Geoarchaeology from Sai Island, 2016

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Sayantani Neogi Sean Taylor

What a geoarchaeological season it was! We haven’t gotten over it as yet and can foresee a year of excitement in the lab(s). No, we did not have quite a romantic relationship with the nimitis who were just starting to cuddle up with us when we left the place. Instead it was a season of fun involving sampling from within the trenches to better understand the use of space and site formation processes, of provenancing the sandstones found within the Pharaonic town and locating the New Kingdom sandstone quarry and overall placing the 18^th Dynasty remains in their environmental context.

One of the main focuses of this year’s fieldwork was directed on locating the source of building stone for the New Kingdom stone buildings. In this respect, we had received helpful assistance by Prof Klemm and Rosemarie Klemm. A detailed survey was carried out both within and outside the island. No quarry site from Pharaonic times, however, was found outside the island, in the vicinity of the sandstone outcrops of Gebel Abri. On the other hand, several quarries in the sandstones were identified adjacent to the New Kingdom town itself!

When scrutinised more carefully with Professor Klemm’s long experience of Pharaonic sandstone quarries, analogous chisel marks have now been identified on the sandstone outcrops of the quarries and on the blocks of stones used in the temple. Here, we would like to thank Martin Fera for lending us his geological hammer, about which we would ALL somehow manage to forget from time to time, thus creating much commotion, laughter and fun amidst our fieldwork.

This year’s survey also produced further suggestion about the Pharaonic harbour or landing ground in the adjacent alluvial platform when rock-cut features for tying ship ropes were found at least at two places. In addition, rock cut steps bearing chisel marks identical to those of the temple have also been identified.

In addition, six boreholes were dug towards the western side of the Pharaonic town. This has revealed no trace of an extramural settlement where sampled. A thorough landscape survey has also been undertaken to understand the nature of the deposits, especially towards the northern part of the island. This has enabled us to collect data to develop a surface map of the vicinity of the town. Along with the data from the hand auger profiles, exposed sections, soil micromorphology and the surface map, a better understanding of the site setting and geomorphology of the location can be integrated within the GIS for various purposes.

The grass is always green on the other side. Now that we are back at home in the dark and cold, we are longing for some sunshine and clear sky like that of Sai. Knowing that is not a possibility at the moment, we are at least happy that we have a good load of micromorphological and petrographical samples to analyse through in the coming months.

Summary of the 2016 field season on Sai

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Julia Budka

AcrossBorders’ 2016 mission on Sai Island has just ended after 10 fruitful weeks of excavations and lab work. Excavations were carried out in three areas in the Pharaonic town (SAV1 East, SAV1 West and SAV1 Northeast) and in the New Kingdom cemetery SAC 5.

At SAV1 West, the eastern extension to Square 1S in SAV1 West, labelled as Square 1SE, yielded several small mud brick buildings. Feature 123, extending into Sq. 1S, was completely exposed and was of great interest. Its layout is different from the other structure along the “wall street” and an infant burial came up in its westernmost compartment – probably from a later phase of use, most probable the Christian period. Like proposed in 2015, the earliest phase of occupation at SAV1 West seems to be contemporaneous to the building of the town wall and dates to the mid-18^th Dynasty. There is clear evidence for several phases of use within the 18^th Dynasty.

At SAV1 East, extensions were added towards the western and southern part of the site (new Squares 4B, 4C and 4B1). Within Square 4, the western part of feature 15, our beloved large subterranean room lined with red bricks, was fully excavated.

Completing excavation in feature 15.

Pottery and seal impressions found below the wall 44 of Building A set into this cellar proof the dating of the corresponding building phase to the later reign of Thutmose III. Extensions in the new Squares 4B, 4C and 4B1 yielded in situ remains of large mud brick magazines with schist pavements. Several building phases within the 18^th Dynasty could be traced, especially of the early and mid-18^th Dynasty. All in all, further proof was gathered that sector SAV1 East has much in common and shows many parallels to the southern area of the town, SAV1, excavated by M. Azim in the 1970ties.

