Dr Margaret Maitland
@margaretmaitland.bsky.social
Egyptologist by training. Principal Curator of the Ancient Mediterranean at National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh. Researching inequality in ancient Egypt and histories of excavation/collecting/museums. She/her.
https://linktr.ee/eloquentpeasant
https://linktr.ee/eloquentpeasant
Great post offering insights the lives of girls in ancient Egypt! @julia-hamilton.bsky.social draws together administrative, archaeological, and artistic evidence in discussing girls’ working lives, wages, migration, and more:
theconversation.com/work-wages-a...
theconversation.com/work-wages-a...
July 8, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Great post offering insights the lives of girls in ancient Egypt! @julia-hamilton.bsky.social draws together administrative, archaeological, and artistic evidence in discussing girls’ working lives, wages, migration, and more:
theconversation.com/work-wages-a...
theconversation.com/work-wages-a...
Last few days to see the exhibition ‘Injecting Hope’ @ the National Museum of Scotland! I helped collect these beautiful masks during the pandemic, incl. one from the khayyamia workshop of Essam Ali in Cairo featuring a protective Eye of Horus (see alt text for more) www.nms.ac.uk/exhibitions/...
April 24, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Last few days to see the exhibition ‘Injecting Hope’ @ the National Museum of Scotland! I helped collect these beautiful masks during the pandemic, incl. one from the khayyamia workshop of Essam Ali in Cairo featuring a protective Eye of Horus (see alt text for more) www.nms.ac.uk/exhibitions/...
On International Women’s Day this Saturday at 2pm, I’ll be giving an online talk about the ‘Qurna Queen’ and our work reassessing this 17th Dynasty intact royal burial from Thebes, now held at National Museums Scotland. More info/booking with the Thames Valley Ancient Egypt Society: www.tvaes.org.uk
March 4, 2025 at 12:14 PM
On International Women’s Day this Saturday at 2pm, I’ll be giving an online talk about the ‘Qurna Queen’ and our work reassessing this 17th Dynasty intact royal burial from Thebes, now held at National Museums Scotland. More info/booking with the Thames Valley Ancient Egypt Society: www.tvaes.org.uk
Objects from the Rhind Princesses Tomb are now held at National Museums Scotland, including wooden labels naming daughters of Amenhotep III & Thumose IV & a unique exquisitely crafted gilded box inlaid with ebony and ivory used in the royal palace 4/4 blog.nms.ac.uk/2017/01/10/a...
February 22, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Objects from the Rhind Princesses Tomb are now held at National Museums Scotland, including wooden labels naming daughters of Amenhotep III & Thumose IV & a unique exquisitely crafted gilded box inlaid with ebony and ivory used in the royal palace 4/4 blog.nms.ac.uk/2017/01/10/a...
When Scottish archaeologist Piers Litherland & the excavators of the King Thutmose II tomb 1st found the entrance, they thought it might be intended for minor royalty & compared it to the Princesses’ Tomb discovered in 1857 by Scottish archaeologist AH Rhind 3/4 www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2023/01...
February 22, 2025 at 11:42 AM
When Scottish archaeologist Piers Litherland & the excavators of the King Thutmose II tomb 1st found the entrance, they thought it might be intended for minor royalty & compared it to the Princesses’ Tomb discovered in 1857 by Scottish archaeologist AH Rhind 3/4 www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2023/01...
It was initially reported as the 1st pharaoh’s tomb discovered in Egypt since the tomb of Tutankhamun, but actually several kings’ tombs were found at Tanis in 1939 incl. astonishing gold & silver masks & coffins, often overlooked as the discoveries were during WWII. 2/4 the-past.com/shorts/the-p...
February 22, 2025 at 11:37 AM
It was initially reported as the 1st pharaoh’s tomb discovered in Egypt since the tomb of Tutankhamun, but actually several kings’ tombs were found at Tanis in 1939 incl. astonishing gold & silver masks & coffins, often overlooked as the discoveries were during WWII. 2/4 the-past.com/shorts/the-p...
Exciting reports of the discovery of the tomb of King Thutmose II, husband of female pharaoh Hatshepsut! Though the tomb is mostly destroyed, the excavation team still found items naming Thutmose & Hatshepsut, & fragments of the Amduat, a royal funerary text 🧵 1/4 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...
February 22, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Exciting reports of the discovery of the tomb of King Thutmose II, husband of female pharaoh Hatshepsut! Though the tomb is mostly destroyed, the excavation team still found items naming Thutmose & Hatshepsut, & fragments of the Amduat, a royal funerary text 🧵 1/4 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...
Apparently it’s #NationalHedgehogDay & now more than ever, the world is in dire need of hedgehogs, so of course I had to post this lil’ fella! 🦔 🏺
This hoglet is actually a faience aryballos flask for perfume/oil from a Greek colony in Egypt, c.550BC & now on display @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social
This hoglet is actually a faience aryballos flask for perfume/oil from a Greek colony in Egypt, c.550BC & now on display @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social
February 2, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Apparently it’s #NationalHedgehogDay & now more than ever, the world is in dire need of hedgehogs, so of course I had to post this lil’ fella! 🦔 🏺
This hoglet is actually a faience aryballos flask for perfume/oil from a Greek colony in Egypt, c.550BC & now on display @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social
This hoglet is actually a faience aryballos flask for perfume/oil from a Greek colony in Egypt, c.550BC & now on display @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social
Happy New Year! Or in ancient Egyptian, wep renpet nefer! 🪷🐒
This faience flask was used in the new year festival at the start of flood season. It's decorated with baboons symbolising the god Thoth who calculated time & may have held Nile water, rather than anything stronger!
