Alexander Ilin-Tomich

Egyptologist and Privatdozent at the Institute of Ancient Studies / Egyptology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Maintainer of the database Persons and Names of the Middle Kingdom and Early New Kingdom.

Profiles

Mainz University | ORCID 0000-0003-4287-8180 | Academia.edu | Github

Publications (selection)

Monographs

Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. Egyptian Name Scarabs from the 12th to the 15th Dynasty: Geography and Chronology of Production. Contributions to the Archaeology of Egypt, Nubia and the Levant 16. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2023. https://www.doi.org/10.13173/9783447120432. Open access.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. From Workshop to Sanctuary: The Production of Late Middle Kingdom Memorial Stelae. Middle Kingdom Studies 6. London: Golden House, 2017.

Editorial activity

Gerhards, Simone, Nadine Gräßler, Svenja A. Gülden, Alexander Ilin-Tomich, Jessica Kertmann, Andrea Kilian, Tobias Konrad, and Kyra van der Moezel, eds. Schöne Denkmäler sind entstanden: Studien zu Ehren von Ursula Verhoeven. Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 2023. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1085. Open access.

Papers

Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Visible-Induced Infrared Luminescence of Egyptian Blue and the Great Ones of Mitanni and Hatti’. Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 45 (2025): 21–41. Link to publication.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander, and Vanessa Boschloos. ‘Beyond the Most Obviously Interesting: Aims and Methods in Documenting and Processing Scarabs’. In Excavating the Extra-Ordinary 2: Challenges & Merits of Working with Small Finds. Proceedings of the International Workshop at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 25–26 November 2022, edited by Andrea Kilian, Alexander Pruß, and Monika Zöller-Engelhardt, 125–32. Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 2024. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1382.c19772. Open access.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Aufwärter der Bier- und Brotkammer Sa-ii und Eje, ihre Verwandtschaft und Berufsstand’. In Schöne Denkmäler sind entstanden: Studien zu Ehren von Ursula Verhoeven, edited by Simone Gerhards, Nadine Grässler, Svenja A. Gülden, Alexander Ilin-Tomich, Jessica Kertmann, Andrea Kilian, Tobias Konrad, Kyra van der Moezel, and Monika Zöller-Engelhardt, 179–99. Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 2023. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1085.c16601. Open access.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Glücksbringer’. In Ägypten ganz nah: 150 Begegnungen mit der Kultur Altägyptens, edited by Olivia Zorn, 140–56. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2023.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Minor Contributions to Middle Kingdom Prosopography’. In The World of Middle Kingdom Egypt III: Contributions on Archaeology, Art, Religion, and Written Sources, edited by Gianluca Miniaci and Wolfram Grajetzki, 207–17. Middle Kingdom Studies 12. London: Golden House, 2022.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘The Vizier Ankhu and the Dual Vizierate in the Late Middle Kingdom’. Journal of Egyptian History 14 (2021): 145–69. https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-12340075.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Royal court on a visit to Thebes: palace officials and local hosts in papyrus Boulaq 18’. In Pratiques administratives et comptables au Proche-Orient à l’âge du Bronze, edited by Ilya Arkhipov, Grégory Chambon, and Nele Ziegler, 159–67. Publications de l’Institut du Proche-Orient Ancien du Collège de France 4. Leuven: Peeters, 2021. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘The Governor’s Court in Late Middle Kingdom Antaeopolis’. Revue d’Égyptologie 68 (2018): 61–78. https://doi.org/10.2143/RE.68.0.3285267.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Ikonografische Datierungskriterien für Privatopfertafeln der 12. Dynastie’. Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 47 (2018): 57–87. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Mögliche Dialektmerkmale in den Personennamen des Mittleren Reiches’. Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 145 (2018): 136–48. https://doi.org/10.1515/zaes-2018-0012. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Female Titles Specific to Southern Upper Egypt in the Late Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period’. Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 26 (2018): 19–36. Link to publication. Open access.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Centralized and Local Production, Adaptation, and Imitation Twelfth Dynasty Offering Tables’. In The Arts of Making in Ancient Egypt: Voices, Images, and Objects of Material Producers 2000-1550 BC, edited by Gianluca Miniaci, Juan Carlos Moreno García, Stephen Quirke, and Andréas Stauder, 81–100. Leiden: Sidestone, 2018. https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-arts-of-making-in-ancient-egypt. Open access.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Regional Administration in Late Middle Kingdom Egypt’. In Egypt 2015: Perspectives of Research Proceedings of the Seventh European Conference of Egyptologists 2nd-7th June 2015, Zagreb, Croatia, edited by Mladen Tomorad and Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska, 307–18. Archaeopress Egyptology 18. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2017. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Second Intermediate Period’. In UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, edited by Wolfram Grajetzki and Willeke Wendrich. Los Angeles, 2016. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/72q561r2. Open access.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Theban Administration in the Late Middle Kingdom’. Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 142 (2015): 120–53. https://doi.org/10.1515/zaes-2015-0012. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘King Seankhibra and the Middle Kingdom Appeal to the Living’. In The World of Middle Kingdom Egypt (2000-1550 BC): Contributions on Archaeology, Art, Religion, and Written Sources. Volume I, edited by Gianluca Miniaci and Wolfram Grajetzki, 145–68. Middle Kingdom Studies 1. London: Golden House, 2015. https://egittologia.cfs.unipi.it/en/publications/series/middle-kingdom-studies/. Open access. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘The Theban Kingdom of Dynasty 16: Its Rise, Administration and Politics’. Journal of Egyptian History 7 (2014): 143–93. https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-12340016. Download as PDF.
Sokolova, Marina, and Alexander Ilin-Tomich. ‘Twelve Notes on Ipuwer’. Chronique d’Égypte 88, no. 176 (2013): 261–72. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.CDE.1.103755.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Late Middle Kingdom Stelae Workshops at Thebes’. Göttinger Miszellen 234 (2012): 69–84. Link to publication. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘A Twelfth Dynasty Stela Workshop Possibly from Saqqara’. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 97 (2011): 117–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/030751331109700108. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Changes in the ḥtp-dj-nsw formula in the late Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period’. Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 138 (2011): 20–34. https://doi.org/10.1524/zaes.2011.0003. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Two Notes on Middle Kingdom Annals’. Lingua Aegyptia, 2010, 119–29. Download as PDF.

