In situ 18th Dynasty Pottery!

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Julia Budka

Just before closing for the weekend, we started cleaning a small storage bin set against a gravel deposit in the south eastern part of Square 2. It is located outside of our main building (Building A) and was found with what seemed to be original filling material.

Mohammed did a very good job working on this fragile structure, brushing its outline and exposed carefully the upper part of a 18^th Dynasty beaker with a smaller vessel inside. These vessels are still in place where they have been left c. 3400 years ago!

We will continue here on Saturday and empty the bin, but the find is indeed exciting and just a perfect closing of a sucessful week: in situ material from the original use of this structure confirms our proposed dating of the New Kingdom activity in this area to the early 18^th Dynasty!

We will know more once the complete vessels have been taken out and processed – and we will keep you posted!

New Features in Square 2

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Julia Budka

Mapping our wall and other features in Square 1, we christened the partly exposed major building at SAV1E “Building A”. Today, we discovered a new rectangular structure lined by mud bricks, just in the Northwest corner of Square 2 and thus still within “Building A”.

The photo shows the first outline of feature 15 early this morning. In the geophysical survey of 2011, a sub rectangular anomaly was visible at exactly this location. Similar to the circular pits in Square 1, the new feature is filled with soft sandy material – maybe it is some kind of installation for storage. Associated ceramics are again mostly early-mid 18^th Dynasty in date.

Mud Brick Architecture at SAV1E

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Julia Budka

As work progressed in Squares 1 and 2, we can now happily confirm that we have a mud brick structure of considerable size at SAV1E – its North-South extension is more than 15 m and we calculate c. 12 m for its East-West side. Both, size and orientation match perfectly a structure visible on a geophysical survey conducted in 2011.

Cleaning the remains of the mud brick wall in Square 1.

As yet, we have unearthed only parts of its eastern and southern wall – although most of the eastern wall is now a negative impression filled with very soft sandy material, there are sections with bricks still in place, giving the width of the wall.

Section of the eastern wall of large mud brick structure at SAV1E. Note the circular depression west of the wall – they also showed up at the geophysical survey’s map and are possibly storage pits?

Section of the eastern wall of large mud brick structure at SAV1E. Note the circular depressions west of the wall – they also showed up at the geophysical survey’s map (and are possibly storage pits?)

Because of the large amount of New Kingdom ceramics associated with the remains, we remain confident that it dates to the 18^th Dynasty. Details of the architecture, stratigraphy and possibly functional use will be clarified in the course of upcoming fieldwork!

From House Hold to Drawing Sheets

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Fatma Keshk

From working at several archaeological sites in Egyptian Delta and Nile valley up to the First Nile cataract and acquaintance with various types of ceramics, it can be said that the pottery collection coming from SAV1 North in Sai Island offers a significant opportunity to study a great diversity of both Egyptian and Nubian pottery. These are diverse in fabrics, manufacture techniques and shapes. Such a variety is evidence of a multi-cultural society that has lived on Sai around ca. 1400 BC.

During the first ten days of the 2013 mission, pottery drawings achieved have covered a good amount of these various ceramics mainly including the essential elements of house hold such as storage vessels, dishes, bowls and cooking pots.

The Nubian ceramics, containing a good majority of cooking pots decorated with impressions from rectangular or circular basketry, recall the Nubian pottery found on Elephantine Island during the early New Kingdom in shapes, decorations and handmade techniques. Other vessels like dishes, flower pots and incense burner are typical of Egyptian 18^th Dynasty style.

Drawing both Nubian and Egyptian pottery simultaneously allows a worthy chance of comparison. The pursuit of ceramics documentation throughout this season can indeed expose other interesting details that are crucial to the study of the whole pottery corpus in Sai.

Making Progress

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Julia Budka

Despite some attacks by “nimiti“ today, we are making good progress in both squares at SAV1E. Interestingly, the ceramics from Square 2 in the South comprise already much 18^th Dynasty material – 51 % of the total and this just 20 cm below the surface! As proposed already in our first week, this seems to be connected to the neighbourhood of Temple A.

Work in Square 1

Square 1 gets more and more interesting as well – at it’s eastern side there are mud bricks already in place and along a very promising North-South alignment. But before going deeper there, we have to work through material which covers the western half and is mostly a deposit of gravel and sand, as illustrated here. Finds were not numerous today and all of us are looking forward to the next step of work tomorrow!

Stone tools for grinding and more

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Julia Budka

On a very windy day today, fieldwork continued in both squares and produced among others some stone tools characteristic of the New Kingdom. These are mainly hammers, pounders and grinding stones in various materials such as quartz, sandstone and diorite. This example of a pounder (SAV1E 028) is made in sandstone and measures 7.5 x 7 x 5.2 cm.

Beyond the New Kingdom

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Julia Budka

Simultaneously with the ongoing excavation in SAV1E, processing and recording of ceramics and small finds are carried out in the digging house. Besides the corpus of New Kingdom wares comparable to SAV1N, a large number of sherds attest to the Post-New Kingdom activity on Sai Island.

Among them there are also many decorated fragments and the one illustrated here was today’s highlight! It is well known that there was a Meroitic, Post-Meroitic, Christian and Ottoman occupation of the site.

Ready for Week 2

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Julia Budka

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).

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 18^th 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

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Julia Budka

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 18^th 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!

First field season approaching

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Julia Budka

In a few days, the first group of team members will travel to Sudan and we will start our initial field season on Sai Island for AcrossBorders. We will work 6 weeks in the field, excavating a new area at the eastern edge of the Pharaonic town. We hope to be able to establish the dating and function of the structures we are going to unearth and add thus important information about the history of Sai Island. Another 3 weeks on Sai will be dedicated to the documentation of finds, ceramics and architectural elements

AcrossBorders

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

Category Archives: Archaeology