Ready for Week 2

Tomorrow excavation will continue in the two new squares in SAV1E. The northern square is illustrated in the photo, with a first mud brick structure in its north western corner (to the left in the foreground on the photo,at the end of week 1 and still in rough outline).Blog Illustr 1

The material associated with it suggests a date to the New Kingdom: A total amount of 2776 diagnostic sherds has been processed in our first week – of which 880 are datable to the 18th Dynasty (32 %). A small amount (14 pieces) dates to the Ramesside period; the remaining material originates from the Post-New Kingdom and here predominantly from the Post-Meroitic and Christian as well as the Ottoman period.

Bread and Beer

Having started our excavations as planned in the new area SAV1E, located 50 meters north of the sandstone temple A within the Pharaonic town of Sai Island, we encounter already some intriguing aspects. Just after 10 cms from the surface, first mud bricks appeared, still loosely scattered but obviously a hint to our expected Pharaonic building below. The ceramic material of the New Kingdom dates mainly to the early 18th Dynasty and the Thutmoside era – another feature which supports our prospects. The corpus of pottery is largely comparable with SAV1N, the excavation area further to the North at the enclosure wall. The so far most interesting aspect is a large quantity of New Kingdom beer jars and bread moulds. The latter have been almost missing in 5 years of work at SAV1N, but only the first two days at SAV1E yielded more than 50 pieces! Our preliminary interpretation refers to the neighbourhood of SAV1E to temple A – bread moulds and beer jars are typically associated with Pharaonic temple cult. A functional assessment of SAV1E is of course not possible at this very early state of work, but a connection with temple A is indeed likely. We are very much looking forward to our next discoveries!