Excavating Pit 6 in Square 1

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Julia Budka

Excavations at SAV1E have reached a state where we spend most of our time clarifying small details and cleaning specific areas and features.

Simultaneously with work in both, the northern and southern extensions of our squares in SAV1E, we started today excavating pit 6 in Square 1. Similar to the circular pit 5, it is located just west of the eastern wall of Building A.

Feature 6 is much larger than e.g. pit 17 in Square 2. Its filling consisted so far only of clean sand containing very few pottery sherds. But going deeper today, we found a lot of mud brick debris in its southern part, two stone tools made in quartz (hammer stones) between the collapsed bricks as well as a small amount of pottery (comprising both early 18th Dynasty and Post-New Kingdom material).

We still haven’t reached its base, so its size and especially the depth remains uncertain. It was cut into the pebble surface also used for setting the walls of Building A and is most likely contemporaneous to our main structure at SAV1E.

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.

Uncovering More of Building A

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Julia Budka

Starting into week 4 of our fieldwork, we made an extension to the east of Square 2 in order to reveal more of the Eastern wall of Building A. Already just a few centimetres below the surface we found collapsed mud bricks, together with a quite large number of pottery. The ceramics are again predominantly of 18^th Dynasty date (60 % versus 40 % of Post-New Kingdom material). Like at the beginning of our work at SAV1E, the corpus mainly comprises bread moulds and beer jars.

Because of the sloping ground at this eastern edge of our excavation area, we have to proceed very carefully and thus slowly. But at the end of the day, the extension of the wall is clearly visible – not yet in clear outline or with bricks in place, but as depression filled with broken mud bricks and sandy material.

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.

Processing New Kingdom Ceramics

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Julia Budka

As every day, processing ceramics and drawing selected vessels was carried out today. We are happy that Huda Magzoub, our inspector and skilled drafts person, joined us again in the lab to help with drawings.

Documentation of the material from old excavations at SAV1N, especially from the early levels of the 18^th Dynasty, is continuing; the freshly excavated material from SAV1E requires cleaning and reconstruction work as first step. Today, we finished the in situ-vessels from feature 14, the large beaker and the small ovoid jar – they are now ready for drawing!

Pots in Our Hands!

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Julia Budka

After finishing the detailed drawing of storage bin 14, we finally could move the in situ pots! We managed to recover the complete beaker in one piece – a great moment of joy for the ceramicist!

The smaller red burnished vessel was broken and fell into some pieces, which we will be able to fix together, reconstructing the jar.

Having the pots in our hands, and being able to analyse them closely, I can now also confirm their presumed dating: both are early 18^th Dynasty, pre-dating Thutmose III and thus early than the nearby Temple A.

Therefore it is safe to assume that feature 14 belongs to an early occupation phase of SAV1E during the very beginning of the New Kingdom – just on the arrival of the Egyptians on Sai Island!

Registration of Finds & more

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Nathalie Bozet

By the end of week 2, our Filemaker Database for objects from SAV1E comprises 85 pieces. Most of them are reused sherds (e.g. scrapers) and stone tools (e.g. grinding stones and pounders). Each object gets an entry in the database and is illustrated by photos. In a future step we will also make technical drawings of selected pieces.

The highlight so far was a tiny piece of fayence: this fragment illustrated here was discovered directly between mud bricks of the eastern wall of Building A. Thanks to parallels, it is clearly coming from a so-called Nun-bowl, datable to the 18^th Dynasty. Such fayence bowls, decorated with floral designs, fish and marsh scenes, are commonly found within the context of New Kingdom temples, but also appear in domestic contexts. Examples for finds of Nun-bowls from settlements are among others Abydos, Kom el-Rabia and also SAV1North, the northern area of the Pharaonic town on Sai Island.

AcrossBorders

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

Tag Archives: Sai Island