Egyptian Archaeology 27 by TheEES

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EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY Bulletin of the Egypt Exploration Society www.ees.ac.uk

The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the aims or concerns of the Egypt Exploration Society Editor Patricia Spencer Editorial Advisers Peter Clayton Vivian Davies George Hart David Jeffreys Mike Murphy Chris Naunton John Taylor Advertising Sales Andrew Bednarski Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews London WC1N 2PG (Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1880) (Fax: +44 (0)20 7404 6118) (E-mail: andrew.bednarski@ees.ac.uk) Trade Distribution Oxbow Books Park End Place Oxford OX1 1HN Fax: +44 (0)1865 794449 Phone: +44 (0)1865 241249 E-mail: orders@oxbowbooks.com Website: www.oxbowbooks.com Published twice a year by The Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG Registered Charity No.212384 A limited Company registered in England, No.25816 Original design by Jeremy Pemberton Set in Adobe InDesign CS2 by Patricia Spencer Printed by Commercial Colour Press plc Angard House, 185 Forest Road, Hainault, Essex IG6 3HU www.ccpress.co.uk

The Euroslavic font used to print this work is available from Linguist’s Software, Inc., PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 98020-0580, USA. Phone: (425) 775-1130. www.linguistsoftware.com

The Delta barrages on the river Nile, as seen about 1923. (Aerial photograph in the EES Archive, taken by C F Sim). Angus Graham and Judith Bunbury describe in this issue how the course of the Nile, which is now relatively controlled, moved through the centuries during which the temples of Karnak were being constructed (see pp.17-19).

Number 27

Autumn 2005

Editorial

UNESCO and Qasr Ibrim

Pamela Rose

Mut el-Kharab: Seth’s city in Dakheh Oasis

2 Colin Hope

Note and News

3 7

Satellites and survey in Middle Egypt

Sarah Parcak

Egypt’s earliest granaries: evidence from the Fayum Willeke Wendrich and René Cappers

‘Origines 2005’, Toulouse

Joanne Rowland

The ancient landscapes and waterscapes of Karnak Angus Graham and Judith Bunbury

The Middle Kingdom temple of Amun at Karnak Guillaume Charloux

Digging Diary

Patricia Spencer

In search of Cleopatra’s temple

Sally-Ann Ashton

Notice Board

New research in the Abu Bakr cemetery at Giza Tohfa Handoussa and Edward Brovarski

Ancient Egypt at the Manchester Museum

Christina Riggs

Bookshelf

Membership Matters

Cover illustration: The Amun Temple at Karnak.View of excavation in progress in the northern ambulatory of the rooms of Hatshepsut. Photograph © G Charloux. See pp.20-24. 1

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Encouraging young Egyptologists

As this issue of EA is going to press the first British Egyptology Congress, a new joint venture by the EES and the Fitzwilliam Museum, is meeting in Cambridge. A report on the Congress will be published in EA 28 (spring 2006) but the abstracts,published on the Congress website, indicate the wide range of research presented in papers and poster sessions. It is particularly pleasing to see the number of presentations by younger scholars and doctoral students who will be the backbone of British Egyptology in the twenty-first century. The Egypt Exploration Society encourages young archaeologists to take an active role in fieldwork in Egypt

through its grants from the Centenary Award Fund, established in 1982. Many of the Directors currently active in Egypt undertook their first fieldwork with funds from an EES Centenary Award and in this issue two of the most recent recipients, Sarah Parcak and Angus Graham, describe their work in Middle Egypt and at Karnak respectively, while Joanne Rowland will publish in EA 28 the results of her survey in Minufieh Governorate. The Centenary Awards are granted every two years and the 2006 awards will be advertised in November/December 2005. Full details will be posted on the Society’s website (www.ees.ac.uk). PATRICIA SPENCER

UNESCO and Qasr Ibrim During the 2005 excavation season at Qasr Ibrim, a delegation from UNESCO, consisting of Michael Mallinson (Architect;consultant to UNESCO),Costanza Di Simone (Cultural Advisor, UNESCO, Cairo),Anna Paolini (then Head of the Middle East Section, UNESCO, Paris), Hassan Hussein Idris (Director General, Sudan National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums), Salah Mohammed Ahmed (Archaeological Director,SNCAM),and Mohammed El Bialy (General Director of Antiquities, Aswan and Nubia) made a brief visit to the site as part of a wider assessment of Nubian sites in Sudan and Egypt.The aim of the inspection was to identify key sites at which UNESCO might become involved in conservation,restoration, the development of site management programmes, and the training of those involved in these projects.This is itself part of a wider scheme of cross-border cooperation between Egypt and Sudan to draw world-wide attention to Nubian cultural heritage. As a result of the visit, Qasr Ibrim was identified as the site in Egyptian Nubia to be accorded the highest priority for assistance, and a proposal was prepared by Michael Mallinson on behalf of the UNESCO delegation,

outlining three major pieces of work at Ibr im which would fall within the UNESCO br ief: the urgent consolidation of the Podium, the situation of which becomes more precarious each year; the consolidation of the Cathedral foundations and the upper levels of the building; and the The Interior of the Cathedral at Qasr Ibrim. (Photograph: Hans Barnard) construction of a barrier on two sides of the site to prevent tourist boats from coming too close. Each of these falls well beyond the brief and budget of the EES, but the Society, as holder of the concession, will be fully involved in the planning and supervision of the work, without any financial obligation. UNESCO has now agreed to include Qasr Ibrim in its project and will provide all the necessary financing of the conservation and restoration and the writer will, as EES Field Director of the Qasr Ibrim expedition, be visiting the site with UNESCO officials in October 2005. The Society warmly welcomes this UNESCO involvement at Qasr Ibrim, the excavation of which was started as part of the 1960s UNESCO campaign to save the monuments of Nubia when the Aswan High Dam was constructed. Qasr Ibrim is the last surviving major site in Nubia,with a long history of occupation and unparalleled prevervation of archaeological material.The planned conservation, restoration and protection work by UNESCO will help to ensure its future survival. PAMELA ROSE

The Qasr Ibrim Podium and Cathedral as seen from Lake Nasser. (Photograph: Hans Barnard) 2

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Mut el-Kharab: Seth’s city in Dakhleh Oasis Mut el-Kharab preserves the remains of the local cult centre of the god Seth and an adjacent cemetery. Colin Hope summarizes the results of the excavations at this site in Dakhleh Oasis which have revealed activity from the early Old Kingdom to the Mamluk Period.

General view of the site, looking north with part of the ancient well on the right

In 1894 in Mut, the modern capital of Dakhleh Oasis, Captain Henry Lyons acquired two hieratic stelae which were said to derive from the ruins on the south-western edge of the ancient site. These stelae, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, document activity in a temple of Seth, Lord of the Oasis, during Year 5 of a King Shoshenq (either I or III) of the Twenty-second Dynasty and Year 24 of King Piye (Piankhy) of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty respectively. They highlighted the importance of the site for our understanding both of the history of Dakhleh Oasis during the later periods of dynastic history, and of the cult of Seth, attested in the Western Desert from the Old Kingdom. The Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP), which has been studying the Oasis since 1977, undertook several soundings at Mut el-Kharab in 1980, and these confirmed that activity continued at the site until the Late Roman Period, but that there was little surviving of the temple itself. Its location can be determined from a depression with some stone in approximately the centre of a large enclosure, which occupies most of the northern half of a mound and measures 240m x 180m.The enclosure wall still stands in places up to 8m high and is 5m wide; it is the largest such enclosure in Dakhleh. Preservation of structures is poor on the north as a result of the activity of farmers, but elsewhere there are the remains of substantial buildings.Within the south-western corner of the

enclosure is a large ancient well, 30m in diameter with two modern wells to its east; there are several others of uncertain date in the southern part of the mound where there are both ancient and relatively modern cemeteries. Unfortunately, the site has suffered badly from plundering and there are large pits over the entire area; various tracks criss-cross the site. In 2001 excavations commenced on behalf of the DOP and four seasons of work have now been conducted. These have focused upon the remains of the temple,surrounding structures, and in the north-western and south-eastern corners of the enclosure; two of the ancient tombs have been investigated. As already noted, little survives of the temple; indeed it was only in the 2005 season that it became possible to determine its north-south orientation. In trench 16 the continuation of a sandstone wall, first discovered in 2004 in trench 15, was revealed, though it is preserved to only three courses in height. It may be part of an eastern exterior wall of the temple and is set on top of a bed of yellow sand. A similar sand foundation was discovered earlier in trench 4 below a deposit of sandstone chips which may well be all that remains of the western exterior wall.Within the intervening trenches extensive areas of a thick mud-brick platform were revealed, over which,in a few places,were sandstone paving slabs and the lower courses of sandstone walls, although the latter are represented by no more than a few contiguous blocks.The 3

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platform which extends east to a north-south mud-brick wall abutting trenches 8 and 17, and which may be part of an inner enclosure wall.A cut through this platform in trench 16 revealed ceramics of the early Roman Period, including several intact jars and bowls. Identical forms, associated with ostraca of the first and second centuries AD,occur at Ismant el-Kharab in Dakhleh Interestingly, no decorated blocks datable to the Roman Period have been discovered in the temple area, though a wide range of earlier blocks has been found. Either in robbers’ pits or amongst rubble the expedition has recovered blocks ranging in date from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Ptolemaic Period, which were presumably reused within the Roman structure. Notable pieces include a fragment with the prenomen (Menkheperre Setepenre) of Tuthmosis III, blocks of the Third Intermediate Period (including one with part of a relief from a jubilee scene) and Twentysixth Dynasty, and fragments of fecundity figures of the Ptolemaic Period.There are various references to Seth, Amun, a High Priest of Amun and other priests. One block with the name of Seth has been recarved, with the figure of a seated god having replaced the distinctive Seth-animal which is the determinative of his name. Other reused blocks were found in a pavement between two structures Site plan of Mut el-Kharab, showing the numbered excavation trenches and the tombs south of the enclosure due west of the temple: in trench 21 between the shrine of trench 6 and the single room of paving slabs in trench 12 are lower than the remainder, trench 18. Here were four blocks from a monument of indicating that they are within an outer room. Horemheb, a single block with the nomen of a Ramesses The 2005 season also provided evidence to date the and a Ramesside or earlyThird Intermediate Period stela. construction of the temple, as represented by these in situ The Horemheb blocks derive from a structure dedicated remains, to the early Roman Period.The sand bed below to Amun, whose figure occurs twice.The stela has a king the stone wall of trench 16 overlies an extensive deposit facing two deities in the upper register, then, below this of Twenty-fifth Dynasty ceramics (mostly comprising ofscene, a text dedicated to Seth, with the dedicator and his fering jars, offering stands and bowls) amongst which is a family depicted in the bottom register. little New Kingdom pottery. This deposit must contain The mud-brick shrine of trench 6 witnessed considerable thousands of kilos of sherds as it has also been encounmodifications and there were also in its paved floor reused tered within trenches 8 and 17 on the east, and pottery blocks, most noticeably a lintel fragment from a door of a of the same date occurs below the shrine of trench 6 and Ramesside tomb.The shrine appears to have been either house of trench 9 on the west.Within trench 8 alone a erected or modified in the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, during total in excess of 1300 kg was collected.To the east of the the reign of Psamtek I, as the right section of a decorated wall, in trenches 15 and 16, there is another area of brick 4

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Recarved name of Seth, probably changed in the Late Period

Part of the prenomen of Tuthmosis III

Psamtek I worshipping Atum and Re-Horakhty on a lintel

Remains of the pavement with the reused Horemheb blocks in trench 20

Ramesside stela reused in the pavement

Relief of the head of Horemheb

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Detail of the deposit of moulds in trench 18

The sandstone sarcophagus in Tomb 1

lintel was found in one of its outer rooms upon which that king is depicted making offerings to Re-Horakhty and Atum. Other blocks in similar style have been found near by.The function of the single room of trench 18 has not been determined but below the base of its walls in the north-eastern corner a rectangular pit was uncovered. Within the fill over the pit were 163 ostraca, mostly in demotic, but with a few in Greek. Several can be dated to the late Ptolemaic Period.Within the pit itself was an extensive collection of gypsum and ceramic moulds for the manufacture of inlays for an over-lifesize image of a falcon-headed, winged deity, undoubtedly Seth.A similar image of Seth occurs in the Temple of Amun at Hibis in Kharga Oasis, while at Ayn Birbiyeh the local Dakhleh deity Amun Nakht, is also depicted as a falcon-headed, winged god. There are two intact moulds for the head, others for sections of the head, pieces from a tripartite wig and a collar, and numerous moulds for the inlays of the wings.The latter are in ceramic; some are numbered 1-10 and others bear notations in demotic. Also found with the moulds were a bronze figure of Osiris, a small head of a Ptolemaic king (perhaps a sculptor’s model), a Ptolemaic coin and part of a faience plaque with the name Psamtek in a cartouche. The trenches within the two opposing corners of the temenos have yielded sequences of activity from the Twenty-seventh Dynasty onwards. In trench 14 in the north-west,several deposits of ceramics datable to that dynasty have been found indicating that the outer enclosure was constructed at that time. In the south-eastern corner ceramics within superimposed structures document Ptolemaic,Roman and possibly Islamic activity.Significant amounts of Aswan wares of the fourth to seventh centuries AD (when the bishop of Dakhleh may have had his seat at Mut) have been found all over the site, in addition to Islamic glazed and plain wares. The officials of the temple and administration were buried in cemeteries which surround the site. Adjacent to the temple on the south is a small cemetery of some 20-30 multi-chambered tomb complexes, two of which have been explored. One contained the base of a large

monolithic sandstone sarcophagus and typical Late Period small shabti figures within a sandstone-lined chamber. The other has a barrel-vaulted stone-lined chamber the walls of which are plastered and preserve polychrome painted scenes of deities within shrines. Flanking a door into a chamber on the north are two unusual representations of squatting Representation of the crocodileheaded deity in Tomb 2 figures making offerings: one has a crocodile head and the other that of a feline.A caption in front of the crocodile-headed figure identifies the tomb owner as the priest of Seth,Sutekhirdsu.Excavations in the cemeteries on the north of the site by local SCA inspectors have revealed burials ranging in date from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty to the Roman Period. Despite its poor state of preservation, Mut is emerging as one of the most significant sites in the Western Desert. It is likely to have been the capital of Dakhleh from sometime in the New Kingdom onwards, until it was eclipsed by Qalamun and el-Qasr from the Fatamid and Mamluk Periods.The date of the earliest occupation is not yet certain, but early Old Kingdom pottery and that belonging to the indigenous Terminal Sheikh Muftah unit occurs in all of the lowest strata revealed to date.This early material may attest a campsite which formed a part of the earliest Egyptian expansion into the Western Desert. Despite the opposition to the worship of Seth that occurred in the Nile Valley from the Late Period onwards, in Dakhleh Oasis his cult flourished until the Roman Period. Ô Colin Hope is Director of the Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History at Monash University in Melbourne and Field Director of the excavations at Mut el-Kharab. He wishes to thank Günter Vittman for information on the demotic ostraka, and acknowledges Monash University and Australians Studying Abroad for their financial support of the Mut excavations.All illustrations © C A Hope.

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Notes and News

The International Directory of Egyptologists is now available online on the website of the International Association of Egyptologists: www.iae.lmu.de

University of Cambridge. Barry Kemp and John Ray have both been awarded personal chairs at the University of Cambridge. John Ray becomes the Herbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology. Beit el-Sitt Wassila. In July 2005 the Egyptian Prime Minister, Ahmed Nazif, accompanied by the Culture Minister, Farouk Hosni, the Cairo Governor, Abdel-Azim Wazir, and Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, officially opened Beit el-Sitt Wassila in Cairo, following the completion of a five-year restoration programme. This seventeenth century house, which had previously been neglected, had been further damaged by the 1992 earthquake and the high water table. Before the actual restoration work began the team undertook extensive research in archives and libraries to establish the constructional details and appearance of the house in its heyday, eventually unearthing evidence of its original construction in the Public Archive in Paris. Cleaning revealed more than 20 murals showing landscapes, floral compositions and a pilgrimage scene depicting the Kaaba covered with a cloth of gold. Swansea University. Following the apointment, from April 2004, of Thomas Schneider, formerly of Basel University, as the first Professor of Egyptology at the University of Swansea, Gregory Mumford has now been appointed, on an initial one-year contract, as Lecturer in Egyptology. Dr Mumford will be continuing his own fieldwork at Ras Budran, South Sinai. For the first time Swansea University will be sponsoring fieldwork in Egypt, having been awarded a concession as co-sponsor of the excavations at Qantir.

Scene in the tomb of Sennefer (TT 96). Photograph taken in 1888 by J P Simpson, now in the Archive of the Griffith Institute, Oxford

Nubian collection.The Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum has recently acquired, through the good offices of Bill Adams, those antiquities which were divided to the University of Kentucky in return for the University’s contribution to the UNESCO campaign of the 1960s to save the monuments of ancient Nubia. The collection comprises a large variety of objects, principally of Christian and The dinner held in the Hartwell Room at the British Museum on 10 Medieval origin, from August 2005, in honour of Professor and Mrs Adams. From left to right: the site of Kulubnarti Vivian Davies, Nettie Adams, Neil MacGregor, Bill Adams, Pamela Rose in Sudan.These include and Ernest Adams. Photograph: Julie Anderson many examples of textiles, leather items, glass and fine decorated Bolton Museum. Following the retirement pottery. On 10 August 2005, the Director of of Angela Thomas,Thomas Hardwick has been the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, hosted appointed Keeper of Egyptology and Archaeola dinner at the Museum in honour of Profesogy at the Bolton Museum. sor and Mrs Adams, to thank them for their generosity towards the Museum. Griffith Institute. The Archive of the Griffith Institute in Oxford has now acquired the papers of the late John Gwyn Griffiths Tell Basta colossus. The colossal statue of (1911-2004), Professor of Classics and Ancient Ramesses II’s queen, Meretamun, first discovHistory at the University of Wales, Swansea. ered in 2002 by a team from the University of See further: www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/gri/4.html Potsdam, and which featured on the cover of EA 21, has now been re-erected in the openair garden museum at Tell Basta (Bubastis) in Pelusium. Architects Micha∏ Smo∏a and Anna the Nile Delta. Osnicka, working for the Polish Centre in Cairo, are preparing a project for the better Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeolpresentation and protection of the remains of ogy. On 1 June 2005 the Museum received the Roman theatre at Pelusium (Tell Farama) back, from the Science Museum in London, on the mediterranean Sinai coast. North of the 605 Petrie weights and measures which had theatre, in an area badly damaged by the years originally been loaned by Stephen Glanville in of conflict in Sinai, excavations in the summer 1935. A selection of 200 have gone on display, of 2005 revealed a partly-preserved mosaic, and the rest have been photographed for the showing water birds and plants. This has now online database: they cover every period from been removed by experts from the Supreme Prehistoric Naqada and First Dynasty Tarkhan, Council for Antiquities and will be displayed to the Byzantine and Islamic Periods. Among in the new museum in el-Arish. the weights now on display are UC 80200, a Stolen antiquities returned to Egypt. In faience block weight from Abydos, inscribed July 2005, in an official ceremony at Parliafor an early Thirteenth Dynasty High Steward ment House in Canberra,Australia returned to called Aabeni.The two largest items are mediEgyptian officials a number of small antiquities eval steelyards inscribed in Arabic and cursive (shabtis, amulets, etc) which had been recovGreek, now wall-mounted near their ornate ered during the investigation of a smuggling counterpoises. ring. The objects are believed to have come originally from Saqqara. Archive photographs. A group of some 50 glass negatives taken in Egypt in 1888 by J P EES website. New data and images have been Simpson have been catalogued in the Griffith added to the online EES Delta Survey, and Institute in Oxford.They were brought to the reports of the EES excavations and research at attention of the Topographical Bibliography team Amarna have been updated. Go to the Society’s by their owner, the photographer’s great grandwebsite: www.ees.ac.uk and follow links. son, Simon B Simpson. The most interesting among them were taken in the tomb of SenThanks to the following for providing infornefer at Thebes (‘Tombeau des Vignes’, TT 96) mation and photographs: John Baines, Rawya and include several now destroyed scenes. All Ismail, Hugh Kilmister, Alan Lloyd, Jaromir these photographs will appear on the Griffith Malek, Mike Murphy, Jeffrey Spencer and Institute’s web site (www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/griffith. Anna Stevens. html) shortly.