This faience flask was used in the new year festival at the start of flood season. It's decorated with baboons symbolising the god Thoth who calculated time & may have held Nile water, rather than anything stronger!
January 1, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Happy New Year! Or in ancient Egyptian, wep renpet nefer! 🪷🐒
This faience flask was used in the new year festival at the start of flood season. It's decorated with baboons symbolising the god Thoth who calculated time & may have held Nile water, rather than anything stronger!
This faience flask was used in the new year festival at the start of flood season. It's decorated with baboons symbolising the god Thoth who calculated time & may have held Nile water, rather than anything stronger!
Nice to see the story of the lost fish pendant & the magician illustrated with the masterpiece gold catfish pendant from Haraga Tomb 72 @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social & the comic from our partnership with Heba Abd el Gawad & Nasser Junior as an example of using stories for critical reflection.
December 1, 2024 at 11:09 AM
Nice to see the story of the lost fish pendant & the magician illustrated with the masterpiece gold catfish pendant from Haraga Tomb 72 @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social & the comic from our partnership with Heba Abd el Gawad & Nasser Junior as an example of using stories for critical reflection.
Lovely lecture by Leire Olabarria for @theees.bsky.social reflecting on storytelling in ancient Egypt, and ‘story habit’: our tendency to think narratively about objects and how that can enhance their value.
December 1, 2024 at 11:04 AM
Lovely lecture by Leire Olabarria for @theees.bsky.social reflecting on storytelling in ancient Egypt, and ‘story habit’: our tendency to think narratively about objects and how that can enhance their value.
Happy St Andrew’s Day! 🏴 A year ago today, my predecessor Liz Goring & I published a collection of ancient Egyptian objects dug up in Fife over 3 decades- the only Egyptian artefacts ever claimed under Scots Treasure Trove law journals.socantscot.org/index.php/ps... & media.nms.ac.uk/news/story-o...
November 30, 2024 at 12:45 PM
Happy St Andrew’s Day! 🏴 A year ago today, my predecessor Liz Goring & I published a collection of ancient Egyptian objects dug up in Fife over 3 decades- the only Egyptian artefacts ever claimed under Scots Treasure Trove law journals.socantscot.org/index.php/ps... & media.nms.ac.uk/news/story-o...
‘Whose gods are they?’ Great talk by Dr Antony Lee on his research on Romano-British religion & museum displays, incl. considering post-colonial perspectives, how to convey sensory experiences, & challenging established popular Roman-centric perceptions. More here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
November 27, 2024 at 7:04 PM
‘Whose gods are they?’ Great talk by Dr Antony Lee on his research on Romano-British religion & museum displays, incl. considering post-colonial perspectives, how to convey sensory experiences, & challenging established popular Roman-centric perceptions. More here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Howard Carter’s immortal words upon opening the tomb of Tutankhamun were NOT what he recorded saying in his diary that day! In his published book, he polished up ‘Yes, it is wonderful’ into ‘Yes, wonderful things’. Explore the entire Tutankhamun archive online: www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringT...
November 26, 2024 at 9:44 AM
Howard Carter’s immortal words upon opening the tomb of Tutankhamun were NOT what he recorded saying in his diary that day! In his published book, he polished up ‘Yes, it is wonderful’ into ‘Yes, wonderful things’. Explore the entire Tutankhamun archive online: www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringT...
