November 2011
2 posts
EES/Freie University Delta Study Day
Today was our ‘Current Research in the Nile Delta’ Study Day, held jointly with the Freie University, Berlin at their research centre, the TOPOI House, just a short walk from our hotel.
The TOPOI House.
Unfortunately one of our speakers, Robert Schiestl, was unwell and unable to give his paper but around 70 people heard talks from Manfred Bietak, Ulrich Hartung, Eva Lange, Manuela...
Delta Survey in Berlin!
Tomorrow we are having a Delta Survey Study-Day in Berlin with speakers from the UK, Germany and Austria. Today started with a shopping trip to buy drinks and snacks for the tea/coffee breaks and reception tomorrow. We now have a supermarket trolley in our hotel room!
Jeff and Jo with our shopping!
This afternoon we all gathered outside the Neues Museum for our special guided tour by Dr...
April 2011
36 posts
Signing off
This morning we went to the SCA office for the Kafr es-Sheikh area, where Salwa wrote the ‘signing off’ document for the expedition and Jeff left a copy of the ‘short’ report Field Directors submit to the SCA at the end of a season. He will write a fuller, illustrated report after we get home and send it to Faten for translation into Arabic and onward submission to the SCA....
Last day on site
Lovely weather on site today after all the heat – sunny and warm but with a nice cooling breeze. It’s a shame we’re leaving! First thing this morning we completed recording the ten red granite mill-stones that are visible on the surface – there could well be others completely buried.
Patricia brushing earth from one of the mill-stones.
Seeking out mill-stones took us to the...
Measuring mud bricks and mill stones
Initially this morning we worked on the top of the mound containing the large brick wall, defining its upper courses and measuring the well-preserved bricks, then, after our break, we returned to the southern end of the site where we suspect from the surface sherds and red bricks, that any intact deposits will be later in date than in the northern part. We started recording and photographing the...
An end to the wall
After having worked for several days on a steep slope, we moved down to the present-day surface level of the tell to see if the large brick wall we’ve been investigating continues below the level of the mound of fill and further to the east. Cleaning away the dry surface dust (mainly composed of powdered brick from the wall) revealed what appears to be the eastern end of the wall, very well...
Still hot.....
Unfortunately the thunderstorm we hoped we’d get to clear the air and cool things down hasn’t yet arrived, so it was very hot on site today and there was a hot strong wind blowing from the south-east (khamsin-like weather), making working conditions very unpleasant, especially as we were cleaning on a slope, over what we think is a mud-brick enclosure wall, right in the path of all the...
A hot Friday
We were very glad we weren’t working on site today as it was exceedingly hot and still. Our first ‘Friday job’ was to wash the car which we started at 7.30am by which time the sun was already beating down.
Jeff washing our hire car at the back of the hotel.
The entrance to our hotel is actually at its ‘back’ (not on the main street), within the sports complex...
Last day of the week
Thursday again and the last working day of the week. We’ve continued investigating some of the high mud-brick walls, though some of the chunks of what look like mud-brick are deceptive. In some cases what has survived is a wall with fill beside it which contains some fallen or displaced bricks, but isn’t actually part of an articulated wall itself. It is just what was left when people...
Three tells (and a baby donkey)
We only worked on site for half a day today as we’d arranged with our SCA Inspector, Salwa, to go and visit three other ancient tells in an area east of Daba. This meant we had again to drive through Riyad which, even though it wasn’t suq-day, was still very busy.
The main through road in Riyad on a quiet day
The first site we went to was Kom Umm Gafar which is a very large mound...
Investigating a monumental wall
We spent most of our time on site today investigating the large chunk of mud brickwork which first aroused our interest in the site when we visited it in 1990. It is shown in the photograph of Jeff with Sabri Abdel Aziz in the first update for this season, and has clearly articulated mud bricks on its eastern exposed side, though this is not the original face of the wall, but is within its...
Driving to Daba
Since our experience with Riyad on suq-day last Saturday, we’ve continued to drive to the site along the old road from Kafr es-Sheikh, rather than (as we had for the first week) using the new international road which leads eventually to the holiday resort of Baltim. Going on the old road means we can avoid most of the crowded main street of Riyad and we come into the town from the south,...
