Tag Archives: SAV1 East

End of 2014 fieldwork in the Pharaonic town

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Today was the last day of fieldwork at both SAV1 East and SAV1 West. We will continue with small scale cleaning and especially with final drawings and mapping at the site in the upcoming week – and will keep you posted!

At all trenches we were able to answer the most important questions – especially the western outline of Building A at SAV1 East was confirmed as was the outline of the enclosure wall at SAV1 West. I am really happy with the state of preservation – clearing the substantial disturbances, later pits and back fillings, we found nice 18th Dynasty floor levels and pavements still in place.

All together two more weeks will be dedicated to a post-excavation study season on Sai – this includes also the documentation of finds, finalising lists & databases, and photographs, registration of objects and ceramics as well as drawing of finds.

Fieldwork team 2014, Sai Island, Pharaonic town.

Fieldwork team 2014, Sai Island, Pharaonic town.

For now, special thanks go to our team of Sudanese workmen directed by Rais Imad Mohammed Shorbagi – without them the work would not have been possible in the last 6 weeks! We have been very lucky with weather and nimiti this year – the last days with heavy attacks suggest a perfect timing for closing fieldwork…

The western part of Building A: New finds at SAV1 East

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Our last week of excavation at SAV1 East for the field season 2014 has just started – and so far we are very happy with the results (not with the nimiti attacks which are back to their usual force for the month February…)! All in all, exactly like last year, we managed to trace the anomalies visible on the geophysical survey map from 2011: Our Building A is growing in size, it is getting more and more comparable to the so-called governor’s residence SAF2 in the southern part of the town.

Outlines of Building A in its eastern part, status of 2013.

Outlines of Building A in its eastern part, status of 2013.

As we were hoping, the further westwards we moved within the site SAV1 East, the higher the deposit gets! Thus, other then last year with our “negative walls”, we were able to find and document some remains of the foundations of substantial mud brick walls, as well as nice remains of a mud pavement between two parallel walls.

The western extension of SAV1 East, with mud pavement between two new North-South walls.

The western extension of SAV1 East, with mud pavement between two new North-South walls.

The 2014 season seems to have confirmed the alignment of Building A along the main North-South street, thus being exactly in line with Temple A and also the governor’s residence SAF2. The entrance area is located in the western part, where the structure was accessible from the street. Very striking are remains of a schist-pavement in the newly found entrance rooms at the western side of the building. Unfortunately, the pavement has been badly destroyed in ancient times, but we are positive that we will be able to reconstruct the former area covered by schist according to the clusters of broken fragments.

Disturbed area in the western part of Building A; note the schist fragments, once part of a pavement.

Disturbed area in the western part of Building A; note the schist fragments, once part of a pavement and dislocated during the destruction phase.

During this week, we will focus again on these entrance rooms and hope to get further stratigraphical information confirming our present dating of Building A to Thutmoside (mid 18th Dynasty) times.

End of week 4 of fieldwork at Sai Island, New Kingdom Town

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During this week, we made good progress at both sites currently under investigation of the Pharaonic town of Sai, at SAV1 West and SAV1 East.

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Work in progress at SAV1 West, 30/01/2014.

The brick work at SAV1 West was cleaned of the loose debris – we now have the substantial remains of the New Kingdom fortification exposed. The subsidiary, secondary adjacent wall was also found as proceeding further towards the North – as was the so-called “front wall”. Of the latter, we just cleaned today debris towards the west – the dismantled mud bricks are presumably lying on the natural slope of the western edge of the town; giving us much hope that we will be able to clarify its date and phases of use in the upcoming week!

Overview of SAV1 West; view towards Northeast. Debris at top of western slope in foreground.

Overview of SAV1 West; view towards Northeast. Debris at top of western slope in foreground.

I am especially excited about work at SAV1 East – we were aiming to clarify the western extension of our Building A, a possible large administrative building of Thutmoside date.

Cleaning of western part of Square 3, SAV1 East,

Cleaning of western part of Square 3, SAV1 East.

In the last days, Jördis worked with her team in the very difficult deposit of Square 3: within backfilling of late pits and disturbances, they were able to trace the foundations of a very large mud brick wall! Its alignment matches our East wall of Building A’s courtyard – and it is in line with the main North-South street of the town, running from the Southern gate, the Governor’s residence and Temple A towards our area SAV1 East.

Foundations of substantial mud brick wall at SAV1 East.

Foundations of substantial mud brick wall at SAV1 East.