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Satellites and survey in Middle Egypt Since 2004 a British mission has been using satellite remote sensing to survey an area on the west bank opposite Tell el-Amarna. Sarah Parcak reports on the project’s work. As part of the Egypt Exploration Society’s fieldwork and research programme at Tell el-Amarna, the Cambridge University Middle Egypt Survey Project began work in 2004 on the west bank of the Nile opposite the ancient city and in the area bounded by Akhenaten’s stelae. A primary goal of the Project was to develop a methodology using satellite images to locate previously unknown archaeological surface sites in the Nile floodplain, and to conduct a comprehensive ground survey which covered a 15km x 30km area. The Napoleonic expedition (1798) recorded 12 sites in this region, while Dieter Kessler’s topographical survey in 1981 represents the most recent published account of work in the area. Barry Kemp has provided in a recent EES publication (see p.40) a gazetteer of sites in the region mentioned in previous work. It is important to examine the fate of the sites recorded by the Napoleonic expedition and others in this survey area: sites that existed as distinct tells in Middle Egypt during the early nineteenth century may have been lost, being either levelled or built over. 2002 Landsat 7 and 1972 Corona satellite images, with 30m and 1-2m pixel resolutions respectively, allowed the pinpointing of exact regions for archaeological reconnaissance. Landsat satellites are multispectral, recording information in multiple bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, while Corona images are high-resolution satellite photographs taken in the 1960s and 1970s. A principal issue has been the differentiation between modern towns and tells, because so many modern towns in the area

2002 Landsat satellite image showing some of the 70 sites visited during the 2004 season

are on top of, and thus obscure, ancient sites. A variety of remote sensing methods assisted with this differentiation, detecting the higher moisture content of the ancient soil. Locations of likely sites were compared with the Corona images, and GPS co-ordinates were recorded for ground survey. Satellite images and subsequent ground survey have allowed us to record data on 70 archaeological sites, 43 of which were previously unknown. Each site visited during the 2004 season The left picture represents a Quickbird image of the main city area of Tell el-Amarna, with no feature enhancement. was photographed, mapped, The right image is of the same area, but with different forms of contrast enhancement applied, revealing additional recorded, and evidence ofsubsurface features

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material culture was collected for later processing. Dating the material culture showed that the sites had a primary date range in the Late Roman and Byzantine Periods (c. AD 400-800).Ten per cent of the sites visited represented open tells, 20 per cent lay beneath modern cemeteries, 13 per cent appeared within agricultural fields and 63 per cent lay below modern towns. (Six per cent of the sites in the survey area had multiple classifications). Significant finds included the reidentification of an early Coptic church in the city of Dalga, itself a modern town atop a massive tell some 20m tall, and evidence for an ancient monastery at the site of Ismu el-Arus. Many towns contain numerous architectural fragments (columns, column bases, capitals and limestone blocks). Material culture recovered showed evidence of trade with Libya and the eastern Mediterranean. In March 2005 the mission returned to the survey area to drill cores at selected sites and in the North Palace well at Tell el-Amarna, using differential GPS mapping for topographical survey. The coring season started with the objectives of finding earlier material culture deposits from a variety of different sites, including sites along the Bahr Yusef, beneath modern settlements and below fields, initially detected in the satellite analysis. It was also hoped to gain insights into the environmental history of the region. At Kiman Zeit, the first site visited, a drill core to a depth of 5m, revealed possible early Roman material near the core base. At Ismu el-Arus, the core reached a depth of

Landsat 7 satellite image showing the survey area, with the sites of Umm Qummus and Tell el-Amarna highlighted.The red areas represent crops, while the grey areas represent either towns or archaeological sites

nearly 7m before encountering a thick clay layer, possibly indicating a former canal branch. An imported lamp

Landsat images showing Umm Qummus, one of the 43 previously undiscovered sites. B is a visible image, while C shows a remote sensing method which reveals archaeological tell material as red and the modern town as grey

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Aswan ware pottery lamp from the site of Ismu el-Arus, with the Coptic inscription ‘Apia Hagiam’

terial was located at a depth of 5m, while at Nazlet Badramin dense clay appeared, suggesting a former branch of the Bahr Yusef. At Dawar el-Hakoom, the survey found a Corinthian capital and several additional limestone blocks in the fields. Cores were taken beside them to a depth of 5m, finding Late Roman Period material. Using a differential GPS, the site of Sheikh Moussa was mapped and coring undertaken to a depth of 6m. The site of Kom el-Zurzur was found to be on top of an ancient gezira.A differential GPS survey also took place at the large desert site of Kom el-Ahmar, which is the only site in the region to have yielded pharaonic evidence (a Twenty-sixth Dynasty Cypro-Phoenecian sherd). Coring results from the west bank indicate that the Late Roman Period cultural deposits are extensive, in some cases reaching depths of five or more metres. Below the 5m mark at Singerg and Kiman Zeit, earlier Roman Period material appears, with no pharaonic period material culture appearing in any of the cores. On an environmental level, the study showed several buried canals and former sandbanks along the edge of the Bahr Yusef.This revealed

Preliminary differential GPS-generated map of Kom el-Ahmar

from Aswan appeared, with a Coptic inscription ‘Apia Hagiam’. This is significant because it suggests the name of a monastery in Aswan with which the monastery at Ismu el-Arus may have been connected. Beneath the site of Singerg, possible Roman Period ma-

The site of Ismu el-Arus, discovered in the 2004 survey.There are faint cropmarks revealed by grass which show the outlines of ancient buildings

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variation allowed the countryside to develop its own intricate history. Results from the satellite work and subsequent survey have shown the increased archaeological importance of the survey area during the Late Roman and Byzantine Periods. During earlier periods, this 450km2 area would have represented valuable arable land for cultivation. For the first time we know that a considerable number of sites existed in the region in late antiquity with earlier sites potentially located beneath later sites. Given occupation ranges at El-Ashmunein and other sites in Middle Egypt, it is not unlikely that continued deeper coring at the survey sites may yield similar sequences. Coring at the site of Nazlet Badramin, March 2005

that during the transition from the Roman to Late Roman Periods (c.AD 200-300), the canal had meandered, with the settlements along its edges shifting slightly. At Tell el-Amarna itself coring took place in the North Palace well to a depth of 8.54m from the current palace floor. A limestone block measuring at least 50cm x 50cm blocked two cores at the lowest point reached. No Amarna Period remains appeared in the cores, and are likely to lie another 2-3m below. A Quickbird satellite image with a 60cm pixel resolution revealed many remains from Tell el-Amarna, and showed additional detail from several of the sites first identified with the Landsat analysis. For the main city area, different remote sensing methods helped to reveal a number of subsurface structures and several features that have not yet been excavated. The results from the coring seem to explain why there is a dearth of pharaonic evidence in the surveyed and cored floodplain region. Since Late Roman remains are found 5m below the current surface, the fields and canals must have been much lower around 1500 years ago. Not all the ancient towns rise many metres above the current field levels as tells beneath towns: Kiman Zeit is a site located at current ground levels, and seems outwardly to have been one of the largest sites in the survey region. It is likely that the silt deposition rate in the survey area accounts for the silting-over of pharaonic sites. Historical records from the fourth to eighth centuries AD tell us that the Hermopolite nome flourished during that period, with evidence of international trade, religious connections with Alexandria and a rich local religious tradition. The archaeological data collected during the two survey seasons confirms this: local complexity and

q Sarah Parcak has just completed her PhD at Cambridge University in the Department of Archaeology. The 2004 and 2005 seasons received generous financial support from the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation in 2004, and from the EES Centenary Award and the EES Christine John Award in 2005. Sarah is grateful to SCA Inspectors Attah Makramallah and Wallah Mohammed, Reis Omar Sharid for coring assistance, Barry Kemp (Cambridge University) for support, Greg Mumford (University of Swansea) for survey help and Helen Fenwick (Hull University) for her GPS expertise. Photographs (unless otherwise indicated): © Sarah Parcak

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Egypt’s earliest granaries: evidence from the Fayum

The Fayum Project of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands (RUG), worked in autumn 2004 in the region north of Lake Qarun, in the Fayum. Willeke Wendrich and René Cappers describe the results of the project’s work. The UCLA/RUG Fayum Project started a survey in 2004 in the area worked between 1926 and 1929 by Gertrude Caton-Thompson and Elinor Gardner and published in The Desert Fayum (1934).Relocating the famous Neolithic and Epipalaeolithic sites that they discovered, it appears that the settlement site of Kom K is now part of an area which was cultivated over 20 years ago.Nothing is left but a desolate ploughed area where a litter of potsherds and flint cobbles still bear witness to one of the few excavated Neolithic settlements in Egypt.A large area of over 5,398 acres, just north of Kom K, has recently been taken in for development. It was this area that was our major concern, because it was here that Caton-Thompson and Gardner discovered the famous granaries of the ‘Upper and Lower K pits’ in 1926. These granaries were an extremely important find, because they represent the earliest evidence of agriculture in Egypt.They are unique because nowhere else has wheat and barley of this age (5200 BC) been found in such a good state of preservation. Even the basketry linings of

Spikelet from emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccon). Secured by Caton-Thompson in 1926. Groningen Institute of Archaeology, the Netherlands

the pits were in such splendid condition that Caton-Thompson was able to lift ten of these large baskets and transport several to the UK.A wooden sickle was found with its serrated flint blades still in place.Such chance finds give a more Spikelets from hulled rounded picture of the people of 6-row barley (Hordeum the Neolithic Period who are now vulgare ssp. vulgare): known to have been highly inven- central spikelet (left) and tive, wielding well balanced tools lateral spikelet (right). Secured by Catonof superior quality.The pits yielded Thompson in 1926. a total of c.3.4kg of grain. The fact Groningen Institute of Archaeology, the that these storage pits have survived Netherlands over six millennia is due to their

Map of the 2004 research area. Each square of the grid is 2km x 2km. (Map source: Finnida map series Egypt, enhanced by Noriyuki Shirai) 12

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to west, parallel to each other. A subsidiary canal which runs north cuts right through the ridge where CatonThompson and Gardner found the Upper K Pits, at that time much better preserved. Approximately 15 pits have already been destroyed by the excavation of this enormous canal.The project, therefore, decided to make it a priority to work in the area of the granaries to determine their exact situation and try to save this unique area for future generations and researchers.After several visits to the land reclamation company, we found that the manager, an engineer by training, was as shocked as we were by the near-destruction of these granaries,once their importance was made clear to him.After discussing the situation with Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, and Abd elRahman el-Awadi, SCA Chief Inspector in the Fayum, the company allowed us to build a fence around the area east of the subsidiary canal, where most of the known pits had been found and excavated in 1926. With this part of the site thus safeguarded, we decided to concentrate efforts on the exploration of the Upper K Pits area west of the canal, where only one pit was recorded. Caton-Thompson and Gardner described how they discovered the pits completely by accident when scraping the surface as part of a geological investigation. K-ridge is covered by an evenly distributed ‘desert pavement’ of

A tractor of the land reclamation company turns away from ploughing the area of the Upper K Pits. In the foreground, the blue flag indicates the outline of one of the pits originally excavated by Caton-Thompson. (Photograph: UCLA/RUG project,Willeke Wendrich)

relatively high elevation (32m above sea level) and the dry desert climate. The Kom K granaries have given us information on the domestication of grain, the development of agriculture and the way of life of people in the Egyptian Neolithic Period. However, there are still many questions related to the introduction of agriculture to the NileValley and the Kom K granaries are the key to many of the answers.Why, for example, was agriculture introduced later in Egypt than in the nearby Levant, as indicated by evidence there for the first transition to agriculture,and to what extent were people in the Fayum living a mobile existence during the process of adopting agriculture? It was, therefore, distressing to find that the area of the Upper and Lower K pits was under imminent threat of destruction by the new land reclamation project but, by a stroke of good fortune, the expedition had decided to work in this area at the start of the season. Had the survey here been postponed, we would certainly have been too late,as we were only just in time to stop a tractor-with-plough driving up K-ridge to start its destructive work. Most granaries of the Lower K Pits group have been destroyed by an asphalt road The Upper K Pits on the west and east side of the canal.The dark circles indicate Neolithic pits, the white circles show robber pits which were probably dug after 1926. (Drawing by Hans Barnard) and two large canals which run from east 13

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The Neolithic basket found just under the surface at the Upper K Pits. (Photograph: UCLA/RUG project,Willeke Wendrich) Left: excavating a fragment of extremely fine Neolithic basketry. (Photograph: UCLA/RUG project, Maria Gatto)

centrated on the surface to prevent further wind erosion. To our great surprise we discovered 10 unexcavated pits, some of which are storage pits, while others are shallow troughs. Caton-Thompson and Gardner concluded that most of the pits they found had fallen into disuse and they interpreted the contents of most pits as a natural fill of abandoned granaries: ‘The top 15-25cms of this infilling was frequently so hard that hammer and chisel were needed to chip it out’. Perhaps the most important new evidence that came to light during the 2004 excavation season was that with each pit we also found an associated trough with evidence for the preparation of a concrete-like mixture of shelly sand and salt to produce lids, showing that the pits originally had purpose-made covers. Careful excavation of several of the pits showed more evidence of the application of a moist, paste-like mixture to form a sturdy lid after drying. In two of the

black quartz and flint gravel over a thin layer of sand that is gradually building up under the pavement.The ridge is built up of a Tertiary shale and clay beds impregnated with gypsum. The excavations in 1926 yielded 67 pits, of which 56 were interpreted as granaries (ten without traces of basketry lining).The remaining 11 were ‘holes of dubious significance containing pots, wooden objects, or basketry’.Caton-Thompson and Gardner also say: ‘The remainder of the ridge top was sounded but failed to yield additional specimens’. Because the area west of the canal was scheduled to be ploughed anyway, it was decided to proceed with scraping away the desert pavement; an action that is even more destructive than driving in the desert with 4-wheel drive vehicles, as once the desert pavement is disturbed, the sand layer blows away and it takes centuries, or even millennia, before a new layer of large soil particles is con-

The concrete-hard cover of pit 68. Some of the fibres of the basketry lining are visible. (Photograph: UCLA/ RUG project,Willeke Wendrich) Right: attempting to section the concrete-hard lid of pit 68 with a chisel. (Photograph: UCLA/RUG project,Willeke Wendrich) 14

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So, what do we know of the lives of these people of the Neolithic Period, living along the lake shores in the Fayum around 7,000 years ago? They lived in settlements with large concentrations of hearths, probably built up over an extended period of time, but without leaving any evidence of permanent dwellings. In contrast to the Near East, where permanent settlement often preceded the domestication of wheat and barley, the inhabitants of the Fayum may have been more mobile than is generally expected of an agricultural society. The establishment of well-sealed, and concealed, storage pits, perhaps only for grain but more likely for other items as well, supports the argument that the Neolithic inhabitants of the Fayum made use of a wide array of resources, of which agriculture was perhaps not necessarily the main one. The UCLA/RUG project aims to find evidence for the degree of mobility, activities and settlement pattern of the Fayum inhabitants and the role that grain and granaries fulfilled in their lives. In the light of the present-day land reclamation schemes, we are in a hurry to do so, because, ironically, the earliest evidence of agriculture in Egypt was almost destroyed by ploughing.

The coarse straw basketry lining of the newly excavated pit 68. (Photograph UCLA/RUG project,Willeke Wendrich)

pits a basketry lining was present and although the fragile condition of the basketry prevented it being lifted, analyses show that the coarse lining was made using a coiling technique which has not been attested previously in Egypt and may be unique. It is difficult to describe what it is like to be brushing away gently the surface pebbles and to find, barely a centimetre under the gravel, a fragment of an extremely fine basket of incredible age.

Ô Willeke Wendrich is Associate Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at the University of California Los Angeles. René Cappers is Senior Lecturer at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.They are co-directors of the UCLA-RUG Fayum Project.

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‘Origines 2005’,Toulouse

In September 2005,The Second International Conference on the Origins of the Egyptian State took place in Toulouse. Joanne Rowland summarises the event. The Second International Conference on the Origins of the Egyptian State was staged between 5 and 8 September 2005, at the Conseil Régional Midi Pyrenées in Toulouse, proving a worthy successor to the first gathering in Krakow in 2002. Colleagues from across the globe were drawn from a diversity of specialities (Egyptology, archaeology, bioanthropology and archaeobotany, Near Eastern archaeology and prehistory) to share their research into every conceivable aspect of the study of pre- and early-historic Egypt. The conference tackled issues surrounding the rise of the state through themed sessions that focused on craft and craft specialisation, environmental sciences, bioanthropology and human ecology in Predynastic times, foreign relations, interactions between the desert and the NileValley,interactions between Upper and Lower Egypt, the birth of writing and kingship, and cult, ideology and social complexity. Research into current and recent fieldwork, for example at Adaïma, Helwan, Hierakonpolis, Kom el-Khilgan,Tell el-Farkha and in the eastern Sahara, was presented side by side with new interpretations of material excavated over the past 100 years, including the objects found in the ‘main deposit’ at Hierakonpolis. The chairs and respondents for each session reviewed the current state of research and initiated valuable discussion amongst the participants. Representatives from the Supreme Council for Antiquities in Egypt, Mohammed Abdel Maqsoud, Ateya Radwan, Holeil Ghaly, Salem Gabr el-Baghdadi and the head of the SCA’s recently-formed prehistory department, Khaled Saad, were key in discussions calling for a focus on fieldwork in the most endangered regions of Egypt, and for a common data bank.

