End of week 2: more bricks and finds

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Julia Budka

Time flies by even faster during excavations… we just closed the second week of fieldwork in Pharaonic town of Sai in the sectors SAV1 West and SAV1 East – after some ice-cold days at the beginning of the week, the conditions are now perfect and still almost completly nimiti-free.

According to our time plan, we managed to verify the state of preservation of the town enclosure wall in the western part of our new trench at SAV1 West.

Trench 1 South, SAV1 West on day 1 of the 2015 season.

The picture has markedly changed since work started: the outline of both the original brick work and the later destruction/pitting are now clearly visible.

Trench 1 South at the end of week 2 of the 2015 season.

Work will focus on the eastern half of Trench 1 South in the upcoming week – very promising in situ remains of mud brick buildings are already visible.

At SAV1 East, we are concentrating on Building A. Good progress was made in finding the continuation of already known walls as well as new sections of the western part of the building.

Work at SAV1 East concentrates on the foundations of Building A.

Registration, processing and recording of pottery, stone tools and other finds also continued – the amount of finds is considerable and will keep us very busy in the upcoming weeks!

Object Registration from SAV1 East and SAV1 West

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Kenneth Griffin Meg Gundlach

As with any archaeological excavation, object registration has an important role to play at Sai. Since arriving last week, over 300 finds have been registered, photographed, and entered into the FileMaker database, which now comprises 2060 entries. This year the database has been amended slightly in order to include some additional data and to provide links to each photograph, a feature which enables the thumbnails to be increased in size at the click of a button! The objects range in size—from large quartzite grindstones to small faience beads—and in date—from the Palaeolithic Period to Ottoman times. The most abundant genre of objects needing to be registered is stone tool: grindstones, hand mills, hammers, pounders, and whetstones.

Some of the highlights registered this season include a pottery camel, a pottery quadruped, a fragment of a female figurine, and a flint sickle blade, all of which come from SAV1 West.

The pottery camel (SAV1W 800), likely dating to the Christian/Medieval era, is missing its head and front legs. The rest of the figure is well preserved, including the hump, and it is even possible to identify it as a male camel! Faint traces show that a red wash had been applied to the surface.

The small quadruped figurine (SAV1W 910) is also missing its head, thus making any identification uncertain. The feet are also damaged, as is the tail. Traces of a yellow pigment are still present on the figure. Could it be a dog, cow, or even a horse?

SAV1W 910

SAV1W 906 is a fragment which originally formed part of a female figurine. Despite its small size, the pubic triangle is clearly visible while the buttock is well also defined. The left hand is still visible on the hip. The figure is unfortunately broken at the waist, right knee and left thigh. However, this particular form is well known, particularly during the Eighteenth Dynasty.

SAV1W 906

Finally, SAV1W 909 is a well-shaped flint blade with the serrated edges well preserved. While flint tools are well known from the Predynastic Period in Egypt, it is known that sickle blades, for example, continued to be used through until the Roman Period. In fact, the lack of weathering on this artefact suggests that it may date to the New Kingdom.

SAV1W 909

For only the first week of excavating, the finds have been quite exciting and prolific. We look forward to the rest of the season and sharing more highlights here on the blog!

End of week 1

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Julia Budka

There's a Gebel somewhere on this picture...

There’s a Gebel somewhere in this picture…

When Gebel Abri, the dominant feature of the river bank east of Sai Island, is not clearly visible, it’s never a good sign… We had to close our fieldwork earlier today, a very strong wind prevented us from continuing in our two areas, SAV1 West and SAV1 East.

Even if this may not be the best end of the first week in the field, there is much on the bright side: lots of new mud bricks, more of the enclosure wall, more floor remains at SAV1 East and only five lonely nimiti in week 1!

We managed to locate the enclsoure wall also in the new square in SAV1 West.

Contemporaneously with the excavations, processing of the pottery, stone tools and all other categories of finds is conducted in the digging house. There are already a number of new fragments of firedogs, net weights, female figurines and of course grindstones, hammers and pounders. The ceramics complement nicely my assessment of last season: especially noteworthy is the abundant presence of mid- to late 18^th Dynasty pottery from the east side of SAV1 West, thus coming from structures within the town, enclosed by the town wall. I am especially excited that there is one hieratic docket on a Nile clay storage vessel coming from this area – hoping for some quiet moments on Friday to check this important find (inscribed finds and texts are still rare from our excavation) in more detail!

