Abydos in southern Egypt has long been known as the location of Egypt’s first great royal necropolis, with tombs of kings from Narmer at the beginning of the First Dynasty to Khasekhemwy at the end of the Second. It is less well known, however, that the tombs themselves were only components of a much broader and equally long-lasting pattern of royal use of the site. Monumental architecture and ritual performance quite apart from the tombs served both to define the nature of Egyptian kingship and to position the king in both the world of the living and the realm of the eternal. The latest findings from ongoing excavations at Abydos will be presented and the unique significance of the site in early Egypt discussed.


Matthew Douglas Adams has led the search for evidence of Egypt’s first kings at Abydos for more than twenty years. He is Senior Research Scholar in Egyptian archaeology and Director of Abydos Archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University and holds a dual Ph.D. in anthropology and Egyptology from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his scholarly publications, his work has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic Magazine, The New Yorker, and in a number of television documentaries. His experience of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and its aftermath feature in The Buried by noted author Peter Hessler (Penguin, 2019).