PhD dissertation defense of Katarzyna Danys

We are pleased to announce that on 17 December 2019 in the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw took place the defense of Katarzyna Danys’ PhD dissertation entitled “Economy and trade relations of the Faiyum Oasis between the 5th and 12th century AD on the basis of amphorae from Deir el-Naqlun”.

Katarzyna Danys is an employee of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw and a research team member of the “UMMA” project (European Research Council grant) . She is a ceramologist who has participated as a specialist in many archaeological missions in Egypt and Sudan, including PCMA excavations in Sheikh Abd el-Gurna, Tell el-Retaba, Marea, Dongola, and Deir el-Naqlun. The amphorae that were the object of her dissertation were found in Deir el-Naqlun.

Assoc. Prof. Teodozja Rzeuska (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences) wrote in her review:

Pottery is one of the most abundant categories of finds on archaeological sites in Egypt, and studying it requires a lot of courage and determination. Katarzyna Danys, MA, undoubtedly had that courage and determination and she undertook the difficult and ambitious task of studying the amphorae and showing, from a ceramological perspective, the life of the monastic community in Faiyum in the Byzantine and early Islamic period.

(…) This young researcher has very wide scientific horizons and is acquainted with both the classical and the most recent literature on the subject. She analyses the test findings clearly and critically, interpreting them from a chronological and geographical perspective in the wider context of the cultural and political changes of the period.

The dissertation supervisor was Assoc. Prof. Anna Wodzińska. The second review was written by Prof. Włodzimierz Godlewski. The Dissertation Committee unanimously agreed to ask the Faculty Council to accept the defense and confer the doctor’s degree.