Sanam Temple Ceramics:
At Sanam, I investigate pottery for insight into the 1st millennium bce temple and Sudanese ceramic industry. Currently, I am working to refine the chronology through a closer analysis of the pottery's forms and decorations. Of particular interest are red slipped and burnished beakers, bowls, and dishes with a clear stratigraphic sequence at Sanam and parallels at other sites. I am also collaborating with colleagues to research and identify the ceramics' origins through both macroscopic and microscopic analyses of their fabrics. This will help better characterize local fabrics and shed light on the ceramic production process.
Sanam Temple Project website - ifa.nyu.edu/academics/archaeology.htm
Clay Sealings:
Clay sealings are ancient administrative devices that closed and secured storage and transport containers (e.g. baskets, boxes, jars) and storeroom doors. They are impressed with imagery - both hieroglyphic and symbolic - that identifies the container's owner, its contents, or its destination. Currently, I am examining the clay sealings excavated at Middle Kingdom forts in Sudan and creating an updated typology. This knowledge is key because it sheds light on day-to-day administrative practices at these forts and is a resource for future sealing studies. I also worked on translations and a typology for sealings excavated at Abydos (Shinn 2021).
Communities of Practice:
Communities of practice is a theory that explores learning through practice. Briefly, Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) developed it to explain how people gain knowledge, insight, and skills, as well as how they innovate, in their work by doing and interacting with others. For my thesis, I examined the application of this theory with archaeological data - specifically, Old Kingdom clay sealings from Giza, Egypt. My study successfully identified individual sealers, their shared practice, and whether advancements in administrative sealing practice were made; however, it was unable to ascertain the practice's growth rate, nor how this type of heterarchical organization functioned relative to the established, ancient Egyptian, administrative hierarchy. I continue to mull these and other questions as I prepare my thesis for publication.
At Sanam, I investigate pottery for insight into the 1st millennium bce temple and Sudanese ceramic industry. Currently, I am working to refine the chronology through a closer analysis of the pottery's forms and decorations. Of particular interest are red slipped and burnished beakers, bowls, and dishes with a clear stratigraphic sequence at Sanam and parallels at other sites. I am also collaborating with colleagues to research and identify the ceramics' origins through both macroscopic and microscopic analyses of their fabrics. This will help better characterize local fabrics and shed light on the ceramic production process.
Sanam Temple Project website - ifa.nyu.edu/academics/archaeology.htm
Clay Sealings:
Clay sealings are ancient administrative devices that closed and secured storage and transport containers (e.g. baskets, boxes, jars) and storeroom doors. They are impressed with imagery - both hieroglyphic and symbolic - that identifies the container's owner, its contents, or its destination. Currently, I am examining the clay sealings excavated at Middle Kingdom forts in Sudan and creating an updated typology. This knowledge is key because it sheds light on day-to-day administrative practices at these forts and is a resource for future sealing studies. I also worked on translations and a typology for sealings excavated at Abydos (Shinn 2021).
Communities of Practice:
Communities of practice is a theory that explores learning through practice. Briefly, Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) developed it to explain how people gain knowledge, insight, and skills, as well as how they innovate, in their work by doing and interacting with others. For my thesis, I examined the application of this theory with archaeological data - specifically, Old Kingdom clay sealings from Giza, Egypt. My study successfully identified individual sealers, their shared practice, and whether advancements in administrative sealing practice were made; however, it was unable to ascertain the practice's growth rate, nor how this type of heterarchical organization functioned relative to the established, ancient Egyptian, administrative hierarchy. I continue to mull these and other questions as I prepare my thesis for publication.