Quick answer
Australia has a small but respected place in Egyptology. Macquarie University's Australian Centre for Egyptology, founded by Professor Naguib Kanawati in 1989, has spent decades recording Old and Middle Kingdom tombs at Saqqara and in Middle and Upper Egypt, while Monash University-led teams have excavated Roman-era Kellis and other sites in the Dakhla Oasis. Travellers can visit several of these sites and follow the work through university museums, lectures and supporter groups at home.
Do Australian universities really dig in Egypt?
Yes: Australian teams have held Egyptian permits for decades, working like other foreign missions under the authority of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, with Egyptian inspectors on site and every find remaining in Egypt. The best known is Macquarie University's Australian Centre for Egyptology in Sydney, established in 1989 by Professor Naguib Kanawati, an Egyptian-born scholar who built one of the larger Egyptology programmes in the Southern Hemisphere. Monash University in Melbourne has a long association with the Dakhla Oasis in the Western Desert.
Australian work tends to be patient rather than headline-grabbing. Much of it is epigraphy, the careful copying, photographing and publishing of wall scenes and inscriptions, which matters because painted tomb walls fade, flake and are damaged by damp, salt and visitors. A published facsimile can preserve a scene long after the original has deteriorated.
What has Macquarie University found at Saqqara?
Macquarie's best-known excavation is in the Teti cemetery at Saqqara, the Old Kingdom burial ground around the pyramid of Teti, first king of the 6th Dynasty, where the team has excavated and published the tombs of court officials over many seasons. The results have appeared in a long series of reports, and they help reconstruct how the royal court worked around 2300 BC: who held which titles, how officials' careers rose and fell, and how families placed their tombs near the king.
This is the same part of Saqqara where most visitors see the beautifully carved mastabas of Mereruka and Kagemni, both senior officials of Teti's reign. When you walk from the Teti pyramid to those tombs, you are crossing ground that Australian archaeologists have studied in detail.
Where else have Australians worked in the Nile Valley?
Beyond Saqqara, Macquarie has spent decades recording the rock-cut tombs of provincial governors in Middle and Upper Egypt, sites that see few tourists but are central to understanding life outside the capital.
- El-Hawawish, near Akhmim: Old Kingdom tombs of the local elite, among Kanawati's earliest projects in the 1970s and 1980s.
- Deir el-Gebrawi and Meir: painted tombs of provincial officials, recorded and published in detail.
- Beni Hasan: the Middle Kingdom tombs of the governors of the Oryx nome, famous for scenes of wrestling, hunting, crafts and a long-distance trading party. The Australian recording has paid close attention to the animals and birds in the paintings.
Australian teams have also worked at Theban tombs on Luxor's west bank and, for a period, at the Early Dynastic cemetery at Helwan, south of Cairo. If you want to see the kind of decorated private tombs this work concentrates on, the Tombs of the Nobles in Luxor are the most accessible.
What has been found in the Dakhla Oasis?
Excavations led for many years by Monash University's Colin Hope at Ismant el-Kharab, ancient Kellis, in the Dakhla Oasis uncovered a Roman-period village whose houses preserved an extraordinary archive of everyday documents. Kellis was part of the international Dakhleh Oasis Project. Its finds include a temple to the god Tutu with painted decoration, and letters, accounts and literary texts in Greek and Coptic on papyrus and wooden boards, among them a codex of speeches by the Greek orator Isocrates and a farm account book written on wooden leaves. Some houses belonged to a community of Manichaean Christians, whose religious texts and family letters have transformed what scholars know of the sect.
Monash-led work also continued at Mut el-Kharab, the oasis's ancient capital, tracing occupation from the pharaonic period onwards. Dakhla is a long drive from the Nile, but it can be combined with the White Desert on a Western Desert itinerary; archaeological sites there may need advance arrangement.
Who were the Australian pioneers?
The first Australian to make a mark on Egyptology was Grafton Elliot Smith, an anatomist born in Grafton, New South Wales, in 1871, who became the first professor of anatomy at Cairo's Government School of Medicine in 1900. In Cairo he examined the royal mummies from the Deir el-Bahari and Valley of the Kings caches, publishing a catalogue of them in 1912, and he worked on thousands of burials for the Archaeological Survey of Nubia before the first raising of the Aswan Dam flooded them. Many of those pharaohs now lie in the Royal Mummies Hall of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. His later theories on the spread of culture from Egypt are now rejected, but his medical work on mummies was groundbreaking.
Australian university teaching of ancient history and Egyptian language grew through the twentieth century, and today Australian-trained Egyptologists work on international teams across Egypt.
How can travellers follow Australian Egyptology?
Start at home: university museums, public lectures and supporter foundations let you meet the people and objects behind the research before or after your trip.
- Macquarie University: the university's history museum on its North Ryde campus displays ancient Egyptian objects, and the Rundle Foundation for Egyptian Archaeology supports the Australian Centre for Egyptology's fieldwork, with lectures and publications for members. The Centre also publishes the Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology.
- Short courses: several Australian universities offer non-award courses in ancient history and hieroglyphs; check current offerings, which change each year.
- Museum collections: see our guide to Egyptian collections in Australian and New Zealand museums.
In Egypt, ask for an itinerary that includes Saqqara's Teti cemetery and Beni Hasan with an Egyptologist guide, as on our history lovers' journey. Excavation sites themselves are closed to the public while teams are working, so do not expect to visit a live dig.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Australian Centre for Egyptology?
A research centre at Macquarie University in Sydney, founded in 1989 by Professor Naguib Kanawati, that runs fieldwork in Egypt and teaches Egyptology. It is best known for recording and publishing Old and Middle Kingdom tombs.
Can I join an Australian dig in Egypt?
Fieldwork places generally go to students and specialists on the official permit, and volunteers are rarely taken. Supporter groups such as the Rundle Foundation are the usual way for the public to get involved.
Can tourists visit the Teti cemetery at Saqqara?
Yes. The Teti pyramid and the tombs of Mereruka and Kagemni are on the standard Saqqara ticket, although individual tombs open and close in rotation. Check the list at egymonuments.gov.eg.
Do Australian finds come to Australia?
No. Under Egyptian law everything found by foreign missions stays in Egypt. Egyptian objects in Australian museums arrived much earlier, mostly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Who was Grafton Elliot Smith?
A New South Wales-born anatomist who taught in Cairo from 1900 to 1909, examined the royal mummies and published a catalogue of them in 1912. He later became a leading anatomist in Britain.