Despite the pitting, we do have traces of the floor levels preserved and some smaller East-West walls, possibly of entrance rooms similar to the ones in the Governor’s residence SAF2. The challenge will be to reconstruct the complete outline of our building from these largely destroyed and dismanteled remains!

Overview of western part of Square 3, 30/01/2014: the main North-South wall, remains of pavements and a smaller East-West wall

Overview of western part of Square 3, 30/01/2014: the main North-South wall, remains of pavements and a smaller East-West wall.

As yet, both the New Kingdom ceramics from SAV1 West and SAV1 East associated with our mud brick structures do not predate the reign of Thutmose III – stressing that we are currently working in areas which belong to the main building phase of the Upper Nubian temple town at Sai which flourished during the time of Thutmose III and Amenhotep II.

Registration of finds from SAV1 West and SAV1 East

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The end of week 3 of our excavations in the Pharaonic town of Sai Island, Upper Nubia, is approaching and our File Maker database is increasing day-to-day! It comprises all objects excavated in 2014 so far – a total of 946 finds have been registered from SAV1 East and SAV1 West, more than 600 are new objects found this year! These are mostly stone tools, grinding stone fragments, re-used sherds but also some faience beads, faience bowls and clay objects. The dating of the finds ranges from Pharaonic to Ottoman times – the latter is e.g. nicely illustrated by Islamic glazed ware.

SAI_5491The database gives some basic information, a short description and all measurements of the individual finds. Julia and Nicole are doing a great job registrating the objects –  keeping up to date with the great number of finds arriving from the field on a daily basis is not an easy task – especially as we have 5 trenches open in two different areas!

Today’s highlight was a joining piece to a fragment of a Nun bowl (also known under the name of “marsh bowls” as they depict marsh scenes, floral and faunal motifs) found earlier in January at SAV1West – another small fragment, directly joining the first piece, was now discovered in the same area of Square 1, within a  very large assemblage of mid nice 18th Dynasty pottery, just east of the town enclosure wall. I am still hoping that more of this delicate dish will be unearthed this season! Its association with nicely decorated Thutmoside pottery of high quality is very interesting.
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First Results: Mud bricks, ceramics and much more

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Week 2 at SAV1 East and SAV1 West has just started – our first week of fieldwork passed very quickly, with promising first results! Both sites are keeping us really busy, but already at this early stage some findings are worth mentioning:

SAI_2960At SAV1 East we are actually following up our work of last year – the western extensions to our first squares at this site mirror the discoveries from 2013. We were already able to trace mud brick remains just below the surface – according to their alignment they could very well represent the western part of Building A – possibly with some entrance rooms and a substantial wall enclosing the large courtyard. Like in the eastern trenches, we are facing the problem of many pits and disturbances dug into the Pharaonic remains – nevertheless we are very optimistic to come up with a more complete understanding of the 18th Dynasty building activity in this area in the next weeks.

SAI_2924In both trenches at SAV1 West in situ remains of the enclosure wall have been unearthed. Associated small finds and the ceramics support its dating to the 18th Dynasty. Especially at Square 1 the amounts of New Kingdom pottery are huge – east of the wall we have large assemblages of mid 18th Dynasty ceramics, comparing well to SAV1 North and also in some respects to SAV1 East. Especially remarkable are a considerable number of Nubian cooking pots, of so-called Fire dogs, of fish dishes and painted wares! One of my favorite pieces which just came out today is a Blue painted sherd – until now this particular type of decorated ware was very rare at Sai – will our current excavations modify this picture?

We also started to register the small finds and tools – some of the highlights are net weights, Nun bowls and female figurines – all very well known from other Egyptian sites and also within the Pharaonic town of Sai.

All in all, we are more than happy with the outcome of the first week and very keen to continue the investigation of life at Sai Island during the New Kingdom! Lots of questions are still open…

Back at SAV1East, Sai Island

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SAI_0926As scheduled, we started today the 2014 field season with our team of workmen, supervised by Rais Imad Mohammed Farah and our NCAM inspector Huda Magzoub. It’s very good to be back at SAV1East – we extended our excavation area towards the North and West aiming to cover more of Building A.

SAI_0936SAI_0946Especially the Western part proved already very interesting after the first surface cleaning – almost 50 % of the ceramics are 18th Dynasty in date! They can be well dated to Thutmoside time respectively the mid 18th Dynasty. Like we observed in 2013, the amount of beer jars and bread moulds is striking! Especially conical bread moulds increase in quantity the further south we get in our new squares – mirroring the results of last year and probably reflecting the nearness to Temple A, the local Amun-Re temple of the 18th Dynasty.

