Hello

Hello, and welcome to my new blog as the Collections Access Manager at the Egypt Centre. For my first post, I thought it best to introduce myself. I was born in Belfast in 1981 during the hunger strikes and a time of deep division in Ireland. My interest in Egyptology developed at a young age, mainly through the many visits to the Ulster Museum in Belfast. While the museum displays only a small collection of Egyptian antiquities, the mummy of the lady Takabuti is its star attraction. My first visit to Egypt was a cruise on the Nile for my sixteenth birthday (1997), a trip that inspired me to want to study Egyptology.

Mummy of Takabuti in the Ulster Museum

In 2000 I arrived in Swansea in order to enrol as an undergraduate student on the Ancient History and Egyptology joint honours degree scheme at Swansea University. This was the first year that Egyptology had been offered as a degree scheme at Swansea, although several modules had been taught previously by Prof. Alan Lloyd. Following this, I enrolled on the new Master's degree in Ancient Egyptian Culture at Swansea, graduating in 2005. It was at this time that my interest in the rekhyt-people started, which resulted in me undertaking PhD research on them (more on the rekhyt-people to come in my next blog post!). I passed my PhD viva in 2014, with the reworked version of my thesis being published by Golden House Publications late last year.

Monograph on the rekhyt-people

Shortly after arriving in Swansea, I also visited the Egypt Centre for the first time, signing up to be a volunteer. Thus, my association with the Egypt Centre extends over eighteen years. During this time, I have been a volunteer, workshop assistant on our Saturday workshops, and now Collections Access Manager. Working at the Egypt Centre has obviously brought me in close proximity to the collection, so it is no surprise that my first academic publication dealt with a previously unrecognised ȝḫ ı͗ḳr n Rʿ stela (A232), which was excavated by Petrie at Abydos during his 1902–3 season. I have also published the ushabti of the little-known Divine Adoratrice Qedmerut (W1315), which initially stemmed from an undergraduate project at Swansea University. Most recently, I identified a relief (W1376) in the Egypt Centre stores as originating from the Eighteen Dynasty temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. While I initially believed that this relief depicted Hatshepsut, I am now convinced that it depicts her daughter Neferure. The results of this research will be published later this year. A full list of my publications can be found here: http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/ken-griffin/

ȝḫ ı͗ḳr n Rʿ stela (A232) 

Aside from being a student and working at the Egypt Centre, I was previously the Co-ordinating Tutor of Egyptology for the Department of Adult Continuing Education (DACE) between 2004–2013. Most recently, I have been a Lecturer in Egyptology at Swansea University (2015–2018), during which time I integrated object-centred learning into my teaching by utilising the Egypt Centre collection. In 2010 I participated in my first excavation in Egypt, working on the Ahmose-Tetisheri Project at Abydos under the direction of Dr. Steve Harvey. In the same year, I joined the South Asasif Conservation Project (SACP), directed by Dr. Elena Pischikova, which I have been associated with ever since. I have also been part of the AcrossBorders Project, directed by Prof. Julia Budka, working on Sai Island in Sudan (2015–2016).

With the vignette of the Seventh Hour of the Night

Well, that’s probably enough about me. It is planned that this page will be a regular blog dealing with the Egypt Centre collection. Please subscribe to this blog (on the right) to receive updates!