An Australian graduate of Macquarie University, Fred is a doctoral student whose interests revolve around predynastic Egypt and its iconography, specifically its expression through rock art and he researches the role the role that rock art played in our understanding of Egyptian predynastic/early dynastic iconography and culture generally.
Fred comes to rock art with a background in archaeology, having been involved in archaeological fieldwork since 1998 where he commenced with the Macquarie University mission in Helwan. His fieldwork experienced then branched out to the Western Desert of Egypt in 2005 with work at Dakhleh Oasis in both excavation and rock art recording work.
Having had a long standing interest and passion for arid landscapes and how cultures subsist in them, adapt to them and express themselves, it soon became clear that the material culture of rock art would be an area that should be his specialty. Rock Art is a predominant artefact and cultural medium in deserts something which becomes clear when one considers the wealth of rock art in countries with arid landscapes – Australia, North and South Africa, South America, the Arabian Peninsula and India.
Fred has been a member of the Hierakonpolis Expedition since 2009, working on a dedicated survey project which progressively records and interprets the rock art in the environs of Hierakonpolis. This builds in a focussed way, the rock art corpus that has been noted around Hierakonpolis in the past by previous researchers.