Just today, I had already fragments of 30 bread moulds among the surface material, always associated with 18th Dynasty beer jars and flower pots. Hopefully we will be able to contextualize these findings this year more precisely!

Ready, set, go: The field season 2014

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DSC_6538The second field season of AcrossBorders is approaching – tomorrow the first team members will already depart to Khartoum, travelling to Sai Island on December 31!

Our 2014 season is planned as six weeks of excavation and additional two weeks of studying finds and ceramics in the digging house. An international team of twenty scientists will come to Sai Island to investigate aspects of the New Kingdom town, working on various tasks and different areas. We will be supported by an inspector of NCAM – and we’re very happy that we have again the pleasure to work with Huda Magzoub! We will furthermore profit from the experience of our Rais Imad Mohammed Farah who will, like in the last years, supervise our Sudanese workmen.

Compared to the initial season in 2013, we will go much further, in terms of excavation areas, methods and technology: A new excavation site with the name SAV1 West will be opened towards the west of the fortified town. One of the major aims is to test the structure and setting of the enclosure wall there. We hope to be able to provide a dating for the town wall; as yet it is based on the stratigraphical sequence and the corresponding ceramics found at SAV1North only. The question when exactly the Pharaonic site of Sai was surrounded by a mud brick fortification wall is of major importance to understand both the evolution of the site and its character as “temple town.”

Overview of the as yet unexplored western part of the New Kingdom town, north of the Ottoman fortress.

Overview of the as yet unexplored western part of the New Kingdom town, north of the Ottoman fortress.

Of course excavation at SAV1 East will continue – “building A” will be our focus and here especially its western part. Will we be able to confirm our preliminary interpretation of this building as administrative structure comparable to the so-called governor’s residence in the South?

2014 will also serve as testing phase for new documentation techniques – we will in particular use “structure from motion” and 3D applications, including a 3D laser scan of SAV1, thanks to cooperation with the Vienna University of Technology. Robert Kalasek from the Department of Spatial Planning of the Centre for Regional Science will conduct this laser scan, working closely with our architect Ingrid Adenstedt.

In addition, a geoarchaeological survey of the New Kingdom area will be undertaken by geologist Erich Draganits. For the first time, zooarchaeological remains excavated from the town area will be analysed in detail – Konstantina Saliari will focus especially on animals bones from SAV1North. Giulia d’Ercole will continue her studies on the petrography of the New Kingdom ceramics and will select new samples for both thin sections and iNAA. In particular we want to test more of the local, but also of the possibly imported Nile clays of the 18th Dynasty. Documentation of the small finds and tools as well as the pottery will be carried out simultaneously with the excavation. The architectural remains of SAV1 North will be investigated – Florence Doyen is coming for a last on site-check prior to her publication of this site within the New Kingdom town.

Last but not least, this year the “Sai Island Cultural Promotion” funded by the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project (QSAP) will start its work. First steps towards the planning of a site museum will be undertaken and several French experts will join us for this task.

A busy season is waiting for us – I have no doubts that it will be productive and highly interesting, thanks to all of the support by our Sudanese friends and colleagues and of course due to the joint efforts of all team members!

On the road between Lille, London, Vienna and Berlin

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On the roadThe last two weeks have been full of travelling and meetings, not in Egypt as originally planned, but here in Europe – the excellent Table ronde at Lille, a brilliant Kirwan Memorial Lecture by Vivian Davies at London, meetings with team members and future collaborators here in Vienna, planning for the next field season at Sai Island and placing orders for various equipment. Tonight, I hope to head for Vienna Airport the very last time in September – going to Berlin and picking up equipment, materials and my SUV there. Back to Vienna by car early next week – insha’allah!

As Giulia reported, all is progressing very well, thanks to the support of our colleagues, in both the Center for Earth Sciences with studying finished thin sections and preparing the new ones and in the Atomic Institute where we will get the NAA results of the first group of samples at the end of this month. Giulia will then start to compare her petrographic observations with the data deriving from the chemical analysis.

Florence has also joined the Table ronde at Lille – she is making good progress in assessing the building phases of SAV1 North; and I am concentrating right now (whenever there is time besides all the travelling & organizational work…) on the ceramic sequence from this site. In the upcoming field season 2014 we will not only continue in SAV1 East and open a new excavation area, but will also focus on studying the small finds, tools and different materials like animal bones from SAV1 North aiming to present a concise analysis of its architecture and functional aspects within the New Kingdom town in due time. It will be in particular relevant to understand aspects of the internal organization and to test whether functionally diverse quarters existed within the town enclosure.