In this fascinating talk, Dr Stephen Buckley will look at the first known mummification workshop ever found in Egypt. The workshop contents not only highlighted the skills of the ancient embalmers, but also revealed evidence for a global trade network stretching from North Africa to Southeast Asia by c.600 BC. Having worked at the site and studied its contents, Stephen will present the latest findings of his research and discuss its implications for international trade and contact many centuries earlier than previously claimed.

 

Stephen Buckley is a Research Fellow in Biomolecular Archaeology at the Universities of York, UK and Tübingen, Germany. Having studied the materials employed in mummification across four continents, from the iconic mummies of ancient Egypt to the mummies of Peru, he has been an archaeological chemist for excavations in the Valley of the Kings since 1993. His work on mummification has been widely published, including five papers in the world's leading science journal ‘Nature’, and his contribution to the documentary ‘Mummifying Alan: Egypt’s Last Secret’  won a BAFTA.