Circular pits within Building A

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Julia Budka

As reported some weeks ago, we have several circular pits just west of the eastern wall of Building A. There are two of them in Square 1, the northern of which still featured some collapsed mud bricks at one side. Today we extended work on the third one in Square 2, more or less in line with the two others in Square 1. We still have not reached its bottom, but interestingly, removing the northern baulk of Square 2, we found a lot of mud brick debris at its eastern side.

As we have experienced with the external walls of Building A themselves, the sandy filling is really a kind of negative impression of former brick work which was completely dismantled. Are our circular features therefore former silos, originally lined with bricks? Or something else, maybe ovens? We are still uncertain about them, at least they seem to be contemporaneous to Building A; excavation in the upcoming week will hopefully answer some of our questions.

Team work

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Julia Budka

Approaching the end of week 4 in the field and thus almost mid-season, we will unfortunately also say goodbye to one of our team members very soon – much too soon as all of us think!

I use this opportunity to say a heartfelt “Thank you!” to all team members, but especially to our house staff – their daily efforts and perfect service covering millions of small but important things enables us to simply focus on scientific aspects and our research, and to enjoy our stay on Sai Island as much as possible! Looking forward to the second half of our 2013 field season!

Evidence for Fishing at SAV1E?

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Julia Budka

Fieldwork continued mainly in the northern part of SAV1E. We were able to trace already first remains of the eastern wall of Building A which thus definitely continues towards the North.

At this very northern end of our excavation area, just below the surface, a small clay object with two perforations was found today. SAV1E 119 measures 5.8 cm in length and has a height of 2.3 cm. Such objects, resembling axe-heads in clay, have been found in quite large number and in varying sizes at SAV1N, in the northern part of the Pharaonic town of Sai Island. Close parallels from the Egyptian town at Elephantine allow us to interpret them as net weights for fishing (see von Pilgrim 1996). Although this identification remains tentative, it is from our point of view the most likely classification of such objects. However, they might have been used as weights for several purposes (see Giddy 1999 for objects from Memphis/Kom Rabia).

SAV1E 119 is a rather small and thus light example of this type of weighing-down device. But all in all, SAV1E 119 adds to our assessment of the material culture in the Egyptian town on Sai Island – it falls into the category of objects well known from New Kingdom sites in Egypt and probably testifies fishing activity during the 18^th Dynasty on Sai.

References:

Giddy 1999 = L. Giddy,The Survey of Memphis II. Kom Rabiaa: the New Kingdom and Post-New Kingdom Objects, EES Excavation Memoir 64, London 1999.

von Pilgrim 1996 = C. von Pilgrim, Elephantine XVIII. Untersuchungen in der Stadt des Mittleren Reiches und des Zweiten Zwischenzeit, AV 91, Mainz am Rhein 1996.

More about Feature 15

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Julia Budka

Feature 15 is the mud brick structure located just in the north-western corner of Square 2, thus within the limits of Building A. To clarify both its size and date/function, we extended our excavation limit and removed the baulk just north of 15.

A lot of broken mud brick, pottery and sandy filling came to light, matching the results from the southern part and providing new information. Work is still not finished, but today we found the Northeast corner of feature 15! Its eastern wall measures 2.15 m and is lined in the interior with red burnt bricks – the first outline is visible on the photo, together with a lot of collapsed brick material which we did not yet cleared.

Between the debris of bricks, there are quite a lot of pottery sherds. These ceramics from the filling of feature 15 are mixed material – approximately half of it is 18^th Dynasty in date, the other half originates from Medieval times. The western limit of feature 15 is still not excavated, being located to the west of Square 2.

It is still too early to propose a date for feature 15 – hopefully finishing its excavation in the next days will also illuminate date and function.

Uncovering More of Building A

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Julia Budka

Starting into week 4 of our fieldwork, we made an extension to the east of Square 2 in order to reveal more of the Eastern wall of Building A. Already just a few centimetres below the surface we found collapsed mud bricks, together with a quite large number of pottery. The ceramics are again predominantly of 18^th Dynasty date (60 % versus 40 % of Post-New Kingdom material). Like at the beginning of our work at SAV1E, the corpus mainly comprises bread moulds and beer jars.

Because of the sloping ground at this eastern edge of our excavation area, we have to proceed very carefully and thus slowly. But at the end of the day, the extension of the wall is clearly visible – not yet in clear outline or with bricks in place, but as depression filled with broken mud bricks and sandy material.