My favourite piece of homework! 📜 The passage from Homer's Odyssey on this 2000+year old school exercise was surely chosen to appeal to Egyptian schoolboys! ‘[Zeus] sent me forth with roaming pirates to Egypt, a far voyage, that I might meet my ruin & in the River Nile I moored my curved ships’
November 26, 2024 at 9:08 AM
My favourite piece of homework! 📜 The passage from Homer's Odyssey on this 2000+year old school exercise was surely chosen to appeal to Egyptian schoolboys! ‘[Zeus] sent me forth with roaming pirates to Egypt, a far voyage, that I might meet my ruin & in the River Nile I moored my curved ships’
Fake it ‘til you make it: lower-ranking Egyptian elite could only afford small statues made of easily-carved steatite, but this could be made to resemble costly hard stones like grandiorite by firing! This statue @ National Museum of Scotland is inscribed for a man named Dedu & his wife c1795-1650BC
November 24, 2024 at 2:08 PM
Fake it ‘til you make it: lower-ranking Egyptian elite could only afford small statues made of easily-carved steatite, but this could be made to resemble costly hard stones like grandiorite by firing! This statue @ National Museum of Scotland is inscribed for a man named Dedu & his wife c1795-1650BC
Marleen De Meyer closed the conference, acknowledging it as a labour of love: her & Wendy Doyen’s gift to us. There’s much to be done, but it’s moved the narrative forward & emphasised the necessity of change. On behalf of all those who were watching online from afar, thank you,
شكرا جزيلا
#NVIC24
شكرا جزيلا
#NVIC24
November 23, 2024 at 12:31 PM
Marleen De Meyer closed the conference, acknowledging it as a labour of love: her & Wendy Doyen’s gift to us. There’s much to be done, but it’s moved the narrative forward & emphasised the necessity of change. On behalf of all those who were watching online from afar, thank you,
شكرا جزيلا
#NVIC24
شكرا جزيلا
#NVIC24
Harco Willems noted the emphasis on Quftawi meant other labourers are even more invisible; Neal Spencer called for self-awareness, noting some extractive practices were continuing; Fatma Keshk urged interdisciplinarity & Ahmed Mekawy urged support for our archaeological family members in Sudan
November 23, 2024 at 12:24 PM
Harco Willems noted the emphasis on Quftawi meant other labourers are even more invisible; Neal Spencer called for self-awareness, noting some extractive practices were continuing; Fatma Keshk urged interdisciplinarity & Ahmed Mekawy urged support for our archaeological family members in Sudan
Looking to the future, many participants emphasised Egyptology’s need to use Arabic more widely; Wendy Doyen encouraged more public archaeology in Egypt; Yasmin El-Shazly called for more Egyptian scholars &museums to engage in decolonial work, incl. working on indigenous Medieval scholarship #NVIC24
November 23, 2024 at 12:23 PM
Looking to the future, many participants emphasised Egyptology’s need to use Arabic more widely; Wendy Doyen encouraged more public archaeology in Egypt; Yasmin El-Shazly called for more Egyptian scholars &museums to engage in decolonial work, incl. working on indigenous Medieval scholarship #NVIC24
Bonnie Effros emphasized the need to acknowledge that archaeological narratives underpinned colonial violence & land seizure, that archives held abroad limits access to these histories, also noting it is imperative to integrate modern communities back into archaeology & benefit them #NVIC24
November 23, 2024 at 12:19 PM
Bonnie Effros emphasized the need to acknowledge that archaeological narratives underpinned colonial violence & land seizure, that archives held abroad limits access to these histories, also noting it is imperative to integrate modern communities back into archaeology & benefit them #NVIC24
Allison Mickel encouraged everyone to recognise archaeology as a site of production, & ‘lucrative non-knowledge’ where it can (sadly) be more financially beneficial for labourers to downplay or disavow their expertise/knowledge #NVIC24
November 23, 2024 at 12:10 PM
Allison Mickel encouraged everyone to recognise archaeology as a site of production, & ‘lucrative non-knowledge’ where it can (sadly) be more financially beneficial for labourers to downplay or disavow their expertise/knowledge #NVIC24
Many talks focussed on specific historic excavations, but there were dark themes that emerged across many: coercion of labourers, incl. children, who if injured or suspected of theft could be summarily dismissed, conflict over pay & a lack of respect for indigenous knowledge/expertise #NVIC24
November 23, 2024 at 12:07 PM
Many talks focussed on specific historic excavations, but there were dark themes that emerged across many: coercion of labourers, incl. children, who if injured or suspected of theft could be summarily dismissed, conflict over pay & a lack of respect for indigenous knowledge/expertise #NVIC24
The Arabic diaries in Harvard demonstrate how Qufti foremen worked collectively to keep extremely detailed documentation (better than Reisner), managed excavations singlehandedly at times, advanced their own theories & dating & created their own Egyptian terms for Egyptological concepts #NVIC24
November 23, 2024 at 12:04 PM
The Arabic diaries in Harvard demonstrate how Qufti foremen worked collectively to keep extremely detailed documentation (better than Reisner), managed excavations singlehandedly at times, advanced their own theories & dating & created their own Egyptian terms for Egyptological concepts #NVIC24
I can’t wait to visit the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but my little ‘Pharaoh’ book has already made it there before me! Spotted in the wild at the GEM gift shop - thanks to my friend & colleague Leire Olabarria for sharing this photo 🥰
November 22, 2024 at 5:19 PM
I can’t wait to visit the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but my little ‘Pharaoh’ book has already made it there before me! Spotted in the wild at the GEM gift shop - thanks to my friend & colleague Leire Olabarria for sharing this photo 🥰
The conference highlighted many unacknowledged Egyptian contributions to Egyptology: expert photographer Daktor Ahmed Hassan, teacher-scholar Ahmed Mohamed Ismail ‘a university before there was any university in Egypt’ & Ahmed Kamal Pasha’s Herculean multi-vol Hieroglyphic-Arabic dictionary #NVIC24
November 22, 2024 at 4:38 PM
The conference highlighted many unacknowledged Egyptian contributions to Egyptology: expert photographer Daktor Ahmed Hassan, teacher-scholar Ahmed Mohamed Ismail ‘a university before there was any university in Egypt’ & Ahmed Kamal Pasha’s Herculean multi-vol Hieroglyphic-Arabic dictionary #NVIC24