Back at SAV1 West: more mud bricks!

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Julia Budka

Today was the first day in the field with our gang of workmen headed by Rais Imad Mohammed Shorbagi – and it was already very successful and promising! We just cleaned the surface of a southern extension to Square 1 at SAV1 West and faint traces of mud bricks are already visible. They are perfectly in line with the enclosure wall and should represent the same monument. And we hope that in this section the wall will be better preserved than in our original trench from 2014.

The surface of the southern extension of Square 1 after the first cleaning.

The pottery from the surface cleaning was processed today as well – 24 baskets of sherds illustrate how rich in sherd material this sector of the Pharaonic town is! And already the surface material is to 40% 18^th Dynasty in date – the other 60% percent are mostly Christian, but also some Post-Meroitic material is present.

As far as the New Kingdom material is concerned, our results from 2014 and the preliminary dating of the enclosure wall are supported by the first baskets of this year’s fieldwork: the pottery dates to Thutmose III and later.

Looking much forward to making more progress at SAV1 West in the upcoming weeks!

AcrossBorders 2015: the fieldwork season approaches

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Julia Budka

In a few days, the first group of team members of AcrossBorders will be on the way back to Sudan. We will travel via Khartoum to Sai Island and will start our third season on January 1 (insha’allah). As in the previous seasons, AcrossBorders will focus on the New Kingdom on the large island of Sai. We plan to work in different sectors within the town area and to renew work in the New Kingdom cemetery SAC5.

The 2015 fieldwork will concentrate on the continuous excavation at SAV1E and SAV1W in the New Kingdom town, the new excavation of presumed tombs in cemetery SAC 5 and the documentation of already excavated material from SAV1N, SAV1E and SAV1W (sorting and recording of the material in the courtyard and working room).

One of the main goals of the project is to improve our understanding of the population on the island and to explore the nature of the coexistence of Egyptians and Nubians. A comparison between the material culture from the Egyptian style cemetery and the Egyptian town will be highly relevant in this respect; human remains will offer multiple aspects for analytical research, especially for studies of biological identities.

SAV1 East

Continued fieldwork in the site to the east of the Pharaonic town, labelled SAV1E, investigated for the first time in 2013, is planned for 2015. The orthogonal structure called “Building A” was largely exposed; we aim to finish the complete excavation of this important complex of the mid-18^th Dynasty. Contemporaneous to the excavations, the pottery will be studied.

SAV1 West

New fieldwork in a site to the west of the Pharaonic town, labelled SAV1W, was started in 2014. The western enclosure wall was traced in two squares and brick work datable to the 18^th Dynasty exposed. Very promising New Kingdom deposits have been noticed within the town, to the east of the enclosure wall – several phases for these structures are visible in sections of Post-Pharaonic pits. This interesting area of 18^th Dynasty occupation will be the focus of the 2015 season. Contemporaneous to the excavations, the pottery will be studied. Work will also focus on a detailed study of the stone tools from SAV1W by Silvia Prell.

Sector SAV1 West.

SAC 5

In 2011, a geophysical survey was conducted in the area of the most important New Kingdom cemetery of Sai, SAC5 to the South of the Pharaonic town. We plan to excavate unexplored tombs visible on the magnetometric map of the cemetery, starting with the surroundings of tombs 14 and 15 in the southern part of the cemetery. Our work will include besides the study of the architecture, finds and human remains Structure-From-Motion techniques to create a 3D model of the cemetery and especially of the newly exposed tombs.

The New Kingdom cemetery SAC 5 to the south of the Pharaonic town (view from the north).

I am especially happy that Florence Thill (Lille University) will join us during the excavations in the cemetery and will offer her expertise based on her previous work in SAC 5.