The conference in progress. Photograph: Frédéric Guyot

The breadth of the topics of communication and the ensuing discussions both in and out of the conference hall further forged links between the community of scholars, and the organising committee headed in France by Béatrix Midant-Reynes and Yann Tristant is to be congratulated and thanked for providing this second forum for a topic, which was,until surprisingly recently,less focal in research into ancient Egypt. A full summary of the papers of the Toulouse conference will be available at: http://origines2.free.fr The papers of the Krakow conference (2002) have been published as S Hendrickx, R Friedman, K M Cia!owicz and M Ch!odnicki (eds), Egypt at its Origins: Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams (Peeters, Leuven. 2005). Ô Joanne Rowland is a part-time Lecturer in the Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford and at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

The participants in The Second International Conference on the Origins of the Egyptian State. Photograph: Frédéric Guyot

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The ancient landscapes and waterscapes of Karnak In spring 2002 a programme of augering and cartographic studies to study past landscapes at Karnak was begun. Angus Graham and Judith Bunbury report on the first three seasons of work, which reveal a migrating Nile and temple development on newly formed land. The modern Nile, since it was constrained by the Aswan High Dam, seems serene and stable as it flows through Egypt, inviting the conclusion that the position and extent of the Nile at a site like Karnak was constant during the development of the temples in antiquity. Indeed, modern reconstructions of the ancient site imply that, as the temples are always shown set back from the Nile bank,the quay-like structures at North Karnak and in front of the first pylon of the Amun temple must have been connected to the main river by canals. The current project began under the auspices of Jean Jacquet, who was eager for us to investigate his belief that a waterway had once existed to the north of the Treasury of Tuthmosis I at North Karnak. In addition Maurice Pillet had argued that A view of the treasury of Tuthmosis I and the temple of Montu at North Karnak a waterway had once linked the North Karnak with a conjectural waterway quay/platform to Medamud. We hoped through our work to shed light on the purpose of these strucremains contentious.Were they really quays, accessible by tures at the termini of processional ways as their function water, or were they of greater symbolic than navigational significance? The expedition began by augering through the ground on the landward side of the quay (AS01 and AS02) because if the quay were served by water,and it and the processional way were built on land that had existed prior to the establishment of the temple, then the land should be formed of sediments containing no artefacts. The sediments of a former watercourse, if it was such, we believed would be rich in artefacts, perhaps sherds, stone and other detritus. Augering just to the east of the dromos at North Karnak revealed water-laid sediment packed with artefacts including hundreds of sherds, carnelian and other stone chips and bones. What emerged from the first 10m of mud (AS02) was made ground,created by the river Nile,which had been transporting material dating from the Middle Kingdom and later.This confirmed Jacquet’s hypothesis of a waterway north of the Treasury. However, further work is needed to clarify the precise nature of the waterway and the locations of its banks. Further boreholes in the area of the main Amun complex have revealed that the ground between the Fifth and Aerial photo of Karnak showing the Auger Sites (AS) carried out at North Karnak and in and around the main temple complex of Amun in 2002 and 2004. (1964 Aerial photograph © CNRS/CFEETK - Archives) 17

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Above: Team members sorting clasts (phi –1 to phi –2) into various types of stone, ceramic fragments, faience and organic remains

Augering at AS04 just north of the quay/platform at North Karnak (seen in the depression in the foreground to the left)

Sixth Pylons and to the west of the court between the Eighth and Ninth Pylons has been deposited since the site began to be occupied. In some cores, multiple river deposits can be discerned that date from successive periods of construction of the temple.Thus, when the architects of Karnak were constructing new buildings, they did so in a changing landscape and much of the land they used was newly created for them by an obliging river Nile. A west- and north-wards migration of the river in this way was fortunate in that it allowed the preservation of the Karnak site. However, anything built on the west bank will have been destroyed by erosion, a direct result of the same process. The cores reveal a complex pattern of landscapes and the question remains as to how we can distinguish which areas were land, water and river-bank in each period of the development of the site. As the artefacts within the sediments are redeposited, dating of these depositional events can be undertaken only with caution. Clearly

Right:The ceramic fragments (phi –2 and greater) from a single core ready for study and recording)

the latest ceramic fragments in a core provide a terminus post quem for the deposition. By sieving all the cores and retrieving all clasts (fragments of materials) which are 2mm or greater (in two groups: from phi –1 to phi –2 i.e. 2-4mm; and phi –2 and greater i.e. 4mm+) and through the painstaking work of picking through the thousands of these clasts we have been able to see changes in the artefactual assemblages within augers. All the different types of artefacts from various types of stone, ceramic fragments and faience were treated as both artefacts and arteclasts and have not only contributed to the dating of deposits but also to the interpretation of the past environment. Further constraints in dating have been made through an understanding of the development of the temple architecture and past and current excavations at the site. Collaboration with CFEETK and other colleagues has enabled us to auger within excavated areas, giving us a clear starting point for our work, and allowed us to inform colleagues of the sediments and artefacts that lie below their current work, in levels which are often below the present-day water table and out-of-reach without the use of pumping equipment. By these various means it is possible to identify periods of deposition and hence to demonstrate that since the earliest occupation of the site the land on which the Karnak temple was founded has been naturally extended by the Nile to the north and the west, a process which continues to this day.In addition to this,by making a geological study of the sediments recovered and constructing detailed logs of the sediment types and changes within the core we can identify the type of river environment in which each unit was deposited. An anoxic black mud containing Middle Kingdom sherds recovered around 9m below the base of the excavations to the west side of the court of the Eighth

Studying the sherds in a core from AS10

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Auger Site 12 is located adjacent to a deep excavation carried out under the direction of Marie Millet for the CFEETK.The excavation has provided important comparative in-situ data and the augering date, from below the water table, has been shared with CFEETK

The transect of auger sites (AS18-23) across the former channel is marked by members of the team standing on the site.The arrows show the relative depth of the augering.The river flowed towards the viewer

and Ninth Pylons (AS11) represents a body of standing water at that location in the Middle Kingdom or later time.A study of a natural section to the north of Karnak in 2005 has allowed us further to define the environments sampled by our cores at Karnak. By augering at el-Zaniyah village, 3km north of Karnak, we have been able to construct a section through a former subsidiary channel of the Nile in a relatively uninhabited area. This section demonstrates that there are specific geological units that are associated with the river levées, the main channel and more substantial sandbank deposits hugging the river bank inside the bends. These same units and hence environments of deposition can also be recognised in the deposits recovered around the Karnak site. The earliest occupation of the site, during the First Intermediate Period, seems to have been on an area of

high ground along the line of the so-called Tuthmosis III enclosure wall just east of the Sacred Lake.The early settlement seems to have been on the contemporary river levée, and the adjacent channel to the east subsequently silted up and was later built upon. Further augering to the east of Auger Site 12 will clarify this interpretation. Meanwhile to the west, the island grew and formed the land on which the Hypostyle Hall and other structures were built. Although the speed of the river’s migration west of the Fifth Pylon has yet to be ascertained, we put forward the hypothesis that the programme of building to the south from the reign of Tuthmosis III to Amenhotep II may reflect a paucity of new land to the west. This summary represents what we can infer of the landscape history of the Karnak temples to date, enabling us to reinterpret our understanding of ritual landscapes and issues such as transport and access to the site.Further work will allow us to clarify and refine the mapping of the past land- and water-scapes of Karnak. It is the expedition’s hope that this work will encourage colleagues to think about and understand development at other sites within the context of a shifting Nile.

This aerial photograph taken in 2004 shows the former channel (marked in dashed white lines) approximately 3km downstream of Karnak and the transect across it is marked in yellow.To the north the new land forming on the inner bend of the river is a clear reminder of geomorphological processes that have occurred in the Nile valley since the Holocene Period 19

Ô Angus Graham is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Archaeology,University College London,and Judith Bunbury is a Fellow of St Edmund’s College and a member of the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge. This work is the result of collaborative research with Sally-Ann Ashton, Irmgard Hein and Morag Hunter and the conscientious work of our augering team led by Reis Omar Farouk.We would like to thank all at CFEETK and IFAO for their close collaboration. Jean and Helen Jacquet have provided constant support for our work.We are very grateful to all the bodies who have funded this project: Institute of Archaeology and Graduate School, University College London (Graham) in 2002, the British Academy Small Grant (SG-35671) (Bunbury) and University of London Central Research Fund (Graham) in 2004.The 2005 season was made possible by a Centenary Award from the Egypt Exploration Society (Graham). Photographs, unless indicated otherwise, by Angus Graham.

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The Middle Kingdom temple of Amun at Karnak Since 2002 renewed excavations in the central area of the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak have uncovered well-organized, massive mud-brick foundations. Thanks to this discovery, Guillaume Charloux presents here a new proposed reconstruction of the religious complex in the Middle Kingdom. Since 2002 the Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak (CFEETK) has been conducting archaeological fieldwork in the central area of the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. The preliminary aim of the excavations was to study the stratigraphic relationships of New Kingdom buildings located behind the Sixth Pylon, in particular the foundations of the Hatshepsut rooms and the monuments of Tuthmosis III.This led in May 2002 to the discovery of a mud-brick wall 1m underground in front of the Barque Shrine of Philip Arrhideus. An archaeological research programme was consequently devised, under the direction of François Larché and Nicolas Grimal, in order to study the mud-brick architecture in the area between the Fourth Pylon and the Festival Hall of Tuthmosis III. At first attention was focused on the courtyards of the

Egyptian worker cleaning the New Kingdom sandstone water channel. (Photograph: © G Charloux)

Sixth Pylon. From May 2002 to the spring of 2003 the excavations undertaken by the writer, Jean François Jet and Emmanuel Lanoë, revealed the mud-brick foundations of a well-planned building 39m wide.The walls are perfectly symmetrical to the east-west axis of the temple. In the centre a 4.30m thick mud-brick platform probably supported a ramp giving access to a terrace and then to the House of Amun. On either side (north and south) of this platform there is a series of parallel and perpendicular walls, measuring 2 cubits thick (1 cubit being 52.50cm), which are regularly spaced (3 cubits). Two walls, each 4 cubits thick, surround the entire construction. Based on the ceramics found in the wall trenches, this monument has been dated to the end of the Eleventh Dynasty/the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty (around 2050 BC). In addition, quantities of potsherds coming from the 2m sandy and silt layers below the mud-brick foundations show that the first architectural activity dates from the same period. Since May 2003 the project’s goal has been to complete the review of the mud-brick foundations in this part of the temple and to look for clues about its relationship with the so-called ‘Middle Kingdom Courtyard’ limestone constructions.This courtyard had been subjected not only to various degrees of ancient pillaging (including the search for foundation deposits and the reuse of limestone for chalk) but also to numerous investigations throughout

The sandstone foundations of the storerooms above the remains of older mud-brick storerooms. (Photograph: © CNRS/CFEETK, G Pollin)

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the twentieth century, including both simple surface clearance and deep soundings. Since there was no likelihood that further information could be gleaned from this courtyard, the writer opened another archaeological area to the north of the Hatshepsut rooms. In October 2004 the work was concentrated in the southern ambulatory to the south of the chapels of Tuthmosis III. These soundings allowed us to recognize three structures located under and on either side of the sandstone foundations of Amenhotep I’s storerooms and wall. The first one is a pavement.To the west it comprises one course of mud-bricks placed on their sides and to the east two courses of mud-bricks placed upright. The study of photographs in the archives of the CFEETK revealed that other fragments of this pavement were previously found in the 1940s by Henri Chevrier and in the 1980s by Michel Azim. Such information helped us to understand that this pavement ran all around the limestone sanctuary. To the north of the Hatshepsut rooms a north-south mud-brick wall (4 cubits) indicates the western limit of the pavement, and also a break with the structures located to the west. This wall belongs to the second construction discovered in this area. With three other parallel and Temples of the Middle Kingdom. (Drawing: © G Charloux) perpendicular walls it constitutes a foundation box located on top of the pavement which was The third structure uncovered during this last season is the then reused as a building footing.This foundation box was mud-brick Middle Kingdom temenos wall.The northern filled with virgin sand and within it two narrow parallel limit was found 1.50m north of the sandstone foundawalls were placed, c.20cm over the pavement, connecting tions of Amenhotep I’s perimeter wall (against which his the box walls.The result is a very unexpected mud-brick limestone storerooms abutted in antiquity). A section of foundation technique. By comparing this discovery with the wall 12.65m long was uncovered underneath the New the results of the 1980s’ excavations, it was observed that Kingdom pavement with a preserved height of 0.90m. these narrow walls run all around the ‘Middle Kingdom Although the later construction of Tuthmosis I’s perimCourtyard’. It is also very clear that the New Kingdom eter wall entirely cut away its northern face, the thickness foundations reused the same building scheme.Thanks to of the mud-brick wall is still 3.80m.The layout and the this observation, we conclude that Amenhotep I probably impressive dimensions of this construction undoubtedly built his limestone storerooms on top of the remains of confirm its function as a perimeter wall. Moreover, twenty older mud-brick storerooms. years ago Michel Azim (architect, CNRS) found an eastÿý

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The southern ambulatory, south of the chapels of Tuthmosis III, showing the soundings after clearance, looking north. (Photograph: © CNRS/CFEETK, G Charloux)

The soundings in the southern ambulatory to the south of the chapels of Tuthmosis III, looking south. (Photograph: © CNRS/CFEETK, G Charloux)

The remains of the northern Middle Kingdom temenos wall, which is cut by the sandstone water channel, looking east. (Photograph:© CNRS/CFEETK, G Charloux)

Work in progress in the southern ambulatory to the south of the chapels of Tuthmosis III. (Photograph: © G Charloux) ÿÿ

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Excavations to the north of the ‘Middle Kingdom Courtyard’. (Photograph: © CNRS/CFEETK, G Charloux) Archa

Thutmosis I's perimeter wall

dings "Ha"

Mud-brick Middle Kingdom Temenos Wall Festival Hall of Thutmosis III

Mud-brick Remains found by M. Azim (1980-1984)

Tuthmosis III's chapels

Sandstone Platform

Limestone Platform attributed to Senwosret I

M. Azim 1984

Mud-brick Remains found by M. Azim (1980-1984))

Mud-brick Platform

Thutmosis I's perimeter wall

VIth pylon

Excavations J.-F. Jet, E. Lanoë and O. de Peretti (2003-2004)

Vth pylon

'Middle Kingdom Courtyard'

Storerooms and Wall's Sandstone Foundations attributed to Amenhotep I

Mud-brick Pavement

Mud-brick Middle Kingdom Storerooms' Foundations

Tuthmosis III's chapels

Mud-brick Middle Kingdom Wall Soundings "Ti" (op. 128)

M. Azim 1984

Mud-brick Middle Kingdom Temenos Wall

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Coloured reconstruction of the Middle Kingdom religious complex, in the central area of the temple of Amun at Karnak. (Drawing: © G Charloux) ÿ3

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CFEETK G. Charloux, 2004

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west mud-brick wall in his soundings located to the south of the ‘Middle Kingdom courtyard’. On the photographs, it can be seen that this wall is closely related to the northern perimeter wall with which it is symmetrical. In order to complete the plan, a recent sondage was carried out about 80m westward.The face of a mud-brick wall was exposed precisely in the same direction. It could well be the southern limit of the temenos. The pottery and the stratigraphic evidence show that this temple complex probably measured more than 100m by 65m and comprised sanctuary, terrace, storerooms, inner walls and corridors enclosed by two thick perimeter walls. It was in use throughout the Middle Kingdom, and was probably destroyed during the reign of Amenhotep I, as indicated by a narrow sandstone water channel found under the pavement of the easternmost of the chapels of Tuthmosis III. Running north for over 30m, this channel, which was built by Amenhotep I, cuts through most of the mud-brick constructions. The recent French-Egyptian excavations in the central area of the Karnak temple of Amun have shed new light on the vast layout of the temple during the Middle Kingdom and revealed a whole hitherto-unknown mudbrick complex which was certainly in existence before the reign of Senwosret I and continued in use until its removal under Amenhotep I.

The southern interior face of the northern mud-brick Middle Kingdom temenos wall. (Photograph: © CNRS/CFEETK, G Charloux)

! Guillaume Charloux is an archaeologist of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak (CFEETK). The writer is very grateful to François Larché and to the Egyptian and French staff for their help. He also wishes to thank W Raymond Johnson for his comments.