To test the assumption that the eastern part of the New Kingdom enclosure wall was running along the sandstone cliff, a 15 x 3 m trench was excavated to the east of the site SAV1 North (called Trench 1 of SAV1 Northeast). Remains of brickwork associated with mid-18^th Dynasty pottery can be interpreted as the town enclosure wall and enable us to calculate the Pharaonic town’s exact east-west width.

The test trench in SAV1Northeast with scarce remains of New Kingdom mud bricks.

In addition to the excavation, kite photography of the Pharaonic town and the cemetery was conducted.

One of the days where the wind was strong enough for Martin and his kite!

A geoarchaeological survey in the vicinity of the New Kingdom town site and to the south of Gebel Abri was successfully undertaken (January 30 to February 19). This survey took the form of hand auger profiles, as well as opportunistic prospection of exposed and available sections and quarry outcrops. Furthermore, the micromorphological sampling programme was continued, focusing on the 18^th Dynasty occupation in SAV1 East, but also testing some deposits in SAV1 West.

Both pottery and objects were processed in 2016, documented by photos and drawings and described in the Filemaker database with currently more than 4600 entries. The focus was on the new material from SAV1 East and SAV1 West ‒ over 400 finds have been registered and photographed. One of the numerous highlights is a scarab (SAV1E 1595) from the floor of a newly exposed room towards the west of Building A.

Large amounts of the newly excavated pottery were processed in sherd yards at the sites (430 baskets from SAV1West, 615 baskets from SAV1 East). A substantial amount of pottery sherds were documented by drawing – the focus was here – due to publication responsibilities – on SAV1 North.

Michaela busy drawing pottery sherds.

Work also continued in 2016 in the large New Kingdom cemetery SAC 5 (February 13 to March 11) in Area 2, focusing on tomb 26 discovered in 2015. This tomb was found looted at the beginning of the season – the backfilling of the shafts were taken out during May 2015, the burial chamber was entered and some deposit along the south wall towards the east of the chamber was removed, but the damage was not severe. Excavation work focused on the cleaning of the deposit in the burial chamber (feature 2) – a minimum of 10 individuals were documented from different levels reflecting the long time-span of use of the tomb from the mid/late 18^th Dynasty to the Napatan era, comprising Ramesside and Pre-Napatan burials. The burial chamber was completely excavated and emptied.

Final cleaning work & taking measurements in the burial chamber of tomb 26.

In a large part of area 2 towards the south and east of tomb 26, a complete surface cleaning was conducted, providing proof that this sector of the cemetery is void of tombs, possibly stressing an elaborate position and the high importance of tomb 26.

Work in the surroundings of tomb 26.

All in all, the new information provided by the latest, very sucessful field season of AcrossBorders will allow us to 1) contextualise further the setting of the Pharaonic town within the landscape during New Kingdom times; 2) elaborate the city map of the Pharaonic town; 3) improve the stratigraphic sequence in all sectors; 4) connect the findings in the town with fresh evidence from the cemetery SAC5.

Back home – after a successful 2016 season in Sudan

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Julia Budka

And time flies again… more than a week ago that we left Sai Island, almost a week since my departure from Khartoum!

Due to some technical problems and very bad internet connection, we were not able to keep you up to date during the last weeks – apologies and we’ll try to provide the latest updates as soon as possible!

For now, I would just like to thank all of the international team members – it was a great season with very good results, promising data and lots of stuff to think about! Looking much forward to our next season in 2017!

A big “thank you” to all team members of the 2016 season!

More discoveries in tomb 26: end of week 9

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Julia Budka

Week 9 of the 2016 season has just ended – work is progressing well in the cemetery (both in tomb 26 and in the area around the shaft) and in the magazine.

The burial chamber of tomb 26 has produced a lot of really nice objects by now – our fourth scarab of 2016 came up this week! It is still inside the chamber, left in situ as found next to the upper leg of one particularly well preserved individual in the southwestern corner. It is made of faience and bears a royal cartouche (finally :-))! Although already readable, we’ll share this news with you on the blog once the scarab is taken out and registered!

