Staff profile

I am a specialist in Egyptology with a particular focus in areas of both hieroglyphic texts as well as field archaeology. After reading Oriental Studies (Egyptian with Coptic) at Liverpool University (BA 1985), I continued to develop my interest in the Egyptian language. My specialist research for my PhD was a lexicographical study of the hieroglyphic texts in the Ptolemaic period Temple of Edfu (1991). Evolving out of this study, I continue to research the Egyptian hierogyphic writing system, temple ritual practice and the interweaving of mythical stories into Egyptian religious practice as a whole. I worked for seven years as Assistant Keeper in the Department of Antiquities in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (1992-1999), where I developed a wider passion for material culture of Egypt, the Classical World and the Near East. Since 1999 I have been employed as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at the Department of Archaeology, Durham University.

My first archaeological work was at Bearpark near Durham, while I was at school. I have since worked on various projects in Egypt: as epigrapher at Qasr Ibrim and archaological supervisor at Ashmunein, Sinai, Tell el Balamun and Zawiyet Umm el Rakham.

I am currently the Field Director of the joint Durham University/Egypt Exploration Society/Supreme Council of Antiquities project at Sais (Sa el-Hagar), which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the UK (2002-2007). The work at Sais is looking at settlement changes in relation to wider landscape dynamics and change, as well as specific sharp changes in settlement structure. The rebuilding of the late New Kingdom-Third Intermediate Period city after a collapse-event is of particular interest as it provides a sealed context for the late Ramesside city and a change in building decisions in the next phase. The long period of settlement from the Neolithic period to the modern day, with continuous but not necessarily contiguous settlement also provides an unparalleled chance to understand the relationships between material culture of differet periods in one palce and in in comparison with other Delta and Valley settlements.
http://www.dur.ac.uk/penelope.wilson/sais.html

I am also actively involved in the Egypt Exploration Society/British Academy Special Project 'Delta Survey'. The project aims to record and investigate as many of the archaeological sites in northern Egypt as possible. Many are in remote areas, such as the lagoons in the very north of the country and are visited only rarely.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/penelope.wilson/Delta/Survey.html

I am currently also carrying out survey work at Tell Mutubis, a large Late Roman site near Rosetta, in order to understand cultural transitions during the Roman period to the early Islamic period. This project will include training and heritage development aspects. It has been supported by funding from the British Academy IPM award scheme and will be a separate monograph focussing on the development of the Bolbitine/Rashid Nile branch system.

I am interested in the dynamics of life in the Nile delta including coping with the Nile's flood regime in the past, the development of urban centres and the tension between agricultural life and the state. I am also interested in the interactions between the religious life and thinking of the temple and the world outside and the nature of religious experience in 'ordinary' daily life. My current work is focussed upon the process of change in material culture and settlements from the Pharaonic period, through the hellenistic and Roman eras, to the Christian and Islamic periods.

I am interested in supervising students in subjects connected with the archaeology of the Delta, settlement archaeology and Egyptian material culture of all periods. In addition, I am also keen to supervise work on Ptolemaic hieroglyphic texts in general. Themes such as connectivity, geomorphology, sustainability and materiality in Egypt are also of interest.

• Egyptian settlement archaeology, especially in the Delta region
• Material culture, pottery and artefact studies
• Egyptian Late Period to Late Antique history and archaeology
• Egyptian Religious practice and hieroglyphic texts

• 2018: Trustee of Egypt Exploration Committee:
• 2016: Director of Delta Survey Project: The Delta Survey is a a 'special project' of the British Academy, administered through the Egypt Exploration Society. It promotes survey and archaeological fieldwork in Egypt and holds a bi-annual workshop in Egypt.
• 2014: Invitation to workshop: Workshop on Archaeological Landscapes of the Egyptian Delta Lakes held at the Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
• 2013: Invited conference paper: I was invited to give a paper on the Northern Egyptian Delta lagoonal landscape at the conference: The Nile: Natural Landscape and Cultural Landscape. Johannes Gutenberg Universistät, Mainz
• 2013: National Science Foundation reviewer: Peer reviewer for the NSF
• 2012: Research and Fieldwork Committee of Egypt Exploration Society:
• 2012: European Council peer Reviewer: For EC under FP7 programme
• 2011: Invited seminar: I was invited to gve the results of my fieldwork at the Ägyptologisches Sammlung, Berlin Freie Universität, in a paper entitled 'Fishermen, Famine and Fountains: Results of work at Sais'.
• 2011: Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (Flanders) Post-doctoral Reviewer: Reviewer of proposal.
• 2008: Invited seminar: ‘Settlement and Abandonment in the Western Delta’, Berlin Kunsthalle, Hilti Foundation.
• 2008: Invited lecture and award: I was invited to give a lecture : Sais in its Wider Context at Mansoura University, Egypt, following presentation of an award for pioneering achievements in education. This was had simultaneous translation into Arabic and was attended by 300 students, graduates and staff of the Faculty of Hotels and Tourism (Egyptology) in the University.
• 2007: Invited seminar: I was invited to give a seminar to the Leiden University, Department of Archaeology. Defining Delta Sites.
• 2006: Invitation to colloquium: I was invited to a colloquium in December 2006 at the National Museums of Scotland to discuss issues relating to the Egyptian collections in Edinburgh.
• 2002: Principal investigator, AHRC Sais and its Hinterland project: The five year project is funded by the AHRC by £202k and supported by the Egypt Exploration Society. It runs from 2002-7.
• 2001: Editorial Board: I am a member of the editorial board of the journal for Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry based at the University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece.

