Alex Loktionov was born to a Russian family in France but was educated in the UK; a multicultural background that inspired his interest in diverse human societies from a young age. In 2011, he started studying for a BA degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He graduated in 2014 and received an MPhil in Egyptology from St. John’s College, Cambridge, the following year. In 2019, Alex received his PhD from Robinson College, Cambridge, having completed a thesis on the development of the justice system in Ancient Egypt from the Old to the Middle Kingdom, with a particular focus on the changing prosopographies of officials involved in the Egyptian judicial process. During his PhD, he also began to consider the wider place of Egyptian law and justice in African and Near Eastern intellectual traditions, and was supported in this through a six month AHRC-funded research fellowship at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

In 2018, Alex became a Bye-Fellow in Egyptology at his alma mater, Selwyn, which accompanied a role as Teaching Associate in Egyptian Language at the Cambridge Department of Archaeology. The following year he became Budge Fellow at Christ’s, where he has continued his work on Egyptian legal evolution with a growing focus on New Kingdom material. In 2021, Alex obtained further AHRC funding to expand his work in this area and to draw wider comparisons with the cuneiform world, becoming Principal Investigator of the Development of Early Constitutional Thought project at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. In 2023, Alex also became Director of Studies in Archaeology at Selwyn and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Political Economy at King's College, London.

In addition to his work at Cambridge, Alex has launched a new Egyptology programme at HSE University in Moscow, which ultimately aims to integrate Russian Egyptology into international academic discourse. Given his own family background and exposure to the Russian academic tradition, this is a topic close to his heart – and Alex is determined to demonstrate that Western and Russian Egyptologists are capable of standing shoulder to shoulder even at a time when geopolitical forces might be seeking to drive them apart. In 2022, he became Professor of Egyptology at HSE and continues in post to this day. 

In 2025, Alex oversaw the publication of the first-ever peer-reviewed article jointly authored by Egyptologists from Britain and Russia. He also joined the Steering Committee of the Origins Project, a major international grant seeking to investigate the impact of climate change on ancient societies.

Loktionov, A. & E. V. Alexandrova. "New Perspectives on Human and Divine Judgment in Ancient Egypt: Interplays of Ritual, Literary and Judicial Spheres", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 68(1-2), 2025: 1-31. Read here: https://brill.com/view/journals/jesh/68/1-2/article-p1_1.xml 

Loktionov, A. (ed.) Compulsion and Control in Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2023. Read here: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781803275857 

Loktionov, A. "From Class Foes to the Upper Class: Diverse Paths to Fame and Fortune in Soviet Egyptology". In Navratilova, H, T. Gertzen, M. De Meyer, A. Dodson & A. Bednarski (eds.) Addressing Diversity: Inclusive Histories of Egyptology. Münster: Zaphon, 2023: 557-572. Order here: https://www.zaphon.de/addressing-diversity/en 

Loktionov, A. "Regulating Labour through Foreign Punishment? Codification and Sanction at Work in New Kingdom Egypt", International Review of Social History 68(S31): Punishing Workers, Managing Labour, 2023: 33-52. Read here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/regulating-labour-through-foreign-punishment-codification-and-sanction-at-work-in-new-kingdom-egypt/93E089E930549FFCA9BB00B1AACD1E9A#article 

Loktionov, A. "Egyptian Oracles and the Afterlife". In Marlow, H., K. Pollmann & H. van Noorden (eds.) Eschatology in Antiquity. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2021: 49-62. Order here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315459486-3/egyptian-oracles-afterlife-alexandre-loktionov 

Loktionov, A. "Detecting Conceptual Resilience: the Ancient Egyptian Notion of Judicial Sd̠m ('hearing') over 1500 years", Archaeological Review from Cambridge 36(1): Resilience & Archaeology, 2021: 175-191. Read here: https://www.academia.edu/49098504/_2021_Resilience_and_Archaeology  

Loktionov, A. & C. Schmidhuber. "Luminous Oils and Waters of Wisdom: Shedding New Light on Oil Divination". In de Graef, K. & A. Goddeeris (eds.) Law and (Dis)Order in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 59th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale Held at Ghent, Belgium, 14-19 July 2013. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press (Eisenbrauns), 2021: 169-176. Order here: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781646021208-017/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOoovkFeVA-4b70iK2uxlQrQZ0s9Tqe-J3NsWTaLWChrl4QEDnbQR 

