The main body of research is the unique corpus of early Roman Imperial quarry marks at the sandstone quarry of Gebel el Silsila (GeS) in Upper Egypt: vertical, work-completed quarry faces inscribed with over 5000 marks or symbols, a selection of which (based on the applicant’s ongoing study) represents contemporaneous deities and immediately associated, and occasionally syncretistic religious ideas and superstitions. However, a large body of quarry marks remains ambiguous and the symbolic code requires further study in order to comprehend/understand its complex messages. The project’s immediate aims, based on the already collated empirical data and achieved results, are to:

1) assess in more detail how the marks were used in the workmen’s community (within the quarries and at temple construction); 2) collect comparable data from other sandstone quarries in southern Egypt, and from temple architecture for which stone was extracted and transported from GeS; 3) explain in more detail the marks’ affinity with writing, i.e. associated, adjacent signatures and texts, 4) study the names and ethnicity of the workers in associated text graffiti at GeS (and if possible consider intertextual prosopographical identifications) relating to point 1, above.

The ultimate objective and synthesis of the project is to produce a case study that will enable the development of a (semiotic) phenomenological definition, a model, of a marking system and its significance and functions within a multi-cultural and religiously syncretistic society. Due to its interdisciplinary character, the results will enable comparable material for other marking systems (geographically and culturally).

For the first time in a comprehensive form, the project aims to document, categorise and analyse engraved marks (‘quarry marks’) in the ancient Egyptian quarry of Gebel el Silsila for the purpose of identifying who was responsible for making these stone cuttings and why. Although the traditional identification of these marks has always centred around masons or stone cutters, other options will also be explored, including a more religious or superstitious significance: this is expressed in the proposed project title ‘quarry marks, characters, codes and magic’. While these marks are commonly dismissed as (simple) masons’ marks, they have never been fully classified or studied, thus resulting in a possible misconception of their meaning and function. The marks are studied here according to an interdisciplinary approach, combining the concepts of classicism, Egyptology and art history with an iconographical and semantic analysis of form and appearance and an iconological, linguistic and hermeneutic analysis of meaning and function. The marks will be compared with contemporary characters on magical amulets and papyri, contemporary textual signs and with later masons’ marks as well as contextual material, such as Greek and demotic inscriptions and archaeological material in order to understand their function and meaning. A comprehensive database will be created.

Books (1)

• Nilsson, M. (2012). The crown of Arsinoë II : The creation of an imagery of authority. Oxbow Books.

Articles (10)

• Nilsson, M., Ward, J., Faraman, A. & Hodgin, R. (accepted/in press). Private Scarabs from Gebel el-Silsila : Found during excavations in the New Kingdom Necropolis. Abgadiyat, 13.
• Nilsson, M., Faraman, A. & Said, A. (2019). Some Rock Inscriptions from Gebel el-Silsila. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.
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• Nilsson, M. & Ward, J. (2018). Updates from the ongoing excavations at Gebel el-Silsila: the New Kingdom cemetery & the Temple of Sobek. K M T: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, 29, 52-62. KMT Communications.
• Nilsson, M. & Ward, J. (2017). Five “New” deities in the Roman Pantheon at Gebel el-Silsila. Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 14, 22-30.
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• Nilsson, M. (2015). Anguiform graffiti in the Roman quarries at Gebel el Silsila. Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology, 85-96.
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• Nilsson, M. (2015). Gebel el Silsila, ett arkeologiskt landskap av antika monument och stenbrott. Medusa: svensk tidskrift för antiken, 22-34. Föreningen för en svensk antiktidskrift.
• Nilsson, M. (2015). Monumenter og Stenbrud : Gebel el-Silsilas Arkæologi. Papyrus, 35, 4-15.
• Nilsson, M. (2015). Quarrying for Claudius, protected by Min: Reflections on a small quarry in Gebel el Silsila East. British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan (BMSAES). British Museum.
• Nilsson, M., Ward, J., Almásy, A. & Doherty, S. (2015). Gebel el Silsila : Field report from the Main Quarry. Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology, 147-192.
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• Nilsson, M. (2014). Quarry marks in Partition B, Main Quarry at Gebel el Silsila : remarks on their meaning and function. Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities. Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities.

Book chapters (7)

• Nilsson, M. (accepted/in press). Quarry Marks in Gebel el Silsila – signifiers of men and gods alike?.
• Nilsson, M. (accepted/in press). Symbolae sacrae : Symbolic formulae for protection and adoration within the quarries of Gebel el-Silsila. The Wilkinson Egyptology Series.
• Nilsson, M. (2018). From Epipalaeolithic petroglyphs to Roman graffiti : Stylistic variability of anthropomorphs at Gebel el Silsila (Upper Egypt). In Huyge, D. & van Noten, F. (Eds.) (pp. 445-460). Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences.
• Nilsson, M. & Martinez, P. (2017). In the footsteps of Ricardo Caminos : Rediscovering the Gebel el Silsila and its rock-cut temple. In Rosati, G. & Guidotti, M. C. (Eds.) Archaeopress Egyptology (pp. 441-445), 19. Archaeopress Egyptology.
• Nilsson, M. & Ward, J. (2016). Pictorial representations at Gebel el Silsila : A 10 000 year long repertoire. In Capriotti Vittozzi, G. & Porcelli, F. (Eds.) Archaeological Heritage & Multidisciplinary Egyptological Studies (AHMES) (pp. 167-183), 3. Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico (ISMA).
• Nilsson, M. (2015). Non-textual marking systems at Gebel el Silsila : From Dynastic signifiers of identity to symbols of adoration. In Budka, J., Kammerzell, F. & Rzepka, S. (Eds.) (pp. 81-105), 16. Widmaier Verlag (Hamburg).
• Nilsson, M. & Ward, J. (2015). Gebel el Silsila : De monumenten en het steengroevenlandschap. In Koek, J. (Ed.) (pp. 117-137). Mehen.

Conference contributions (3)

• Nilsson, M. (submitted). Mason or priest? : A comparison between Graeco-Roman signs on magical amulets and symbols in Egyptian quarries.
• Ward, J. & Nilsson, M. (accepted/in press). Mallets, Chisels, Sledges and Boats : the Art of Quarrying at Gebel el Silsila.
• Nilsson, M. (2014). Pseudo script in Gebel el Silsila : preliminary results of the epigraphic survey 2012. In Accetta, K., Fellinger, R., Lourenço Gonçalves, P., Musselwhite, S. & van Pelt, W. P. (Eds.) (pp. 122-141), 14. Oxbow Books.

Reviews (1)

• Nilsson, M. (2013). Arsinoe of Egypt and Macedon: A Royal Life. Women's Studies, 42, 1025-1029. Taylor & Francis.
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Articles in specialist publications and popular press (4)

• Nilsson, M. (2014). Some Comments on the Prehistoric Representations at Gebel el-Silsila. Ancient Planet, 6, 4-15.
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• Nilsson, M. (2014). Surveying the sandstone quarries of Gebel el Silsila. K M T: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, 25, 34-43. KMT Communications.
• Nilsson, M. (2012). Pseudo script at Gebel el Silsila : an introduction to Ancient Egyptian quarry marks. Ancient Planet, 2, 96-111.
• Nilsson, M. (2012). Solar symbolism in Gebel el Silsila’. Ancient Planet, 3, 50-62.