Book reviews

Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. Review of Dossiers of Ancient Egyptians – the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period: addition to Franke’s ‘Personendaten’, by Wolfram Grajetzki and Danijela Stefanović. Bibliotheca Orientalis 71, no. 1–2 (2014): 139–45. https://doi.org/10.2143/BIOR.71.1.3034656. Open access.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander, and Timofey Shmakov. Review of It is my good name that you should remember: Egyptian biographical texts on Middle Kingdom stelae, by Renata Landgráfová. Bibliotheca Orientalis 71, no. 5–6 (2014): 738–43. https://doi.org/10.2143/BIOR.71.5.3073487. Open access.

Datasets

Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Persons and Names of the Middle Kingdom and Early New Kingdom. Supplementary Material to the Database. Study Photographs of Inscriptions in Theban Tombs 22, 62, 140, 164, 182, 204, 228, 231, 234, 239’. OSF, 2024. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/2SBDX. Open access.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Persons and Names of the Middle Kingdom and Early New Kingdom’, 2024. https://pnm.uni-mainz.de/info.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander, and Tobias Konrad. ‘Bibliography of Egyptological Databases and Datasets’, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10691756.

Software and online tools

Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Transliteration to Unicode Converter’, 2025. https://pnm.uni-mainz.de/tools/unicode/.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Egyptological Museum Search’, 2025. https://static.egyptology.ru/varia/mus.php.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Umschriftpy: A Python 3 Library for Dealing with Egyptological Transliteration/Transcription’, 2024. https://github.com/ailintom/umschriftpy.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘OEB to Zotero’, 2021. https://static.egyptology.ru/varia/oeb2zotero.html.

Presentations (selection)

Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Mal was Neues, mal was Fremdes, mal was Heterogenes: Personennamen der 18. Dynastie’. Invited talk presented at the Freie Universität Berlin. Institut für Ägyptologie, Berlin, 29 January 2025.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Titles in Thebes in the 13th–18th Dynasties: Continuity and Change’. Presented at the Working Titles: Understanding the use of official titles during the New Kingdom, Copenhagen, 3 July 2024.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Some Patterns in the Distribution of Titles on Family Monuments’. Presented at the XIIIth International Congress of Egyptologists, Leiden, 8 September 2023.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Scarab Traits as Seen by Scarab Producers in Middle Bronze Age Egypt’. Presented at the Production, Distribution, and Groups in Stamp Seal Research, Zürich, 2 September 2023.
Boschloos, Vanessa, and Alexander Ilin-Tomich. ‘From Dig to Digital: The Future of Scarab Documentation’. Poster presented at the XIIIth International Congress of Egyptologists, Leiden, August 2023. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Different Class: Personennamen und soziale Unterschiede im Mittleren Reich’. Presented at the 54. Ständige Ägyptologiekonferenz, Universität zu Köln, 7 February 2023.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Goats and Lions: Differences in the Scarab Repertoires of Tell El-Yahudiya and Tell El-Dabʿa in the Second Intermediate Period’. Presented at the Contexts and Objects of the Second Intermediate Period: Pulling the Information Together and Prospects for Further Work, Vienna, 6 January 2023.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘From Serving Political Goals to Projecting Soviet-Type Lifestyles on Ancient Egypt. Peculiarities of Eastern Bloc and Soviet Egyptologies’. Presented at the Onwards, Upwards into the Past? Classics in the Political Discourse, Mainz, 16 December 2022.
Boschloos, Vanessa, and Alexander Ilin-Tomich. ‘Beyond the Most Obviously Interesting. Aims and Methods in Documenting and Processing Scarabs’. Presented at the Excavating the Extra-Ordinary 2. Challenges & Merits of Working with Small Finds, Mainz, 26 November 2022.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Altägyptische Namensgebung im interkulturellen Vergleich’. Inaugural lecture presented at the Habilitation process in Egyptology, Mainz, 29 June 2022.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Patterns of Name-Giving and Challenges for Identifying Persons in Middle Kingdom Egypt’. Presented at the »In the Time(s) of My Father and of My Father’s Father …« Genealogy and Prosopography as Sources for Historical Chronology, Vienna, 5 May 2022.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Codifying (Un)Certainties in an Ontology for a Prosopography of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom’. Poster presented at the Linked Pasts 6, 12 April 2020. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Privatstelen in den ersten 70 Jahren des Neuen Reiches: Bildunabhängige Kriterien zur Bestimmung eines Bildkorpus’. Presented at the 51. Ständige Ägyptologenkonferenz, Basel, 7 June 2019.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Royal-Name Scarabs of Dynasties 14-15 in the Context of Other Contemporary Seals’. Presented at the Hyksos Workshop – Changing Clusters and Migration in the Near Eastern Bronze Age, Vienna, 12 May 2019.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Hetephathor or Hathorhetepti: Tackling the Spread of the Stative in Middle Kingdom Personal Names’. Presented at the International Congress of Egyptologists XII, Cairo, 11 May 2019. Download as PDF.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Herrscher von Byblos als ägyptische Provinzialbeamte: Neues zum Produktionsort und Datierung der Skarabäen mit Namen der „Gouverneure von Byblos“’. Presented at the 50. Ständige Ägyptologenkonferenz, Münster, 14 July 2018.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Die Skarabäen von Tell el-Dab‘a im Lichte einer Neuuntersuchung der beschrifteten Skarabäen’. Invited talk presented at the Institut für Orientalische und Europäische Archäologie der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, 10 November 2017.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Wurden die Beamtenskarabäen des Mittleren Reiches zentral hergestellt?’ Presented at the 48. Neue Forschungen zur ägyptischen Kultur und Geschichte, Leipzig, 6 August 2017.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Werkstätten und lokale Traditionen: Die Herstellung von Votivstelen des späten Mittleren Reiches’. Invited talk presented at the Freie Universität Berlin. Ägyptologisches Seminar, Berlin, 13 July 2016.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Influences and Directions of Expertise Sharing in Late Middle Kingdom Egypt: Diffusion of Novel Traits across the Centres of Stela Production’. Presented at the Voices, images, and artefacts of ancient craftsmen/women: encountering the material producers of Middle Bronze Age Egypt (2000-1500 BC), Paris, 24 June 2016.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘The Sale of a Necropolis: The Diffusion of Middle Kingdom Stelae from Rizeikat (1882–1935)’. Presented at the At the dawn of Russian Egyptology. The 160th birth anniversary of Vladimir Golenisсhev, Moscow, 2 February 2016.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Place of Production: Itjtawy’. Presented at the Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, New York, 24 January 2016.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Regional Administration in Late Middle Kingdom Egypt: From a Negative towards a Positive Definition’. Presented at the CECE7 — VIIth European conference of Egyptologists. Egypt 2015: Perspectives of research, Zagreb, 6 June 2015.
Ilin-Tomich, Alexander. ‘Beyond Workshops: Local Traditions in the Production of Private Late Middle Kingdom Stelae’. Presented at the (Re)productive Traditions in Ancient Egypt, Liège, 2 July 2013.

Contact

Alexander Ilin-Tomich

Institut für Altertumswissenschaften, Ägyptologie
FB 07, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
55099 Mainz, Deutschland

Tel.: +4961313938345
E-Mail: ailintom@uni-mainz.de