*If at any point tickets are sold out, please email submissions.bejournal@gmail.com for the Zoom information.
Room: Arts 104, Arts Building, University of Birmingham.
Join us for a talk by Martin Odler, Visiting Fellow at Newcastle University.
Title: EgypToolWear – Metalwork Wear Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Tools project – an interim report
The EgypToolWear project was an analysis of the function and uses of metal craft tool blades from late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Egypt (c.3500-1070 BC). This was the first ever project to deploy Metalwork Wear Analysis to precisely understand how copper-alloy tools were used in early Egypt, by whom, for what tasks, and with what gestures. It was carried out at the Newcastle University and supervised by Prof. Andrea Dolfini, specialist on the European Bronze Age metalwork wear. Metalwork Wear Analysis is a micro- and macro-scale microscopy method for understanding uses of ancient copper-alloy tools by comparison with experimentally produced (and used) replica tools. The research is grounded in a multidisciplinary approach combining Metalwork Wear Analysis with (a) a critical reassessment of textual and iconographic sources (which are both abundant and detailed in ancient Egypt); (b) other methods of metallurgical analysis; and (c) experimental archaeology. I have studied a corpus of about a hundred copper-alloy tools of various periods, provenances, shapes, and presumed uses, giving much-needed temporal and geographical depth to the research. The project was important in that it deploys an innovative analytical and experimental approach to answering questions that have hitherto only been addressed predominantly by textual and iconographic studies. In the paper, interim results of this multi-disciplinary project, which was completed recently, will be presented.
Martin Odler is currently a visiting fellow at Newcastle University; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; School of History, Classics and Archaeology, where he has recently been a post-doctoral researcher for the past two years, on a project “EgypToolWear – Metalwork Wear Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Tools” under the supervision of Prof. Andrea Dolfini. He studied Egyptology, Classical Archaeology, Prehistoric and Mediaeval Archaeology in Prague, at Charles University, defending his PhD thesis in Egyptology in 2020.
