Dr David Edwards

With a BA in History (York), an MLitt (Newcastle) and a PhD (Cambridge) in Archaeology I came to Leicester in 1999 as a post-doctoral researcher, and was subsequently a Lecturer in Archaeology until 2024. My primary research interests remain in Sudanese/Nubian archaeology and history from the Bronze Age to the recent.

I continue to research the archaeology and History of Sudan, Nubia and Sudanic Africa, currently focussing on publication of the UNESCO supported Archaeological Survey of Sudanese Nubia (1963-1969), carried out in response to the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Researchers interested in working with the ASSN archive can contact me concerning this material.

Edwards, D.N. 2024. ‘Creating Islamic Landscapes and Holy Places in Sudanese Nubia’. In Görke, A. and M. Guidetti (eds) Constructing and Contesting Holy Places in Medieval Islam and Beyond, Leiden: Brill, 192-220.

Edwards, D.N. (ed.) 2020. The Archaeological Survey of Sudanese Nubia 1963-69. The Pharaonic Sites, Oxford: Archaeopress/SARS. [with A.J. Mills]

Edwards, D.N. 2020. Landscape Archaeologies in Nubia and the Middle Nile, in G. Emberling & B. Williams (eds) Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Edwards, D.N. 2020. 'Early states and urban forms in the Middle Nile' In. Sterry, M. and Mattingly, D.J. (eds). Urbanisation and State-Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge University Press, 359-395.

Edwards, D.N. 2019. Islamic archaeology in Nubia, in D. Raue (ed.) Handbook of Ancient Nubia, Berlin: De Gruyter, 965-84. 

Edwards, D.N. 2019. 'Between the Sahara and the Nile: some comparative perspectives', In Gatto, M. et al. (eds). Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and beyond. Cambridge: CUP, 195-22.

Edwards, D.N. 2018. 'Late Antique Nubia revisited'. In Bacs, T., Bollok, Ã. and Vida, T. (eds) Across the Mediterranean - Along the Nile. Studies in Egyptology, Nubiology and Late Antiquity dedicated to Laslo Torok on the Occasion of His 75th Birthday, Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences/LTE, 539-556.

Edwards, D.N. 2018. 'Towards a Historical Archaeology of Ottoman Nubia, In Honegger, M. (ed.) Nubian Archaeology in the XXIst Century. Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference for Nubian Studies (Neuchatel, 1-6 September 2014). (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 273), Leuven: Peeters, 645-660.

Edwards, D. N. 2014. 'Creating Christian Nubia: Processes and Events on the Egyptian Frontier', in J. Dijkstra and G. Fishers (eds) Inside and Out. Interactions between Rome and the Peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers, Leuven: Peeters.

Edwards, D. N. (ed.) 2012. The Archaeology of a Nubian Frontier, Leicester: Mauhaus.

Edwards D.N. 2004. The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of the Sudan, London: Routledge.

Edwards D.N. 1999. Musawwarat es Sufra III. A Meroitic Pottery Workshop at Musawwarat es Sufra. (Meroitica 17:2). Weisbaden: Harrassowitz.

Edwards D.N. 1998. Gabati. A Meroitic, post-Meroitic and medieval cemetery in central Sudan. Volume 1. London: SARS.

Edwards D.N. 1996. The Archaeology of the Meroitic State: new perspectives on its social and political organisation. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 38. Oxford. 

Applicants are welcome from those interested in PhD research relating to Sudan Nubia and Sudanic Africa particularly relating to ceramic culture pottery mortuary archaeologies and landscape-scale studies. Students interested in working with the ASSN archive would be especially welcome.

I teach at all levels of Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies campus and distance learning including Egyptian and Nubian/Sudanese archaeology medieval archaeology landscape archaeologies archaeologies of religion and belief and skills for Professional Archaeology.

Associate Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (ACIfA)