Sakha (and some more cats)
Today it was quite hot and we had a BIG wind on site which made working conditions rather unpleasant as it blew dried earth and brick dust from the surface over everything – cleaned bricks, equipment and people. We did manage to trace some more wall faces so that we could plan them in, and to complete the survey points in the north part of the tell.
This afternoon we went for a drive around the...
Defining mud-brick walls
There was a wedding party last night – it started about 10.00pm and ended in the small hours of this morning (neither of us checked exactly when!). The music was very, very loud, but we did manage to get some sleep. The journey to Daba took us twice as long as usual today as it turned out that Saturday is suq day in the only town on our drive – Riyad. The through road was jam-packed with people,...
Trip into the countryside
There were no wedding parties last night (maybe tonight?) so we did get some sleep, and the sun was shining first thing this morning so we went for a drive out of town while the roads were quieter than normal since it isn’t a working day here. Some villages have their suq (market) days on Fridays so are even busier than usual, while others are much quieter. Otherwise we’ve spent the...
Mud bricks, bright lights and black cats
The last day of the week here and we got in a full day’s work in despite a little rain at Daba late morning. We’ve made very good progress with the planning of the site and only a few areas are yet to be surveyed. The rain shower we had today was quite useful as house/room plans showed up better in the wet ground.
Possible mud-brick rooms after the rain
Thursday is the most popular...
Granite mill stones
After yesterday’s rain, we had lovely weather today – mainly sunny and warm – so we were able to get back to work at Daba, setting survey points for the map. The work went very well again and we were able to add another 150 survey points to the 89 we set on the first day of work. We concentrated today on the south part of the site where the surface is generally lower than in the north, but...
Walk out of town
The sun finally broke through the clouds just before it was due to set so we went for a short walk in the ‘out of town’ direction and found a very pleasant ‘tea garden’ just along the road from our hotel, which looks like a good place to relax in nicer weather.
Kafr es-Sheikh has pedestrian crossings marked on the roads, though no-one uses them nor does the traffic stop...
Rain stopped work!
When we got up this morning the sky was very grey with thick cloud cover and it soon started to rain. The wind was also strong so we decided it wouldn’t be worth driving the 15km to the site if work might not be possible – our experience over the last 20 years at Balamun told us that the bad weather would be around for at least today, and so it has proved. The survey went so well yesterday...
Start of survey
We had a very successful first day, working on the survey, using the Society’s trusty Topcon EDM. We started by setting up on one of the reddish mounds near the western edge of the site to establish a base line, then plotted in most of the high mounds which are composed variously of mud and red brick. Jeff takes the readings while I walk around with Mohammed (one of the two young men we are...
First visit to Daba
This morning we went to the SCA office and met the Director for Kafr esh-Sheikh, Dr Mohammed Abdel Rafaa, who made us very welcome and actually remembered us from when we were touring around tells in 1990 with Sabri Abdel Aziz! He assigned an Inspector to us, Madame Salwa Galal, and she came with us for a preliminary visit to the site. We set off on the 15 km drive to the site in lovely...
In Kafr esh-Sheikh
We’ve now arrived in Kafr esh-Sheikh and are in a hotel (next to the football stadium) which we plan to make our base for the next three weeks. This morning we collected our hire car and drove first to the village next to Tell el-Balamun to collect some of the equipment (archaeological and domestic) which we’ll need here. The family from whom we usually rent a flat there gave us a good...
Thanks
Jeff closed the Workshop by thanking Dr Zahi Hawass, Dr Mohammed Abd el-Maksoud and the SCA for co-sponsoring the Workshop with the EES. He also thanked all the speakers, Penny and Jo for chairing sessions and Randa for kindly translating some talks into English. Finally he thanked me and Faten for organising the Workshop and Penny presented Faten with some flowers.
It’s been a great...
Final discussion
Jeff and Dr Maksoud are chairing the final discussion on behalf of the EES and the SCA.
Jeff welcomed the participation in the Workshop of so many of our Egyptian colleagues from the SCA as it is important for everyone to work together and share information.
Dr Maksoud agreed, especially as the Delta is under great threat from encroaching agriculture and construction. This has accelerated since...
Tell el-Farkha
Mariusz Jucha who was going to talk about the excavations at Tell Murra was unable to come as he’s just finishing off his season, so our last talk is on the important work of the Polish mission at Tell el-Farkha. Marek Chlodnicki and Krysztof Cialowitz are describing their excavation of this Predynastic-Old Kingdom site.
