In situ 18th Dynasty Pottery!

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.

MohammedMohammed Feature 14 did a very good job working on this fragile structure, brushing its outline and exposed carefully the upper part of a 18th 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 18th Dynasty! Feature 14 a

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

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”.

DSC_1025 scmallThe 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 18th Dynasty in date.

 

Mud Brick Architecture at SAV1E

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.

WORK at the eastern wall

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 18th Dynasty. Details of the architecture, stratigraphy and possibly functional use will be clarified in the course of upcoming fieldwork!

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.

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