New proposed reconstruction of the temple of Amun at Karnak, in the Middle Kingdom. Looking south-east. (Graphic: © G Charloux)

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Digging Diary 2004-2005 Summaries of some of the archaeological work undertaken in Egypt during the Winter of 2004 and Spring of 2005 appear below. The sites are arranged geographically from north to south,ending with the Western Oases. Readers will notice that the ‘Digging Diary’ map has been omitted from this issue.This decision was made to increase text-space so that the maximum amount of information can be included in the fieldwork reports, which always have to be edited down to fit the space available.We would welcome readers’ views on the value of the map and if you would like to see it included in the future. Field Directors who would like reports on their work to appear in future issues of EA are asked to e-mail a short summary, with a website address if available, as soon as possible after the end of each season to: patricia.spencer@ees.ac.uk PATRICIA SPENCER Abbreviations: ED Early Dynastic:OK Old Kingdom; FIP First Intermediate Period; MK Middle Kingdom; SIP Second Intermediate Period; NK New Kingdom;TIP Third Intermediate Period; LP Late Period; GR Graeco-Roman. Institutes and Research Centres: ARCE American Research Center in Egypt;AUC American University in Cairo; BM British Museum; CNRS French National Research Centre;CFEETK Franco-Egyptian Centre, Karnak; DAI German Institute, Cairo; DOP Dakhleh Oasis Project; EAP Egyptian Antiquities Project; IFAO French Institute, Cairo; MMA The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; OI Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; PCMA Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology;UCL University College London. SCA Supreme Council for Antiquities

Deir el-Bagawat (Kharga Oasis). Inspecting the damage caused by the collapse of a wall (see p.28). Photograph courtesy of Eugene Cruz-Uribe WINTER 2004-2005 (November-March) Lower Egypt Marea (near Alexandria): The PCMA, Warsaw Univ expedition, directed by Hanna Szymanska, continued excavation of the basilica (originally 5th6th centuries AD), comprising the N wing of the transept and the lateral chapel on the S side. In some shops excavated beyond the NW corner of the basilica,several Byzantine coins and a few coin weights were discovered,perhaps suggesting moneychanging activity, possibly related to pilgrims passing through the town on their way to Abu Mena. Giza: The joint expedition of Cairo Univ and Brown Univ (Providence,Rhode Island),directed by Tohfa Handoussa and Edward Brovarski, continued work begun in 2000 in the Abu Bakr Cemetery (see pp.34-36). The burial chamber of Persen was completely empty and had presumably been cleared out by Abu Bakr.That of Irkakhufu contained most

of his cranium and one end of his thick cedar coffin. Two other shafts contained secondary burials high up in the shafts. Morticians had evidently used the occasion of a later funeral to loot the original burial, squeezing in behind the portcullis of the ‘Captain of a Ship’s Crew’ Semerka to do so. Nearly two dozen other skeletons,without associated artefacts, were discovered in shallow pits or shafts. At least three skeletons belonged to very young children, one of whom, no more than about one year old, was found underneath a large mud brick at the top of a shaft of a woman, perhaps the infant’s mother(?). Abu Sir:The Czech Inst of Egyptology team, led by Miroslav Verner, continued excavation of a 5th Dyn rock mastaba at South Abu Sir, east of the tomb complex of Qar. The identity of the tomb owner is not yet known. Examination continued of anthropological and archaeological materials from the secondary GR cemetery in the area of the twin pyramid complex ‘Lepsius no.25’, as did restoration and conservation in the 6th Dyn tomb of Inti and in the 26th-27th Dyn shaft tomb of Iufaa. Further progress was also made with the archaeological survey in South Abu Sir (see EA 26, pp.3-6). (egyptology.ff.cuni.cz)

Saqqara: 1. The joint Leiden Antiquities Museum/Leiden Univ (Dept of Egyptology) mission directed by Maarten Raven and René van Walsem completed clearance of the forecourt of the tomb of Horemheb. In the NE corner a thick stratum of broken NK beer jars, similar to a deposit found last season in the SE corner, covered the whole area against the foot of the N wall.The N wing of Horemheb’s First Pylon is now fully excavated revealing a stepped ridge along the foot of its E face.The SE jamb and both reveals of the stone-lined E entrance have

Egypt Exploration Society Expeditions WINTER/SPRING Delta Survey:Visits were made by PennyWilson (Univ of Durham) and her team to a further 14 sites in Beheira Province (see EA 24, pp.10-11); drill cores were made across six areas and topographical surveys undertaken of five sites.Of these, Kom Dahab, near the mouth of the old Canopic branch of the Nile is an impressive Roman fort with a pentagonal shape overlooking the river and sea. Kom Defshu (EES no.624) has deep stratigraphy from the Late Roman to pharaonic periods and Kom Barsiq (EES no.371) seems to be part of a settlement group on a further abandoned river channel. Sais:The EES/Univ of Durham mission,directed by Penny Wilson, excavated in the ‘Great Pit’ and uncovered the foundations of a large mud-brick Saite Period building constructed directly over a cleared sandy area with layers of Prehistoric settlement.The earliest was a Neolithic fish processing site, with later settlements of the Late Neolithic Period and Buto-Maadi phase.Each layer was rich in pottery, lithics and animal and fish bone, suggesting that the Delta floodplain (not just its desert fringes) had a rich Neolithic culture.A test trench was sunk in Kom Rebwa for further TIP material for the pottery and building corpus.Drill augering continued across the whole area as did recording of Ramesside/TIP finds from Kom Rebwa East. (www.dur.ac.uk/penelope.wilson/sais.html) Saqqara: A team, directed by Paul Nicholson (Univ of Cardiff), continued the conservation and recording of the hoard of bronze votives discovered at Saqqara in 1995 (see EA 25, pp.7-9). Further objects were prepared to display standards

(www.ees.ac.uk)

whilst others were cleaned sufficiently to reveal details of their decoration.A wooden object, when cleaned, was discovered to be a cippus. (www.cardiff. ac.uk/hisar/people/pn/) Tell el-Amarna: Excavation, directed by Barry Kemp (Univ of Cambridge), was continued in the area of small housing started last year, grid 12, not far from the house of Ranefer.The numerous small finds include the minutiae of manufacturing glass and faience objects, and the probable melting down of metal scrap. The desert GPS survey extended outwards towards Stela R and was able to take in the positions of all of the other S Boundary Stelae. Near the S Tombs a surface collection of human bones recently washed out provided a sufficient sample for a detailed study which suggested that the remains of about 50 individuals were present. A study of pottery collected at the same time confirmed that the bones are of the Amarna Period. Repairs continued at the North Palace and at the Small Aten Temple. On the W bank between Mallawi and Dairut last year’s identification of numerous sites was followed by a programme of archaeological coring. See further pp.8-11. (www.mcdonald.cam. ac.uk/projects/amarna/home.htm) Qasr Ibrim: During a three-week field season, directed by Pamela Rose (Univ of Cambridge), excavation continued in an area along the N edge of the site focusing on an area of Napatan Period structures of stone and mud-brick. One room contained a fallen stone column still in situ.The buildings appear domestic in nature and had been much modified over time. A test trench was excavated within a neighbouring building of Roman or early

post-Roman date to examine the stratigraphic sequence in and below it. Before and after the excavations a study season was undertaken in Aswan, working on the objects from the site in store there. Detailed study of the leather artefacts continued, and specialist studies were made of basketry and stamped mud sealings from the recent work, and of painted Meroitic wall plaster from excavations in the 1980s.The expedition’s conservators continued work on theTaharqo wall painting from Ibrim, now in the Nubia Museum, Aswan (see EA 23, pp.20-24). Sudan, Fourth Cataract: In the Sudan Archaeological Research Society concession, as part of the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project, a survey, jointly funded by the EES and the BM and directed by Derek Welsby (BM/SARS) was undertaken of 6.5 square km on the islands of Dirbi and Umm Hajjar and on the adjacent left bank of the Nile c.90km upstream of Gebel Barkal. Nearly 700 new sites were discovered ranging from Middle Palaeolithic artefacts to post-Medieval settlements. Cemeteries of the Kerma,post-Meroitic and Medieval Periods were studied. A large amount of rock art was identified, including representations of ‘exotic’ species such as giraffe and ostrich, but only those bearing Christian symbols and the Greek inscriptions could be dated, in these cases to the 6th-14th centuries AD. Enigmatic low walls extending sometimes well over a km, were found; their function and date are equally obscure.The results demonstrate the unsuspected archaeological richness of this area. (www.sudarchs.org.uk)

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tique (6th-7th centuries?) cemetery W of the modern monastery. In one tomb a well-preserved cartonnage,made of linen shrouds and with colourful ornamental tapes bandaging the surface, was found inside the chamber and seven amphorae were discovered in the shaft.Other tombs have been previously penetrated and destroyed. Some Greek funerary stelae, probably connected with this cemetery, have also been identified. Further research was undertaken on the complex of monastic architecture situated in the central part of the kôm, inside building G, and S of tower A.Textiles from the cemeteries and building G were conserved and a Coptic and Arabic document Saqqara:The tomb of Horemheb with the forecourt and the newly(10th–11th centuries) from the archive discovered First Pylon. Photograph courtesy of Maarten Raven inside building G was studied. some incised graffiti but otherwise this part of the Antinoopolis (El-Sheikh Ibada):The mission of tomb (probably never finished) is undecorated. N of the Istituto Papirologico G Vitelli, Florence, led by the Horemheb forecourt a c.1.5m wide strip of the Rosario Pintaudi, has been engaged in the excavaforecourt of the adjacent tomb of Tia was exposed tion of Kôm IIA, in the E area of the site and of a and study continued of pottery and skeletal matelimited area in the N necropolis.The finds were rial found there in 2004. Progress was made with of the usual type: a large number of Greek and recording and restoration of the adjacent tomb of Coptic papyri, Byzantine and early Arabic coins Meryneith, now protected by a shelter facilitating and various pottery types.The mission also worked reconstruction of the original wall decoration. 536 in the area of the Ramesses II temple, prior to the relief fragments (either from the tomb of Meryneith start of its restoration next year, with the aim of itself or from other monuments) have been excaproducing its first, and comprehensive, publication. vated in and around the tomb since 2001: most have The circus area was also analysed topographically. now been drawn and photographed prior to SCA (www.istitutovitelli.it/) reconstruction.The mud-brick walls and arches of Amarna:Thanks to the hospitality of the EES, the the tomb’s forecourt were consolidated and a conwork of the expedition of the Univ Paul Valéry– servation plan is being prepared. Geoffrey Martin Montpellier III in the RoyalWadi (Wadi Abu Hassah carried out work in the Egyptian Museum copying al-Bahari) continued,directed by Marc Gabolde (see NK reliefs from the Saqqara necropolis. EA 25, pp.30-33). All the modern rubbish in front 2. The DAI mission, directed by Günter Dreyer of Tombs 28 and 29 has now been investigated and and in cooperation with Peter Munro, continued Tomb 28 has been re-cleared.Rubbish outsideTomb investigation of the subterranean galleries of the 2nd 29 has provided material which complements that Dyn tomb of King Ninetjer.The most important from previous excavations and confirms that no result is a new understanding of the lay-out of the burial was intended here. The material from both SW part of the tomb which seems to be a model of inside Tomb 28 and the dump outside was mainly a palace comprising several living/sleeping rooms, from workers’ activity. However, five fragments of dining rooms and toilets. Later intrusive shafts and pink polished granite indicate that Tomb 28 once burials can be dated to the 27th Dyn. housed a sarcophagus which was removed in antiquity, being partly broken in the process.This shows Upper Egypt that a burial there was, at least, planned. Amanda Bakchias:The mission of the Dept of Archaeology, Dunsmore continued study of the pottery from the Bologna Univ, directed by Sergio Pernigotti and 2003-2004 seasons. led in the field by Cristian Tassinari, worked at the Abydos:The DAI mission, led by Günter Dreyer, site of the (probably Roman) granary, 315m from conducted fieldwork at the 1st Dyn tomb of king the Soknobkonneus Temple, in the far E side of Semerkhet, emptying all the subsidiary chambers the kôm.The granary, because of its size, must have and recording their constructional details. In many been used for storing wheat and grain coming from chambers fragments or traces of wooden coffins a large hinterland. Excavation was also undertaken were found.Two of the four chambers to the SW, at Temple D (a mud-brick structure dating to the (not excavated by Petrie), still contained remains of Ptolemaic Period) at the early Ptolemaic dwellingsubsidiary burials.In chamber U-W12 a young male places (115m SE of the main temples of Bakchias) skeleton (max. 10 years old) has, due to a genetic and in the Ptolemaic store house 30m to the NW. defect, an extremely narrow and elongated skull.He A Roman Period stone temple was identified. may have been selected to be buried with the king Dime (Soknopaiou Nesos):The expedition of the because of his unusual appearance. From the filling Centro di Studi Papirologici of Lecce Univ, directed of the tomb came large amounts of pottery, stone by Mario Capasso and Paola Davoli, carried out vessel fragments, seal impressions, and several small excavation inside the temenos of the main temple objects of ivory, bone, wood and copper. Notable of the town, N of the temple of Soknopaios, in the are a private stela and a fragment of a quartzite vessel courtyard found in the 2003 season. (See EA 25, with an inscription of King Adjib. pp.34-36). A dump which originated from illicit Luxor: The Epigraphic Survey, OI, Univ of Chiexcavations of the 19th century has been completely cago team, directed by W Raymond Johnson and investigated and demotic and Greek papyri and supported by a Robert W. Wilson Challenge for ostraca were found in it together with architectural Conserving Our Heritage grant and the World elements, amulets and objects of daily use. A mudMonuments Fund, continued conservation work brick building of four rooms which was covered by in the temple. Conservator Hiroko Kariya treated the dump has been excavated. (siba2.unile.it) 161 deteriorating fragments in the blockyard and Naqlun (Deir el-Malak): The PCMA, Warsaw 15 large blocks in the S area. She prepared 48 fragUniv expedition, led by W"odzimierz Godlewski ments for restoration next season to the E wall of worked at this Fayum site. Exploration continued the Colonnade Hall (completing the Opet register) of a medieval burial ground from the Fatimidand consolidated and moved 42 fragments reused in Mameluk Period (11th-13th centuries), where a medieval foundations excavated by the SCA origitotal of 390 Coptic graves have been recorded. In nally from theW side of the Colonnade Hall façade. addition five tombs were investigated in a Late AnA stepped brick buttress was constructed against a

precarious section of the Colonnade Hall E wall and work began on facing the upper courses with sandstone veneer blocks.Large-format photography of the Amenhotep III socle inscription from the back of the temple sanctuary was completed, as was 35mm reference photography of talatat of Akhenaten reused by later kings (647 blocks in total) Karnak: The CFEETK projects continued, under the overall direction of Holeil Ghaly, Emmanuel Laroze and Dominique Valbelle (www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr): 1. A joint UCL/Univ of Cambridge team, led by Angus Graham and Judith Bunbury,continued work on a programme of augering in collaboration with IFAO and CFEETK (see further pp.17-19). Study of finds from the 2004 season was undertaken and a series of cores carried out across a former river channel about 2.5km N of Karnak for comparative data, revealing a clear sedimentary profile of the channel, showing progradation of the former island and also evidence of dumping on the levies. The ceramic study has provided constraints on the time of deposition of the various sediments, aiding understanding of the landscape evolution of the site. Sedimentary evidence of still water (8m below the modern surface) in the area just W of the Third Court of the Amun temple can now be dated to the MK. 2.At the chapel of Osiris Onnophris Nebdjefa the IFAO/CFEETK team, led by Laurent Coulon, continued excavation with the main aim of improving understanding of the relation of the chapel with the paved alley which winds in front of three Osirid Chapels and leads to the temple of Ptah and the Karnak North gate. The major part of the alley, which had already been unearthed by Georges Legrain, has now been cleared, allowing a complete and accurate drawing to be made.The date of the material of the foundation trench of the pavement has still to be ascertained, but it ranges between the LP and the Ptolemaic Period.Inside the chapel itself, the clearance of the remains of the mud-brick walls which originally surrounded the rooms continues. W of the chapel of Osiris, the remains of a large mud-brick building, probably connected to the chapel, had been partly exposed during previous campaigns by Catherine Defernez. Its plan was completed this season. (www.ifao.egnet.net) 3.Work, directed by Marie Millet, continued on the pre-NK installations to the SE of the Sacred Lake to fix more precisely their chronology and function. The current work links the last excavations of Jean Lauffray in the 1970s with the present excavations begun in 2001, and now covers an area of 40m x 8m with mud-brick settlements and workshops.The stratigraphy covers a depth of 6m, from the SIP to the 11th Dyn. In the NK, a large enclosure wall was built to extend the area of the temenos.The aim now is to reach the bakery level found in 2003 and identify its installations. 4.Also SE of the Sacred Lake a team led by Aurelia Masson continued excavation of the priests’ housing area and has established that there are seven successive architectural phases, of the 25th-27th Dyns and, probably, in the Ptolemaic Period. Seal stamps provide information about individual priests. The street of priests’ housing is limited to the W by a mud-brick wall defining the extent of the area of offering storerooms which developed S of the Sacred Lake.The chapel of Shabataka, used for the consecration of offerings, was rediscovered. 5.Work in the court of the Ninth Pylon, directed by Charles Van Siclen, was devoted primarily to recording mud-brick remains previously uncovered, particularly the area with the superimposed remains of two pillared courts N of the site of a mud-brick pylon attributed to Amenhotep I.The earlier court was probably built by Kamose or Ahmose on a casemate foundation.The later court, with a slightly different arrangement of columns, should be attributed to Amenhotep I.

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Western Thebes: 1.The Theban Mapping Project, directed by Kent Weeks, continued clearance of KV5, revealing more corridors and chambers. The TMP has now completed a Management Plan for the Valley of the Kings,and is continuing preparation of detailed condition reports and photographic surveys of all open tombs.The Project is also working with the SCA on installations in the KV Visitors Center, due to open in 2006. (www.thebanmappingproject.com) 2. In the Valley of the Kings, the Univ of Basel ‘MISR:Mission Siptah-Ramses X’team led by Elina Paulin-Grothe, worked in the area between KV 18 (Ramesses X) and KV 43 (Tuthmosis IV), and S of KV 21 (owner unknown) which had been excavated by Theodore Davis at the beginning of the 20th century. Clearance revealed remains of 20th Dyn workmen’s huts, some with pottery jars in situ on the floors. In the area of the tourist path between KV 17 (Seti I) and KV 43 (Tuthmosis IV) clearance showed that some workmen’s huts had been built directly on the tafl debris from the tunnel at the end of the tomb of Seti I. Under these tafl layers, a hut floor with fishbones and 18th Dyn pottery sherds was found: the earliest evidence for a workmen’s resting place in the Valley. Documentation of limestone ostraca from the 20th Dyn huts was nearly finished.Documentation and study continued of bones and pottery coming from the area outside KV 47 (Siptah), alabaster fragments of Seti I’s sarcophagus,1,200 painted limestone fragments from the walls of KV 17 and fragments of calcite shabtis and limestone jar-lids from both inside and outside KV 47.The tourist path was reinstated up to 1.2 m below the entrance to KV 18 and the site of KV 54 (Tutankhamun embalming cache) to its height in the 19th/20th Dyns, to protect those tombs from flash-flood water. (pages.unibas.ch/talderkoenige) 3.At Dra Abu el-Naga the Macquarie Univ, Sydney,Theban Tombs Project, directed by Boyo Ockinga, undertook conservation and restoration in the chapel of TT 147 where the mud-plastered walls have been damaged since antiquity by recurring floods.The tomb’s mud-brick façade has also been severely damaged by rock-slides and flash-floods and measures were taken to prevent further flooding.Excavations continued in the courtyard revealing that the wall at the N side of the court is not 18th Dyn but of the later NK. A shaft discovered previously in the SW corner of the court was excavated and proved to be only c.2m deep but led to a chamber filled with layers of rubble and scattered funerary debris, badly affected by the repeated floods. Several funerary cones name a Neferrenpet who may have been the tomb owner.A passage from the SW corner of the tomb’s ‘broad hall’ led to the original burial chamber, also filled with debris, including pottery and late NK shabtis from a secondary burial. Several more funerary cones of Neferrenpet were found in the passage leading to the chamber. 4.The Univ of Pisa mission at Dra Abu el-Naga, directed by Marilina Betrò, continued investigation of tomb MIDAN.05 discovered in 2004 west of TT 14.The tomb was almost completely filled with debris and dust and had been heavily ransacked. The main entrance was identified but is, at present, obstructed by a compact filling coming from outside. The S part of the first room, approximately oriented N-S, was investigated until the floor level was reached; the sloping passage found here last season was revealed to be unfinished. Two rooms, oriented W-E, open off its W wall: a long corridor and a smaller square chamber.The corridor shows evidence of the action of later intruders, who excavated a kind of shaft in the filling corresponding to a small chamber opening in the S wall at a lower level. The tomb owner has not yet been identified. 5. The Spanish-Egyptian mission working at Dra Abu el-Naga, directed by José M Galán (Spanish Supreme Council for Scientific Research, Madrid) continued work at the tombs of Djehuty (TT