Authored book

• Wilson, P. (2011). Sais I The Ramesside-Third Intermediate Period at Kom Rebwa. Egypt Exploration Society
• Wilson, P., & Grigoropoulos, D. (2009). The West Nile Delta Regional Survey, Beheira and Kafr el-Sheikh provinces. (New ed.). Egypt Exploration Society
• Wilson, P. (2003). Sacred Signs: Hieroglyphs in Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press
• Wilson, P. (1997). A Ptolemaic Lexikon: a lexicographical study of the texts in the temple of Edfu. Peeters Publishing & Department of Oriental Studies

Chapter in book

• Wilson, P. (2014). Living the High Life: Late Antique Archaeology in the Delta. In E. O'Connell (Ed.), Egypt in the first millennium AD : perspectives from new fieldwork (43-58). Peeters Publishers
• Wilson, P. (2011). Masking and multiple personas. In P. Kousoulis (Ed.), Ancient Egyptian Demonology (77-88). Peeters Publishers
• Wilson, P. (2011). Settlement Connections in the Canopic Region. In D. Robinson, & A. Wilson (Eds.), Alexandria and the North-Western Delta (111-126). Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology
• Wilson, P. (2011). Ramsîs: Ancient Memory, Archaeology and the Western Delta. In M. Collier, & S. Snape (Eds.), Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen (533-540.). Rutherford Press
• Wilson, P. (2011). Pots, People and the Plural Community: A case Study of the Greeks in Egypt at Sais. In K. Duistermat, & I. Regulski (Eds.), Intercultural Contacts in the Ancient Mediterranean. Proceedings of the International Conference at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, 25th to 29th October 2008 (149-160). Peeters Publishers
• Wilson, P. (2010). Temple Architecture and Decorative Systems. In A. Lloyd (Ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Ancient Egypt (781-803). (New ed.). Blackwell
• Wilson, P. (2010). Consolidation, Innovation and Renaissance. In W. Wendrich (Ed.), Egyptian Archaeology (241-257). (New ed.). Blackwell
• Wilson, P., & Gilbert, G. (2008). Trading Relations with the Eastern Mediterranean. In P. Kousoulis, & K. Magliveras (Eds.), Moving Across the Boders: Foreign Relations, Religion and Cultural Interactions in the Ancient Mediterranean (249-265). (New ed.). Peeters Publishers
• Wilson, P. (2007). Chapter 18: The Meroitic Temple Graffiti. In P. J. Rose (Ed.), The Meroitic Temple Complex at Qasr Ibrim, Egypt (105-163). Egypt Exploration Society
• Wilson, P. (2007). The Delta. In T. Wilkinson (Ed.), The Egyptian World (15-28). Routledge
• Wilson, P. (2007). A Cult of Amasis and 'The Procession of Two Gods' at Sais. In T. Schneider, & K. Szpakowska (Eds.), Egyptian Stories. A British Egyptological Tribute to Alan B. Lloyd on the Occasion of His Retirement. (New ed.)
• Snape, S., & Wilson, P. (2007). The Excavation of the Chapels. In S. Snape, & P. Wilson (Eds.), Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham I: The Temple and Chapels (33-68). Rutherford Press
• Wilson, P. (2005). Naming names and shifting identities in ancient Egyptian iconoclasm. In A. McClanan, & J. Johnson (Eds.), Negating the image : case studies in iconoclasm (113-136). Ashgate Publishing
• Wilson, P. (2002). Ramesses III, Belzoni and the Mysterious Reverend Browne. In N. El-Kholy, & P. Starkey (Eds.), Egypt Through the Eyes of Travellers III Proceedings of the ASTENE Cambridge Congress 1998 (45-56). ASTENE
• Wilson, P. (1997). Slaughtering the crocodile at Edfu and Dendera. In S. Quirke (Ed.), The temple in Ancient Egypt: new discoveries and recent research (179-203). British Museum
• Wilson, P. (1996). The roadway and its inscriptions. In P. Rose (Ed.), Qasr Ibrim: the hinterland survey (102-117). Egypt Exploration Society

