Thais Rocha
Assistant Professor at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Research Fellow, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford and member of the LAOP (University of São Paulo). PhD in Egyptology, Faculty of Oriental Studies, St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford. Between 2020 and 2024 I was a Postdoctoral Researcher at University of São Paulo supported by FAPESP. In 2023 I was a Research Visitor at NINO, University of Leiden, University of Vienna, and Visiting Research Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge.
My research aims to understand how ancient Egyptians conceived and experienced domestic space in Ancient Egypt. Building on my DPhil devoted to investigating domestic space at the Workmen's Village of Amarna through an anthropological-oriented framework, I now expand the scope both chronologically and geographically. This investigation is anchored in recent theoretical developments from Household Archaeology, Material Culture and ethnographic research. I explore new methodologies to understand houses through material culture, especially related to the social construction of the domestic sphere. My postdoctoral project explored social practices and sensory aspects of houses. I am currently part of the Amarna Project in Egypt and co-direct Being Egyptian together with Linda Hulin, and the Egypt Exploration Society.
Bio
Before joining Oxford for my DPhil, I did my MPhil in the Arab Studies Department at the University of São Paulo. My dissertation investigated gender relations in Ptolemaic Egypt (330 BC - 30 BC) based on the study of letters. As MPhil student, I was a visiting scholar at the Oriental Institute in Chicago (2009) and later in the United Kingdom (2011, 2013), when I started engaging with British Egyptology in the British Museum, University College London, the University of Oxford and the Egyptian Exploration Society. I studied History for my BA also at the University of São Paulo, Brazil (2001) focusing on Ancient History and Archaeology.
In 2020 I returned to Brazil, to fulfill my PhD funding board (CNPq) contractual requirements, having to remain in the country for 4 years. This gave me an incredible opportunity to engage with my colleagues in Brazil and to contribute to the development of the field in my home country by teaching, supervising students, writing, and taking part in many outreach activities. By being connected with Oxford and carrying on an international collaborative project I have been able to bridge two very distinct realities in the field, which I hope to continue contributing.
I have extensive experience as a teacher and museum educator. For over 16 years I worked as History teacher in Brazil covering topics in Brazilian and general history. I have also contributed to developing teaching materials for various publishers in Brazil. At Oxford, I taught topics related to Egyptian art and history and the archaeology of Amarna.
Current Projects
Being Egyptian. Dwelling Practice in the Nile Valley and Beyond.
A EES affiliated project
Being Egyptian is an umbrella project that aims to investigate how ancient Egyptians lived in the various territories of the Egyptian domain. It is an EES-affiliated project, with different and collaborative sub-projects conducted by Linda Hulin (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford/Harris Manchester College Oxford) and Thais Rocha da Silva (Department of History, University of São Paulo/Harris Manchester College Oxford). The first phase of the project (2021) was a series of discussions on Being Egyptian hosted by the Egypt Exploration Society (EES). This led to two concurrent, further investigations which explore the sensory impacts of domestic environments: (i) a comparison of settlements in Nubia and the Delta by Thais Rocha da Silva funded by FAPESP at the University of São Paulo; and (ii) a study by Linda Hulin of cognitive impact of material culture and domestic space in Egypt and the Levant. You can watch the highlights of our seminar series here.
Recent Talks
Selection (in English)
‘Eu falei faraó!' An Overview on Egyptomania in Brazil’
International Seminar Egypopcult. Reception of Antiquity in Contemporary Popular Culture. Lisbon, 24th-26th of January, 2024
Brazil and ancient Egypt had a long-term relationship. In the 19th century, Pedro I acquired an Egyptian collection and his son, Pedro II develop a particular interest for ancient Egypt, having visited the country and interacted various Egyptologists from his time. The interest for ancient Egypt by the Brazilian monarchy put ancient Egypt in a difficult situation in the first decades of the 20th century. Whilst ancient Egypt was initially associated with the royal family, its popular appropriation arrived in the 1980s with carnival in Bahia. In this presentation I examine the different paths ancient Egypt took both in the academic environment and in popular culture. I will discuss how Egyptomania developed in the country and for many years have ignored carnival as popular manifestation, having focused instead on the architecture of public buildings.
The impact of Cheikh Anta Diop in Brazilian popular views of ancient Egypt.
Colloque International d'Égyptologie. Centenary of the birth of Cheikh Anta Diop. Musée de Civilsations Noire. Dakar, 26th-29th December, 2023.
