Angus Graham
I joined the department in July 2014 as a Wallenberg Academy Fellow. I am the principal investigator of the Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey working in the floodplain of modern day Luxor (ancient Waset / Thebes) in Egypt. 
The project aims to understand human interaction with past landscapes and waterscapes in this major political and religious centre from the third millennium BCE to the Roman Period. The project is exploring the extent of the ancient Egyptians’ ability to engineer the floodplain to produce an interconnected landscape for the gods and kings of Egypt.
My main research interests are in constructed landscapes and waterscapes; urbanism, settlement and temple location; cultural and environmental interactions; River Nile dynamics; river navigation and transport logistics and infrastructure.
I studied for a BA (Hons) Egyptian Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology (IoA), University College London staying there for an MRes in Research Methods for the Humanities and then my doctoral research, under the supervision of Dr David Jeffreys, which focused on understanding harbours and quaysides in the Egyptian Nile Valley. The work combined textual and pictorial sources with evidence of boat technology, an understanding of the regime of the River Nile and floodplain geomorphology, and fieldwork in the Nile Valley.
From 2002-09 I co-directed the Karnak Land- and Waterscapes Survey (KLaWS) with Dr Judith Bunbury (Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge. Our programme of augering and geophysical survey at the vast complex of temples at Karnak suggests that the temple was founded on an alluvial island in the River Nile four millennia ago - the perfect place to establish a temple as the island represents the primeval mound in ancient Egyptian cosmogony!
I have worked on a number of other archaeological projects in Egypt since 1999 at Sais, Giza, Memphis, Saqqara, Antinoopolis, North Karnak, Hierakonpolis, Edfu, Gebel el-Asr and in Dakhla Oasis. I also had the pleasure of working as the leader of ‘Team East’ in the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project (TAESP). Team East carried out a systematic survey on the central northern foothills of the Troodos mountains in Cyprus (2001-03 in the field and to final publication in 2013). The survey investigated landscapes that have seen a considerable imprint from copper mining and smelting during the Roman Period, mining during the last century as well as very recent changing agricultural practices dramatically reshaping the hillsides and valleys of the foothills.
As an undergraduate I had the good fortune to gain excavation and phenomenological survey experience on the Bodmin Moor Landscape Project (1997 and 1999), where my interests in landscapes and waterscapes were first nurtured.
Selected Publications
Graham, A., Strutt, K. D., Toonen, W. H. J., Pennington, B. T., Peeters, J., Emery, V. L., Barker, D. S. and Johansson, C. 2017 in press. Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey, 2016, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 102.
Boraik, M., Gabolde, L. and Graham, A. 2017. Karnak’s Quaysides: evolution of the embankments from the XVIIIth dynasty to the Graeco-Roman period, in H. Willems and J.-M. Dahms (eds.), The Nile: Natural and Cultural Landscape in Egypt, Proceedings of The Nile – Natural Landscape and Cultural Landscape 22nd - 23rd February 2013, Forschungsschwerpunkt Historische Kulturwissen-schaften, Mainz, Historische Kulturwissenschaften series. Bielefeld: Transcript.
Graham, A., Strutt, K. D., Toonen, W. H. J., Pennington, B. T., Löwenborg, D., Masson-Berghoff, A., Emery, V. L., Barker, D. S., Hunter, M. A., Lindholm, K-J. and Johansson, C. 2016. Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey, 2015, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 101, 37-49.
Toonen, W. H. J., Graham, A., Pennington, B. T., Hunter, M. A., Strutt, K. D., Barker, D. S., Masson A. and Emery, V. L. 2016. The Nile floodplain, hydroclimatic variability, and its relation with cultural dynamics in ancient Thebes (Luxor, Egypt), EGU General Assembly 2016. Geophysical Research Abstracts 18, EGU2016-5713.
Graham, A. and Bunbury, J., 2016. Migrating Nile: Augering in Egypt, in S. Zakrzewski, A. Shortland, and J. Rowland (eds.), Science in the Study of Ancient Egypt, 93-97. Routledge series in Egyptology, 3. New York and London: Routledge Taylor & Francis.
Strutt, K. D., Graham, A., Toonen, W. H. J., Pennington, B. T., Löwenborg, D., Emery, V. L., Barker, D. S., Hunter, M. A., Masson, A., Lindholm, K. J. 2015. Manipulating mud: (re)constructing cosmogonical landscapes in the Nile Valley, Thebes, Egypt, Archaeologia Polona 53, 514-517.
Graham, A., Strutt, K. D., Hunter, M. A., Pennington, B. T., Toonen, W. H. J. and Barker, D. S. 2014. Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey, 2014, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 100, 41-53.
Strutt, K. D., Heidel, J. and Graham, A. 2014. The 2012 Geophysical Survey at Antinoupolis, in R. Pintaudi (ed.), Antinoupolis II. Edizioni dell’ Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli», 3. Firenze: Firenze University Press.
