The Yale Monastic Archaeology Project (YMAP)

Initiated in 2006, the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project (YMAP) sponsors archaeological work at late ancient and medieval Christian monastic sites in both Lower and Upper Egypt. In Lower Egypt, YMAP-North has worked at Kellia-Pherme in the western Delta (2006) and at the Monastery of John the Little in Wādī al-Naṭrūn (Scetis) (fieldwork 2006–2017; publications ongoing). In Upper Egypt, YMAP-South has worked at the White Monastery (2008 to present) and at the site of the associated women’s monastery at Atripe (2016 to present, in collaboration with the University of Tübingen). The fieldwork sponsored by YMAP has also served as a venue for training in archaeological methods and the analysis of material culture.

Painting of the Virgin and Child in the Church of St. Shenoute after its full conservation in 2015. Photo: Gillian Pyke.

Church of St. Shenoute at the White Monastery, viewed from the east. Photo: Stephen J. Davis.

Over the course of its history, the bulk of YMAP’s funding has come through the William K. and Marilyn M. Simpson Egyptology Endowment at Yale, but it is also benefitted from grants awarded by ARCE’s Antiquities Endowment Fund, the National Geographic Society, and the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Project Team Members:

• Gillian Pyke- Director of archaeology, ceramicist, plaster specialist 
• Nicholas Warner- Architect
• Darlene Brooks- Hedstrom & Archaeological Consultant
• Andrea Achi- Art historian & Assistant Archaeologist
• Hanna Aziz Adly- Assistant Archaeologist
• Mohamed al-Taiyyib Ahmed- Contractor
• Camille Angelo- Assistant Archaeologist
• Anne Louise Blanke- Archaeologist/Surveyor
• Elizabeth Bolman- Art Historian
• Wendy Dolling- Archaeologist
• Mennat el-Dorry- Archaeobotanical Specialist
• John Olaf Theodore Gayer Anderson- Conservator
• Salima Ikram- Archaeofaunal Specialist
• Stéphanie Machabée- Assistant Archaeologist, Papyrologist, Heritage management specialist
• Bianca Madden- Conservator
• Marie-Dominique Nenna- Glass specialist
• Mary Ownby- Thin-section specialist
• Samuel Price- Structural engineer
• Emiliano Ricchi- Assistant chief conservator
• Anna Stevens- Archaeologist
• James Stevenson- Structural engineer
• Alberto Sucato- Conservator
• Alberto Urcia- Surveyor
• Matthieu Vanpeene, Architect & Surveyor

Past Sponsors: 

• National Geographic Society 
• Dumbarton Oaks