I am an archaeologist, specialising in ancient Egypt, with research interests that include urbanism, lived religion and cultural interaction in the ancient world. I am particularly 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 Akhetaten (modern Amarna), the late Bronze Age city built by the 'monotheistic' pharaoh Akhenaten, who promoted the sun god Aten as a sole creator. I direct the fieldwork program at Amarna on behalf of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge (Amarna Project), working with the permission and assistance of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. 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 current projects include:

• Amarna Cemetery Project (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:

G.R. Dabbs, A. Stevens and M. King Wetze. 2023. A mature ovarian teratoma from New Kingdom Amarna, Egypt. International Journal of Paleopathology 43, 99–105.

A. Stevens, C.E. Rogge, J.E.M.F. Bos and G.R. Dabbs. 2019. From representation to reality: Ancient Egyptian wax head cones from Amarna. Antiquity 93, 1515–33.

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.

• Akhenaten's City: Protecting Amarna's Urban Heritage (2023–26):  A pilot project to record and safeguard Amarna's ancient housing areas through the creation of a large-scale photogrammetric model, archaeological study of houses excavated in the early 1900s, conservation, community outreach and the construction of protective boundary walls. The project is supported by a three-year grant from the American Research Center in Egypt’s Antiquities Endowment Fund. For more, see:

A. Stevens, F. Balestra, D. Driaux, G.R. Dabbs, P. Docherty, S.L. Boonstra, G. Tully, J.E.M.F. Bos, T. Lakin, V. Gasperini, P. Rose and M. Bertram. 2024. Tell el-Amarna, Autumn 2023 to Summer 2024. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 110, 13–45.