There’s a Gebel somewhere in this picture…
When Gebel Abri, the dominant feature of the river bank east of Sai Island, is not clearly visible, it’s never a good sign… We had to close our fieldwork earlier today, a very strong wind prevented us from continuing in our two areas, SAV1 West and SAV1 East.
Even if this may not be the best end of the first week in the field, there is much on the bright side: lots of new mud bricks, more of the enclosure wall, more floor remains at SAV1 East and only five lonely nimiti in week 1!
We managed to locate the enclsoure wall also in the new square in SAV1 West.
Contemporaneously with the excavations, processing of the pottery, stone tools and all other categories of finds is conducted in the digging house. There are already a number of new fragments of firedogs, net weights, female figurines and of course grindstones, hammers and pounders. The ceramics complement nicely my assessment of last season: especially noteworthy is the abundant presence of mid- to late 18th Dynasty pottery from the east side of SAV1 West, thus coming from structures within the town, enclosed by the town wall. I am especially excited that there is one hieratic docket on a Nile clay storage vessel coming from this area – hoping for some quiet moments on Friday to check this important find (inscribed finds and texts are still rare from our excavation) in more detail!