The enigmatic “fish dishes” again

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Julia Budka

As processing of the 18th Dynasty pottery from SAV1 West, 2014 season, continues, new information comes up daily! As reported, the material is closely similar to the pottery corpus from sector SAV1 North and also SAV1 East. However, there are also some – maybe significant – differences. For example, the amount of Blue painted pottery is remarkable; as in SAV1 East, we do encounter a number of conical bread moulds, these have been largely missing at SAV1 North.

Another intriguing group of vessels are the so-called “fish dishes”! A number of Marl clay examples were found in Square 1 at SAV1 West.

Fragment of Marl clay “fish dish”, SAV1 West

This large fragment illustrates the geometric decorative pattern inside. In exactly the same style, but made in a local Nile clay, more than 10 fragments came up in the fillings of Building A at SAV1 East this season! Does this indicate a difference between our two current excavation areas? Or could it also be that my previous assumption, based on the comparison with Elephantine was completely wrong? I did speculate last year because there are more Nile silt “fish dishes” from Sai Island than Marl clay version that different from the situation in Egypt, the “real” Egyptian Marl B/E trays had been frequently reproduced in Nubia in local material. Are the new Marl dishes from SAV1 West just an accidental find? Or are they of chronological significance, maybe originating from a phase with the first “supply” of Egyptian functional wares? But how would this correspond to the findings of Nile “fish dishes” from SAV1 East which date to the heyday of Sai in the 18th Dynasty, the time of Thutmose III and Amenhotep II. It is especially this era when a lot of high quality material, including decorated Marl clay vessels, was brought to the temple town of Sai.

All in all, the picture deriving from the New Kingdom town of Sai Island gets more and more complex the better we understand the architectural layout, the structure of the town and especially the material culture! Every small pottery sherd potentially adds information…

Next week I will focus among other things on the large amount of incense burners, footed bowls and dishes with pigments, possible painter’s pots from the 2014 season. The pottery gives a nice glimpse into past activities at SAV1 West which we still have only touched on a superficial level.

Pottery from the 2014 season at SAV1 West

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Julia Budka

Having closed fieldwork for this year, we are currently mapping our trenches and I am happy to spend some more time in the courtyard working with the pottery! There’s still a lot to do…
Huda and Elke are helping with washing, sorting, registering and drawing the large amounts of New Kingdom pottery from the 2014 season.

As was reported already at the beginning of the 2014 season, both the quantity and the quality of the material from SAV1 West are very impressive: hundreds of diagnostic sherds are still waiting for a proper documentation – the detailed analysis will have to be postponed to next year.

The amount of painted wares is intriguing as is the large size of the fragments and the high number of complete profiles! The corpus of SAV1 West compares nicely to SAV1 North – most of the material can be dated to the period from Thutmose III to Amenhotep III.

I am aiming to finish the basic statistics (in particular assessing the proportions of wares and shapes) and to establish the preliminary dating of the material further until our departure at the end of February – with the great support I got this will insha’allah work out!

End of 2014 fieldwork in the Pharaonic town

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Julia Budka

Today was the last day of fieldwork at both SAV1 East and SAV1 West. We will continue with small scale cleaning and especially with final drawings and mapping at the site in the upcoming week – and will keep you posted!

At all trenches we were able to answer the most important questions – especially the western outline of Building A at SAV1 East was confirmed as was the outline of the enclosure wall at SAV1 West. I am really happy with the state of preservation – clearing the substantial disturbances, later pits and back fillings, we found nice 18th Dynasty floor levels and pavements still in place.

All together two more weeks will be dedicated to a post-excavation study season on Sai – this includes also the documentation of finds, finalising lists & databases, and photographs, registration of objects and ceramics as well as drawing of finds.

Fieldwork team 2014, Sai Island, Pharaonic town.

For now, special thanks go to our team of Sudanese workmen directed by Rais Imad Mohammed Shorbagi – without them the work would not have been possible in the last 6 weeks! We have been very lucky with weather and nimiti this year – the last days with heavy attacks suggest a perfect timing for closing fieldwork…

Drawing ceramics from Sai Island, New Kingdom Pharaonic town: One of the masterpieces

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Julia Budka

Additionally to processing the find from our current excavations at SAV1 East and SAV1 West, we continue, like in 2013, documenting material which was excavated in SAV1 North in the last years by Florence Doyen.

Nicole, Julia and Elke have been very busy in the last weeks and I would like to present one of the masterpieces. This unique fragment also nicely illustrates why detailed drawings of pottery vessels are simply necessary in additions to photos: technical and morphological details, the general shape and also the outline of decorative patterns can be best clarified with a drawing in 1:1.

Pencil drawing of decorated rhyton SAV1N N/C 1205.