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11) and Hery (TT 12). The open courtyard of Djehuty’s tomb is exceptionally large, with 20m in length exposed, and its entrance has not been reached yet.The side walls,carved from the rock and following the descending hill-slope,were prolonged with a stone wall surmounted by courses of mudbricks.By contrast,Hery’s open courtyard is only 5m long. Just before it, the rock of the ground was cut 3m deep and the entrance to a subterranean tomb was revealed.N of Hery’s tomb,there is another possibly belonging to a ‘Scribe Nebamun’, attested on several stamped mud-bricks found at its entrance last year. However, clearance of its entrance this season revealed stone door jambs with inscriptions naming Baki,‘Overseer of the Cattle of Amun’. 6. At Qurna, the Mission archéologique dans la Nécropole thébaine, directed by Roland Tefnin, worked in the tomb of Sennefer (TT 96) where an international team of 10 conservation/restoration experts continued the fixing and cleaning of the mural paintings. Good progress was made in the passage (walls and ceiling) as well as the S part of the hall. The archaeological team investigated the N wall of the court of the tomb of the Vizier Amenemope (TT 29), and the ground situated between TT 29, TT 96 and the tomb of the High Priest Mery (TT 95). A rough staircase was discovered and a mud slope leading to the court of TT 95. The team completed the typology of the Coptic wares of the time of the monk Frange (8th century AD. See EA 20, pp.6-9) and progress was made in the classification and translation of the large number of Coptic ostraca discovered during previous campaigns. Restoration of the wooden pharaonic artefacts (coffins, masks etc.) is also in progress. (www.ulb.ac.be/philo/crea) 7. At Qurna a PCMA team,led byTomasz Gorecki, worked in the MK tomb, TT 1152, which had been converted into a Coptic hermitage, and at the refuse heap which is located on slopes, S and E of tower B of the hermitage.The corridor and inner chamber of the tomb were used during the Coptic Period and contained two destroyed mummies and small objects (pottery, shabtis, painted sarcophagi) from various dates during the pharaonic period. A large number of stamps impressed in mud amphora stoppers was found in a small chamber, hewn into the E wall of the corridor.Two volumes of Coptic text written on papyrus leaves, leather bindings and a set of parchment cards were found in the refuse heap. One of the volumes consisted of c.70 pages, the other (8th century) had c.130 pages.The cards of the set come from different texts and were written by different hands.These exceptional volumes have been preserved and reinforced by conservators who

Kom el-Hettan. Parts of a colossal head of Amenhotep III. Photograph courtesy of Hourig Sourouzian

assessed future conservation needs 8. At Deir el-Bahri the PCMA team, directed by Zbigniew Szafra#ski, worked in the Upper Terrace of the Temple of Hatshepsut.The upper part of the S wall of the Sun Altar courtyard has been reconstructed and columns in the vestibule of the complex were cleaned and reinforced.Conservation continued in the southern part of the N Chapel of Amun-Re where the original wall paintings were executed directly on the stone surface, without any plaster or mortar.Several dozen new fragments were attributed to particular places in the Royal Mortuary Cult Complex.Progress was made in the reconstruction of the collapsed part of the vaulted ceiling of the Chapel of Hatshepsut: the N part is decorated with texts of the so-called ‘Hours of the Night’. Three robbed TIP shaft tombs hewn inside the Chapel have been excavated and proved to belong to members of the 23rd Dyn royal family. In S.7A/82, fragments of the cartonnage of theVizier Padiamenet and cartouches of Osorkon III were found mixed together with fragmentary preserved funerary equipment and other archaeological material (NK to Coptic Period). Final restoration took place of two of Hatshepsut’s Osirid figures (Nos.IV & XXII) and preliminary conservation was undertaken of the statue of Amenhotep I, found in the Asasif in 1982. The theoretical reconstruction of the decoration of Tuthmosis III’s temple, based on fragments stored in the temple’s magazine, continued. 9. At the Ramesseum the CNRS team, led by Christian Leblanc, continued excavation in the annexes of the temple, particularly at the S side and at the NW corner of the temenos. Study and restoration of the temple also continued. 10. The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project, directed by Hourig Sourouzian, continued excavation and restoration works at Kom el-Hettan.The 450-ton torso of the N colossus (fallen in antiquity) of the second pylon was lifted and the torso of the more fragmented S colossus was partly uncovered.At the second pylon, blocks from the base of the colossus, decorated with representations of foreign foes and place names, were excavated. More fragments of red granite royal colossi were recovered from the S portico, including a very fine lower part of the king’s face. In the NW portico, fragments of quartzite colossi and foundations were restored. In the N portico, blocks from a statue base have revealed new northern name rings. Blocks and statue fragments found during clearance of an old well, including pieces of a quartzite royal head, were joined and conserved. For a future dewatering project, a trial trench was dug along the W and N limits of the hypostyle hall and the peristyle revealing a mud-brick wall, 1.70m wide, in the N, and in the W, parts of a pavement and two additional deposits of Sekhmet statues.Conservation and documentation at the Colossi of Memnon continued with photographic survey and the study of paint remains.The foundations were examined by trenches of 1m2 at the foot of each pedestal. 11. At Medinet Habu the epigraphic team of the OI, Univ of Chicago, directed by W Raymond Johnson and supervised by J Brett McClain and photographer Yarko Kobylecky completed the final drawings and photographs for Medinet Habu IX.The Eighteenth Dynasty Temple, Part I: The Inner Sanctuaries, and documented the ambulatory, barque shrine, and 18th Dyn temple façade for Parts II and III. The conservation team, led by Lotfi Hassan, finished cleaning the sanctuary façade, consolidated deteriorating exterior wall blocks on the SW side of the sanctuary and on the N interior Ptolemaic wall adjacent to the Kushite Pylon, and cleaned and consolidated the interior W wall of the ‘Naos Room’. Excavation of the naos foundation was continued by Lisa Giddy and Tina DiCerbo. This work was supported by a grant from USAID through EAP and ARCE. 12. The IFAO team, directed by Guy Lecuyot,

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searching for vestiges of Coptic occupation in the Theban area, investigated wadis around the Valley of the Queens and in theWadi Gabbanet el-Gouroud and Sikkat Teget ez-Zeid. Elkab: The BM expedition, led by Vivian Davies, made further progress in cleaning and recording the tomb (no.10) of Sobeknakht (see EA 23, pp.36), concentrating in the area around the central doorway, which had previously been covered by thick soot and abandoned wasps’ nests. Now fully revealed, at the top corners of the doorway, are two seated figures of the tomb owner, in painted sunk-relief, with ink inscriptions giving his name and titles. Preliminary investigation of debris in the substructure uncovered, among other things, numerous potsherds ranging in date from the SIP to the early Islamic Period. Work started in the neighbouring tomb of Renseneb (no.9), with the well-known genealogical inscription on the inner doorway being provisionally cleaned and recorded. (www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk) Hagr Edfu: The BM team, led by Vivian Davies, continued its programme of cleaning and recording in the tomb of Sataimau (no. 1). Two new hieroglyphic inscriptions were revealed. One, painted on the lintel of the tomb’s niche, consists of the titulary of Amenhotep I, surmounted by a winged sun-disk and epithets of Horus of Behdet.The other, painted on the E wall, N of the doorway, accompanies the remnants of a scene showing the tomb owner hunting a hippopotamus. Initial cleaning was carried out in the unfinished, neighbouring tomb (no.2), uncovering a number of secondary inscriptions and motifs left by priestly pilgrims.A topographic survey of Hagr Edfu was begun,to map the entire site,and a photographic record was made of rock-inscriptions on the hill. (www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk) Hierakonpolis: The BM/Univ of Arkansas expedition, directed by Renée Friedman, began conservation of the ‘Fort’, the 2nd Dyn mud-brick ceremonial enclosure of Khasekhemwy, thanks to grants from the World Monuments Fund and the Friends of Nekhen. The lowered ground surfaces were raised by over a metre to protect undercut and eroding wall foundations and repairs were made. Two construction phases were observed, with an earlier niched façade wall encased later by masonry on both sides. In conjunction with Izumi Takamiya of Kinki Univ, Japan, excavation of the Predynastic kiln structure at HK11 continued to reveal a wellconstructed rectilinear complex possibly used for brewing beer. Excavation in the elite Predynastic cemetery HK6 was resumed (with a grant from the National Geographic Society) and revealed the largest Naqada IIAB tomb (No.23) yet known. Four large posts on either side of the tomb cavity are evidence of a wooden superstructure and to the E was an offering chapel. Post holes have revealed that a 16m x 9m enclosure surrounded the complex. (www.hierakonpolis.org and www.archaeology.org) Kom Ombo to Aswan. A joint BM/Univ of Milan expedition,directed by Maria Carmela Gatto and Mauro Cremaschi, started a geoarchaeological survey in the area between Aswan and Kom Ombo, to investigate Nubian presence in antiquity. Several already-known sites were reidentified in Wadi Abu Subeira and Wadi Kubbaniya, including rock art stations, Palaeolithic scatters, a pharaonic rock inscription and a Roman cemetery. New sites were also recorded,including an isolated stone tumulus in Hierakonpolis, cemetery HK6, Tomb 23. Flint animal head possibly from a votive desposit, (Naqada IIAB). Photograph © The Hierakonpolis Expedition

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the desert SE of Kom Ombo and a Roman Period cemetery of stone tumuli N of Wadi Kubbaniya. Elephantine:The joint DAI/Swiss Inst team directed by Günter Dreyer, Dietrich Raue and Cornelius von Pilgrim continued work in the late OK/MK palace, the OK strata outside the town enclosure near the S harbour and in the precinct of Khnum. Architectural fragments from the late Khnum temple, MK and Nubian pottery, small and leather finds, and human and animal bones were studied. Kharga Oasis: 1.The Coptic Graffiti Project co-directed by Eugene Cruz-Uribe (Northern Arizona Univ, Flagstaff) and Peter Piccione (College of Charleston) conducted a short preliminary season at the sites of Ain Zaf, Deir el-Bagawat, Gebel Teir and Bagawat, surveyed by the two directors in 1995.The project will record and draw the numerous Coptic graffiti digitally and begin translations of the texts found. Some of the sites identified were previously unknown and some had suffered extensive damage (a number of inscriptions at Deir el-Bagawat had been destroyed by a wall collapse (see the photograph on p.25).The site of Gebel Teir was re-examined and a previously unexplored area (zone 5) was located. In the Christian cemetery at Bagawat, the ‘Chapel of Peace’ (Tomb 80) alone yielded 137 Coptic graffiti, which were recorded. 2.The AUC North Kharga Oasis Survey,directed by Salima Ikram and Corinna Rossi, focused on completing the drawing and recording of the ceramic corpus, the photography of small finds, completing the archaeobotanical analysis,and checking maps and measurements made in earlier seasons.In November 2004 Umm el-Dabadib was visited to document the heavy damage (total loss of the temple and of the tower, destruction of the E side of the Fortified Settlement and looting of Cemetery F) inflicted on the antiquities by looters driving a front-loader. (www.northkhargaoasissurvey.com) Dakhla Oasis: The many expeditions of the DOP worked under the overall direction of Anthony Mills. 1. Mary McDonald investigated a number of ‘Masara’ (early Holocene) sites and studied previously excavated material. 2. A team led by Anthony Mills excavated at Ain elGazzareen, a 6th Dyn settlement, to test the depth in the vicinity of the large enclosure, and any subwall structures and soils; these proved to be c.1m in height, with substrata of c.75cm.This test was within ‘Building C’, which may be a temple structure. Excavation was also undertaken in an area where c.100 unbaked bread moulds were recovered.These will be tested for the raw material as they will certainly have been made locally.Michal Kobusiewicz is continuing study of the OK flints from this site. 3. Anthony Mills and Adam Zielinski continued the excavation and preservation of the area of the Sanctuary and the Contra-Temple at the temple of the local god Amun Nakht at Ain Birbiyeh.On the rear wall is a large icon of Amun Nakht, which was originally inlaid. In the Sanctuary, a construction of acacia logs and steel beams was installed to shore up the lintel of the entrance from the Pronaos. 4. Fred Leemhuis continued his restoration work in the Bayt el-Qadi at El-Qasr. All but one room is now finished and attention has turned to the neighbouring Beit el-Qurashi, which has proved to be rich in documentary material of the 17th/19th centuries. Treatment of this paper material is being undertaken by Vrena Obrecht. 5. The DOP/Monash Univ mission, directed by Colin Hope, conducted excavations at Esment el-Kharab. In Area C, on the E of the site, one multi-roomed house was completely cleared; it comprises a central courtyard with surrounding rooms and was flat-roofed, unlike later houses at the site. A wide variety of ceramics of the 1st-2nd centuries AD was found, other domestic objects, and several Greek ostraca, some with dates in the

early 2nd century. Parts of two similar units were also excavated at the S end of an adjoining street. The central apartments of a single villa in Area B (at the N of the site) were examined. It has a large central room flanked by rooms on the E and W and is painted throughout with geometric, polychrome designs in panels which in several rooms are separated by painted columns with schematic Corinthian order capitals. One room yielded gypsum fragments of sculptures of over-life-size human figures. (www. arts.monash.edu.au/archaeology) 6. At Mut el-Kharab excavations by the DOP/ Monash Univ expedition, directed by Colin Hope, within the temenos of the Temple of Seth, concentrated on the remains of the temple itself, and in the NW and SE corners of the enclosure (see further pp.3-6).The temple was rebuilt (incorporating TIP to Ptolemaic Period blocks) in the Roman Period on a large brick platform set on an earth fill over an extensive deposit of mainly LP ceramics.The temenos was constructed in the 27th Dyn and refurbished throughout the Ptolemaic to Late Roman Periods. The latest excavated remains date to the Mamluk Period. (www.arts.monash.edu.au/archaeology) 7. Columbia University carried out a second season of excavations, directed by Roger Bagnall and led in the field by Paola Davoli, at Amheida, as part of the DOP. Work continued in the 4th century AD villa with wall-paintings; three more painted rooms were discovered, which will be excavated in 2006.A smaller house of the same period was partly excavated as well to provide comparative material. Excavation also began in the supposed temple area on the top of the main hill,resulting in the discovery of hundreds of carved and inscribed blocks, apparently representing three successive buildings: one going back to Harsiese and the Theban 23rd Dyn (Pedubast), one of the Saite and Persian Periods (especially Amasis), and one of the late 1st century AD (Titus-Domitian), similar in its decor to the temple at Deir el-Haggar.The temple site has been thoroughly destroyed by subsequent robbers and the layout of the temple remains to be determined. (www.learn.columbia.edu/amheida/) SPRING (March to May) Lower Egypt Marina el-Alamein (Mediterranean coast): 1.The PCMA expedition of Warsaw Univ, directed by Wiktor Andrzej Daszewski, carried out excavations in a series of rooms, tentatively identified as shops, SE of the town agora. Opposite them and directly behind the S portico of the agora, a basilica-like structure (1st-2nd centuries AD) was fully cleared.An inscription mentioning the Prefect of Egypt Titus Flavius Titianus (AD 129) was found nearby. In the necropolis, excavation of Tomb 21 continued, uncovering the complete colonnaded façade of the above-ground mausoleum, the course of the staircase and the courtyard. Undisturbed burials in the burial chamber revealed, among other artefacts, evidence of disintegrating Fayum-type portraits. Anthropological examination of the burials in Tomb 30 was also completed. 2. The joint Polish-Egyptian restoration project (PCMA, Cairo/SCA) led by Stanis"aw Medeksza undertook conservation work in tombs T6, T12, T29 in the necropolis and houses H1, H21 and H21C in the area of the ancient town. Tell el-Balamun:The BM expedition, directed by Jeffrey Spencer, undertook only limited excavation to make preliminary investigations of anomalies revealed by an electromagnetic survey undertaken by Tomasz Herbich (Polish Academy of Sciences), assisted by Dawid $wi!ch.The survey,using fluxgate gradiometers and conducted over c.6.3 ha of the temple enclosure, revealed many previously-unsuspected major constructions, including LP casemate foundations,a pre-26th Dyn temple foundation and a possible gate in the 26th Dyn enclosure wall. (www. thebritishmuseum.ac.uk)

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Buto (Tell el-Farain): As part of the DAI/Univ of Poitiers expedition, directed by Ulrich Hartung and Pascale Ballet, the DAI team continued work N of the village of Sekhmawy, exposing further parts of an ED administrative building complex which covers an area of more than 1500m2 so far but is still continuing.The recent work revealed an entrance from the N, perhaps connected with an inner (open) courtyard, and magazines in the E part of the complex. New excavations began in the NW part of the site to check the results of drillings and geophysical measurements carried out last autumn. Drillings indicated OK and ED layers just below the surface while the magnetic map showed four unusual rectangular structures, measuring 20-30m each. In two test trenches parts of these structures were excavated revealing badly damaged Late Dyn walls built over OK levels. Objects in the inner fillings of the structures include a fragmentary small cuboid statue dedicated to Osiris and parts of copper/bronze statues of different sizes. The Univ of Poitiers team undertook a study season related to Hellenistic/Roman pottery production at Buto. Tell el-Farkha (Tell Ghazala):The PCMA,Warsaw Univ expedition,directed by Marek Ch"odnicki and Krzysztof Cia"owicz, continued excavations on all three mounds making up this Predynastic/OK site (c.4 ha in area), E of Sinballawein. Layers corresponding to predynastic Lower Egyptian culture were explored on the W mound, uncovering inter alia the remains of four breweries (c.3,500-3,300 BC). Current evidence indicates that the site was an important beermaking centre, possibly the oldest known in the world. Naqada Period buildings excavated on the central mound included a series of large rectangular rooms grouped around courtyards; evidence of workshop activities in the area was substantial.Among the finds was a cylindrical seal with a serekh, belonging to a ruler of the Naqada IIIAB Period. On the E mound, explorations continued inside a large structure (c.600 sq.m) of Naqada IIIB date, featuring walls of unequal thickness surrounding a square central room. Wadi Natrun.At Deir el-Baramus the work of the Leiden Univ expedition,directed by Karel Innemée, was concentrated in the church of the monastery, The nave (now completely cleared) of the church appears to predate the middle of the 7th century. Around AD 700, or later, the E part of the church was modernised, a transept was added and the sanctuary and the pastoforia (siderooms) widened. Under the church foundations the remains of a floor of an earlier church (4th-5th centuries?) were discovered.This church had been constructed from reused limestone blocks from a pharaonic temple. One block, reused again in the second church, has the cartouche of Amenemhat I, suggesting that there once was a MK temple in the Wadi Natrun. Abu Rawash: 1.The Univ of Geneva/IFAO mission,led by Michel Valloggia, continued work in the funerary complex of King Radjedef (see EA 23, pp.10-12) to elucidate the layout of the external precinct of the E and S parts of the complex, and to look for any possible constructions between both of these two precincts of the monument. In the N part between the two precincts four surveys have been carried out with the help of a digger, but none of the trenches show the presence of built structures, indicating that, in this part of the complex, there was one large courtyard with no other construction. In the S part two surveys led to the discovery of a monumental gate and of a precinct cleared to a length of about 150m. The position of this wall implies the existence of a S esplanade as counterpart to the northern courtyard. In the E part the outbuildings inside the cult area, excavated in 2004, have been partially rebuilt to match previous restorations on the site. 2.The IFAO expedition, led by Michel Baud, continued work in necropolis ‘F’, the royal cemetery of Radjedef. Excavation of the L-shaped, mid-4th

