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Staff profile

Overview

Dr Rennan Lemos

Assistant Professor in Egyptian Archaeology

Affiliations
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Assistant Professor in Egyptian Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology

Biography

Before joining the Department of Archaeology at Durham, I lectured in Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology at the University of Cambridge, where I also held a research appointment at Emmanuel College. Prior to this, I held a research position in Germany, where I taught both undergraduate and graduate students. I have worked continuously in Egypt and Sudan for over a decade.

I am currently Assistant Director of the Sanam Temple Project, where I have led excavations at a temple built by Taharqa in the Fourth Nile Cataract region in collaboration with New York University. In partnership with Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), I also co‑direct a field project on the 18th‑Dynasty tomb of Djehutyhotep, which was relocated from Lower Nubia to the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum during the UNESCO Nubian Campaign. In collaboration with the Section Française de la Direction des Antiquités du Soudan (SFDAS), this project has contributed directly to the Sudan Virtual Museum. I have also overseen excavations at a large Kerma‑period cemetery at Ginis East, North Sudan.

In Egypt, I have excavated at Amarna under Barry Kemp and in the Theban Necropolis (modern Luxor), where I remain actively involved in fieldwork. I am also involved in Durham University’s long‑term field project at Saïs.

Research

I am an archaeologist specialising in the study of colonialism and coloniality, using past material assemblages to explore how colonial power operated and how its legacies persist. My research bridges material culture studies, archaeological theory, and scientific approaches to understand colonial worlds—particularly those of ancient Egypt and Nubia—contributing to ongoing debates about decolonising archaeological practice.

My current research, funded by the British Academy and the Wainwright Fund, examines New Kingdom Egyptian colonisation in Nubia by exploring how Egyptian‑style objects shaped local social relations in colonial contexts. The project investigates how foreign objects underwent material and symbolic “metamorphoses” as they were incorporated into local practices, using a range of archaeological science techniques. Materials studied include kohl and other cosmetic substances, coffins and funerary masks, clay figurines, copper alloys, and gold.

With funding from the Michela Schiff Giorgini Foundation, I am collaborating with colleagues at New York University, the British Museum, and the University of Neuchâtel to expand this work through the study of Kerma‑period cosmetic recipes and organic materials, as well as Napatan‑period faience and copper alloys.

My research in Egypt focuses on the Nubian diaspora during the New Kingdom and is primarily based on epigraphic work in the late 18th‑Dynasty Theban tomb of Neferhotep (TT 49).

All these projects form part of a broader, collaborative research agenda examining colonial power, material circulation, and social inequality across the Nile Valley and beyond, combining archaeological science, theory, and heritage perspectives.

My work has a strong theoretical dimension, drawing particularly on postcolonial and decolonial approaches to develop bottom‑up interpretations of the ancient past through material culture. My research interests include forms of colonial domination and alternatives to colonial imposition, social stratification and power, relations of production and consumption, and the role of inequality in shaping identities through material culture.

More recently, my engagement with decolonial theory has led me to explore interactions between academic knowledge systems and Indigenous modes of thinking in archaeological research. I am currently developing this line of inquiry in Brazil and Mozambique.

Prospective PhD students and postdoctoral researchers I am keen to supervise doctoral research on all aspects of the social archaeology of ancient Egypt and Sudan. I particularly welcome projects that develop critical and theoretical perspectives, innovative methodologies, and approaches that situate the Nile Valley and surrounding deserts within their broader African context. I also welcome enquiries from prospective postdoctoral researchers interested in undertaking research in Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology at Durham, particularly projects that draw on our excellent laboratory facilities, which support a wide range of scientific analyses of material culture.

Research interests

  • Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology
  • Archaeology of Colonialism
  • Material Culture Studies
  • Postcolonial and Decolonial Theory
  • State Formation and Expansion

Esteem Indicators

  • 2024: Prize “à la mémoire de Jean Leclant”, awarded by the Michela Schiff Giorgini Foundation, Switzerland:
  • 2023: Prize “Aluno Eminente”, awarded by Colégio Pedro II, Brazil:
  • 2017: Certificate of Appreciation, offered by the South Valley University, Qena, Egypt:

Publications

Book review

Chapter in book

Edited book

Journal Article

Newspaper/Magazine Article

Supervision students

Lenna Lyons