Kellis was a village in the Dakhleh Oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert inhabited continuously from the first to the late fourth century AD. Previously unexcavated, it has in recent decades yielded a wealth of data unsurpassed by most sites of the period due to the excellent state of preservation. We know the layout of the village with its temples, churches, residential sectors and cemeteries, and the excavators have retrieved vast quantities of artefacts, including a wealth of documents. The study of this material yields an integrated picture of life in the village, including the transition from ancient religious beliefs to various branches of Christianity. This volume provides accounts of the lived-in environment and its material culture, social structure and economy, religious beliefs and practices, and burial traditions. The topics are covered by an international team of specialists, culminating in an inter-disciplinary approach that will illuminate life in Roman Egypt.

Excavations by the Dakhleh Oasis Project at Ismant al-Kharab, ancient Kellis in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, revealed the presence of an extensive necropolis dating to the Roman Period, with hundreds of rock-cut tombs containing multiple burials. Termed the Kellis 1 Cemetery, it yielded a range of artefacts and many of the individuals were provided with elaborately decorated cartonnage coverings. This is the largest collection of such material yet discovered in Dakhleh. This book presents a detailed analysis of the entire corpus of cartonnage found at Kellis in a securely excavated context. These objects, which include mummy masks, foot-cases, and full body covers, were part of the burial accoutrements of the wealthier residents of the village. Stylistic and digital investigation of the artefacts suggests a well-defined craft production, with the presence of multiple groups of craftsmen using specific manufacturing techniques and local traits in their iconographic repertoire. The scale of evidence demonstrates that Kellis was a vibrant community with a dynamic funerary production in contact with nearby areas. Comparison with finds from the neighbouring Oasis of Kharga, as well as with artefacts in museums collections and from the antiquities market, suggest a complex network of skilled craftsmen throughout the region. This is the first comprehensive study of the material. It has been studied in person by the author in the field enabling a detailed appraisal of the items, whether intact or fragmentary. It builds on recent research addressing regionalism and craftsmanship, and constitutes one of the main sources to investigate issues of permanence and change in the indigenous funerary customs of the area.

The book is divided into two chapters. Chapter 1 presents a formal analysis and discussion of the pottery recovered during the excavations at El-Hawawish. The material is divided into two main groups: pottery of the late Old Kingdom to Middle Kingdom, and pottery of all later periods to the Late Roman. The main types are illustrated extensively and detailed descriptions are provided. Chapter 2 deals with the decoration techniques and the colour conventions. The preparation of the various surfaces to receive paintings is examined and the conventions used for colouring figures of humans, animals, objects, as well as hieroglyphs are described in detail.

This new volume in the Oasis Papers series marks the 40th anniversary of archaeological fieldwork in the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt's Western Desert under the leadership of Anthony J. Mills and presents a synthesis of the current state of our knowledge of the oasis and its interconnections with surrounding regions, especially the Nile Valley. The papers are by distinguished authorities in the field and postgraduate students who specialise in different aspects of Dakhleh and presents an almost complete survey of the archaeology of Dakhleh including much unpublished, original material. It will be one of the few to document a specific part of modern Egypt in such detail and thus should have a broad and lasting appeal. The content of some of the papers is unlikely to be published in any other form elsewhere. Dakhleh is possibly the most intensively examined wider geographic region within Egypt.

The Dakhleh Oasis Project is a long-term holistic investigation of the evolution of human populations in the changing environmental conditions of this isolated region in the Western Desert of Egypt. The Project began in 1978 and has combined survey and excavation to collect an extensive range of geological, environmental and archaeological data which covers the last 350,000 years of human occupation. This latest volume in the Monograph series publishing the results of the Project contains 41 papers with a wealth of new research and significant discoveries, from Prehistory, through Pharaonic and Roman times to the Christian period.

This volume publishes 293 texts inscribed in Greek on potsherds excavated at Ismant el-Kharab, Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. These texts date from the 2nd - 4th centuries AD, and they contain documentary evidence for a wide range of subjects such as taxation (in the form of tax receipts), private letters, lists and accounts, contracts, memoranda, school texts, and astrologica. The volume includes texts, translations, and commentaries for each ostrakon, as well as comprehensive indices and concordances. It also includes a chapter on the archaeology of Ismant el-Kharab and the context of the ostraka by Colin A Hope.

This volume contains twenty-five papers presented at the Third International Conference of the Dakhleh Oasis Project held in Melbourne in 2000, plus several other invited papers, which together reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the project. Five deal with Pleistocene and Holocene archaeology, including the first characterisation of the Older Middle Stone Age culture of the Oasis; there are three on pharaonic archaeology and fifteen devoted to Roman period Kellis. They include: discussions of the most recent archaeological work; the first detailed publication of a unique glass jug decorated with scenes of combatant gladiators, accompanied by colour images; and specialist reports on human skeletal remains.

This volume is the second produced by the Dakhleh Oasis Project devoted to reporting the preliminary results of its field work. The volume is divided into two parts: the first part includes reports on the study of various prehistoric and historic sites; the second part is devoted to the work on the settlement of Ismant el-Kharab, ancient Kellis, and two of its cemeteries. The latter papers include a description of the excavations, a discussion of the architectural evolution of the Main Temple Complex and the significance of the Large East Church, an attempt to reconstruct the Temple of Tutu using 3D computer modelling, and a study of the main wall paintings found in the Main Temple Complex. Several papers also present the results of research carried out on specific categories of artefacts and materials, such as the textiles, basketry and leather goods, ceramics, metals and metallurgy, oils, terracotta figurines, and the flora and fauna of ancient Kellis.

This volume contains progress reports on the work of these two seasons as well as a number of short reports on excavations at the Roman site of Kellis (Ismant el-Kharab). Contents: Preliminary Reports on the 1992-3 and 1993-4 Seasons (A J Mills); Interim Report on the 1992 Season (M McDonald and K Walker); Interim Report on the 1993 Season (M McDonald); 'Ein Birbiyeh (A J Mills); Deir el-Haggar (A J Mills); Excavations at Ismant el-Kharab (ancient Kellis): Settlement and Cemeteries: Excavations in the Cemeteries of Ismant el-Kharab (M Birrell); Coinage Preliminary Report (G E Bowden); Progress on the Coptic texts from Ismant el-Kharab (I Gardner); Interim Report on the West Tombs (C A Hope and J McKenzie); Epigraphy at Ismant el-Kharab (C Marchini); Brief Report on the Study of Ceramics (S F Patten); Plant Remains from Ismant el-Kharab (U Thanheiser); A Painted Panel of Isis (H Whitehouse).