Awet Araya

Selam (Hello)!

My name is Awet. I am an Eritrean archaeologist, museum curator and academic interested in the archaeology and material culture of wider East Africa, the Indian Ocean World and its global interconnections. I have a PhD in African and Islamic Archaeology from the University of Exeter, UK and a BA in Anthropology and Archaeology from the College of Arts and Social Sciences, Eritrea. Between 2011 and 2016, I was the curator of the Archaeology and Ethnography section at the Northern Red Sea Region Museum in Massawa, Eritrea, and a field archaeologist in major national and international projects, for example at Adulis and Buya.

In 2023-2024, I was Africa Project curator at the British Museum, researching and documenting African collections, including gold-weights from Ghana, and researching collector biographies. Additionally, I participated in Africa focused initiatives of the British Museum, such as the ‘African Histories and Heritage Tour’ programme drafting workshop and the refresh of the Sainsbury Africa Gallery.

My PhD research examined African presence in Bahrain and the Arabian-Persian Gulf between the 7th and 20th century CE, using African material culture as key indicator. This work involved two field seasons in Bahrain, a review of extensive archaeological literature of coastal and continental East Africa, and an assessment of African ceramics collections at the British Museum and the National Museum of Uganda in Kampala. I am currently preparing my PhD thesis for publication, tentatively titled ‘African Material Culture in Medieval Gulf’.

Furthermore, I am actively engaged in collaborative initiatives and public history projects. I am the co-organiser of the Forum for Medieval Studies in Ethiopia and the Horn (FMSEH) chaired by Dr Alebachew Belay of Debre Berhan University Ethiopia, in close collaboration with the French Centre in Ethiopia and the University of Oxford. I have also been active part of public history projects, such as the project ‘Exploring Migration and Blackness Amongst Northeast African Diaspora Communities of London through Ancient Greek Storytelling’ of Dr Mai Musie, using museum collections to tell stories pertinent to reimagining the past.