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Saqqara, Teti Pyramid Cemetery.The false doors of Iuib and Khentika. Photograph courtesy of Zahi Hawass Dyn decorated stone chapel F48 concentrated on the mud-brick exterior part with three rooms, and its main entrance to the N.The entrance doorway has an inscribed limestone lintel, some fragments of which were found in the first demolition layer. In the central room is a white limestone basin connected to a limestone drain. From the upper layers of debris, thrown out from the S shaft, came animal mummies, mostly shrews. Detailed study of the remains also revealed the presence of mice and rats, the latter mummified; the pottery indicates a 30th Dyn date. At mastaba F40, the S shaft was cleared down to the burial chamber, 11.5m below bedrock level. Here several pottery vessels of the original 4th Dyn burial were found. Architectural study of the inner structure of mastaba F37 continued, revealing a complex system of cross-over life size walls and terraces.In the neighbouring mid 1st Dyn cemetery ‘M’, parts of tombs M XII and VII were planned. Saqqara: 1. The SCA expedition working in the Teti Pyramid Cemetery and directed by Zahi Hawass, discovered two false doors when cleaning the area around the pyramid. One belongs to Iuib, an official of Pepi II’s pyramid temple, and the second belongs to an Overseer of Scribes, Khentika. In the same area was found a LP burial containing a well-preserved mummy covered in cartonnage and painted in vibrant colours, with a gold-coloured mask.The paintings on the mummy are divided into several registers, showing funerary scenes At the bottom of the mummy are geometric patterns, and the feet are carefully painted onto the cartonnage. Beneath the burial was found a collection of blue faience amulets featuring the god Bes. 2. The Louvre Museum expedition, directed by Christiane Ziegler, continued archaeological research at the Tomb of Akhethotep and also undertook study of material from previous seasons (elements of LP funerary equipment including many intact anthropomorphic wooden coffins). Ansina:The expedition of the McDonald Institute, Univ of Cambridge, directed by Alison Gascoigne, carried out a survey at the walled monastic settlement of Ansina,just south of Antinoopolis.The most intact area of the town was mapped using DGPS and a total station.Well-preserved architectural features, including a significant number of churches, chapels and oratories, were recorded and analysed. In order to clarify the date of the site, ceramic material was sampled from the surface and exposed sections. Deir el-Barsha: The Königliche Univ, Leuven expedition (see EA 25,pp.10-12),directed by Harco Willems, working in the MK nomarchal cemetery focused on the underground apartments of the tomb of Djehutyhotep and on collecting data for a visual reconstruction of the tomb of Amenemhat. In the W desert plain, further tombs (some intact) were excavated.Work on the S and N slopes of the Wadi Nakhla concentrated on the epigraphic recording of the OK tombs, which was completed. In some of these tombs, excavations brought to light numerous fragments of rock statues. In the Wadi Nakhla itself, study of the S group of Nectanebo I quarries was

concluded. (millennium.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/bersha/) Tuna el-Gebel:The joint expedition of the Egyptological Inst, Univ of Munich, and the Faculty of Archaeology, Univ of Cairo, directed by Dieter Kessler and Abd el-Halim Nur el-Din, undertook limited work inside the animal galleries. Outside, a survey on the cliff to the W of the animal galleries concentrated on the hillside settlement.The cultic centre was a broad hall overlooking the flat desert in front,lying on an artificial terrace.With its two main entrances and four columns inside, it was probably an official military headquarters. Finds, including a fragment of a Greek papyrus and a bronze coin of Cleopatra VII, range from Late Ptolemaic to Late Roman times. On the desert plain to the N a Roman quarry ramp and a Late Roman monastery site were identified. (www.tuna.cc) Athribis.The joint project of the Univ ofTübingen (formerly Univ of Cologne) and the SCA Sohag, directed by Christian Leitz, continued work, led in the field by Rafed El-Sayed (Tübingen) and Yahya el-Masry (Sohag).The general survey added to the site map the remaining visible structures, including the NW sections of what seems to be the precinct’s enclosure wall,structures E of the temple and several clusters of domestic architecture within the ancient settlement. In the Repit temple sanctuary (Ptolemy XII) inscriptions were collated and studied, and emergency conservation undertaken of the endangered polychrome decoration. Aswan: 1. At the silicified sandstone (quartzite) quarries at Gebel Gulab and Gebel Tingar the joint British/Norwegian expedition, directed by Elizabeth Bloxam, (sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust and the Geological Survey of Norway) continued work About 100 previously undocumented rock art panels have now been recorded, some may date to the Late Palaeolithic Period.Diagnostic parallels between the grinding stones at Gebel Gulab and those previously recorded at nearby Wadi Kubbaniya, suggests a grinding stone industry with antecedents to the Late Palaeolithic Period. 18th Dyn stone extraction shows the extensive use of fire-setting and the choice of specific stone properties, such as colour, for particular objects. Stone enclosures associated with a NK obelisk extraction area,some with standing stelae, may represent ritual/symbolic spaces. A probable Christian hermitage was documented in the concession area which is imminently threatened by the construction of an asphalt road. 2.The joint team of the Swiss Institute and the SCA Aswan, headed by Cornelius von Pilgrim and Mohamed el-Bialy,and directed in the field byWolfgang Müller, continued ongoing rescue excavations in areas 13 and 15, in both of which urban remains of the Ptolemaic Period were investigated.In an area to the E of the Temple of Domitian some MK rock inscriptions were recorded.Study work focused on pottery of the early Roman Period. Bahariya Oasis: The IFAO team directed by Frédéric Colin has continued the excavation of the Roman fort of Qaret el-Toub, revealing, among other discoveries,a probable wine press connected to the church and built inside the fort. In the necropolis, 28 tombs from the late TIP through to Roman times have been investigated by a team of archeoanthropologists.One of the graves,(lateTIP/beginning of LP),is a communal tomb with many skeletons and 15 terracotta anthropomorphic sarcophagi. Excavation of Qasr Allam has continued, and the discovery of demotic ostraca in stratified levels suggests that there was an (oracular ?) cult of ’Horus the Great’ and of (sacred) falcon(s) on the site. I would like to thank the following for assistance in compiling this edition of ‘Digging Diary’:Tomasz Herbich, Guy Lecuyot, Sahar Mabrouk, Marie Millet and Jeffrey Spencer. I am also grateful to Eugene Cruz-Uribe, Renée Friedman, Zahi Hawass, Maarten Raven and Hourig Sourouzian for providing photographs.

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In search of Cleopatra’s temple Statue fragments found in Alexandria may be from one of the city’s largest temples. In 2004 Sally-Ann Ashton led a University of Cambridge/EES team trying to locate the temple site. In the gardens of the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria are two fragments of a colossal Egyptian-style statue,which were presented to the Museum in 1907.The statue represents a youthful late Ptolemaic ruler and was originally part of a dyad, which, when complete, would have been around 9m high.The king’s missing companion was an idealised figure of Isis, usually identified as Cleopatra VII in the guise of the goddess.This figure was sold to the Royal Museums of Mariemont, Belgium, in 1912 by Albert Daninos, a resident of Alexandria.The earliest record of the statues dates to October 1842 and includes a drawing which shows that, in addition to the pieces known today, there were originally two further parts of the queen and three further fragments of the king, which are now lost. Early descriptions of the site where the statues originated indicate that it would have been one of Alexandria’s largest temples. However, the last references to the area were by E M Forster in his 1922 publication of Alexandria: A history and a guide, where he wrote ‘There is a road from Nouzha to Sidi Gabar by the side of the lake, the place is where two colossal statues were discovered. Antony as Osiris and Cleopatra as Isis.Antony is in the Museum’. The lake to which Forster refers is Hadra, which has since been filled in and the area developed. Early maps also indicate the area of the temple to the east of the main city. However, these maps are of limited use due to the lack of other identifiable landmarks in the vicinity. In 2003 the Centre D’ Etudes Alexandrine tried to locate the area of the temple by using two nineteenth-century maps made by Smyth (in 1843) Torso of the female ruler. (Photograph:The Royal Museums and Mahmoud el-Falaki (in 1866). The temple was of Mariemont, Belgium)

Torso of the male ruler in the grounds of the Graeco-Roman Museum,Alexandria

CEA mapping of the site, after the plans of Smyth (1843) and el-Falaki (1866). (M Shaalan) 30

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The face of the male ruler. Graeco-Roman Museum,Alexandria

marked on both maps in roughly the same area, but when each was transposed on to a map of the modern city different locations were indicated. After a preliminary investigation in 2003, the location identified by Mahmoud el-Falaki seemed to be closer to that indicated on the twentieth century maps. Confirmation came in the form of an early twentieth century map by a Professor M Bartocci, which showed the temple as the Thesmophorion and gave the street name as Rue Geninet Nouzha. Although the street no longer exists a comparison with surrounding locations, such as the Sporting Club to the north and the Alexandria to Cairo railway line, suggested that the el-Falaki position was correct. Fortunately, the area proved to be relatively clear of buildings. In November 2004 a team of four people, including the writer, travelled to Alexandria with the aim of investigat-

Left leg of the male ruler. Graeco-Roman Museum,Alexandria

ing the targeted site. Marie-Cécile Bruwier, Director of the Royal Museums of Mariemont, had undertaken work on the history of the statues. Neil and Paul Linford are both specialists in geophysical survey at English Heritage and agreed to test equipment which is normally used on an urban site in Britain.The aim of this first season was two-fold: firstly to test the location of the site by means of recording subsurface structures, and secondly to explore the available archives in the Graeco-Roman Museum in an attempt to locate the missing statue fragments. From the start, the fieldwork was beset with problems, not least that of access to the site, which is today occupied by three schools, a port authority bus park, a police compound and an area of private land.With the help of skilful negotiating by our SCA inspectors we obtained permission to work in three of these areas: two adjoining schools, and the port authority bus park. Once on site, we suffered equipment failure,and meanwhile the archive and museum work was revealing little information on either the site or the statues. However, with only a few days remaining, our Colossal foot at L’Atelier groupement d’Artistes et Ecrivains, rue du Victor Bassili,Alexandria. (Photograph: M-C Bruwier)

Detail of the 1865 government map. Graeco-Roman Museum Library

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situation started to improve. A government map dating to 1865 in the library of the Graeco-Roman Museum revealed a sketch of the site, including sphinxes, statues and columns, which accords with eighteenth and nineteenth century descriptions.This gave us the first picture of the site as it had once been.With the help of Ahmed Abd el-Fattah, former Director of the Graeco-Roman Museum, we were also able to locate a possible sculptural fragment from the site in the form of a colossal foot.The present Director, Mervat Seif el-Din, was of great assistance in looking for the other missing pieces, but they remain elusive. We were able to undertake two forms of geophysical survey in the three accessible areas of the site: an electromagnetic survey in the port authority bus park and the el-Ibrahimia School for Girls; and a ground penetrating radar survey of the bus park and the Ashraf el-Khagha Primary School.The results are shown below.The electromagnetic survey of the el-Ibrahimia School for Girls showed only modern services within the area that we

The electromagnetic survey at the el-Ibrahimia School for Girls

were able to cover.The port authority bus park surveys showed a considerable amount of sub-surface activity, which may represent buried masonry forming part of a building with rooms, and a possible boundary wall.The GPR survey revealed another possible wall footing at a depth of 0.17m–0.22m and a large structure in the centre of the area at a level of around 0.56m–0.73m below the present-day surface. In the Ashraf el-Khagha Primary School, the sand covering the playground provided good conditions for the survey, with less interference than had been found in the bus park.The results showed four lin944850 ear anomalies at between 0.34m–0.67m below the contemporary ground surface. It is important to stress that all of the results will need to be investigated further in order to establish the exact form and date of the anomalies. However, 944800 the initial results illustrate the value of undertaking non-invasive investigations of urban archaeological sites and also the limitations of such methods. Permission will be sought in 2006 from the SCA and landowners to return to the site with a view to carrying out an archaeological 944750 evaluation, which will entail the excavation of a number of machine-excavated trenches in areas where the most promising anomalies have been highlighted. N 944700

513500

513550

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Key In-phase EM anomaly

GPR positive anomaly

Diffuse area of raised GPR reflectance

Conductivity anomaly

GPR negative anomaly

Modern disturbance

Scale 1:1000 IP (in-phase anomaly) and QP (conductivity anomaly) mark the electromagnetic anomalies and those recorded by the ground penetrating radar are marked GPR. (Plan by N and P Linford)

Ô Sally-Ann Ashton is Senior Assistant Keeper in the Department of Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum and Director of the University of Cambridge and Egypt Exploration Society Alexandria Project. This article is the result of collaborative research with Marie-Cécile Bruwier, Neil Linford and Paul Linford.Thanks are due to Emily Nessim Saad and Ahmed el-Sayed Hassan Radwan of the SCA; Jean-Yves Empereur and Cécile Saalan of the CEA; Ahmed Abd el-Fattah, Mervat Seif el-Din and Eman Zaghloul of the Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria. The project was funded by the British Academy and the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust. Photographs, unless otherwise indicated, by Sally-Ann Ashton.

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Notice Board Egypt Exploration Society Events London

Manchester

Cairo

London events are held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Enquiries: Egypt Exploration Society, 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG. Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1880. E-mail:

Manchester lectures are held in Lecture Theatre 1, Stopford Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester at 7.00 pm on Tuesday evenings. Enquiries: Rosalie David, KNH Centre of Biomedical Egyptology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT. Phone: +44 (0)161 275 2647. E-mail:

EES lectures are held in the auditorium of the British Council at 7.00 pm. Enquiries: Rawya Ismail,EES Cairo Office,c/o British Council, 192 Sharia el-Nil, Agouza, Cairo. Phone: +20 (0)2 3001886. E-mail: ees.

contact@ees.ac.uk

Saturday 3 December, 2005.The EES Annual General Meeting, lecture (Jaromir Malek, Tutankhamun for all: Howard Carter’s Excavation Records in the Griffith Institute, Oxford) and reception in the afternoon/ early evening in the Khalili Theatre, Main Building, SOAS. Details in the autumn EES mailing. Saturday 17 June 2006.EES Study Day on Astronomy and Ancient Egypt in the Brunei GalleryTheatre,SOAS.The speakers will include both Astronomers and Egyptologists. Full details in the EES spring mailing. Saturday 14 October 2006. EES Study Day in the Brunei Gallery Theatre, SOAS. Full details in the EES summer 2006 mailing. Saturday 9 December, 2006. The EES Annual General Meeting, lecture and reception in the afternoon/early evening in the Khalili Theatre, Main Building, SOAS. Details in the autumn 2006 mailing.

rosalie.david@man.ac.uk

15 November 2005. Okasha el-Daly, Missing sources for the study of ancient Egypt. 6 December. Paul Nicholson, Egypt in three dimensions: stereophotography in Egyptology and archaeology. 24 January 2006. Penny Wilson, Environmental change and human consequences: the Nile Delta in antiquity. 7 February. Nigel Hepper, The Royal Danish Expedition to Egypt and Yemen, 1761-66. For events later in 2006 please contact Rosalie (details above). Bolton Details of the 2006 lecture which has not yet been arranged, will be sent in a future mailing to members,

cairo@britishcouncil.org.eg

LECTURES 7 November 2005. Elizabeth Bloxam, Per Storemyr and Tom Heldal, Quarryscapes: conservation of ancient stone quarry landscapes in the eastern Mediterranean. 14 November. Stéphane Pradines, The gate and town wall of Badr el-Gamali in eastern Cairo. 2 January 2006. Alan Lloyd, Digging in Egypt in the 1970s. SITE VISITS Saturday 10 December 2005.A full-day visit to the Austrian excavations at Tell elDaba, then to Tanis. Saturday 14 January 2006.A half-day visit to the Australian excavations at Helwan. Please contact Rawya (details above) for lectures and site visits later in 2006.