Studies on ancient Egypt in Brazil only recently began to approach archaeology and African history. It was in 2003 with Law 10639/03 that Brazilian schools embraced a profound revision of teaching and research practices in the country. The path of Egyptology in Brazil, originally sparked by the interest of Emperor Pedro II, followed the tradition of orientalist studies and was long associated with research on the ancient Mediterranean. Although there is no Egyptology as an academic degree in Brazilian universities, ancient Egypt is extremely popular in Brazil. The work of Cheikh Anta Diop, especially his volumes on the History of Africa promoted by UNESCO, had a significant international impact, but in Brazil, it only reached a broader audience in the 2000s. Nevertheless, Diop emerged as an important intellectual figure in reshaping perceptions of ancient Egypt and its interconnectedness with African history. The work of Abdias Nascimento played a pivotal role in bridging Diop's writings and the reception of ancient Egypt during the 1980s in Brazil. In this presentation, I explore the impacts of Cheikh Anta Diop's work on ancient Egypt in Brazil, especially related to Carnival celebrations in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro and the phenomenon of Egyptomania. Furthermore, I evaluate the recent impact of Diop's work on Brazilian social movements, considering his influence on educational initiatives and projects.
Make yourself at home. Senses and Social Practice in New Kingdom Egyptian houses.
Egyptian World Seminar Series, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
University of Cambridge.
Amarna Workmen's Village: Food Cooperation or Individualisation? (guest speaker)
BrIAS Workshop Interdisciplinary Approaches to Food History in Egypt: Past and Present. Brussels Institute for Advanced Studies (BrIAS), Université Libre de Bruxelles.
The Amarna Workmen’s Village is a special purpose settlement that housed the workforce engaged in the royal construction projects. The settlement was occupied for approximately 20 years and its inhabitants likely had to finish their homes after the Egyptian administration laid out the building area. Archaeological evidence from the village shows that people engaged in many modifications within their houses, adding or removing walls and building installations for food production. This evidence has been investigated mainly from an economic perspective. Delwen Samuel’s work about bread making in the village emphasized a process of individualisation in which the inhabitants were operating independently of one another. She argued that the presence of the state and the dependence on state provisions led the local population to be less cooperative. In this paper, I explore a different venue, arguing instead that the village privileged cooperation for food production. Domestic maintenance activities should not be regarded simply to an economic, utilitarian perspective. Rather, daily life in the Workmen’s Village was subject to specific type of domestic experience that were not solely based on individual houses, but the village itself.
The domestic experience at the Amarna workmen's village: senses and practice.
Living in the House. Researching the domestic life in ancient Egypt and Sudan. IFAO, 37-30th November, 2022.
This paper examines the constitution of domestic space at the Amarna Workmen’s Village based on a sensorial perspective. The Amarna domestic space privileged social interaction, and domestic activities cannot be understood solely by an economic framework. The presence of the Egyptian administration at the settlement and its interaction with the local inhabitants can be noted by the village enclosure wall and external buildings that coexisted with locally developed communal areas, like pigpens
and chapels. I explore the ways in which house plans have a social rather than a practical rationale, which may explain the variety of domestic ambience in the village. I will demonstrate how production activities are necessarily social and need to be examined archaeologically taking into consideration the interplay of landscape and architecture, and how individuals responded to the presence of the state. For this, new theoretical and methodological frameworks from Sensorial Archaeology and History of Senses provide new insights to understand how a large – and communal – domestic space, such as the Workmen’s Village of Amarna, affected the lives of its inhabitants, constituting a particular type of living experience.
Domestic Space and Senses in New Kingdom Egyptian houses (guest speaker)
Egyptology in Dialogue: Historical bodies in relations of comparisons and negotiations. Emory University, 3-4th November, 2022.
Houses are the material form through which people experience social life and the world around them. Their materiality conveys social values that are incorporated into daily tasks, social interaction with family members, neighbours, and institutions. Houses also
embody sensorial experiences through smells, sounds, tastes and evoke memories that trigger a sense of familiarity. This paper explores how the investigation of senses within domestic
space can help access the experience of ancient Egyptians who lived in foreign lands. I examine this phenomenon through two main theoretical frameworks: Sorensen’s ideas about negotiation (Sorensen 2007) and Robb and Harris’ body worlds to understand how social
practices and domestic space are intrinsically related. Taking social reality as a bodily process (Robb and Harris 2013, 11), I hope to demonstrate how bodily routines are affected.
and affect the material world to create and adapt spaces to live. In this sense, notions of
comfort, familiarity and discomfort/otherness are experienced through the body. That is why
the sensorial experience is crucial to understanding houses as a body world.
Poverty at Home? Community Life and Social Status in New Kingdom Egypt
WHO WAS POOR IN PHARAONIC EGYPT AND ITS NEAR EASTERN NEIGHBOURHOOD SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND VISIBILITY ACCORDING TO TEXTS, PICTURES AND ARCHAEOLOGY.
University of Vienna, 6-8th September, 2024
The investigation of domestic space in ancient Egypt privileged larger houses with scholars focusing on space use and artefact assemblages to determine social activities and status. Many analyses have been influenced by the assumption that the material culture equals social status of the inhabitants, especially regarding to house size. This is particularly problematic when we investigate special purpose settlements, like the Workmen’s Village in Amarna, with smaller houses in a cluttered space. The settlement housed the workforce engaged with royal building construction and was built and maintained by the Egyptian state. The existence of
communal areas spread out of the enclosure wall may have given a different idea about what "house" was for these communities. In this
presentation, I explore anthropologically-oriented methodologies, like the study of gated communities and sensorial archaeology to understand "village life". Furthermore, I will discuss what small houses within communities can off er
to shed light on defining the social status and community life in ancient
Egypt.