Loktionov, A. "Rethinking Pharaonic Government: Constitutional Lessons from Ancient Egypt", Cambridge Journal of Law, Politics, and Art 1, 2021: 383-386. Read here: https://www.cjlpa.org/_files/ugd/b589e0_2db063f5da1a4e3bb1166422a4fcc5e0.pdf 

Loktionov, A. "The First 'Lawyers'? Judicial Offices, Administration and Legal Pluralism in Ancient Egypt, c.2500-1800BCE". In Cavanagh, E. (ed.) Empire and Legal Thought: Ideas and Institutions from Antiquity to Modernity. Leiden: Brill (Studies in the History of International Law 41/16), 2020: 36-68. Read here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/c9883b83-8530-42a9-b4dc-70d05327be8f 

Loktionov, A. "The Development of the Justice System in Ancient Egypt from the Old to the Middle Kingdom". Cambridge: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository, 2019. Read here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/292228 

Loktionov, A. "Tortured, Banished, Forgotten (and frequently Ripped Off)? Experience of Ancient Egyptian Criminal Judgment and its Consequences through the 2nd Millennium BCE". In Kilroe, L. (ed.) Invisible Archaeologies: Hidden Aspects of Daily Life in Ancient Egypt and Nubia. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2019: 6-16. Read here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/f90db6fc-fc69-4f55-a277-726728bd5eb8 

Loktionov, A. "A Revolution in Egyptology, or an Egyptology of the Revolution? Changing Perspectives on Ancient Egypt in Russia". In Navratilova, H, T. Gertzen, A. Dodson & A. Bednarski (eds.) Towards a History of Egyptology: Proceedings of the Egyptological Section of the 8th ESHS Conference in London, 2018. Münster: Zaphon, 2019: 157-170. Read here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/0fecb5c1-5ad6-4226-8dcf-f260630e44ee  

Loktionov, A. "Commentary: Desert shaped by people, or people shaped by desert? Reflections of an Egyptologist", Archaeological Review from Cambridge 34(1): Desert Archaeology, 2019: 20-27. Read here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/1461322c-c1b3-4251-bca0-cec29f229fae 

Loktionov, A. "May my nose and ears be cut off: Practical and "supra-practical" Aspects of Mutilation in the Egyptian New Kingdom", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 60(3), 2017: 263-291. Read here: https://brill.com/view/journals/jesh/60/3/article-p263_4.xml?language=en 

Loktionov, A. "An 'Egyptianising' Underworld Judging an Assyrian Prince? New Perspectives on VAT 10057", Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 3(1), 2017: 39-56. Read here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/c20b73f4-b8df-4530-9cee-1453e93a2714  

Loktionov, A. "Thoughts towards a new hypothesis for understanding the legal text in OI 12073", Göttinger Miszellen 253(3), 2017: 89-96. Read here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/677fb540-3913-4027-888d-aeb16ddfab5b 

Loktionov, A. "Of pilgrims and poets, prisoners and politics: the story of Egyptology in Russia". In Langer, C. (ed.) Global Egyptology: Negotiation in the Production of Knowledges on Ancient Egypt in Global Contexts. London: Golden House Press, 2017: 129-145. Read here: https://www.academia.edu/37125384/Of_Pilgrims_and_Poets_Prisoners_and_Politics_The_Story_of_Egyptology_in_Russia 

Loktionov, A. "Importing the law? Possible elements of the Mesopotamian legal tradition in New Kingdom Egypt", BAF Online: Proceedings of the Berner Altorientalisches Forum, 2016. View here:  https://bop.unibe.ch/baf/article/view/3500.  

Loktionov, A. "Convicting 'Great Criminals': A New Look at Punishment in the Turin Judicial Papyrus", Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne 8, 2015: 103-111. View here: http://www.enim-egyptologie.fr/revue/2015/7/Loktionov_ENiM8_p103-111.pdf  

Loktionov, A. "Kušû: Crocodile after all?", Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2014(4), 2014: 164-167. Read here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/398fe63a-0116-4b33-88d3-0653cb2ccce3 

Loktionov, A. "A well-oiled future: Recreating Babylonian Oil Divination", The Post Hole 36, 2014: 24-28. Read here: https://www.academia.edu/83245077/A_well_oiled_future_Recreating_Babylonian_oil_divination 

Loktionov, A. "Something for Everyone: a Ritualistic Interpretation of Bronze Age Burnt Mounds from an Ethnographic Perspective", The Post Hole 26, 2013: 20-33. Read here: https://www.theposthole.org/read/article/187