Marlies cleaning the area of of the skeleton where the scarab was found.

Marlies cleaning the area of the skeleton where the scarab was found.

One of the other highlights of this week was a very nice, intact stone pilgrim flask. It was discovered close to the upper body area of one of the individuals in the northwestern corner.

Marlies Wohlschlager and Andrea Stadlmayr were busy cleaning, documenting and removing several skeletons this week – among them a minimum of two infants – lots of interesting material which will tell us more about the complex history of use of tomb 26.

The area around the shaft of tomb 26 was cleaned by the gang of workmen headed by Hassan Dawd and supervised by Vanessa Becker, Cajetan Geiger and Huda Magzoub. A number of interesting finds were made – first of all a beautiful heart scarab and the lower part of a clay shabti – all hinting to the presence of a near-by shaft; however, until now, the cleaned area is void of tombs.

Work in the magazine is progressing as well – ceramics are washed and reconstructed, then documented by detailed drawings and the registration of objects continues as is photography. Reorganizing boxes, shelves and storage-space is another important task keeping us busy.

The significant mud brick remains within the test trench in SAV1 Northeast were drawn earlier this week by Michaela Janker and Bartlin Schöpflin. During very happy nimiti-days we all have to endure…

Fingers crossed that today’s wind will last for a some days and help to make the upcoming, final week of AcrossBorders season on Sai as productive and nimiti-free as possible!

Hidden Highlights 3: SAC5 085

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Kenneth Griffin Meg Gundlach

Findspot: SAC5, Tomb 26 (shaft)
Season: 2015
Material: Fayence
Dimensions: 12x19x5mm

The 2016 cemetery season has produced a lot of great material that we want to share here on the blog, particularly our growing collection of scarabs. However, working with all the new finds has made me slightly nostalgic and I spent some time this week reacquainting myself with last season’s treasures. So many wonderful things forgotten!

A particular favorite of mine was this sweet little Hathor amulet (SAC5 085), intended to be strung through the extension at the top. As a protectress of nearly all aspects of life, including within the necropolis, Hathor was the perfect choice for personal adornment. Though our example is quite small and delicate, the detail in her hair and face is exceptional. Found in the burial shaft of Tomb 26, she was an early indication of the quality of finds to come and she has not disappointed us, this season or last!

From Sai Island to the First Cataract with love

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Julia Budka

A perfect day is about to end – on our day off from work, we had an excellent trip to Soleb, Gebel Dosha and Sedeigna. These sites never fail to amaze me anew on each visit in the last years! Gebel Dosha with its great rock inscriptions and splendid view is definitely one of my favourite places in Upper Nubia. I was very pleased that also the newcomers of the team seemed to enjoy the wonderful setting!

Photo shooting at Gebel Dosha.

Re-visiting the site and its inscriptions today just fitted perfectly to one of the recent finds from our work at Sai, so far probably the highlight of the cemetery season: Earlier this week, a lovely steatite scarab was found in the burial chamber of tomb 26.

SAC5 279 (15 x 10 x 7 mm) is simply beautifully made. Its decorated side can be associated with one of the main themes of our project: AcrossBorders, working both at Sai Island in Sudan and Elephantine Island in Egypt, is focusing on all kinds of references and connections between the First Cataract area and the region of Sai. The scarab SAC5 279, like some inscriptions from Gebel Dosha we saw today, is referring to gods from the First Cataract region – in this case to the female deities of the triad of the First Cataract (Khnum, Satet and Anuket). On SAC5 279, Satet is sitting to the left, Anuket to the right – the goddesses are facing each other, with an ankh sign on the knee. A “mr” sign and the “aA”-hieroglyph flank the goddesses and I would translate the complete set as “much beloved by Satet and Anuket.”

