Tony Leahy initially studied History at Cambridge before graduating with a BA in Oriental Studies (Egyptology) and proceeding to a PhD on the subject of ‘Abydos in the Late Period’.

He was editor of a leading periodical, the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, from 1985-92 and has subsequently edited numerous archaeological memoirs and commemorative volumes for the Egypt Exploration Society. He was a Committee member of the E.E.S. from 1979-1992 and its Honorary Secretary from 1992-2001. He has also been a Committee member of the Society for Libyan Studies, the Sudan Archaeological Research Society and the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art. He is currently on the editorial board, of the Athlone Egyptology and the Ancient Near East series and the Management Committee of the G.A. Wainwright Fund for Near Eastern Archaeology,

Dr Leahy’s first fieldwork in Egypt was on the Eighteenth Dynasty palace site of Amenhotep III at Malqata on the west bank at Luxor. One of his first publications was a study of the hieratic labels written in ink on pottery amphorae and storage jars that had been delivered to the king’s palace for his jubilees. His most recent fieldwork has been at Saqqara, where he is currently co-director (with Ian Mathieson) of a geophysical survey project, and also its Egyptological advisor. The project is mapping what lies beneath the sand over a large tract of the site of Saqqara west of the Step Pyramid. In the 2001season of work, test excavation of a line of mudbrick structures previously identified by magnetometer survey revealed them to be platforms for now vanished temples of the sixth century BC and later. In 2000, the lost tomb of Nyankhnesut, a high official of the Sixth Dynasty, was identified and its salient features recorded.

His main research area is the history of Egypt in the first millennium BC and much of his work has been done in museum basements. Topics of particular interest to him include: epigraphy and palaeography; the chronological and political structure of the period; the priesthood and the institution of kingship; the religious site of Abydos; personal names as a source for religious and political developments; foreign immigration and social change; cultural interrelationships with the Mediterranean and the Near East. He has encouraged postgraduate researches into burial practices and coffin typology, funerary art, royal iconography, regional topography and the historiographic tradition, as well as the topics listed above.

Dr Leahy has published in American, Belgian, British, Dutch, Egyptian, French, German, Iraqi and Italian books and periodicals.and has also written numerous reviews for journals such as Bibliotheca Orientalis, Chronique d’Egypte, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology and Journal of the American Oriental Society.

Major Publications

‘The tomb of Nyankhnesut (re)discovered’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 87 (2001), 33-42. (with Ian Mathieson)

Articles on ‘Foreign incursions’, ‘Libya’ and ‘Sea Peoples’ for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (New York, 2001)

‘Libyans’, in The Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, ed. K. Bard (New York and London, 1999), 445-7

‘More fragments of the Book of the Dead of Padinemty’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 85 (1999), 230-2.

Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honour of H.S. Smith (London, 1999). (ed. with John Tait)

‘In the House of the Phoenix at Thebes (Cairo JE 36938)’, in Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honour of H.S. Smith, ed. A. Leahy and J. Tait (London, 1999), 185-92.

‘Beer for the gods of Memphis in the reign of Amasis’, in Egyptian Religion. The Last Thousand Years, ed. W. Clarysse et al. (Leuven, 1998), 377-92.

‘The Adoption of Ankhnesneferibre at Karnak’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 82 (1996), 145-63

‘Ethnic diversity in ancient Egypt’, in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, ed. J. Sasson (New York, 1995), 225-34

The Unbroken Reed (London, 1994), (ed. with C. Eyre and L. Montagno Leahy)

‘Kushite monuments at Abydos’, in The Unbroken Reed, ed. C. Eyre, A. Leahy and L. Montagno Leahy (London, 1994), 171-92

‘The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste’, in The Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia , ed. M. Mullett and A. Wilson (Belfast, 1993)

‘The Egyptian names’, in Texts from Nineveh, by Nicholas Postgate and Bahija Khalil Ismail (Baghdad, 1993), 56-62

‘May the king live: the Libyan rulers in the onomastic record’, in Studies in Pharaonic Religion and Society in Honour of J. Gwyn Griffiths (London, 1992) 146-63

‘Royal iconography and dynastic change, 750-525 BC: the Blue and Cap crowns’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 78 (1992) 223-40

Libya and Egypt, c1300-750 BC (London, 1990) (ed.)

