31st
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 Tomasz Herbich identified possible areas of pottery manufacture, with dense black dots indicating the location of kilns. This was confirmed by excavation. The kilns were for the production of very fine Roman wares, mainly juglets, possibly used for perfume. There is, as yet, no evidence for the production at the site of the Ptolemaic ‘black ware’ associated with Buto. The excavation has revealed fascinating information on the technology of the kilns.
Since 2007 the expedition has enlarged the area under investigation to study the development of the settlement from the Ptolemaic Period to Islamic times, concentrating on an area next to a large enclosure identified by the geophysical scanning. The earliest remains are Ptolemaic houses, built over mud brick remains of the very Late /Early Ptolemaic Period.
Most recently the team have been investigating an area with tholos-baths, first identified in the 1960s by the EES expedition and also evidence for lime production from the Ptolemaic to the early Islamic Period. Interestingly, there is no evidence as yet for Early Islamic settlement at Buto itself - it seems just to have been a source of lime for construction.
