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Topic · Archeology

Ancient Egypt and Archaeology

Ancient Egypt and Archaeology is a research topic within Archeology. Science Explorer counts 10k research works in it since 1950. 10.7% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to Ancient Egypt, including linguistics, archaeology, chronology, religious beliefs, and cultural entanglement. It explores the language, culture, and society of ancient Egyptians, as well as their interactions with neighboring civilizations. The papers delve into the linguistic diversity, material culture, and social organization of ancient Egypt.

  • Ancient Egypt
  • Linguistics
  • Archaeology
  • Coptic Language
  • Religion
  • Chronology
  • Pyramids
  • Cultural Entanglement
  • Bilingualism
  • Social Organization
Research works
10k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.7%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+9%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
18% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Ancient Egypt and Archaeology

Which countries lead Ancient Egypt and Archaeology research?

By volume, the United States and France publish the most (272 and 249 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 272 works
  2. 2 France 249 works
  3. 3 Egypt 235 works
  4. 4 Israel 210 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 144 works
  6. 6 Germany 116 works
  7. 7 Italy 96 works
  8. 8 Spain 84 works
  9. 9 Russia 54 works
  10. 10 Türkiye 54 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 18.0%France: 16.4%Egypt: 15.5%Israel: 13.9%6 others listed: 36.2%18%largest
United States272 · 18.0%France249 · 16.4%Egypt235 · 15.5%Israel210 · 13.9%6 others listed548 · 36.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Ancient Egypt and Archaeology research?

By volume in 2022-now, Israel Antiquities Authority publishes the most Ancient Egypt and Archaeology research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Cairo University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Israel Antiquities AuthorityIsrael 131 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 125 works
  3. 3 Cairo UniversityEgypt 31 works
  4. 4 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 26 works
  5. 5 Fayoum UniversityEgypt 22 works
  6. 6 Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael 20 works
  7. 7 Minia UniversityEgypt 19 works
  8. 8 Université Lille Nord de FranceFrance 18 works
  9. 9 Tel Aviv UniversityIsrael 18 works
  10. 10 University of HaifaIsrael 15 works

Who are the leading researchers in Ancient Egypt and Archaeology?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Ancient Egypt and Archaeology include George Davey Smith, Robert B. Jackson and Sidney C. Smith.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Robert B. Jackson United States 149k citations
  3. 3 Sidney C. Smith United States 136k citations
  4. 4 David Van Den Berg United States 123k citations
  5. 5 J. T. Baines France 120k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Ancient Egypt and Archaeology?

The most cited paper in Ancient Egypt and Archaeology is "CLASSIFICATION AND ORIGIN OF FLASER AND LENTICULAR BEDDING" (Hans‐Erich Reineck, Friedrich Wunderlich, 1968), with 615 citations. Next come "Cities and Administration in Roman Egypt" (480) and "Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism" (357).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 CLASSIFICATION AND ORIGIN OF FLASER AND LENTICULAR BEDDING Hans‐Erich Reineck, Friedrich Wunderlich · Sedimentology Oct 1968 615
2 Cities and Administration in Roman Egypt Alan K. Bowman, Dominic W. Rathbone · The Journal of Roman Studies Nov 1992 480
3 Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism Tony Freeth, Yanis Bitsakis, Xenophon Moussas et al. · Nature Nov 2006 357
4 Demography Walter Scheidel · Cambridge University Press eBooks Book chapter 29 Nov 2007 344
5 Archaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East Hans Jörg Nissen, Peter Damerow, Robert K. Englund 10 Feb 1994 339
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Ancient Egypt and Archaeology research done?

The largest centres of Ancient Egypt and Archaeology research in 2022-now are Jerusalem (Israel), Cairo (Egypt), Paris (France) and Giza (Egypt). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Jerusalem, Al Fayyum and Alexandria.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 JerusalemIsrael 155 works
  2. 2 CairoEgypt 73 works
  3. 3 ParisFrance 68 works
  4. 4 GizaEgypt 41 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 36 works
  6. 6 LyonFrance 32 works
  7. 7 LondonUnited Kingdom 30 works
  8. 8 WarsawPoland 27 works
  9. 9 MadridSpain 26 works
  10. 10 AlexandriaEgypt 24 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. JerusalemIL · 154.8 works104×
  2. Al FayyumEG · 21.8 works102×
  3. AlexandriaEG · 23.7 works19×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Ancient Egypt and Archaeology than the world average.

See Ancient Egypt and Archaeology on the map

Where is the best place to study Ancient Egypt and Archaeology?

Among universities, judged by research, Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and University of Haifa score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 16.92%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Tel Aviv UniversityUniversity of HaifaHebrew University of…Cairo University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Tel Aviv UniversityIsrael 78.821.2%12.0×18 +2.5%
2Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael 76.719.1%20.7×20 +14.3%
3University of HaifaIsrael 67.520.2%36.0×15 +37.4%
4Cairo UniversityEgypt 62.55.7%21.5×31 +65.2%
5Macquarie UniversityAustralia 60.023.0%13.5×9 +33.3%
6Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 58.518.1%7.3×12 +23.7%
7University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 49.323.5%4.3×11 -23.7%
8Aarhus UniversityDenmark 48.223.7%6.4×10 -29.7%
9Minia UniversityEgypt 48.11.0%51.4×18 +17.7%
10Ben-Gurion University of the NegevIsrael 47.013.7%12.0×8 +137.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Ancient Egypt and Archaeology, country by country

Is Ancient Egypt and Archaeology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 9% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Ancient Egypt and Archaeology.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Ancient Egypt and Archaeology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0099% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Ancient Egypt and Archaeology0.0095% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Ancient Egypt and Archaeology over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Ancient Egypt and Archaeology10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Questions people ask

Who studies ancient Egypt?

By volume in 2022-now, Israel Antiquities Authority publishes the most Ancient Egypt and Archaeology research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Cairo University. By volume, the United States and France publish the most (272 and 249 works in 2022-now).

All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

Discussion

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