The University of Liverpool invites applications for two funded studentships on ancient Egyptian textiles and their social contexts. The award is made under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Award Scheme and the project, “Contextualising Textiles: Using the Bolton Museum Collection to Explore Social and International Contexts of Egyptian Bronze Age-Islamic Cloth”, to begin in October 2016, will be supervised by Prof Ian Shaw, University of Liverpool, and Dr Carolyn Routledge, Bolton Museum. The successful applicants will each have an exceptional chance to benefit from training and a placement at Bolton Museum, conduct research into its collections and archives, and play a significant curatorial role in the creation of a new HLF-funded ancient Egyptian display at Bolton.

This project explores and interprets a unique, virtually unexploited collection of excavated textiles at Bolton Museum to assess the production of cloth in Egypt, including its use as a social indicator, and the impact of international connections on the production, use, and ideology of textiles in ancient Egypt. The project brings together the museological expertise of Bolton Museum with the archaeological and textile-related academic expertise of Liverpool University to create a dynamic and truly rich research environment. The two PhD students will study the Bolton collection splitting chronologically into 1. Neolithic-Middle Bronze Age and 2. Late-Bronze Age to Islamic.

Candidate Requirements
Applicants should have a good undergraduate degree in Archaeology, Anthropology, Museum Studies or another relevant discipline, satisfy AHRC eligibility requirements including Masters-level advanced research training or equivalent, and be able to demonstrate an active interest in museums, ancient Egyptian material culture and society. Applications from those who have some previous experience in the study of ancient textiles and their archaeological, technological and cultural contexts will be welcomed.