Josef W. Wegner

Josef Wegner is Professor of Egyptian Archaeology in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. He is also Curator in the Egyptian Section of the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He received his BA in 1989 and his PhD (University of Pennsylvania) in 1996 on the topic of the development of the Osiris cult at Abydos during the Middle Kingdom. He is a specialist in the archaeology of Egypt's Middle Kingdom (ca. 2050-1650 BCE). Since 1994, as part of the combined University of Pennsylvania-Yale-Institute of Fine Arts, New York University Expedition to Abydos, he has directed excavations at the mortuary complex and settlement site dedicated to pharaoh Senwosret III at South Abydos. His interests include the study of state organization, administration, and settlement archaeology during Egypt's late Middle Kingdom. His research has been supported by fellowships and grants from the American Research Center in Egypt, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, and the American Philosophical Society. He is author of The Mortuary Temple of Senwosret III at Abydos (2007); co-author with D. Silverman and J. Houser-Wegner, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun: Revolution and Restoration (2006); and co-editor, with D. Silverman and W. K. Simpson of Archaism and Innovation: Cultural Studies in Egypt's Middle Kingdom (2009). He is author of numerous articles and edited contributions including recently a chapter in W. Wendricke (ed.), Egyptian Archaeology, Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology (2010). Among his current projects he is editor of the 2-volume Blackwell Companion to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (projected publication: 2012). He is currently completing a book on the mayoral residence of the town of Wah-Sut, South Abydos (for publication in 2011).