Team
Zuzanna Augustyniak
Co‑director of the NeGaSh project
An Africanist specialising in Ethiopian studies, working with an interdisciplinary approach that combines anthropology, history and gender studies. Assistant professor at the Chair of African Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Asian and African Cultures UW. Her research focuses on the evolution of social and legal norms in Ethiopia, with particular attention to masculinity, cultural identity and marriage practices. She also explores issues related to the Ethiopian diaspora, especially in Egypt, as well as broader questions of gender and sexuality in African societies.
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5740-694X
Kamil Kuraszkiewicz
Co‑director of the NeGaSh project
Archaeologist, Egyptologist, and professor in the Department of Egyptology at the Faculty of Asian and African Studies, University of Warsaw. His research interests include royal power with its attributes and manifestations, state administration and the bureaucratic elite, as well as Egypt’s contacts with neighbouring regions (especially in Africa) during the Old Kingdom. He is also the director of the Saqqara West Expedition (Egypt)
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8429-4645
Habtom Teklay
Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Mekelle University, Ethiopia. He served as Director of the Institute of Paleoenvironment and Heritage Conservation (2023–2025) and holds an MA in Ethiopian Studies from Addis Ababa University. His research focuses on cultural heritage, indigenous knowledge systems, and ethnography in northern Ethiopia, with particular attention to the Tigray War's impact on heritage sites.
Desta Haileyesus
Archaeology researcher and lecturer at Mekelle University, Ethiopia, and a PhD candidate at Aix-Marseille University, France. Her research focuses on the study of ceramics, with particular emphasis on pottery from Kwiha, northern Ethiopia. As a member of the project, she contributes both as a ceramic specialist and as a field archaeologist, bringing expertise in archaeological survey, excavation, and ceramic analysis.
Getnet Desta
Archaeologist and lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Management at Adigrat University, Ethiopia. His research interests include archaeobotany, archaeometry, settlement archaeology, and cultural heritage management. He has participated in several international archaeological research projects in Ethiopia and has published on the archaeology and cultural heritage of Northern Ethiopia.
Amanuel Abrha
Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Management at Adigrat University (Ethiopia). He actively collaborates with international research projects, including the Research Centre Ancient South Arabia and Northeast Africa at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (Germany), the HLCEES at Hamburg University (Germany), and the University of Toronto (Canada). He has published several papers on Archaeological surveys, Heritage management, and manuscript culture.
Weldehiwot Birhanu Aseffa
Specialist in Social Anthropology and a lecturer and PhD student in Anthropology at Mekelle University, Ethiopia. His research focuses on political anthropology, particularly power, memory, space, and politics in Ethiopia. He is a researcher in the NeGaSH project studying memory, sacred landscapes, and interreligious coexistence in Negash, Tigray.
Mearg Abay Abebe
Archaeologist and a culture, tourism, and heritage expert specializing in landscape archaeology. He is a Senior Museum Expert at the Wuqro Museum / TCTB (Tigray, Ethiopia) and works as a field research assistant at the Research Center for Ancient South Arabia and Northeast Africa (FSU Jena). A student at the University of Warsaw, Poland, he is a published author with extensive experience in archaeological surveys, excavations, tour guiding, museum work, and ethnohistorical research.