema for Western Asia. In particular, the radiocarbon-based “High Chronology” for the southern Levant fundamentally changes the dating of the Early Bronze Age periodisations on which the archaeology of the region is based...
This paper assesses the issues involved in developing an integrated archaeological and radiocarbon-based synchronisation of the chronologies of Egypt and the Levant in the third millennium BC. The paper arises from a presentation made at a Workshop in Berlin during 2011, based on the author's research for the Associated Regional Chronologies of the...
Bulletin de liaison de la céramique Égyptienne 27 (2017), pp. 63-80
In the early 1990s, the Australian Centre for Egyptology excavated and recorded Theban Tomb 148 belonging to the high official Amenemope, who served Rameses III, IV and V in the first half of the twelfth century BC. Ceramics from the Main Burial Apartments are discussed. Analysis...
A mummified head of a man, NMR.32, was donated to the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney in 1860 by scholar-traveller Sir Charles Nicholson. Little was known about the head until it was radiocarbon dated to 204–49 cal B.C. This date was confirmed by recent macroscopic examination and computerised tomography (CT) scans, which revealed furt...
NOW ON OPEN ACCESS cut and paste https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00758914.2019.1664197 into your web browser.
Thin-section petrography was used to examine 36 samples of imported Early Bronze Age Combed vessels from Giza, Egypt. The samples come from fragmentary pots found in early Old Kingdom tombs of high officials, and the workers’...
At the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath in the southern Levant, domestic animals from Egypt were recently identified in Early Bronze Age III levels. This finding is significant as it opens the possibility of a previously unseen and potentially long-standing trade in live domestic animals between Egypt and its neighbours. The discovery also supplies critic...
In the Early Levant and Mesopotamia, stone vessels functioned at different levels of ancient societies. Key areas - Egypt, Crete, the Gulf, Iran and Southern Mesopotamia - produced distinctive shapes with characteristic stones, using manufacturing techniques that differed across the region. Using the ARCANE Regional and chronological framework, key...
Bulletin de liaison de la céramique Égyptienne 28 (2018), 117-112
Egyptian imitations of foreign ceramic forms in either pottery or stone are known from the late Predynastic period onward. Throughout the Dynastic age, local copies of certain types continued in production. During the Old Kingdom, the favoured shape was a flat-based jar with two han...
Since the early 1990s, the Macquarie University Theban Tombs Project has worked at the New Kingdom necropolis of Dra Abu el-Naga under the direction of Associate Professor Boyo Ockinga. In the 1990s, two Iron Age IA amphoriskoi were found during excavations of Theban Tomb 148, belonging to an official called Amenemope, who served kings Rameses III-...
Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 6:4 (2014), 55-57
Short report on the author's work for the Associated Regional Chronologies of the Ancient Near East (ARCANE) Project
Re-assessment of the terminology, manufacture, function and distribution of Levantine 'Combed Ware', and the implications of this ceramic marker for commodity exchange and chronology in the eastern Mediterranean (including Egypt) during the third millennium BC.
During excavations in 1996 on a tomb in the Teti Cemetery at Saqqara by the Australian Centre for Egyptology (Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia), evidence of ancient weather events was revealed. The tomb belonged to the high official Inumin, who late in his career served as vizier of King Pepy I of the Sixth Dynasty. Over a metre of eolian sa...
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many museums acquired Egyptian coffins containing mummies from private donors who bought them from dealers in Egypt. Owing to the unknown context of such acquisitions, it cannot be assumed that the mummified individual inside the coffin is the same person named on it. Radiocarbon dating is a key diagnostic test...
Abydos Cemetery F is an Old Kingdom burial ground that was excavated on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund by E. R. Ayrton and W. L. S. Loat in 1908-1909. It was never fully published. Cemeteries of this type were generally neglected in the past but the unpublished
records of Cemetery F provide an opportunity to partially rectify this, especially...
A mummified head of a man in the Nicholson Museum was donated to the University of Sydney in 1860. The head was radiocarbon dated at the AMS facility at ANSTO in Sydney. A date of 204-49 cal. BC was obtained, placing the head in the late Ptolemaic Period. The date provides a solid basis for further research into mummification practices of the perio...
