The study of ancient Egypt from the Predynastic to Early Islamic period is a central part of the ACRC's research program, with strong foci on the Pharaonic period (from predynastic to New Kingdom), Graeco-Roman Egypt, and Early Christianity and Coptic monasticism. ACRC researchers lead excavations at 11 sites in Egypt, ranging from Predynastic tombs and temples, though Old and New Kingdom tombs, to Coptic monasteries. Research projects address aspects of material culture, art history, cultural change, and languages in Pharaonic, Hellenistic and Roman, and Late Antique / Early Islamic Egypt.

Fieldwork

ACRC teams are carrying out recording, excavation, or surveys at Beni Hassan; Helwan; Meir; Sohag; Tehna; Thebes; Abou Rawash; Wadi Araba; and Ganub Qasr al-'Aguz.

Art, Culture, and History of Pharaonic Egypt

• The Ancient Egyptians' Atypical Relationship with Invertebrates
• The Design and Decoration of Burial Chambers in Old Kingdom Egypt
• Sustaining Meir: Tracing Egypt's Cultural Transition from the Old to the Middle Kingdom

Language, Script, and History in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt

• Bilingualism and the Greek Language in Hellenistic Egypt: Evidence from the Zenon Archive
• Idiolect and Social Dialect in the Zenon Archive
• Language, Literacy, and Acculturation in Early Ptolemaic Egypt Ptolemy I Soter: Egypt in a Phase of Change
• Scribal Practice in Duplicate Documents on Papyrus from Graeco-Roman Egypt
• Words from the Sand: A Lexical Analysis of Early Greek Papyri from Egypt

Early Christianity and Coptic Monasticism

• Communication Networks in Upper Egyptian Monastic Communities
• Monastic remains from Late Antiquity in the Upper Nile and Desert Regions of Egypt 
• Papyri from the Rise of Christianity in Egypt 
• Religious Authority and Linguistic Change in Late Antique Egypt: Non-Elite Perspectives on the Rise of Monasticism in Contemporary Documents

From pre-modern Europe and the Byzantine Empire to China, the Silk Road was the major ancient East-West conduit for trade, diplomacy, religion, and ideas. ACRC Projects in this field explore modes of communication within and between these cultures, the establishment of religious and philosophical thought in China and the transmission and assimilation of foreign ideas by Chinese society.

• The Confucian moral and political thinking in the recently excavated bamboo strips in China
• China and the ancient Mediterranean world
• Mission and inculturation: The Manichaean and Nestorian experience in China
• Nestorian (Jingjiao) inscriptions from China and Chinese Central Asia

ACRC researchers lead excavation and survey projects that examine the natural and built landscape of Italy and Rome, and Greece and the Aegean. Research projects also address the transformation of the Late Roman and Byzantine world into the medieval and early modern period; the Hellenistic world; and the Greek language.

Rome and Italy

• Beyond the city walls: the landscapes of Aquileia
• Dictionary of Roman Political and Social Biography

The Roman world, its Neighbours, and Successors

• Ancient and Medieval Identity-shifts and the Construction of Identities in Post-Yugoslav space
• Communication and Media in the Development of the Post-Roman/Early Medieval and Byzantine World (fifth to eighth centuries)
• Gallipoli before Gallipoli

Classical Greece and the Aegean

• Hillard & Benness [further info to come] Sheedy [further info to come]

The Hellenistic World

• Bilingualism and the Greek Language in Hellenistic Egypt: Evidence from the Zenon Archive
• Idiolect and Social Dialect in the Zenon Archive
• Language, Literacy, and Acculturation in Early Ptolemaic Egypt
• Ptolemy I Soter: Egypt in a Phase of Change
• Scribal Practice in Duplicate Documents on Papyrus from Graeco-Roman Egypt
• Words from the Sand: A Lexical Analysis of Early Greek Papyri from Egypt

The Greek Language

• Bilingualism and the Greek Language in Hellenistic Egypt: Evidence from the Zenon Archive
• Idiolect and Social Dialect in the Zenon Archive
• Language, Literacy, and Acculturation in Early Ptolemaic Egypt
• Words from the Sand: A Lexical Analysis of Early Greek Papyri from Egypt

Members of the ACRC research the early Christian and Jewish world within the context of the Graeco-Roman world across a range of projects.

• Papyri from the Rise of Christianity in Egypt 
• Communication Networks in Upper Egyptian Monastic Communities
• Religious Authority and Linguistic Change in Late Antique Egypt: Non-Elite Perspectives on the Rise of Monasticism in Contemporary Documents