I am an archaeologist, specialising in ancient Egypt, with research interests that include urbanism in the ancient world, lived religion, cultural interaction and the archaeology of cult. I am especially interested in how material culture and urban space can shed light on the lives of the non-elite in ancient Egypt.

I have worked as an archaeologist in Egypt, Sudan, the UK and Australia, but my primary fieldwork project is at the New Kingdom city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna), built by Egypt’s 'monotheistic' pharaoh Akhenaten. I am Assistant Director of the Amarna Project (University of Cambridge), the long-running archaeological expedition to the site. I also serve as editor, alongside Dr Gianluca Miniaci (University of Pisa) and Dr Juan Carlos Moreno Garcìa (CNRS), for the book series Ancient Egypt in Context (Cambridge University Press), which seeks to connect Egyptology to the broader social sciences. 

My recent projects include:

• Excavating the Amarna cemeteries (2010 –): a multidisciplinary investigation of the non-elite cemeteries of Amarna, co-directed with Dr Gretchen Dabbs (Southern Illinois University) and funded by sources that have included the National Endowment for the Humanities, British Academy and the Egypt Exploration Society. The project integrates archaeology and bioarchaeology to shed new light onto health in ancient urban centres, non-elite funerary practice in ancient Egypt and life under Akhenaten. See also:

A. Stevens. 2018. Death and the city: The cemeteries of Amarna in their urban context. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 28, 103-26.

B. Kemp, A. Stevens, G.R. Dabbs, M. Zabecki and J.C. Rose. 2013. Life, death and beyond in Akhenaten’s Egypt: Excavating the South Tombs Cemetery at Amarna. Antiquity 87, 64-78.

And our web reports on the South Tombs Cemetery and Northern Cemeteries, and publications page.

• Protecting the Amarna Desert Altars (2020–21): a pilot program to develop protective walls around threatened areas of Amarna, conducted in partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and with funding from the American Research Center in Egypt’s Antiquities Endowment Fund.

• Community and Archaeology at Amarna (2017–19): a British-Council Institutional Links project to develop outreach and site management resources undertaken with Dr Kate Spence (PI) and Dr Gemma Tully (both University of Cambridge) and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.