Department of Classics
Jennifer Gates-Foster
Department of Classics, Research Labs in Archaeology
Associate Professor of Classics and Archaeology
Dr. Gates-Foster’s primary research interests are in the archaeology of the Near East and Egypt in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Her recent book (2019) on the Ptolemaic and Roman roads of Egypt’s Red Sea coastal region documents the material traces of some 800 years of trade, travel and settlement between the Nile Valley, the Red Sea and East Africa. She has published many articles and book chapters on this area, focusing in particular on the pottery and settlement patterns of the Hellenistic period in Upper Egypt. She has also written extensively on the archaeology of the ancient economy as well as the relationship between material culture and identity. She is currently at work on a monograph analyzing the remains of two Ptolemaic desert settlements in Egypt as well as the final publication of her fieldwork at Horvat Omrit in Israel, where she co-directed a multi-year project focused on a Roman era settlement on the ancient road leading from Tyre to Damascus.