This study presents a revised view of Egyptian foreign relations in the eastern Mediterranean during the Old Kingdom (3rd-6th Dynasties) based on an extensive analysis of old and new archaeological data, and its relationship to the well-known textual sources. The material demonstrates that while Egypt’s most important relationships were with Byblos...
A coffin in the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney, NM R29, was donated by Sir Charles Nicholson in 1860. Belonging to a woman called Merneithis, it dates to the Saite Period (c. 7th century BC) and was likely recovered from Saqqara. The wood from which the coffin was made was subjected to scientific analysis and found to be an imported c...
The Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney holds a significant collection of human remains from Egypt, including several complete mummies, their coffins and various body parts. Much of this was collected in the 19th century. Over the last 15 years, the remains and associated burial equipment have been examined using a range of multidisciplina...
The Nicholson Museum Egyptian Mummy Project at the University of Sydney (Sydney, Australia) is an interdisciplinary program focused on three ancient Egyptian mummies in the Museum's collection. Never before studied and in good condition, the mummies have undergone investigation involving examination of the mummy wrappings, coffins and associated te...
Publication for general audiences featuring highlights from the Near Eastern, Egyptian, Cypriot and Classical collections in the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney, Australia.
This paper publishes a number of Egyptian Naqada IIIB and First Dynasty palettes found in EB II and EB III contexts in the Southern Levant. The contexts are assessed and reasons advanced for the presence of these objects in deposits generally later than the production date of this palette type. The same material was later discussed in detail in Sow...
Black-topped ware is commonly associated with the Predynastic era, but a handful of examples made in the Early Dynastic Period are known to exist. Generally these vessels are variations of the hes-jar shape; their findspots, in tombs or temples, associate this shape with ritual or funerary use. It is argued here that during the Early Dynastic Perio...
Publication of a little-known private statue dating to the late Eighteenth Dynasty, donated to the University of Sydney's Nicholson Museum.
Projects
Projects (3)
Despite recent scientific efforts, few published radiocarbon dates exist for the Pyramid Age of the Old Kingdom (c. 2670–2180 BC). The Egyptian historical chronology and the dating systems underpinning it are largely based on fragmentary king lists and other historical sources, with few scientific anchors.
The project involves generating new dates from several sources, including material from Giza now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and from the mummy of Djau, vizier (prime minister) of King Pepy II (c. 2270 BC). The mummy was discovered in his tomb at Deir el-Gebrawi by Prof Naguib Kanawati of Macquarie University in 2007. With the permission of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, in December 2019 a new Macquarie Expedition led by Dr Karin Sowada sampled the mummy at the site for radiocarbon dating in Cairo.
In conjunction with Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation (ANSTO) under Grant AP12203, this project forms part of Sowada's Future Fellowship Project and is linked with a larger international collaboration to define the absolute chronology of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, led by the Institut français d'archéologie orientale in Cairo.
The purpose of the project is to advance training in isotopic analysis. This will be achieved by a comparative isotopic pilot study to assess the degree to which techniques used can nuance the origins of modern animals in Australia, in advance of a larger study on the Early Bronze Age Middle East. The objective of the pilot study will be attained by using teeth from modern cattle obtained from locations in the Australian state of New South Wales. The different geographical areas will provide different isotopic profiles that can be compared, while also allowing for refinement of the scientific methodology for a future PhD program on ancient cattle remains. The program will be undertaken collaboratively with Dr Karin Sowada (Dept of Ancient History) and Dr Olivier Alard (Dept of Earth & Planetary Sciences) at Macquarie University, Sydney, under the auspices of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship Project (FT170100288). The project is conducted in collaboration with the University of Manitoba (Canada), with student participation funded by a Mitacs Globalink Research Award (IT15493) from Canada.
The Project aims to transform existing narratives on the impact of Egypt in the Pyramid Age (c. 2670–2180 BC), demonstrating the influence of large state entities as drivers of societal change in the ancient world. The Project transcends academic disciplines and modern borders by networking scientific analysis with archaeological and historical evidence, from across the eastern Mediterranean. The intended goal of the Project is an expansive vision of international relations in the third millennium BC, which elevates Egypt as a driver of economic, social and political change. In a region currently troubled by much turmoil, the shared nature of global issues across time and space, and the human response, will be evident.
