Tea on the terrace takes the reader on a journey up and down the Nile with famous archaeologists and Egyptologists. Spending time with these fascinating men and women at their hotels and on their boats, the book reveals that a great deal of archaeological work took place away from field sites and museums. Arriving in Alexandria, travellers such as Americans Theodore Davis, Emma Andrews and James Breasted, and Britons Wallis Budge, Maggie Benson and Howard Carter moved on to Cairo before heading south for Luxor, the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. The book follows them on their journey, listening in on their conversations and observing their activities. Applying insights from social studies of science, it reveals that hotels in particular were crucial spaces for establishing careers, building and strengthening scientific networks, and generating and experimenting with new ideas. Combining archaeological tourism with the history of Egyptology, and drawing on a wide array of archival materials, Tea on the terrace takes the reader behind the scenes of familiar stories, showing Egyptologists' activities in a whole new light. -- .

The dynamic processes of knowledge production in archaeology and elsewhere in the humanities and social sciences are increasingly viewed as the collaborative effort of groups, clusters and communities of researchers rather than the isolated work of so-called 'instrumental' actors. Shifting focus from the individual scholar to the wider social contexts of her work and the dynamic creative processes she participates in, this volume critically examines the importance of informal networks and conversation in the creation of knowledge about the past. Engaging with theoretical approaches such as the sociology and geographies of knowledge and Actor-Network Theory (ANT), and using examples taken from different archaeologies in Europe and North America from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century, the book caters to a wide readership, ranging from students of archaeology, anthropology, classics and science studies to the general reader. -- .