From House Hold to Drawing Sheets

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.

Fatma KeshkThe 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 18th 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

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 18th 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

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

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. SAV1E-028This example of a pounder (SAV1E 028) is made in sandstone and measures 7.5 x 7 x 5.2 cm.

Beyond the New Kingdom

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. P001

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

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).Blog Illustr 1

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 18th 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

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 18th 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

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 elementsIMG_1240