Conference Paper

• Wilson, P. (2017, January). Landscapes of the Bashmur – Settlements and Monasteries in the Northern Egyptian Delta from the Seventh to the Ninth Century. Presented at The Nile: Natural and Cultural Landscapes, Mainz, Germany
• Wilson, P. (2015, December). Baltim, Parallos and Mutubis: Late Period and Ptolemaic Antecedents for Late Antique Ports and Settlements in Northern Egypt. Presented at Heracleion in Context, Oxford, England
• Wilson, P. (2007, July). The Prehistoric Sequence at Sais: Temporal and Regional Connections. Presented at The Nile Delta as a centre of cultural interactions between Upper Egypt and the Southern Levant in the 4th millennium BC, Poznan, Poland
• Wilson, P., & Gilbert, G. (2007, July). Prehistoric Saïs: Results from the Western Delta Floodplain. Presented at Prehistory of Northeastern Africa. New Ideas and Discoveries, Poznan, Poland
• Wilson, P. (2010, December). Recent Survey Work in the Southern Mareotis Area. Presented at International Conference on the Archaeology of the Mareotic Region., Alexandria, Egypt

Journal Article

• Tipper, S., Wilson, P., & Roberts, C. A. (online). Spondylolysis in ancient Nubian skeletal populations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 33(5), 876-885. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3241
• Zhao, X., Liu, Y., Thomas, I., Salem, A., Wang, Y., Alassal, S. E., Jiang, F., Sun, Q., Chen, J., Finlayson, B., Wilson, P., & Chen, Z. (2022). Herding then farming in the Nile Delta. Communications Earth & Environment, 3(1), https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00416-7
• Wilson, P., & Ghazala, H. (2021). Sandhills, sandbanks, waterways, canals and sacred lakes at Sais in the Nile Delta. E&G - Quaternary Science Journal, 70(1), 129-143. https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-70-129-2021
• Pennington, B. T., Wilson, P., Sturt, F., & Brown, A. G. (2020). Landscape change in the Nile Delta during the fourth millennium BC: a new perspective on the Egyptian Predynastic and Protodynastic periods. World Archaeology, 52(4), 550-565. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2020.1864463
• Elfadaly, A., A.R. Abouarab, M., M. El Shabrawy, R. R., Mostafa, W., Wilson, P., Morhange, C., Silverstein, J., & Lasaponara, R. (2019). Discovering Potential Settlement Areas around Archaeological Tells Using the Integration between Historic Topographic Maps, Optical, and Radar Data in the Northern Nile Delta, Egypt. Remote Sensing, 11(24), Article 3039. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11243039
• •Wilson, P. (2019). Gateway to the Underworld: The Cult Areas of Sais. British Museum studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan, 24, 341-364
• Wilson, P. (2018). Human and Deltaic Environments in Northern Egypt in Late Antiquity. Late antique archaeology, 12(1), 42-62. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134522-12340066
• Pennington, B., Sturt, F., Wilson, P., Rowland, J., & Brown, A. (2017). The fluvial evolution of the Holocene Nile Delta. Quaternary Science Reviews, 170, 212-231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.06.017
• Wilson, P. (2007). Prehistoric Settlement in the Western Delta: a regional and local view from Sais (Sa el-Hagar). The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 92, 75-126
• Wilson, P., & Gilbert, G. (2003). The Prehistoric Period at Saïs. Archéo-Nil, 13, 65-72
• Wilson, P. (2003). The Delta Survey, 2002. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 89, 1-8
• Wilson, P. (1999). The Survey at Sais (Sa el-Hagar), 1998. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 85, 1-4

Monograph

• Wilson, P., Gilbert, G., & Tassie, G. (2014). Sais II: The Prehistoric Period at Sa el-Hagar. (New ed.). Egypt Excavation Society
• Wilson, P. (2006). The Survey of Saïs (Sa el-Hagar), 1997-2002. Egypt Exploration Society