The First Cataract triad was in general very popular in Lower Nubia, and in Upper Nubia as well – but in the case of rock inscriptions like at Gebel Dosha and scarabs like SAC5 279 from Sai one might very well speculate that the owners/producers had actual bonds with the area around Aswan and were “crossing borders” during their lifetime, referring to gods from their hometown in delicate moments.

The batteries are definitely recharged after this great Friday and we are all ready for week 9 and more fascinating finds with complex meanings!

A “killed” vessel and more human bodies in tomb 26

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Julia Budka

Work is progressing very well in tomb 26 this week. Martin Fera regularly documents our present state of work using a structure from motion application, saving us much time in producing highly accurate 3D surface models of the complete chamber as well as of detailed situations.

One of the interesting new finds in the burial chamber is that more complete vessels were partly unearthed in the southwestern chamber. I was especially delighted that one of them, when further cleaned today, shows clear signs of a “ritual killing”! An intentional perforation is visible on its junction of the neck to the body.

The vessel is a very nice tall-necked red-washed bottle and most Egyptologists will probably now think of the famous “Breaking of the Red Pots”. This Egyptian ritual is attested since the Old Kingdom (Pyramid Texts) and there has been the tendency to associate every ritual that involved the smashing of pottery vessels with the “Breaking of the Red Pots” (cf. Seiler 2005, 178; Budka 2014). Recently the awareness increased that pots with killing holes appear within Egyptian and also Nubian contexts over a very long time span and should be separated from the “Breaking of the Red Pots”. Like in other cultures, there are a number of different pot breaking rituals embedded in the funerary sphere in ancient Egypt and Sudan – they are especially common in the 2^nd and 1^st millennium BC and there is no universal interpretation for all of these broken or perforated vessels.

We have to be patient whether any clues why and when the vessel in tomb 26 was intentionally perforated come up during the course of exposing it and its context further – for now I would simply call it a killed pot, probably to render the vessel “useless”, but with the awareness that other explanations are possible.

Apart from our “killed” vessel, Marlies and Andrea are finding more and more fragments of new individuals while working on the fragile human remains. This rich and quite complex situation in the burial chamber of tomb 26 will keep us busy in the next weeks!

References

Budka 2014: Julia Budka, Egyptian impact on pot-breaking ceremonies at Kurru? A re-examination, in The Fourth Cataract and Beyond. Proceedings of the 12^th International Conference for Nubian Studies, ed. by Julie R. Anderson & Derek A. Welsby, British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 1, Leuven 2014, 641–654.

Seiler 2005: Anne Seiler, Tradition & Wandel. Die Keramik als Spiegel der Kulturentwicklung in der Zweiten Zwischenzeit, Sonderschriften des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo 32, Mainz am Rhein 2005.

Summary of week 7 at Sai Island: focusing on tombs, ceramics & finds

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Julia Budka

Week 7 of AcrossBorders’ 2016 season has just ended – it was a very busy week – with the start of work in the cemetery, the arrival of a group of German students from Munich (all newcomers to Sai), our Austrian physical anthropologists (Marlies Wohlschlager and Andrea Stadlmayr) and the departure of our distinguished external experts Dietrich and Rosemarie Klemm (LINK). Today, two other team members, Sayantani Neogi and Sean Taylor have left Sai and are returning to Europe after a rich season of landscape archaeology with special assistance by THE sandstone experts from Munich…

Fieldwork focused in week 7 on cemetery SAC5 – and here both on tomb 26 and the neighboring area. A sector towards the south and southeast of tomb 26 was cleaned in order to check the existence of other shaft tombs – until now, unsuccessfully, but with plenty of pottery and bones attesting the use of the site as burial place during the 18th Dynasty, Ramesside times, Pre-Napatan and Napatan era.

First surface cleaning in SAC5 earlier this week.

In tomb 26, we started removing the uppermost flood deposits in the burial chamber, finding very fragile human remains. It was thus time to pass work in the chamber on to Marlies and Andrea in order that they can document the original position of the bones and their distribution – they did a great job cleaning the very fragile pieces as best as possible. A minimum number of 4 individuals were found still more or less in position in the northwestern corner of the chamber.