NON-EES LECTURES AND OTHER EVENTS Lectures on ancient and modern Egypt, and other cultural events, are held at the Education and Cultural Bureau, Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt, 4 Chesterfield Gardens, London W1Y 8BR at 6.30 pm. Phone: +44 (0)20 7491 7720. E-mail: egypt. culture@btconnect.com

To 19 November 2005. Installation Panoptiscope:‘An imaginative reflection on the Petrie Museum’ by Sarah Beddington. South Cloisters, University College London. Phone: +44 (0)20 7679 2884. To 27 November 2005. Excavating Egypt; great discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London. Michael C Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta.Website: carlos.emory.edu 16-17 December 2005. Conference Framing plots–the grammar of narrative in ancient Near Eastern literature. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London. E-mail: plots.conference@gmail.com Website: www.oriental.cam.ac.uk/framingplots/

19-20 December 2005.Conference:Sex and gender in ancient Egypt.Egypt Centre,University of Wales,Swansea,Singleton Park,Swansea SA2 8PP.Phone:+44 (0)1792 295960.E-mail: c.a.graves-brown@swansea.ac.uk Website: www. swansea.ac.uk/egypt

To 6 January 2006.Exhibition Immortal Pharaoh: the tomb ofThutmose III. City Art Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DE. Phone: +44 (0)131 3993. Advance tickets: www.usherhall.co.uk or phone: +44 (0)131 228 1155. 7 January - 3 June 2006. Excavating Egypt (Petrie Museum exhibition).Albany Institute of History and Art, New York. Future venues see: www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/news To 12 February 2006. Exhibition Mummy: the inside story. The Houston Museum of Natural Science, One Hermann Circle Drive, Houston.Website: www.hmns.org April 2006.The 57th Annual Conference of the American Research Center in Egypt will be held in New York.Website: www.arce.org

6-8 April 2006. Conference 7th Current Research in Egyptology will be held in Oxford. Website: www.currentresearchegypt. fsworld.co.uk

To 23 April 2006.Exhibition Discovering Ancient Egypt. Wakefield Museum, Wood Stret, Wakefield WF1 2EW. Phone: +44 (0)1924 305356.Website:+++Û+_µ•›•¶ƒÛ¡Å*Û$µ To 23 April 2006. Exhibition Egypt Revealed, including objects loaned by the British Museum. Hancock Museum, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4PT. Phone: +44 (0)191 222 7418.Website: www. twmuseums.org.uk/hancock

22-25 May 2006. Conference Walls of the Ruler: fortifications, police beats and military checkpoints in ancient Egypt. Egypt Centre, Swansea. Contacts: see 19-20 December. 27 August - 2 September 2006.The 11th International Conference of Nubian Studies. Warsaw University, Warsaw. Website:www. nubia2006.uw.edu.pl

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New research in the Abu Bakr cemetery at Giza

Between 1949 and 1976 Abdel-Moneim Abu Bakr excavated at Giza, on behalf of Cairo University, in the far north-west corner of the western field of mastaba-tombs. In March 2000 a joint expedition of Cairo University and Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, directed by Tohfa Handoussa and Edward Brovarski, resumed work there for the purpose of recording and publishing the tombs. When Khufu built the Great Pyramid at Giza around 2550 BC, he gave orders to lay out mastaba-tombs to the east and west of his funerary monument. At the foot of the Great Pyramid, in the tombs of the Eastern Field, were buried Khufu’s wives (in three small pyramids), children and their descendants. In the Western Field which continued in use until the end of the Old Kingdom, were interred the senior members of Khufu’s family; his uncles and brothers, for instance, as well as high court and government officials.The tombs of the cemeteries laid out by Khufu and his successors housed the burials of the élite of Egyptian society, but filling the area between the great tombs in the centre of the Western Field, and extending into the far west, are the tombs of the ordinary people of the pyramid age. With the exception of the great mastaba of Persen who, as Overseer of All the Works of the King, was a high official charged with public works, an interesting aspect of the section of the Western Field in the Cairo University concession is the number of tombs that belonged to relatively low-ranking individuals. Numerous inscribed offering basins, false-door panels with table scenes, lintels, and drums attest to the identity and status of the individuals buried in the tombs of the Abu Bakr cemetery. The identified titles of some of the owners of smaller tombs in the concession include a Brewer, a Corn Measurer, a Master of the Seat, an Overseer of Eight (men) of a Boat, an Overseer of Six (men) of a Boat, a Scribe, a Chief Carpenter, two Elders of the House, a Tenant-farmer of the Palace, and several Ka-Priests. Individuals of similar rank were buried in the majority of the tombs in the adjacent cemeteries excavated by Abu Bakr on behalf of Cairo University, as well as in the so-called ‘minor cemetery’ (G 3000) excavated by Clarence Fischer for the University of Pennsylvania,other cemeteries (G 1000-1100,1300-1600) in the far Western Field excavated by George Reisner on behalf of the Harvard-Boston Expedition, the Steindorff cemetery, and the numerous smaller tombs cleared by Hermann Junker in the Junker cemetery (west).Relatively little study has been devoted to these non-élite tombs of the Giza necropolis. Persen’s tomb (LG 20) is a large stone-built mastaba with a small interior L-shaped chapel in its south-east corner.

The expedition’s epigrapher in the serdab of the tomb of Persen. (Photograph: Edward Brovarski)

When Lepsius copied the chapel a great deal of colour was still preserved in the scenes on its walls. Much of this is now gone, but traces confirm that Lepsius’s coloured reconstructions, especially of the once splendid life-size image of Persen wearing a leopard-skin garment on the south wall, are quite accurate. Although Lepsius provided a plan of Persen’s mastaba, he was unaware of the existence of an inscribed serdab high up in the body of the mastaba behind the north wall of the chapel.The west wall of the serdab is inscribed with four columns of large hieroglyphs, three naming Persen and one naming his wife, Neshut(?). The Topographical Bibliography suggests that the serdab originally contained five corresponding statues but no traces of the statues were found. After five seasons’ work in the Persen complex, it seems fair to say that Persen was an architect with an archaizing bent. His complex, which includes his own mastaba, the stone-built mastaba of Ipi (LG 19), and an anonymous mud-brick mastaba between the two, is surrounded at the front and sides by a brick wall with a pattern of a complex niche and three simple niches repeated. Outside the panelled wall is a lower mud-brick bumper wall. It is possible that the mud-brick enclosure wall was inspired by the numerous niched-brick tombs in the cemetery,but the arrangement also resembles the Shunet ez-Zebib at Abydos and the palace-façade tombs of the First Dynasty at Saqqara. 34

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Irkakhufu and Khufuseneb, and at Senenu’s feet stands his little grandson, Senenu-the-Younger.The opposing jamb shows the ladies of the family: Senenu’s wife, Ankherfenedjes,his mother-in-law Isi,and two women,Hetepkai and Meret.These two women are probably the wives of the two sons.This is certainly the case with Meret ,who has an accompanying text reading ‘It is the wife of his son’and she is followed by Senenu-the-Younger.Hetepkai may, therefore, be the wife of Senenu’s other son. In the closed context of the Abu Bakr cemetery, this Irukakhufu could well be the same man, at a later stage of his career, as the Irukakhufu who usurped Persen’s exterior chapel.His brother,Khufuseneb,may likewise be identical with the owner of a stone-built tomb of the same name. The tomb was built by the latter’s daughter Henutsen, who bears the title ‘Wife of a Hereditary Prince’, a marriage which may explain how she acquired the material resources to erect a tomb for her father. When the present work began the plan was to copy the inscribed tombs of the complex and combine them with Abu Bakr’s map, plans, and field notes, as well as drawings of the many inscribed tomb elements stored in the Abu Bakr magazine, all to be included in the volume to be published in his memory. The scenes in the tombs and many loose inscriptions in the Abu Bakr magazine have

Table scene of the Washerman Senenu and his wife Ankherfenedjes. (Photograph: Brooks Witter)

Persen’s northern exterior mud-brick chapel and false door were usurped at a later date by an Overseer of Khufu’s Pyramid,named Irukakhufu (LG 21).Irukakhufu bricked up one side of the northern entrance to Persen’s complex and set up two large offering stands which Abu Bakr found in place. The current expedition found the limestone stands in the Abu Bakr magazine at Giza and was able to match them up with their emplacements in the limestone floor of the entry way. Two of the larger, stone-built mastabas in the Abu Bakr cemetery belong to two King’s Wab-Priests, Katep and Kayemtjenent.Katep’s chapel is quite well preserved, with two niches in its west wall, a principal northern niche and a subsidiary southern niche.The niches reverse the usual arrangement in the élite mastabas further east, where the southern niche functioned as the principal offering place. Out in the far north-west of the Western Field, the usual strictures on tomb architecture were apparently loosened, for the reversal occurs in a number of other tombs in the cemetery.On the panel of the southern niche,Katep’s wife, Tepemnefret, sits (on the dominant left side) at a table of bread, while Katep stands in her presence.As the principal niche, the northern niche is the larger and deeper of the two and the table scene is very handsome, if conventional. About halfway down on the southern thickness of the deep niche, however, is a depiction of a son or grandson of Katep and Tepemnefret.The boy is shown naked as is customary, with his right finger held to his mouth in a gesture of shyness, but in his other hand he holds a sceptre of office.To our knowledge the image is unique. In the majority of cases, we do not know which royal cult the wab-priest served but Kayemnefret was also a Priest of Khufu. His tomb is largely denuded, but on its east wall he still stands, with his wife squatting at his feet, to receive offering bearers. A large architrave, inscribed with Kayemnefret’s name and titles,once topped the north wall of the mastaba above the entrance. This proprietor of another large tomb, this time built of mud brick, was the King’s Wab-priest and Washerman of the God (ie, the king) Senenu. It consists of a corridor chapel with a pattern of complex and simple niches in its west wall. Senenu’s family is shown on the jambs of the false door.On the left appear Senenu’s sons,the wab-priests

Statue of the Overseer of Wab-Priests of Sekhmet, Ipzekh, and his wife Henutsen as first seen in the Abu Bakr magazine at Giza in 2003. In contrast to customary usage, the ‘negative spaces’ between the limbs of the figure are cut away. This statue and a number of others from the cemetery are presently on display in a special exhibit at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. (Photograph: Brooks Witter)

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indeed been copied but regrettably, the maps and other documentation are all lost.The expedition was thus faced with the daunting task of reclearing the entire cemetery in order to map it, and plan the tombs and their shafts. Thanks to our surveyors Jay Gilliland and Jim Langford, and our archaeological draftsman Dick Cook, we now possess a detailed map of the areas of cemetery which the current expedition has cleared. Since, to the best of our previous knowledge, every acre of the cemetery had been cleared by Abu Bakr, and subsequently back-filled, we were very surprised in the course of the 2004 field season to discover the intact burial of a woman named Renpetnefret in an area of some 35 or so small mud-brick mastabas to the north of Persen’s great mastaba. The dead woman was buried in a foetal position in a burial chamber at the bottom of a shaft just a few feet deep, without any accompanying burial goods. Still in situ between the two niches at the front of her mastaba, we found an inscribed offering basin (for liquids such as water and beer).An inscription on the upper rim of the basin says it was made for Renpetnefret by her son, the Carpenter, Perhernefret. At the bottom left of the basin, an enlarged determinative of Renpetnefret sniffs a fragrant blue lotus. The expedition’s osteoarchaeologist, Steve Phillips, says that Renpetnefret was in her mid-thirties when she died,

Offering basin of Renpetnefret in situ, set in mud-plaster in front of her modest mud-brick mastaba. (Photograph: Brooks Witter)

and her skeleton appeared quite healthy, so whatever illness caused her death left no traces behind. Her skeleton showed no traces of mummification or even linen wrapping. The next season will be a study season, when efforts will be made to organize and analyze the considerable amount of material accumulated over the past five years. Ô Tohfa Handoussa is Professor of Egyptology in the Archaeology Department of Cairo University. Edward Brovarski is Adjunct Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island

The Sudan Archaeological Research Society The Society seeks to provide a focus for interest in ¢+_”à À°A¢°‹à” ½+1À+ õ_°‹1”+àÒ ¡A_Sú ¢+à c1Aà ¢_ the south of the First Cataract and in the regions to the east and west, by a programme of public lectures, a one-day colloquium and by the circulation of its annual Bulletin Sudan & Nubia. SARS also publishes the results of excavation and research as separate reports and is directly involved 1S óàAÒ½_‹> ½1¢+ ¡¢ Aà¡”¢ _Sà r‹_<àÀ¢ 1S ¢+à óàAÒ each year.

cà½ MàMµà‹” ¡‹à M_”¢ ½àAÀ_Màx bàMµà‹” ‹àÀà1¼à }°Ò¡S « c°µ1¡Î Òà¢¡1A” _ò ¡AA ¢+à }_À1à¢Àˆ” à¼àS¢”Î ¡ÀÀà”” ¢_ ¢+à }_À1à¢Àˆ” A1µ‹¡‹À ¡SÒ ¡‹À+1¼àÎ and discounnts on publications produced by the Society. For further details please contact the Hon_‹¡‹À }àÀ‹à¢¡‹ÀÎ }"x}Î Àž_ „+à -‹1¢1”+ b°”à°MÎ London WC1B 3DG, UK. E-mail:sars@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk Website: www.sudarchrs.org.uk

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Ancient Egypt at The Manchester Museum

The University of Manchester’s collection of Egyptian antiquities numbers more than 15,000 objects,and still counting.Christina Riggs takes readers behind the scenes and explains how the collection is being made accessible for public engagement as well as academic research. The Manchester Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of Egyptian antiquities, many of which were acquired through the generosity of Flinders Petrie’s Manchester sponsor, Jesse Haworth (1835-1920). Haworth was a cotton yarn trader and a leading member of the city’s Royal Exchange. In addition to supporting both the Egypt Exploration Society and Petrie’s independent work in Egypt, Haworth funded a 1912 extension to the Museum to house the Egyptology galleries and willed £30,000 to the University of Manchester for maintaining the Museum and its collections. A new KE EMu entry, for a mummy portrait formerly housed in the University’s Whitworth Art With the opening of its most recent exGallery and newly registered as 13750 tension in 2003, which coincided with an extensive staff restructuring, The Manchester Museum which sets nationwide standards for museums, and over has entered an exciting new phase in its development. the next five years the Museum aims to meet or exceed Although it was among the first museums in the UK MLA standards and to improve its academic output, as to attain ‘Designated’ status for its collections from the well as its public services. Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), the Some of the highlights of Manchester’s Egyptian collecMuseum had fallen behind in standards of collections care, tion include the splendid coffins, model boats, statuettes, documentation, and academic research. It is currently in and canopic chest from the Middle Kingdom ‘Tomb of the process of applying for the MLA’s Accreditation status, the Two Brothers’ at Deir Rifa; mummy portraits and

Ancient wooden boxes from the workers’ village of Kahun, seen in ‘before’ and ‘after’ views from the rearrangement of the Museum’s storerooms. Objects once kept in plastic bags and acidic cardboard boxes are now on padded shelves, protected by Tyvek® dust sheets

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A corn mummy in a mud coffin, lined with original linen. From Gerzeh; catalogued as New Kingdom.The Manchester Museum 5311

refer to term lists for object names, materials, sites and chronological periods to choose their search criteria, and the Museum is continuing to edit the database records to comply with these lists and improve the accuracy of the information. From the ‘Search the Collections’ link, web users can also browse through highlights of the collection, a feature on mummy portraits, and ‘Virtual Kahun’, a joint project with the Petrie Museum at University College London. Another priority is improving the storage of the collection as this had been poorly organized and was difficult

Painted limestone relief from a chapel at the Nebhepetre Mentuhotep temple, Deir el-Bahri.This piece, which may represent a royal woman, was published by Edouard Naville in Deir el-Bahari:The XIth Dynasty Temple, Part I (EEF, London,1907), pl.18. H 34.5cm. The Manchester Museum 4620

several decorated mummies from the Roman cemetery at Hawara; and a rich array of finds from the Fayum villages of Kahun and Gurob.The 2003 extension includes a new entrance hall, where a red granite relief from the Festival Hall of Osorkon II at Bubastis takes pride of place next to a massive column inscribed for Ramesses II and Merenptah, originally from Herakleopolis.The Museum also has an extensive collection of predynastic pottery and pharaonic textiles, including two pleated garments from Sedment. The first priority is to finish cataloguing the Egyptian collection, since an estimated 2,000 objects have never been registered.The Museum uses a collections management database produced by KE Software, known as the ‘KE Electronic Museum’(KE EMu).The database is available online, and can be found by following the ‘Search the Collections’link from the Museum website (museum.man. ac.uk). Unfortunately, most of the data on KE EMu was transferred from a database compiled in the early 1980s and so it lacks up-to-date Egyptological information; furthermore, the database did not employ defined terms, making it difficult to execute searches.Web users can now

Painted wooden oar from a sacred boat, preserved in two pieces. From Abydos; catalogued as Late Period.The Manchester Museum 3974

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Above and left:‘Tomb Team’ students learn about Roman Egypt ‘behind-the-scenes’ at the Museum

everything it does, the Museum is looking ahead to a complete refurbishment of its Egyptian galleries by 2009 as the current installations, although extremely popular, date to the mid-1980s. By the time the new galleries open, all cataloguing and online database development will be complete, making the magnificent Egyptian collection of The Manchester Museum more accessible not only to visitors in Manchester but also to ‘virtual’ visitors around the world.

to access,with objects kept in crates,over-packed drawers, or disintegrating boxes. Over the past year, the collection has been sorted by type of object, provenance, and date, and more than 70 per cent of the objects have been repacked or re-shelved using conservation-grade materials. This process has revealed some rare and fascinating objects, most of which are unpublished or only briefly mentioned in excavation reports. The Museum has also catalogued and re-packed its mummified and skeletal human remains from Egypt and Sudan. As part of the University of Manchester, which became the largest university in the UK when the Victoria University of Manchester merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in October 2004, The Manchester Museum actively supports teaching and research in Egyptology and archaeology. Researchers are welcome to contact the curator with any queries, or to make an appointment to study material in person.Guided‘behind-the-scenes’tours can also be arranged for visiting groups, and the Museum has a busy programme of public events, including familyoriented activities that enable direct object handling and interaction with curatorial staff. The Museum’s schools programme annually brings more than 26,000 children to the Museum,where they participate in hands-on activities focused on the life of an ancient Egyptian girl whose coffin is kept in the Museum’s Discovery Centre. Every summer, 100 local students (Year 6 and above) participate in a week-long ‘Tomb Team’ programme, as part of the British government’s ‘Aimhigher’ initiative, overseen by the Department for Education and Science. In addition to striving for the highest standards in

Ô Christina Riggs is Curator of Egyptology at The Manchester Museum, University of Manchester.All photographs: © The Manchester Museum,The University of Manchester.

ARCHAEOLOGY ABROAD

INTERESTED IN DIGGING ABROAD? Archaeology Abroad is published twice a year and lists hundreds of varied and exciting archaeological fieldwork opportunities around the world suitable for all. Each issue includes illustrated feature articles, Fieldwork Award and other reports, guidance and advice for those travelling abroad to join excavation projects and information about other useful organisations, publications, scholarships, awards and websites. From 2005, Archaeology Abroad will be produced on CD ROM, bringing readers increased and improved content with full colour images and instant access to information and projects via live email and web links. Subscribers are eligible to apply for a Fieldwork Award to help meet their excavation expenses - projects must be listed in Archaeology Abroad.

Subscription rates 2005: Individual: Institutional:

£20 (UK) £30 (UK)

£22 (Europe) £32 (Europe)

£24 (World) £34 (World)

To subscribe send name, address and cheque (payable to Archaeology Abroad) to the address below or subscribe online at: www.britarch.ac.uk/shop/ For more information contact Archaeology Abroad at: 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPY, UK. Tel/fax: +44 (0) 20 8537-0849. Email: arch.abroad@ucl.ac.uk Web: www.britarch.ac.uk/archabroad

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The Egypt Exploration Society New publications

Janine Bourriau, David Aston, Maarten J Raven and RenÝ van Walsem (with a contribution by Colin Hope), The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb, Commander-in-Chief of Tutankhamun III. The New Kingdom Pottery. 2005. ISBN 0 85698 167 2 EES Excavation Memoir 71 Full price: £35

EES members' price: £30

Jane Faiers (with contributions by Sarah Clackson, Barry Kemp, Gillian Pyke and Richard Reece), Late Roman pottery at Amarna and related studies. 2005. ISBN 0 85698 162 1 EES Excavation Memoir 72 Full price: £60

EES members' price: £50

J D Ray, Demotic Papyri and Ostraca from Qasr Ibrim. 2005. ISBN 0 85698 158 3 EES Texts from Excavations 13 Full price: £25

EES members' price: £21

All EES publications can be purchased from: Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford, OX1 1HN, UK. Fax: +44 (0)1865 79449. Phone: +44 (0)1865 241249. E-mail: orders@oxbowbooks.com. Website: www.oxbowbooks.com

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Bookshelf

Maarten J Raven andWybren KTaconis, Egyptian Mummies: Radiological Atlas of the Collections in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. Brepols, 2005. (ISBN 2 503 51701 3). Price: !55. The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, with reputedly one of the best ten Egyptology collections in the world, has human and animal mummies from the Third Intermediate Period to the Roman Period, which are noteworthy because of their range and variety.This book - which focuses on scientific studies undertaken on the collection - is the first comprehensive historical description of the mummies, providing new information about inscriptions and dating of the associated coffins. There is a fascinating account of the Museum’s acquisition of the mummies from the early nineteenth century, and the dissections performed on them between 1824 and 1892. Modern scientific procedures (from Gray’s radiological studies in 1965 to the work of the current Leiden mummy project) are also outlined. The main purpose of this book, however, is to present the results of the most recent radiological survey of the Leiden mummies. As useful background, a description of radiographic techniques such as fluoroscopy and computed tomography (CT) is given, and the authors discuss pertinent issues regarding the relative usefulness of CT-scanning and conventional radiography, and their reasons for deciding not to take tissue samples for biological investigation. The survey of 27 full human mummies, eight detached heads, and other mummified parts uses radiological and physical anthropological methods to assess gender determination, age at death,wrappings and artefacts,mummification technique, and the dentitions and presence of disease in the bodies. As in other collections, there is evidence of dental attrition and abscesses, and of fractures,‘wear and tear’ injuries, and degenerative diseases associated with ageing, such as osteoarthritis. One mummy provides a particularly interesting example of metastasis or multiple myloma lesion in the skull. The comprehensive catalogue gives the history of each specimen and any previous scientific studies, a radiological description, and the authors’ detailed comments on its background, mummification procedure, and any associated artefacts. In addition, a useful set of tables presents the data for each mummy. Over seventy animal mummies in the catalogue include mammals, birds, reptiles and fish (most are votive although one was probably a cult animal).As in other collections, radiography has demonstrated that most of the dogs and cats did not reach adulthood, and several met with violent deaths, probably indicating that they were bred commercially and, where necessary,disposed of to meet a demand for votive offerings.The study also confirms that the embalmers (erratic and sometimes fraudulent practitioners) used very basic mummification procedures for most animals.