The mission started work in 2001 and has excavated in three...
Several Protodynastic and Early Dynastic...
Starting the last session of the two-day Workshop and Selim Gabr Baghdady is about to talk about his excavations at a number of early cemeteries at Minshaat Ezzat, Tell el-Samara and Tell el-Daba ‘el-Kanan’, all in Daqhaliya Governorate. Randa is again helping with translation into English and we’re very grateful to her for doing this during the Workshop.
Selim is describing...
Tell el-Balamun
My talk now!
Half an hour later: apparently there was an earthquake here during my talk - it was so good it made the earth move!
I gave a summary of our last twenty years of work at Balamun, talked about the magnetic map made by Tomasz, Dawid Swiech and Artur Buzak (all on this slide) and our investigations in recent years of features identified by the scanning.
Now I need tea!
Tell Faraoun – Imet
Ahmed Saeed Ibrahim el-Kharadly is discussing the site of Tell Faraoun (Petrie’s Nebesheh) in Arabic and we are grateful again to Randa Baligh for translating the talk.
The site is located on a sand gezira bordered on the north-west by the now extinct Pelusiac branch of the Nile. It was originally about 1 square km but is now much smaller. Ahmed is describing previous excavations at the...
Tell Basta
Dr Eva Lange is now talking about the joint SCA/University of Potsdam work at Tell Basta (Bubastis) another site first excavated by the EES. The Society is also funding through the Amelia Edwards Projects the current season of work.
Previous work has concentrated on the temple site but in 2008 the expedition started a survey of the ancient tell, including geophysical scanning. Most intriguing was...
Discussion
Interesting discussion following Manuela’s talk, about the nature, dating and longevity of casemate foundations and tower houses and parallels for the Late Period pottery that has been found at Tell el-Daba.
Dr Maksoud has opened up the discussion and pointed out how important geophysical surveys are, especially for sites in the Delta and Sinai. Within a few days of Tomasz Herbich starting...
Tell el-Daba in the Late Period
We’re back on our programme now with a talk by Manuela Lehmann on the Late Period remains at Tell el-Daba, a site more usually recognised as being of the Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom.
By the end of the New Kingdom, the Pelusiac branch of the Nile was silting up and the site was abandoned until the 26th Dynasty. By ‘Late Period’ Manuela mis referring here to the 26th and...
Tell el-Daba geophysical survey
Tomasz Herbich has now returned to give a talk on the geophysical survey at Tell el-Daba. He started by explaining the technology of various types of magnetic scanning and how results are obtained.
Scanning revealed what turned out to be the Hyksos Palace (see Manfred’s article in EA 38!).
In the eastern part of the town using a caesium magnetometer it was possible to locate the river...
Qantir
Dr Pusch started his talk by describing the damage to the magazine at Qantir, which seems to have been more like vandalism, than a robbery. Five objects were removed but three have already been found on the ground outside the building.
He showed previous reconstructions of the ancient city of PiRamesse by Kitchen and Golvin, based on textual evidence and some imagination.
However, geophysical...
New talks
Everyone is drifting back (slowly!) from the coffee break! The next talk will be by Dr Edgar Pusch on Qantara followed byTomaszHerbich on the geophysical survey at Tell el-Daba. We’re very grateful to both for stepping in at the last minute to cover the gap left by Manfred and Irene having to stay at Daba.
Kafr Hassan Dawood and the Wadi Tumilat Survey
Professor Fekri Hassan is presenting the results of recent research on Kafr Hassan Dawood which is being undertaken by his team. KHD is situated in the Wadi Tumilat, an ancient branch of the Nile.
Professor Hassan has described the importance of the Wadi Tumilat, providing access from the Nile Valley, through the bitter lakes, eventually to the Red Sea. Excavation at KHD by Professor...
Programme changes
We’re going to have to have a few changes to the programme today as the next speaker isn’t able to come so we’re now moving straight on to Professor Fekri Hassan’s talk – he’s just uploading his presentation. After the coffee break, we also have to make changes as Manfred Bietak and Irene Forstner-Muller have had to stay at Tell el-Daba to continue checking the robbed...
Geophysical Survey at Tell el-Farama (Pelusium)
Tomasz Herbich described the history of excavation at Pelusium in North Sinai - first planned by Hogarth for the EES. The first geophysical survey at the site was done by an Egyptian team in the 1990s and the current Polish team initiated new geophysical research in 2005, revealing the urban layout and enabling the identification of the main streets, narrower ones, and significant structures....