Visit to Sesebi

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Julia Budka

On our day off (Friday), we managed to realise a trip to Sesebi. Sesebi is like Sai one of the important Egyptian sites of the New Kingdom in Upper Nubia and currently under excavation by the joint expedition of the University of Cambridge and the Austrian Archaeological Institute Cairo, directed by Kate Spence and Pamela Rose.

We very much appreciated the warm welcome by Pamela Rose and her splendid tour through the site! Congratulations to the results of this season, really excellent work! It’s wonderful to exchange so closely with other colleagues and to connect our own research with comparable investigations at other sites.

Broken Nubian Vessels at SAV1E

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Julia Budka

Sometimes archaeologists just need luck – and lucky we were today: at the very edge of our gravel deposit in Square 2, just next to the newly discovered feature 18, a small pile of pot sherds was found.

Interestingly, they belong mostly to a large Nubian storage vessel – which we started to reconstruct in the afternoon as soon as the sherds have been cleaned.

There was also Nubian fine ware of the Kerma culture present, together with small fragments of Egyptian beer jars and dishes. All in all, the recent evidence from SAV1E confirms the appearance of both Nubian and Egyptian wares in the early occupation phases of the New Kingdom. It compares perfectly with our findings in SAV1N.

That Sai Island was an important northern stronghold of the Kerma Kingdom is already well known, but the detailed relations between the indigenous inhabitants and the Egyptians at the beginning of the 18^th Dynasty is still poorly understood. With finds like ours today, we are making small steps forward in assessing what seems to have been a complex coexistence of cultures with a lot of interactions.

Hidden – and almost faded – mudbricks at SAV1E

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Julia Budka

Given the sloping appearance of square 2, it was only today that we went deeper in the gravel deposit just north of the small bin where we found the in situ 18th Dynasty ceramics (feature 14). At first appearance, this massive deposit seemed natural and just as a topographical feature. Here is a view of SAV1E with square 2 in the foreground, prior to excavation:

To confirm the hypothesis, we now decided to remove more of the gravel, working very slowly and horizontally. And this proved to be successful: Despite the difficulties recognizing any structures in this massive pebble layer, we managed to trace remains of a new mudbrick structure – a small section of a wall running more or less North-South (to the left in the picture below) and some scarce remains further to the East (to the right in the picture).

Although just a few centimetres are preserved, this almost lost new feature 18 confirms again early Pharaonic occupation in SAV1E: ceramics associated with it are predominantly (71 %) datable to the early 18^th Dynasty; especially relevant is one fragment of a beer jar, still sticking to the remains of what was once a mudbrick.

Prospects at SAV1E

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Julia Budka

Continuing excavation in both Squares, SAV1E has changed quite a bit in appearance.

The eastern wall of Building A is very clearly visible, but the southern wall is heavily disturbed. Between the mostly collapsed bricks there was not only 18^th Dynasty pottery, but also quite a lot of sherds originating from Medieval times. It is clear that we have already reached the final layer of mud bricks from Building A – although we are able to reconstruct its outline, the architecture is mostly lost due to later destruction work.

But work will of course continue in the next weeks: In particular two mud brick structures (feature 13 in Square 1 and feature 15 in Square 2) are promising, as we still have not yet their complete outlines – both are extending beyond the limits of the squares. Especially feature 15 in the Northwestern corner of Square 2 with a lot of collapsed bricks in its western part is interesting – we will have to remove the baulk between our two squares in order to understand it better.

Its filling material comprises mixed material – predominating is again the 18^th Dynasty, but there is also a large percentage of Post-New Kingdom ceramics. We still don’t know whether structure 15 belongs to Building A or is a later installation.

Processing New Kingdom Ceramics

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Julia Budka

As every day, processing ceramics and drawing selected vessels was carried out today. We are happy that Huda Magzoub, our inspector and skilled drafts person, joined us again in the lab to help with drawings.

Documentation of the material from old excavations at SAV1N, especially from the early levels of the 18^th Dynasty, is continuing; the freshly excavated material from SAV1E requires cleaning and reconstruction work as first step. Today, we finished the in situ-vessels from feature 14, the large beaker and the small ovoid jar – they are now ready for drawing!

AcrossBorders

This is the blog of the ERC starting grant project AcrossBorders (ERC grant agreement n° 313668)

Monthly Archives: January 2013