‘A Late Period block statuette from Saft el-Henna’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 76 (1990) 194-6

‘Abydos in the Libyan Period’, in Libya and Egypt, c1300-750 BC, ed. A. Leahy (London, 1990), 155-200

‘Taniy: a seventh century lady’, Göttinger Miszellen 108 (1989) 45-56

‘A protective measure at Abydos in the Thirteenth Dynasty’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 75 (1989) 41-60

Pyramid Studies and Other Essays presented to I.E.S. Edwards (London,1988) (with J.R. Baines et al.)

‘Egypt as a bronze-working centre (1000-539 BC)’, in Bronze-working centres of Western Asia (c. 1000-539 BC), ed. J. Curtis (London, 1988), 297-309

‘The earliest dated monument of Amasis and the end of the reign of Apries’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 74 (1988) 183-99

‘More light on a Saite official of the God’s Wife of Amun’. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 74 (1988) 236-9

‘Multiple adverbial predicates in ancient Egyptian’, in Lingua sapientissima, ed. J.D. Ray (Cambridge 1987) 57-64

‘Hieratic dockets’, in A. El-Khouly and G.T. Martin, Excavations in the Royal

Necropolis at El-Amarna (Cairo, 1987), appendix 1

‘The genealogy of a priestly family from Heliopolis’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 72 (1986) 133-47 (with Lisa Montagno Leahy)

‘htiw-demons in Late Period onomastica’, Göttinger Miszellen 87 (1985) 49-51

‘The Libyan Period in Egypt: an essay in interpretation’, Libyan Studies 16 (1985) 51-65

‘The date of Louvre A.93’, Göttinger Miszellen 70 (1984) 45-58

‘The name P3-wrm’, Göttinger Miszellen 76 (1984) 17-23

‘Death by fire in ancient Egypt’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 27 (1984) 199-206

‘Saite royal sculpture: a review’, Göttinger Miszellen 80 (1984) 59-76

‘Tanutamon, son of Shabako?’, Göttinger Miszellen 83 (1984) 43-5

‘The hieratic labels’, in B.J. Kemp (ed.) Amarna Reports II (1984) 65-109

‘The proper name Pisanhuru’, Göttinger Miszellen 62 (1983) 37-48

‘Two donation stelae of Necho II’, Revue d’Egyptologie 34 (1982-3) 77-91

‘Hnsw-iy: a problem of late onomastica’, Göttinger Miszellen 60 (1982) 67-79

‘A stela of the Second Intermediate Period’, Göttinger Miszellen 44 (1981) 23-8

‘Smn and di mn’, Göttinger Miszellen 48 (1981) 35-9

‘Saite lamp donations’, Göttinger Miszellen 49 (1981) 37-46

‘ “Harwa” and “Harbes” ’, Chronique d’Egypte 55 (1980) 43-63

‘Two Late Period stelae in the Fitzwilliam Museum’, Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur 8 (1980) 169-80

‘An unusual spelling of krst’, Göttinger Miszellen 31 (1979) 67-72

‘Nespamedu, ‘King” of Thinis’, Göttinger Miszellen 35 (1979) 31-9

‘The name of Osiris written ’, Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur 7 (1979) 141-53

Malkata IV: The Inscriptions (Warminster, 1978)

‘A scribe of Abydos in the ninth century B.C.’, Göttinger Miszellen 23 (1977) 49-53

‘The Osiris “Bed” reconsidered’, Orientalia 46 (1977) 424-34

‘Egyptian geography and settlement patterns’, in Mycenean Geography: proceedings of the Cambridge colloquium, ed. J. Bintliff (1976)