Marlies and Andrea busy in the burial chamber of tomb 26.

We were busy cleaning and documenting these remains in the last days – so it still remains unclear whether they are from the first phase of burial (plundered) or maybe a slightly re-deposited secondary phase. The latter seems more likely from my perspective. And there is still hope for more remains below this level of burial remains – a very nice scarab is still sealed in solid mud debris just in the entrance area. We’ll keep you updated in the next 3 weeks to come!

Very promising: a scarab close to the entrance of the burial chamber!

With the Munich group arriving, life in the magazine has quite changed for our registrar Meg: three students busy with drawing ceramics, one assisting her with several registration tasks! Two workmen are washing sherds from both the town and the cemetery – so also the courtyard is well occupied.

The small finds from SAV1 West and SAV1 East excavated in this season are now all registered and most of them photographed. One of my personal favorites is coming from feature 15 – no surprise given all the great finds unearthed in this cellar! This tiny figure of a ram functioned as a lid or stopper for a very small vessel– it is unique in our contexts so far and definitely one of the highlights of 2016.

Official start of the cemetery season 2016

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Julia Budka

Today was the official start to work in cemetery SAC5, focusing on tomb 26 and its neighborhood. Unfortunately we had to return to tomb 26 already on January 1, at the beginning of the town season, because looting was reported. Thank god, the damage was not as bad and we were able to stick to our original schedule for the cemetery season after 3 days of cleaning. Today, we started removing the debris in the burial chamber – clear evidence was found for ancient looting and the hopes for finding major remains of the original burials are now quite low!

Nevertheless, we are looking much forward to focus now for the next 4 weeks on the burial ground of the people working and living in the New Kingdom town. In any case the information will be valuable and contribute to a better understanding of living conditions on Sai Island in the 2nd millennium BCE.

End of Sai Island New Kingdom town season 2016

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Julia Budka

Time flies by – the town season 2016 was officially closed yesterday and celebrated together with all workmen with a traditional sheep-dinner and party last night!

Week 6 on Sai Island focused on “cosmetic work” at SAV1 East – the complete area was cleaned for the final surface documentation, description of features and drawings.

Final cleaning at SAV1 East.

Specific areas and small features were excavated – most importantly a very interesting part of Square 4C with a newly discovered rectangular storage pit (feature 76) and impressions of two firing places for baking plates within the pavement associated with this feature. This is one of the rare cases were intact, undisturbed contexts from Dynasty 18 were documented at SAV1 East.

The final task at SAV1 East was to fully excavate feature 15. Wall 44, set into the cellar/feature 15, was carefully dismantled step by step, brick by brick. Although I proposed a dating for the building phases of cellar and wall already last year, firm proof was still missing as the deposit below wall 44 was not yet accessible.

Wall 44, set into feature 15, was carefully removed in order to document the western part of feature 15 and the deposit below the wall.

Having now cleaned the entire feature, my preliminary assessment was strengthened: both the pottery and seal impressions from below wall 44 testify to a dating in the reign of Thutmose III. Thus, wall 44 was built into feature 44 not prior to the mid/late reign of this king – corresponding nicely to the proposed main building phases of Building A.

Sieving the undisturbed contexts in feature 15 was again very successful: a number of artefacts, most importantly seal impressions were found!

Excavations in test trench 1 in the new area SAV1 Northeast continued in week 6 as well – and the results are very promising: a substantial mud brick structure of mid-18^th Dynasty date was discovered! Very likely the eastern enclosure wall of Sai city, enabling us to upgrade the town map!

Work in progress in test trench 1, SAV1 Northeast.

A more concise summary of the town season will follow – for now I would like to thank the team members who have already left the island (Jördis Vieth, Klara Sauter and Adrian de Vries): the data collected in the last weeks are extremely rich and will keep us very busy for a while!

AcrossBorders

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

Category Archives: Fieldwork