Nozomu Kawai

Affiliation: Institute for Frontier Science Initiative (concurrent appointment at Institute for the Study of Ancient Civilizations and Cultural Resources)
Job Class: Professor
Specialty: Egyptology, Egyptian Archaeology
*Kanazawa University

Research Topic

I am studying the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt's history and culture from archaeological and documentary perspectives. Specifically, I am interested in the history and culture of the period from the reign of Tutankhamun after the Amarna Period of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom to the reign of Ramesses II of the 19th Dynasty. I have participated in excavations of tombs from the New Kingdom at sites such as Thebes (present-day Luxor) and Saqqara. Recently, I have been conducting archaeological research on artifacts such as Tutankhamun's chariot as part of the JICA’s (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Grand Egyptian Museum Joint Conservation Project with Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Since 2016, I have been investigating the New Kingdom cemeteries at Saqqara, which has been under-explored compared to the New Kingdom Necropolis at Thebes, where research has been conducted energetically. In 2019, we discovered the first catacombs (underground mass burial tombs) from the Roman Period at Saqqara. Accordingly, we began studying the burial customs and funerary beliefs during the Roman Period in Egypt.

Selected Publications

• Kawai, N. 2023. The Lioness Goddess Statuary from the Rock-Cut Chambers at Northwest Saqqara and Their Cult in Middle Kingdom Egypt. In N. M. Brisch and F. Karahashi (eds.), Women and Religion in the Ancient Near East and Asia, pp. 303-338. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 30. De Gruyter.
• Kawai, N. and D. Benedict, (eds.) 2022. The Star Who Appears in Thebes. Studies in Honour of Jiro Kondo, Abercromby Press.
• Kawai, N. 2022. Intact Simultaneous Multiple Burials on the Slope of an Outcropping in Northwest Saqqara. In N. Kawai and B. Davies (eds.), The Star Who Appears in Thebes. Studies in Honour of Jiro Kondo, pp.183-206. Abercromby Press.
• Kawai, N. 2022. The Time of Tutankhamun. What New Evidence Reveals. Scribe: The Magazine of the American Research Center in Egypt 9: 44-53.
• Kawai, N. 2021. A Newly Discovered Roman Catacomb at North Saqqara: Recent Results and Future Prospects. In M. Bárta, F. Coppens and J. Krejčí (eds.), Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2020, pp. 331-346. Prague, Charles University.
• Kawai, N. 2021. Exploring the New Kingdom Tombs at North Saqqara: Preliminary Results of the Archaeological Survey at North Saqqara. The 2016 and 2017 Seasons. In M. Bárta, F. Coppens and J. Krejčí (eds.), Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2020, pp. 245-262. Prague, Charles University.
• Kondo, J. and N. Kawai 2021. Japan. In A. Bednarski, A. Dodson and S. Ikram (eds.), A History of World Egyptology, pp. 439-447. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Kawai, N., Y. Okada, T. Oishi, M. Kagesawa, A. Nishisaka and H. Kamal 2020. The Ceremonial Canopied Chariot of Tutankhamun (JE61990 and JE60705): A Tentative Virtual Reconstruction. CIPEG Journal: Ancient Egyptian & Sudanese Collections and Museums 4: 1-11.