Some Answers & New Questions at SAV1E

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Julia Budka

Northeast corner of Building A, looking towards the South

After five weeks of fieldwork, we are happy to confirm the extension of our Eastern wall of Building A: just as it was visible on the geophysical survey map, we located the Northern end of this wall and its Northeast corner in our extension to Square 1. The distance from this corner to its Southern counterpart is a little less than 16 meters. Similar as in the Southern part, we were only able to trace the final layer of bricks in fragments, most of the Northern wall running East-West is now just a negative, filled with sand and some debris.As encouraging as these results are, they are of course also raising new questions: (1) the Northern wall seems to continue towards the East – at least 3 bricks are perfectly in line and still in place, situated to the East of the Eastern wall; more bricks are visible further to the East, still covered by a thick layer of mud. Probably the wall was thus running further towards the Nile. (2) A nice mud floor covers the area just north of the newly located Northern wall of Building A and seems to be associated with it.

View of the Northern wall of Building A, featuring an extension towards the East (looking Southeast)

All in all, Building A seems to be more complex as originally thought. We probably have one large courtyard with the substantial walls we labelled so far as Eastern, Southern and Northern walls, comprising the storage pits mentioned earlier like pit 6. Towards the west, there might have been at least one North-South divider after roughly 5 meters, of which we have only a few bricks left.

We will focus in the upcoming week on this still puzzling Northern area of our main structure at SAV1E which we can firmly date to the 18^th Dynasty.

Brushing bricks of Building A

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Julia Budka

The little of what is left from the eastern wall of Building A required very careful cleaning, especially in its highly damaged South-eastern corner. Situated on a sloping area, we worked today in the eastern extension of Square 2 and were able to make the general outline of the wall visible.Most of the bricks on a gravel deposit are almost faded and the material is generally very fragile – having been disturbed in ancient and medieval times. Nevertheless, a lot of 18^th Dynasty pottery is associated with this section of mud bricks, again primarily comprising of bread moulds and beer jars.

Together with some bricks still in place in the northern extension to Square 1 (= the North-eastern corner), we will be able to measure the North-South extension of Building A exactly. Detailed mapping will continue tomorrow, for now a length of roughly 16 meters confirms the plan visible on the geophysical survey map from 2011.

Feature 15 again…

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Julia Budka

Work focused today primarily on feature 15. We removed most of the mud brick debris, obviously collapsed into the structure from its eastern wall.

Cleaning is still not finished, but the outline of the exposes eastern half of the building has become clearer: not only on the eastern side, but also in the North and South, the bricks are lined at the interior with red bricks.

Although the ones which appeared in the South-western corner might have been secondary burnt, attesting firing activities within feature 15, the better preserved ones at both the Eastern and Northern side appear completely fired. This would definitely suggest a Post-New Kingdom date which is also probable from the finds so far – the filling material comprises a lot of 18^th Dynasty ceramics, but also Post-Meroitic and especially Medieval material. Some Christian sherds were found among and also below the collapsed bricks.

As far as a functional interpretation is concerned, it is notable that we discovered some charcoal and ashy sand in the western area. The current hypothesis is therefore that feature 15 represents some kind of installation for cooking and/or a firing place – probably set into Building A at a later time, after the New Kingdom.

Processing Finds from SAV1E

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Julia Budka

While there was no fieldwork today, we used this Friday to continue the processing of finds and ceramics. After 4 weeks at SAV1E, a total amount of 12 176 pottery sherds have been analysed – from the total 36 % are 18^th Dynasty in date (4375 pieces).

Bread moulds, beer jars, dishes and plates are the most common types. The beer jars (cf. picture to the right) are especially numerous and seem to have been made in a local Nile clay variant.

Some of the small dishes found at SAV1E show a nice splash decoration with red paint inside like the rim sherd illustrated here – this pattern is well known from Egypt and predominantly originates from the reign of Thutmose III.

Small finds and objects are still rather rare at SAV1E – as reported, we have a number of reused sherds, a clay weight, pounders and other stone tools, especially grinding stones. Some of the latter were found directly in the sandy remains filling the negative outline of the outer walls of Building A.

In the north-eastern corner of Square 2, we discovered from the lowest level of bricks a small fayence ring bead, probably of New Kingdom date.

All in all, we have traces of grinding, bread making, possibly fishing and storage facilities at SAV1E – typical domestic activities in Egyptian towns, of which some are also commonly associated with temples and cultic activities. With two more weeks of fieldwork in our excavation area, we attempt contextualising SAV1E and its architectural and material remains further.

Circular pits within Building A

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Julia Budka

As reported some weeks ago, we have several circular pits just west of the eastern wall of Building A. There are two of them in Square 1, the northern of which still featured some collapsed mud bricks at one side. Today we extended work on the third one in Square 2, more or less in line with the two others in Square 1. We still have not reached its bottom, but interestingly, removing the northern baulk of Square 2, we found a lot of mud brick debris at its eastern side.

As we have experienced with the external walls of Building A themselves, the sandy filling is really a kind of negative impression of former brick work which was completely dismantled. Are our circular features therefore former silos, originally lined with bricks? Or something else, maybe ovens? We are still uncertain about them, at least they seem to be contemporaneous to Building A; excavation in the upcoming week will hopefully answer some of our questions.

Hidden – and almost faded – mudbricks at SAV1E

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Julia Budka

Given the sloping appearance of square 2, it was only today that we went deeper in the gravel deposit just north of the small bin where we found the in situ 18th Dynasty ceramics (feature 14). At first appearance, this massive deposit seemed natural and just as a topographical feature. Here is a view of SAV1E with square 2 in the foreground, prior to excavation:

To confirm the hypothesis, we now decided to remove more of the gravel, working very slowly and horizontally. And this proved to be successful: Despite the difficulties recognizing any structures in this massive pebble layer, we managed to trace remains of a new mudbrick structure – a small section of a wall running more or less North-South (to the left in the picture below) and some scarce remains further to the East (to the right in the picture).

Although just a few centimetres are preserved, this almost lost new feature 18 confirms again early Pharaonic occupation in SAV1E: ceramics associated with it are predominantly (71 %) datable to the early 18^th Dynasty; especially relevant is one fragment of a beer jar, still sticking to the remains of what was once a mudbrick.

Prospects at SAV1E

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Julia Budka

Continuing excavation in both Squares, SAV1E has changed quite a bit in appearance.

The eastern wall of Building A is very clearly visible, but the southern wall is heavily disturbed. Between the mostly collapsed bricks there was not only 18^th Dynasty pottery, but also quite a lot of sherds originating from Medieval times. It is clear that we have already reached the final layer of mud bricks from Building A – although we are able to reconstruct its outline, the architecture is mostly lost due to later destruction work.

But work will of course continue in the next weeks: In particular two mud brick structures (feature 13 in Square 1 and feature 15 in Square 2) are promising, as we still have not yet their complete outlines – both are extending beyond the limits of the squares. Especially feature 15 in the Northwestern corner of Square 2 with a lot of collapsed bricks in its western part is interesting – we will have to remove the baulk between our two squares in order to understand it better.

Its filling material comprises mixed material – predominating is again the 18^th Dynasty, but there is also a large percentage of Post-New Kingdom ceramics. We still don’t know whether structure 15 belongs to Building A or is a later installation.

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!

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.

AcrossBorders

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

Category Archives: Settlement architecture