The important piece recently documented with an accurate drawing by Nicole is a lower part of a decorated rhyton, covered in a red slip and burnished, made in a very fine Nile B (SAV1N N/C 1205). The area around the perforated bottom of this vessel is painted in black with floral elements. Just above these lotus flowers a register with figural painting is still partly visible. According to the remains it seems to be a scene in the marshes: a striding male figure is carrying something with a pole set on his shoulder. Maybe the hanging objects are large fishes? Nicole is still not completly convinced and I must admit that her nice drawing also raised some doubts for my interpretation.

As I have stressed in an earlier post, rhytons like N/C 1205 had the character of luxury items in 18^th Dynasty Egypt, the vessel shape being characteristically Aegean. Our small masterpiece from SAV1 North is an Egyptian copy in Nile clay of a Late Minoan IA rhyton.

The western part of Building A: New finds at SAV1 East

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Julia Budka

Our last week of excavation at SAV1 East for the field season 2014 has just started – and so far we are very happy with the results (not with the nimiti attacks which are back to their usual force for the month February…)! All in all, exactly like last year, we managed to trace the anomalies visible on the geophysical survey map from 2011: Our Building A is growing in size, it is getting more and more comparable to the so-called governor’s residence SAF2 in the southern part of the town.

Outlines of Building A in its eastern part, status of 2013.

As we were hoping, the further westwards we moved within the site SAV1 East, the higher the deposit gets! Thus, other then last year with our “negative walls”, we were able to find and document some remains of the foundations of substantial mud brick walls, as well as nice remains of a mud pavement between two parallel walls.

The western extension of SAV1 East, with mud pavement between two new North-South walls.

The 2014 season seems to have confirmed the alignment of Building A along the main North-South street, thus being exactly in line with Temple A and also the governor’s residence SAF2. The entrance area is located in the western part, where the structure was accessible from the street. Very striking are remains of a schist-pavement in the newly found entrance rooms at the western side of the building. Unfortunately, the pavement has been badly destroyed in ancient times, but we are positive that we will be able to reconstruct the former area covered by schist according to the clusters of broken fragments.

Disturbed area in the western part of Building A; note the schist fragments, once part of a pavement and dislocated during the destruction phase.

During this week, we will focus again on these entrance rooms and hope to get further stratigraphical information confirming our present dating of Building A to Thutmoside (mid 18^th Dynasty) times.

Sai Island 2014: Geoarchaeological investigations

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Erich Draganits

The aim of the geoarchaeological fieldwork within the framework of AcrossBorders was to expand our knowledge about the existing rock types, their relationships, Quaternary sediments, geomorphological evolution and estimations about possible Nile erosion processes at the site of the Pharaonic settlement. The scarcity of vegetation, presence of riverfront exposures as well as excellent outcrops provided by excavated graves offer great geoarchaeological working conditions.

Sai Island is situated between the 2^nd and 3^rd Nile cataracts, which are a result of a large scale east-west trending tectonic uplift zone, which forces the Nile to incise into uplifted Neoproterozoic crystalline basement and its sedimentary cover (Thurmond et al. 2004). Consequently, Sai Island comprises medium-grade metamorphic Precambrian rocks (amphibolite, dolomite, quartzite, biotite gneiss, calcite marble) in the west and southeast, dipping around 30° towards the Northwest. These rocks are commonly cross-cut by large quartz-veins. In the central and northern part of the island these meta-volcano-sedimentary rocks are overlain by subhorizontal Nubian Sandstone, mainly consisting of medium- to coarse-grained fluvial quartz sandstone, conglomerate, rare siltstone and occasional silicified wood.

Yellowish Nubian Sandstone overlying dark amphibolite in the southeast part of Sai Island

Almost all of these rocks are covered by thin layers of comparably much younger Nile sediments (in some places with Palaeolithic artefacts) and only the Nubian Sandstone of Jebel Adu raises as an Inselberg from the flat terraces surfaces (van Peer et al. 2003, Anonymous 2005).

Example of small basement outcrop in the more fertile West of the island

The pre-Holocene Nile sediments mainly comprise gravely channel deposits and fine-grained floodplain sediments. The sub-rounded to rounded gravel of the pre-Holocene Nile terraces are strongly dominated by quartz clasts, followed by chert and beautiful agate and virtually free of carbonate clasts, while the fine-grained floodplain sediments commonly show soil formation processes and related calcrete (Lewis et al. 2011).

Photo showing typical composition and grain-size of gravelly terrace surfaces

The rock types occurring at the site of the Pharaonic settlement in general reflect the geological reality of the island and most of them are locally available. By far the most common rock types are quartz sandstone and amphibolite, while vein quartz, calcrete, biotite gneiss, calcite marble are comparable rare. Rock types which probably have been brought to the island include granite, diorite, gabbro and gypsum.