With its excellent illustrations and extensive bibliography,this book makes a significant contribution to Egyptological, palaeopathological and museological specialist literature.However, in addition to its academic importance, the book will also appeal to a wide readership who have a general interest in the subject.The description of the history of mummification in ancient Egypt, the Glossary of medical and Egyptological terms, and the excellent survey of mummy investigations from the early ‘unrollings’,mainly carried out for curiosity before 1900, to the more scientifically-based projects of the twentieth century, all serve to engage and inform the widespread public interest in Egyptian mummies. ROSALIE DAVID Lucilla Burn, Hellenistic Art, From Alexander the Great to Augustus. The British Museum Press, 2004. (ISBN 0 7141 2225 4). Price: £18.99. Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, having, from 359 BC, consolidated his kingdom and gained control of mainland Greece, intended to eject the Persians from the Greek cities of Asia Minor, but was assassinated. As is so well known,Alexander succeeded in this purpose, indeed in more than this, conquering Egypt and reaching as far as Afghanistan and India, to return to die at Babylon. His generals, the Successors, divided up his Empire, called themselves kings and settled down to some three hundred years of strife, some kingdoms lasting longer than others.The final survivor, Ptolemaic Egypt, succumbed to Rome in 31 BC,a Rome that was by then well used to the artistic conventions of the Hellenistic world.This brief sketch is the political background to the extraordinary flowering of the art of the period, as described in this wellconstructed and well-illustrated book. Published by the British Museum, but not limited to its fine collections, the interested reader is guided through the development of sculpture and painting, from the strictures of the previous classical material to the variety and diversity that followed it.The wonderful facility

of the painting and impressionism of Hades and Persephone in a tomb atVergina in Macedonia and the crowded scenes and contorted limbs of the Great Altar at Pergamon, are particularly noticeable as being different from what went before. Landscape, both idyllic and nilotic, in paintings, relief sculpture and mosaic was introduced, often with an attempt at perspective.Deities are shown with more freedom and realism than heretofore,for example,the Apollo from Cyrene and the Nike from Samothrace, although dignity still remains in the Demeter of Knidos. Portraiture developed in new ways, and philosophers, statesmen and poets, many of them long deceased, were rendered in a manner that suited their perceived posthumous qualities or, if living, as the honoured person preferred to see himself (the majority were men), whether accurate or not. These imagined images, devised in the Hellenistic Period, were copied well into the Roman Period.The author describes, with well-selected examples, the architectural differences to be seen in the magnificent cities and temples of the Hellenistic Period as distinct from their humbler and smaller classical predecessors. Hellenistic art encompasses not only great art but also includes terracotta and small bronze figures and small-scale sculpture, fine glassware and other decorative material, pottery and vessels in gold, silver and bronze, furniture fittings, jewellery, splendid coins and carved gems, all imbued with the lavish and innovative spirit of this age of royal and wealthy patrons, discerning collectors, and the superb craftsmen who so exquisitely fulfilled their demands.As today, sculptors and painters top the artistic professions,often mentioned in the ancient literature and, like gem-cutters, occasionally they signed their work; their humbler fellows, producers of luxurious decorative art, are known only from archaeology. The difficulties of dating the material within the long time-scale of the period and the problems of originals and copies are thoughtfully discussed. Lucilla Burn draws into this finely written book an accessible and comprehensive coverage of her subject,imbedded into its historical background. DONALD BAILEY Bernard V Bothmer, Egypt 1950: My First Visit. Edited by Emma Swan Hall. Oxbow Books, 2003 (ISBN 0 936770 25 2). Price: £35. In 1950, the 38 year old Bernard Bothmer, one of the best known names in the field of ancient Egyptian art history, visited Egypt for the first time. He kept a daily diary of his experiences and its publication was one of the last projects to which he was committed before his death in 1993. His notes make for a fascinating exposé of his work, of his first reactions to living in Egypt, and of the country itself in 1950, at a time which is not yet often studied by Egyptologist-historiographers and biographers, perhaps because it is still recent enough for many involved in the subject to have experienced it at first-hand.

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This reviewer found it impossible not to compare Bothmer’s experiences of travelling round Egypt with his own, particularly when most of the notes for this review were made in Egypt, making for several smiles of recognition, some vigorous nodding, and one or two occasions when a raising of one’s eyes to the ceiling in agreement at the difficulties of travelling round a strange country, was automatic. I found it an excellent travelling companion! The book is a useful checklist of sites that are perhaps less well known but nonetheless well worth visiting, and will be inspiring for any intrepid enthusiast of dynastic monuments. A great deal had clearly been arranged before Bothmer’s arrival and his first days were spent visiting various colleagues and other notables in Cairo, all of whom seem to have been very obliging and helpful, and did much to facilitate the rest of his stay in the country. Indeed Bothmer meets a great many non-tourist westerners particularly in Cairo where it seems as though he dined every evening with different hosts and amongst a different set of distinguished guests. A glance at the index, which contains almost exclusively the names of various people he met is a good measure of the importance of the personal contacts he made. After the first few days in Cairo during which time he came across several, well-known ‘names’ including Bryan Emery, Louis Keimer, Jean Phillipe Lauer and Etienne Drioton,Bothmer set out on a journey to Aswan which he would explore thoroughly before beginning a rigorous tour of sites in the Nile Valley from south to north.

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In terms of what it was it was possible for Bothmer to visit in 1950,with a little help from his friends, including his Egyptian companion and facilitator, Abdallah, times have changed considerably.At one point he is able simply to stop at Girga, in Middle Egypt, not a familiar destination for western visitors these days,cross the fields by foot, and clamber all over the cliffs searching for tombs.Throughout his trip Bothmer was able to visit sites which are well off the beaten track today, and to gain access

to monuments, such as the tombs of Padiamunopet (TT 35) and Monutemhat (TT 34) which have been closed even to Egyptologists for many years now. In fact, I found it reassuring after a while to read that even Bothmer was thwarted at times – he was unable, for example, to get to Qau el-Kebir which, he was told, would have meant straying too far from his route to Assiut. Bothmer’s frustrations occasionally boiled over and there is quite some anger evident in the first sentence he writes for 3 March (p. 112),by which point he had returned to Cairo: ‘At 9.00 to the Museum where I got a good deal of work done, although it was often hard to appreciate the objects, most of which were dirty, out of sight, badly displayed, wrongly labeled and unnumbered’. Furthermore, later on, perhaps tellingly almost at the conclusion of his trip, at Cairo airport, Bothmer comments (p. 157) ‘It was this combination of bureaucracy and total oversight which made Egypt such an exasperating place’. The diary is at times revealing of other personalities. It is often interesting to read Egyptologists’ thoughts on their colleagues, but rarely are they recorded in a relatively informal context such as this. Here we learn of ‘that obnoxious French lady who was writing on hippopotami’, and particularly of Keimer, or ‘Lieber Ludwig’ as he was known, whom Bothmer visited several times while in Cairo, and who gave our diarist a ‘tortured, uneasy impression’(p.4).There is often little more than the mention of names, however, and it would

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have been interesting to have heard more of what Blackman had to tell Bothmer of ‘the situation in British Egyptology, the tyranny of Gardiner, and so forth’. The Diary reveals less of the man himself than it might, and for this reason an epilogue (following the rather abrupt ending) or more detailed biography would have been welcome. We know he always felt cold and thought enough of this to have mentioned it almost daily! At one point he also had a long talk with three friendly people who only spoke Arabic, but where had he learned the language so well? Evidently,Bothmer was very hard-working and marvellously productive, but the exact nature of his work during this trip is never really explained. On p. 54 he writes, ‘went to Karnak and worked until 4.30, mostly in Chevrier’s magazines’. At other times he is keen to photograph a particular block at Karnak, or to take measurements at the pyramid of el-Kola; we are never really told why. Despite all his diligence in visiting and recording the various sites and monuments he still found time for the more mundane things in life (and to write about them in his diary). Although the book is rich in fascinating, incidental detail (on, for example,the well-known Egyptologists’haunt, the Garden City House Hotel in Cairo), the reader is occasionally left wishing for more (for instance he mentions that a man named Young was in Egypt to treat a brilliantly coloured statue,companion to MfA 24/3992.14A which was sold to ‘another US museum’ – but which one?). This is an unusual publication in many ways. It is a welcome addition to the literature on the history of our subject, and contains much valuable information and many fascinating photographs of Bothmer, those he met and the sites he visited (though the map reveals that he never made it to the Delta). It raises many interesting questions, but perhaps rather too many for it to leave the reader not a little frustrated. CHRIS NAUNTON Betsy Teasley Trope, Stephen Quirke and Peter Lacovara, Excavating Egypt. Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Michael C Carlos Museum, Atlanta, 2005. (ISBN 1 928917 06 2). Price $35. This publication is the catalogue of the exhibition of material from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College

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London currently (until 27 November) on display at the Michael C Carlos Museum of Emory University, Atlanta (see p.33 for future venues). However, like so many contemporary exhibition catalogues it contains much more than just descriptions of the objects on display. Appropriately the organisation of the catalogue mirrors Petrie’s extensive publication record, with some objects grouped according to the site at which they were found,while others are described under headings such as ‘Weights and Measures’ or ‘Ceramics’. Each section starts with an introduction to the site or object category and is then followed by the catalogue entries for the objects, each of which is beautifully illustrated. The strength of the Petrie Museum collection is the wealth of small items it contains, and for which it deserves to be better known among the general public.This catalogue can be warmly recommended. For those who have visited the exhibition in Atlanta it will be an attractive souvenir, and it contains much information which will be of value for visitors to the Petrie Museum itself. It should also inspire anyone who has not yet visited either the travelling exhibition, or the Museum, to do so as soon as possible. PATRICIA SPENCER For the first time in Egyptian Archaeology,we are including below a review of a computer game based on ancient Egypt, and would welcome feedback on this decision. Immortal Cities - Children of the Nile SEGA, PC CD-ROM. Price: £29.99. For over 30 years, since the text-based Hammurabi, the so-called ‘God Game’ has been a staple of computer entertainment.Immortal Cities - Children of the Nile is one of the new breed of city building and strategy games.It allows players to build and populate a series of Ancient Egyptian cities in linked scenarios loosely reflecting the course of Dynastic history. Starting with a simple farming community, the infrastructure of a city is built up, including temples, tombs, national and international trade, and military forces. All the elements are linked, so that, for example, adequate supplies of food and bricks are essential before ambitious monuments can be built. None of this is entirely new, and the lead designer of the game was also involved with two earlier ‘Pharaoh Simulators’, but the main difference with this one is that it is in full 3D. From a bird’s eye view, apparently several hundred feet above a city (see screen shots above 43

and below), simple mouse-based or keyboard controls allow the player to zoom in on individual hippos wallowing in the Nile, or peasants cutting papyrus, then circle around and change the angle of view. Every individual in the city has artificial intelligence, and will respond to the player’s actions without having to be individually controlled.Time is accelerated in the game–night and day come and go, and once a year the land is flooded by the Nile. Armchair pharaohs are well catered for, from simple mastaba tombs to sphinxes, obelisks, stelae,statues,and eventually full scale pyramids. The range of options and level of detail in the game are impressive, and the well-designed user interface and reporting system, together with a series of interactive tutorials, make it easy to operate, and complex, rather than complicated, to play. The minimum specification computer required is fairly modest, a Pentium III or Athlon 800mhz with Windows 98, 128 MB RAM, 1.1 GB hard disk space, a 32 MB DirectX 9 compatible video card and 16 bit sound card. Anything better than this is an advantage, but I tested the game on a machine with a basic 32 MB on-board graphics chip,and was pleasantly surprised by how well it performed. The game is certainly impressive from a technical point of view, and involving to play, but is its ancient Egyptian theme any more than window dressing? There isn’t a lot of information in the manual, apart from a brief one page timeline of dynastic Egyptian history, with dates described as ‘a compromise among sources’, and a two-page table listing 14 deities. However, the ‘patron city’ for each deity (effectively a cult centre) is close enough for a non-specialist audience. Bast is linked to Bubastis, Ra to Iunu, Horus to Nekhen, etc. The year is divided into three seasons, with the correct names, and crops and raw materials are those of ancient Egypt; barley, papyrus, flax, henna, kohl, acacia, reeds, limestone and basalt. Cedar is only available as an import. Of course it is possible to quibble; there is only one class of priests, scribes are treated as a separate category of worker, and myrrh can be grown locally, but some compromises have to be expected in a mainstream entertainment product.However,if you aren’t happy,the game ships with a powerful editing tool allowing you to create your own custom scenarios and campaigns so you really can play God; or should that be The Gods? CHRIS ELLIOTT

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Membership Matters

Ricardo Caminos Memorial Event. On 11 May 2005, the Argentine Embassy in London hosted, in association with the Egypt Exploration Society, an event to honour Ricardo Caminos for his contribution to Egyptology. Ricardo Caminos was born in Argentina but settled in the USA where he became a member of the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute, Chicago University and then Assistant Professor at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. After his retirement in 1980 Ricardo moved to London, to 4 Doughty Mews, next door to the EES premises: much of Ricardo’s work in Egypt had been carried out in the name of the Society. Following his death on 28 May 1992, the EES purchased his home which now houses the Society’s Ricardo A Caminos Memorial Library. The event on 11 May was hosted at the Argentine Residence on Belgrave Square in London by the Ambassador, Federico Mirré. Ricardo’s brother, Hugo Caminos, shared his memories of Ricardo’s early life and his enthusiasm for Egyptology,and his former colleagues, Harry James and Jürgen Osing, described Ricardo’s professional life, working,often in difficult conditions,on epigraphic projects in Egypt.

At the event on 11 May 2005, held at the Argentine Residence in London, to honour the life and achievements of Ricardo Caminos. From left to right:Ricardo’s sister-in-law, Susana Caminos, the Argentine Ambassador Federico Mirré, and Ricardo’s brother Hugo Caminos

The event was attended by many of Ricardo’s friends and colleagues who were able to reminisce about him and his many achievements over a glass of wine. The EES was pleased to be associated with the event and would like to thank His Excellency the Ambassador and his staff, especially Caroline Pérez Colman, for organising and hosting such a special evening.

EES Cairo members visit Libya tions of a Greek temple and some mosaics) and Tripoli (which has a triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius). Members also visited the covered market in Benghazi with a wealth of the silver-gilt jewelry worn by Libyan brides at their weddings.There was also, of course, the chance to buy souvenirs in the markets,and at some of the sites,with postcards, t-shirts,sets of colourful commemorative stamps,and President Gaddafi wristwatches amongst the most popular items purchased. The safari trip,in four-wheel drive vehicles,was probably the highlight of the tour, but it was not without its more challenging moments, as Jocelyn describes:‘Our first night camping below a line of impressive sand dunes went off reasonably well, putting up the tents was fairly easy .... the weather was pleasant, warmer than we had expected and the Milky Way was magnificant. However this was literally just the calm before the storm!...’ (the group then visited Ghat) ‘.... the weather became hotter, windier and more and more hazy as the day went on. This was the Libyan equivalent of the khamsin, known as the gibli.... That night, finding a campsite with shelter from the wind was not easy and pitching the tents was an exercise in endurance and keeping one’s cool! The wind died down a little so that we were able to eat our dinner without too much sand blowing onto it, but it got stronger again after we went to bed and most of us had very little sleep.The wind was still very blustery the next morning and taking the tents down was another energetic struggle against the elements,one of them actually blowing away several metres across a sand dune before being retrieved - all part of our great Libyan adventure!’.

The EES group at Ghat with a Tuareg guide.The Ottoman fortress is in the background. Photograph courtesy of Mona Sadek

In February 2005 a group of EES Cairo members, led by the Society’s Cairo Representative, Rawya Ismail, and Egyptologist and guide, Jocelyn Gohary, made what is planned to be the first of several visits outside Egypt, when they flew to Benghazi in Libya for the start of a ten-day stay.The tour was organised by Pan Arab Tours of Cairo and Rawya would like to thank them, and especially Ahmed Moussa, for ensuring the trip was a success. During the tour, members visited the major archaeological sites, including the impressive Graeco-Roman cities of Cyrene,Appolonia, Sabratha and Leptis Magna, and spent a day in old Tripoli, before flying south to Sabha in the Fezzan for the start of a four-day camping trip. During the desert stay, members visited the towns of Germa (an ancient trading centre) and Ghat (with an Ottoman fortress) and drove through the Acacus mountain region where there are many surviving examples of ancient rock art.The camping trip ended with a stop at el-Ubari where several members swam in the salty waters of the lake, before the group flew back to Cairo via Tripoli. The development of tourism facilities in Libya is in its infancy and the domestic flights were somewhat unpredictable but the hotels used were good, and restaurant meals had excellent standards, both of food and service.Members found the Libyan people to be friendly and polite and very welcoming to visitors from outside the country. The major archaeological sites were all clean and well-maintained and members were pleased to be able to identify ancient remains even in the modern cities of Benghazi (ancient Euhesperides with the founda-

(Compiled from reports by Jocelyn Gohary and Mona Sadek)

Members swimming in the lake at el-Ubari. Photograph courtesy of Mona Sadek