CACHE New Member: Dr Georgia Barker

CACHE is delighted to welcome Dr Georgia Barker to our CACHE Membership. 

Dr Georgia Barker has recently been awarded a prestigious Macquarie University COVID Recovery Research Fellowship for the project "Impacts of Instability: Funerary Models, Wall Scenes and Inscriptions at Asyut".

Through a case study of the cemetery of Asyut, Georgia’s project aims to determine how a period of political instability affected funerary customs during the First Intermediate Period and early Middle Kingdom in Egypt (c. 2160–1938 BC). The military holds a prominent place in the inscriptions and representations in the tombs at Asyut, reflecting a growing feeling of instability and the critical role the province played in the civil war. Notably, this theme remains dominant in the sources after the re-unification of the country in the Middle Kingdom. While the historical importance of the inscriptions has been investigated by scholars, the complementary artistic sources have not been adequately assessed. This project, therefore, comprises the first comparative analysis of the three primary artistic and textual sources found at the site: funerary models, wall scenes and inscriptions. This analysis aims to highlight the historical importance of artistic representations and to provide new insight into the impact of the turbulent period on the individuals of the region.

CACHE looks forward to following along Georgia’s career and welcomes her to the CACHE community for the duration of her Fellowship.

Dr Georgia Barker is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University. For more on Georgia’s work, see her Macquarie University profile and engage with her on Twitter.