References:

Anonymous, Geological map of Sudan. 1 : 3,500,000, Geological Research Authority of the Sudan, Khartoum, 2005.

J. Lewis, J. Smith, & E. Garcea, Paleoenvironmental implications of the isotope geochemistry and granulometry of Quaternary alluvial sediments and paleosols from Sai Island, Sudan. GSA Annual Meeting, 9-12 October 2011, Minneapolis, abstract, 2011, 95-19.

A.K. Thurmond, R.J. Stern, M.G. Abdelsalam, K.C. Nielsen, M.M. Abdeen & E. Hinz, The Nubian Swell. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 39, 2004, 401-407.

P. Van Peer, R. Fullagar, S. Stokes, R.M. Bailey, J. Moeyersons, F. Steenhoudt, A. Geerts, T. Vanderbeken, M. de Dapper & F. Geus, The Early to Middle Stone Age Transition and the Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour at site 8-B-11, Sai Island, Sudan. Journal of Human Evolution, 45, 2003, 187-193.

Blue Painted pottery from the Pharaonic town of Sai

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Julia Budka

One of the best known pottery wares from Pharaonic Egypt is the so-called Blue painted ware, popular from the mid 18^th Dynasty until Ramesside time and thus obviously a good example for a time-specific taste regarding the decoration of ceramics. Until now, Blue painted pottery was found in rather limited numbers in Nubia, at both cemetery sites like Tombos and also at New Kingdom settlements like Sesebi, Amara West and Sai Island.

The number of Blue painted sherds coming from the fortified town of Sai was very small before this season – by now we have more than doubled it, but there are still not more than a good dozen fragments of this specific ware!

In 2014, both Marl clay and Nile silt wares with blue decoration have been unearthed at SAV1 West. The Nile clay vessels are simple beakers with linear design, the Marl clay vessels are larger in size, closed shapes and with more fancy motifs. My favourite piece is a large body sherd with a beautiful design, found east of the enclosure wall.

It is a Marl clay vessel imported from Egypt, an uncoated ware (Vienna System Marl A3 variant) with the decoration executed in blue, black and red. It finds perfect parallels in Egypt, especially in my corpus of blue painted vessels at Elephantine. It falls into the category of the very early, pre-Amarna type of Blue painted ware. Well dateable to the mid 18^th Dynasty thanks to comparisons, this corresponds to its archaeological context at Sai – the vessel belongs to the phase when the site experienced its heyday during the reigns of Thutmose III and Amenhotep II.

For now the new Blue painted sherds from Sai are very useful for dating, but in general I do hope that we will be able to contextualise them as well – using them as small indicators for what seems to have been a quite sophisticated lifestyle here in Upper Nubia during the 18^th Dynasty.

End of week 4 of fieldwork at Sai Island, New Kingdom Town

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Julia Budka

During this week, we made good progress at both sites currently under investigation of the Pharaonic town of Sai, at SAV1 West and SAV1 East.

Work in progress at SAV1 West, 30/01/2014.

The brick work at SAV1 West was cleaned of the loose debris – we now have the substantial remains of the New Kingdom fortification exposed. The subsidiary, secondary adjacent wall was also found as proceeding further towards the North – as was the so-called “front wall”. Of the latter, we just cleaned today debris towards the west – the dismantled mud bricks are presumably lying on the natural slope of the western edge of the town; giving us much hope that we will be able to clarify its date and phases of use in the upcoming week!

Overview of SAV1 West; view towards Northeast. Debris at top of western slope in foreground.

I am especially excited about work at SAV1 East – we were aiming to clarify the western extension of our Building A, a possible large administrative building of Thutmoside date.

Cleaning of western part of Square 3, SAV1 East.

In the last days, Jördis worked with her team in the very difficult deposit of Square 3: within backfilling of late pits and disturbances, they were able to trace the foundations of a very large mud brick wall! Its alignment matches our East wall of Building A’s courtyard – and it is in line with the main North-South street of the town, running from the Southern gate, the Governor’s residence and Temple A towards our area SAV1 East.

Foundations of substantial mud brick wall at SAV1 East.

Despite the pitting, we do have traces of the floor levels preserved and some smaller East-West walls, possibly of entrance rooms similar to the ones in the Governor’s residence SAF2. The challenge will be to reconstruct the complete outline of our building from these largely destroyed and dismanteled remains!

Overview of western part of Square 3, 30/01/2014: the main North-South wall, remains of pavements and a smaller East-West wall.