Graham, A., Strutt, K. D., Emery, V. L., Jones, S., Barker. D. B. 2013. Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey, 2013, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 99, 35-52.
Graham, A., Banks, I., Digney, S., Gabrieli, R.S., Given, M., Hadjianastasis, M., Kassianidou, V., Lufafa, A., McCartney, C., Noller, J., Ntinou, M., Urwin, N. and Winther-Jacobsen, K. 2013. The Upper Lagoudhera Valley, in M. Given, A. B. Knapp, L. Sollars, J. Noller and V. Kassianidou (eds.), Landscape and Interaction: Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project, Cyprus. Vol. II. Levant Supplementary Series, 15. London: Council for British Research in the Levant.
Graham, A. and Strutt, K. D. 2013. Ancient Theban temple and palace landscapes, Egyptian Archaeology 43, 5-7.
Graham, A. 2012. Investigating the Theban West Bank floodplain, Egyptian Archaeology 41, 21-24.
Graham, A., Strutt, K. D., Hunter, M. A., Jones, S., Masson, A., Millet, M., Pennington, B. T. 2012. Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey, 2012, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 98, 27-42.
Graham, A., Strutt, K. D., Hunter, M. A., Jones, S., Masson, A., Millet, M., Pennington, B. T. 2012. Reconstructing Landscapes and Waterscapes in Thebes, Egypt, in W. Bebermeier, R. Hebenstreit, E. Kaiser, J. Krause (eds.), Landscape Archaeology. Proceedings of the International Conference Held in Berlin, 6th – 8th June 2012, eTopoi. Journal for Ancient Studies
Special Volume 3; http://journal.topoi.org/index.php/etopoi
Graham, A. 2011. Ancient Theban waterways, Egyptian Archaeology 38, 3.
Davies, W. V., O’Connell, E., Bunbury, J. and Graham, A. 2011. British Museum Expedition report on the 2008 season, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 85: 22–55.
Graham, A. 2010. Ancient landscapes around the Opet temple, Karnak, Egyptian Archaeology 36, 25-28.
Graham, A. 2010. Islands in the Nile: a geoarchaeological approach to settlement locations in the Egyptian Nile Valley and the case of Karnak, in M. Bietak, E. Czerny and I. Forstner-Müller (eds.), Cities and Urbanism in ancient Egypt, 125-143. Papers from a workshop in November 2006 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie, LX. Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen Instituts, XXXV. Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Bunbury, J.M., Graham, A. and Strutt, K. D. 2009. Kom el-Farahy: a New Kingdom island in an evolving Edfu floodplain, British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan 14, 1-23.
Bunbury, J.M., Lutley, C. and Graham, A. 2009. Giza Geomorphological Report, in M. Lehner, M. Kamel and A. Tavares (eds.), Giza Plateau Mapping Project Seasons 2006-07 Preliminary Report, 158-165. Giza Occasional Papers, 3. Boston: AERA.
Bunbury, J. M., Graham, A. and Hunter, M. A. 2008. Stratigraphic landscape analysis: charting the movements of the Nile at Karnak through ancient Egyptian time, Geoarchaeology 23 (3), 351-373.
Bunbury, J. M., and Graham, A. 2008. There’s nothing boring about a borehole, Nekhen News 20, 22-23.
Graham, A. 2007. Review: Grain Transport in the Ramesside Period. Papyrus Baldwin (BM EA 10061) and Papyrus Amiens. By Jac J. Janssen. Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum, 8. London, British Museum Press, 2004, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 93, 298-300.
Hillier, J. K., Bunbury, J. and Graham, A. 2007. Monuments on a Migrating Nile, Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 1011-1015.
Graham, A., Jacobsen, K.W. and Kassianidou, V. 2006. Ayia Marina Mavrovouni. Preliminary report on the Roman settlement and smelting workshop in the central northern foothills of the Troodos Mountains, Cyprus, Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus 2006, 345-367.
Graham, A. and Bunbury, J. 2005. The ancient landscapes and waterscapes of Karnak, Egyptian Archaeology 27, 17-19.
Graham, A. 2005. Plying the Nile: Not all plain sailing, in K. Piquette and S. Love (eds), Current Research in Egyptology 2003: Proceedings of the fourth annual symposium which took place at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 18-19 January 2003, 41-56. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Graham, A. and Bunbury, J. 2004. Pottery from the alluvial environments at Karnak North, Bulletin de Liaison du Groupe International d’Étude de la Céramique Égyptienne 22, 55-59.
Graham, A. 2003. Some Thoughts on the Social Organisation of Dockyards during the New Kingdom, in R. Ives, D. Lines, C. Naunton and N. Wahlberg (eds), Current Research in Egyptology III: December 2001, 27-34. BAR International Series 1192. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Shaw, I., Bloxam, E., Bunbury, J. Lee, R., Graham, A., and Darnell, D. 2001. Survey and excavation at the Gebel el-Asr gneiss and quartz quarries in Lower Nubia (1997-2000), Antiquity 75, 33-34.