Fieldwork
Bead Workshop M50 14-16. Amarna Project
Autumn 2017, 2018.
Excavation and recording of the domestic complex M50 14-16 under the supervision of Dr Anna Hodgkinson. Post-excavation duties included the registration of finds and the digitisation of records (documentation, cataloguing, and photography of the faience and glass beads, digitalisation of some plans using GIS).
North Tombs Cemetery. Amarna Project
Spring, 2017.
Excavation and recording of non-elite burials under the supervision of Dr. Anna Stevens.
Read More.
East Devon Pebblebeds Project
2011
Excavations and recordings of prehistoric cairns under the supervision of Prof. Christopher Tilley.
Teaching
Courses and Tutorials
Guest Lecturer for the Module 03-AEG-2107/3112 Anatomie der Ägyptischen Kultur(en) anhand ausgewählter Beispiele I.
Wintersemester 2022/23, Universität Leipzig, Ägyptologisches Institut.
Course title: “Sex and Erotic in Ancient Egypt”. Teaching with Dr. Ann-Katrin Gill.
Domestic Space and material culture: trends and debates (FLH5640, Graduate course), History Department, University of São Paulo.
September-October (2022)
To present the main debates regarding the definitions of domestic space and its methodological issues, within Material Culture Studies and other fields, like archeology, history of the senses, gender studies, and theory of practice. The chronological and geographical outline of this discipline is broad in order to highlight the theoretical-methodological debate in the field. Through different case studies, that vary both chronologically and geographically, the discipline offers students the possibility to explore different types of evidence together with a critical reading of the academic scholarship on the topic.
Archaeology (FLH0630). History Department, University of São Paulo
2021-2022
The aim of the course is to present Archeology and Material Culture Studies from a historical perspective, discussing the main theoretical and methodological debates and their interdisciplinary developments, especially in History, Archeology and Anthropology.
Gender issues: feminine and masculine in ancient Egypt
March 15, 22, 29, April 5, 2021
This course aims to reflect on the notions of feminine and masculine in ancient Egypt, debating the use of gender as a concept for the study of ancient societies. We examine the representations of men and women in Egyptian art, as well as in the funerary context, texts and monuments in different periods of Egyptian history, also highlighting how this information was interpreted by Egyptology.
Ancient Egypt. Archaeology and Art History
2020
I explore how ancient Egyptian artefacts were appropriated by the West and how ancient Egypt was adapted throughout the 20th century by History and Art History according to specific ideas of civilisation and art. The course is hosted by Instituto Mundo Antigo.
Workshops
2020
I conducted two workshops in September, hosted by the Universidade Federal do Paraná: 'Gender Studies and Material Culture' and 'An introduction to the history of urbanism in Ancient Egypt'.
Introduction to Middle Egyptian
September - November, 2020
I share this short introduction to Middle Egyptian with Dr Ronaldo Gurgel Pereira. The course is hosted by the University Federal of Santa Catarina. This is the first course about Egyptian language in Brazil made online, reaching a wide audience of students and lectures from Brazil and Argentina.
Selected Publications
Research and Articles
Brazilian Egyptology: reassessing colonialism and exploring limits
2019
in Hana Navratilova; Thomas L. Gertzen; Aidan Dodson; Andrew Bednarski. (eds).
Towards a History of Egyptology. Proceedings of the Egyptological Section of the 8th ESHS Conference in London, 2018. Münster: Zaphon, 2019, 127–146
Reassessing models in gender and domestic space in New Kingdom Workmen's Villages
2018
In Stephanie Lynn Budin, Megan Cifarelli, Agnès Garcia-Ventura & Adelina Millet Albà (eds). Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the Second Workshop held at the Universitat de Barcelona, February 1-3, 2017. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, p. 299–312.
On the media
Etc
Tae Kwon Do
I practice Tae Kwon Do since 2008. During my time in Oxford, this martial art was crucial to keep me sharp and healthy. I joined the university team against Cambridge in Varsity for 3 years and I was awarded two Oxford Blues for winning the fights together with the Oxford crew.
St Benet's Hall
I was part of the first group of women studying in the college. I participated in the creation of the Graduate Society at St Benet’s Hall and acted as its president for two years. We established the Graduate Study Room at Norham Gardens. The building was the house of Prof. Griffith, who created the department of Egyptology at Oxford, which certainly added a special meaning for me. I enjoyed helping the college to establish a productive and supportive working space for grads and to organised the first series of Graduate Seminars.
The geek side
Big sci-fi fan. Reading and watching about other universes are always insightful to understand human experience.
First woman to receive a DPhil at St Benet's Hall
I was the first woman to receive a doctoral degree at a Benetian institution at the University of Oxford since its foundation in the 13th century.
Get in Touch
Harris Manchester College. Mansfield Rd, Oxford OX1 3TD, United Kingdom