March 2011
24 posts
Start of the Second Day
Good morning! We’ve reconvened and just started a few minutes late with Penny Wilson, Director of the EES/University of Durham expedition at Sais, is talking about ‘dynamic’ and ‘indolent’ sites in the Delta. For some sites the centre of population changes over time, others are more static. The size and shape of the Delta as a whole is affected by changes in...
Site security again
Dr Maksoud is reporting on the break-in at the Tell el-Daba magazine which is now being investigated by the police, but only five objects have been stolen.
He said that the SCA should have a special police force to guard antiquities, rather than the tourist police. One option is to transfer all antiquities to Cairo or to transfer them to other museums in the Delta but this will make research...
Maamourah Survey
Our final talk today is by Mohammed Mostafa Abd el-Maguib on the Maamourah Survey in Alexandria, near Abu Qir. It was an island which King Farouk connected to the shore by a bridge and fishermen and divers have been bringing antiquities ashore for many years.
The current work of the Department of Underwater Antiquities is mapping the locations of underwater finds, including amphorae and stone...
The Lake Mareotis Research Project
Ahmed Omar is describing the Lake Mareotis Research Project which is a joint mission of the Underwater Dept of the SCA and the University of Southampton. The lake is now only about 30% of its extent in antiquity.
The objectives of the project are to research the palaeolograhical history of the lake, record the archaeological resources, determine chronology of remains and to determine the...
Tell el-Yahudia
Another talk about a site at which the EES worked first worked in the late 19th century! Aiman Ashmawy Ali is talking about recent SCA excavations at this site.
The current SCA work at Yahudia started in 2010. Aiman is showing on a GoogleEarth image how the large ancient tell has been encroached upon by cultivation and modern settlement, and what is left is cut into two parts by a road....
Tea break
Fathy el-Talhawey hasn’t been able to come, so we now have our tea/coffee break at which brownies are promised!
Half an hour later: there were indeed brownies - and very good too!
Quesna and Minufiyeh
Joanne Rowland is now discussing her EES work at Quesna and, for the Delta Survey, in Minufiyeh Governorate. Jo is currently working and is describing her current work investigating several tells in the Quesna region, field-walking and taking drill cores.
The main site of the project is Quesna which is founded on a large sand gezira, where the SCA had previously excavated an extensive Late...
Discussion
Questions to Ahmed have developed into a more general discussion about ‘rescue archaeology’ when someone wants to build on a site or when a householder finds, for example, antiquities beneath his house or on his land. Excavation in a built-up area can be problematic as it affects neighbouring structures. Not all ancient structures can be preserved and protected, and priorities have to...
Tell Atrib
Starting off the afternoon session with a talk from Ahmed Gabr Nour-el-Din about Tell Atrib. Ahmed is giving his talk in Arabic and we’re very grateful to Randa Baligh for translating it into English as we go along.
Randa Baligh and Ahmed Gabr Nour el-Din
Tell Atrib is now within the modern town of Benha and has been excavated by several expeditions in the past, since Brugsch worked...
Returning from lunch
Delegates are (slowly!) returning from the excellent lunch provided by Beano’s in the garden cafe here at the British Council.
Kilns, pots and lunch
Discussion now about kilns with other archaeologists commenting on evidence from their own sites, also enquiries about the production of the Ptolemaic ‘black ware’ (which Petrie used to call ‘Memphis black ware’) but which is now thought to have been produced at Buto. Dr Ballet has not yet found any evidence for this.
Lunch-time!
Back to Buto
We’ve now returned to Buto and Pascale Ballet is talking about the University of Poitiers/IFAO survey, which is studying pottery manufacture at the site. In 2001 the survey started by field-walking and on the north fringe of the ‘English Kom’ pottery wasters were identified. There were also traces of kilns visible on the surface.
After the field-walking, a geophysical survey by...
Survey in Beheira
Andrea Rossi is now reading the paper of Mohamed Kenawi who unfortunately is unable to be with us today, about his survey of Graeco-Roman sites in Beheira. The best preserved GR towns are in the Fayum and the dry conditions there have preserved many papyri. The same is not true for the wetter conditions in the Delta even though, during this period, the capital of Egypt was in the Delta, at...