As yet, both the New Kingdom ceramics from SAV1 West and SAV1 East associated with our mud brick structures do not predate the reign of Thutmose III – stressing that we are currently working in areas which belong to the main building phase of the Upper Nubian temple town at Sai which flourished during the time of Thutmose III and Amenhotep II.

An Update: The Enclosure Wall at SAV1 West

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Julia Budka

It is a well-established fact that the Pharaonic town of Sai with its fortified town, temple and administrative buildings falls into the category of so-called Egyptian “temple towns”, built during the New Kingdom in Nubia. The substantial mud brick enclosure wall of Sai with a width of more than 4.20 m has been investigated by the late Michel Azim (Azim 1975) in the South and Florence Doyen in the North (cf. Doyen 2009). As was confirmed in both sectors, the wall is equipped with bastions in regular distances. Our current work at SAV1 West aims to deepen the understanding of the layout, outline and construction of the enclosure wall as well as its building phases and periods of destruction.

At the moment – and this is all work in progress! – we were able to expose the outline of the western enclosure wall in the trenches 1 and 2. Its location fits perfectly to what Azim reconstructed as the western border of the Pharaonic town. However, there are still a lot of open questions – especially because of later disturbances and pits, but also due to several building phases within the brick work. In trench 2 we might have encountered a late sub-circular structure of possible Ottoman date, set into the 18^th Dynasty enclosure wall. We will try to clarify this next week.

Western half of Square 1 (left) and Square 1W (right) at SAV1 West – overview towards South (Photo: Martin Fera).

In the southwestern corner of Square 1, the upper part of the enclosure wall as we exposed it so far is still covered with debris; a large pit filled with mostly Christian pottery was cutting into this area. Similar holes have been dug into the brick work of the enclosure wall at SAV1 North (see Doyen 2009). As was already observed by Azim in the 1970s, the Sai New Kingdom fortification suffered from several destructions, but also restoration phases during its use-life (Azim 1975, 122). A good example of a restoration is the tower construction N2 at SAV1 North which is maybe of Ramesside date (Doyen 2009).

View of the enclosure wall at SAV1West in the front; the other brick walls in the back (looking West).

View of the enclosure wall at SAV1West in the front; other brick walls in the back (looking West).

A later addition to the western outline of the 18^th Dynasty wall is now also traceable with our extension towards the west, Square 1W. Within this trench we also located a possible “front wall”, of which we as yet only reached the upper part. It seems as if a secondary construction was set between the New Kingdom brick work – spanning the area from the presumed front wall and the enclosure wall. A layer holding much organic material, charcoal and pottery of a domestic character may indicate that we have found here a small occupation spot, maybe a modest hut or shelter. Its date remains to be established but the pottery points to a Late Christian origin. However, it is intriguing that we also have some Ramesside sherds coming from Square 1W and the western half of Square 1 – comparing nicely to the findings around the tower at SAV1 North. At present, we cannot rule out that our squares are set above one of the bastions of the enclosure wall, maybe following complex building phases – all of this remains to be investigated during the upcoming three weeks of fieldwork at SAV1 West.

References:

Azim 1975 = M. Azim, Quatre campagnes de fouilles sur la Forteresse de Saï, 1970-1973. 1ère partie: l’installation pharaonique, CRIPEL 3, 1975, 1–125.

Doyen 2009 = F. Doyen, The New Kingdom Town on Sai Island (Northern Sudan), Sudan & Nubia 13, 2009, 17–20.

Registration of finds from SAV1 West and SAV1 East

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Julia Budka

The end of week 3 of our excavations in the Pharaonic town of Sai Island, Upper Nubia, is approaching and our File Maker database is increasing day-to-day! It comprises all objects excavated in 2014 so far – a total of 946 finds have been registered from SAV1 East and SAV1 West, more than 600 are new objects found this year! These are mostly stone tools, grinding stone fragments, re-used sherds but also some faience beads, faience bowls and clay objects. The dating of the finds ranges from Pharaonic to Ottoman times – the latter is e.g. nicely illustrated by Islamic glazed ware.

The database gives some basic information, a short description and all measurements of the individual finds. Julia and Nicole are doing a great job registrating the objects – keeping up to date with the great number of finds arriving from the field on a daily basis is not an easy task – especially as we have 5 trenches open in two different areas!

Today’s highlight was a joining piece to a fragment of a Nun bowl (also known under the name of “marsh bowls” as they depict marsh scenes, floral and faunal motifs) found earlier in January at SAV1West – another small fragment, directly joining the first piece, was now discovered in the same area of Square 1, within a very large assemblage of mid nice 18^th Dynasty pottery, just east of the town enclosure wall. I am still hoping that more of this delicate dish will be unearthed this season! Its association with nicely decorated Thutmoside pottery of high quality is very interesting.

AcrossBorders

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

Category Archives: Archaeology