Full lecture title:
"Culture Heritage as Sustainable Development: A Case-Study from the Asyut Region (Middle Egypt)"

The British Museum Asyut Region Project aims to implement a new holistic approach to fieldwork in Egypt by looking at the broad spectrum of history – from 2500BC up until the present day – at multi-layered sites, including the varied responses of local communities who live atop the layers of history below. Rather than merely look upon archaeological sites as salvage missions or academic pursuits, we appeal to local interests, and support that through deploying methodologies drawn from archaeology and heritage preservation. The project aspires to provide a model for innovative and sustainable fieldwork initiatives, promoting increased empowerment of, and participation by, the local communities using the Asyut region in Middle Egypt, and the village of Shutb (ancient Shashotep) in particular, as a case-study.

Such an all-inclusive approach has rarely been tested in Egypt, where most projects are physically and intellectually separated from present-day inhabitants of rural areas with large numbers of low-profile sites and unlisted historic buildings. Local communities have therefore not benefitted from archaeological work in their area, and as a result do not function as working partners in preserving it. The lecture will present results of traditional archaeological fieldwork as well as outcomes of our engagement programmes aimed at shifting the general public’s perception about their heritage. The latter efforts will be illustrated by the screening of a second and third documentary film (in a series of four) showing how local inhabitants explore and document the oral history of their village.

Dr Ilona Regulski is the Curator for Egyptian Written Culture at the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. She is responsible for the papyrus collection and other inscribed material in the collection, including the Rosetta Stone. Her areas of expertise include epigraphy and palaeography from the Early Dynastic period until the beginning of the New Kingdom with a (recent) focus on Middle Kingdom material culture and ritual narrative. In an attempt to contextualise writing, she initiated a new research project investigating the deep history of the Asyut region (middle Egypt); once one of the most influential local hubs for the creation and dissemination of written culture in Egypt.

! attention !
The number of seats is limited. Our doors open at 5:30 and close at 6:15 or earlier in case the lecture room has reached its full capacity (out of safety considerations).