Other tasks

This year, the team will be strengthened by two geoarchaeologists, Miranda Semple and Sayantani Neogi. They will build upon the geological survey conducted in 2014 and will focus on questions of the location and nature of the ancient harbour and the ancient stone quarries. Furthermore, they will collect samples to investigate the micromorphology of the Pharaonic town, focusing on formation processes and cultural activities. It is planned that they will compare the different excavation areas (SAV1N, SAV1W and SAV1E as well as SAV1) to each other. Environmental and climatic settings and changes during the New Kingdom will be focal points in the next years – being investigated by surveying, drilling and test pits.

Furthermore, I am very happy to welcome Frits Heinrich (archaeobotanist) and Jaime van der Heul from Groningen University as external experts – they will conduct archaeobotanical research and will take relevant samples in different areas of the town.

Without doubt another busy season is waiting for us – with renewed work in the cemetery, there will be fresh challenges and for sure a lot of new material. Thanks to all of the support by our Sudanese friends and colleagues and of course due to the joint efforts of all team members, I am more than confident that the results will be amazing and the 2015 season again very productive and highly interesting.

Looking much forward to travel to Sudan and wishing all team members & friends of AcrossBorders very happy holidays and a perfect start into 2015!

Home game: presenting AcrossBorders in Vienna

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Julia Budka

I was fortunate to present AcrossBorders at several conferences in the last two years (Prague, London, Neuchâtel), as well as on the occasion of invited guest lectures, e.g. in Khartoum, Münster, Göttingen, Warsaw, Swansea and Pisa. Having for the first time a home game in Vienna (19/11/2014, 5:30 pm) is very much appreciated – especially because it gives all current (and a number of future) team members plus Viennese friends and colleagues the chance to join the presentation tomorrow.

The paper will focus on results of our field work from 2013 to 2014 in the areas SAV1 East and SAV1 West. New insights about the environmental setting, the outline and internal structure of the Pharaonic town will be summarised. Selected finds, including highlights of the 2014 season, and the most important object groups will be discussed.

As mentioned earlier (and elsewhere), objects of Egyptian type dominate the material assemblage at Sai and find many parallels at Egyptian sites in both Egypt and Nubia. Interestingly, the artefacts and ceramics testify to an obvious coexistence between Egyptians and Nubians, from the foundation of the town in the early Dynasty 18 through the remainder of the New Kingdom. During my lecture, I will give some examples, e.g. hybrid forms of pottery, Nubian style female figurines and the small number of hieratic dockets on vessels.

An outline of our planned work in the upcoming season will end this short summary of AcrossBorders’ fieldwork in 2013 and 2014 – I am very excited that the 2015 season is approaching and will give us more to think about!

Heading to the International Conference for Nubian Studies 2014

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Julia Budka

Amazing how time flies – the Nubian Conference in London 2010 seems almost like yesterday, but now we are already heading for the next one: From today until Saturday the idyllic town of Neuchatel (Neuenburg) in Switzerland will be hosting this year’s Nubian conference, welcoming the international archaeological community working in Sudan.

The programme is very rich and diverse, promising a lot of new insights and vivid discussion. I am especially looking forward to hear the latest from Kerma by the organiser of the conference, Matthieu Honegger and his team.

I will be presenting a short summary of AcrossBorders’ field seasons in 2013 and 2014 with excavations at SAV1 East and SAV1 West. The outline of the town enclosure will be discussed and I will focus on the new chronological data available for understanding the development of Sai as fortified Egyptian town.

Looking very much forward to the 13^th International Conference for Nubian Studies!

A possible foundation deposit at SAV1 West?

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Julia Budka

The highlight among the finds from the 2014 season, recently presented in Sokar 28 (Budka 2014), is for sure SAV1W 532: A mud object of oval shape, representing a cartouche (11.4 x 6.1 x 3.4 cm). This oval plaque bears incised hieroglyphs on the front, giving, as it seems, the name and epithet of a god. The deity is a falcon-god, possibly Horus, Horakhty or even Hauron – the group of signs in front of the god, most likely an epithet, is unfortunately still unclear to me. The other signs might be read in a very playful writing as “Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, numerous in beauty”. “Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands” is a well-known epithet for Amun, Amun-Ra and Horakhty.

The find spot of SAV1W 532 in square 2, SAV1 West.

SAV1W 532 with its incised hieroglyphic cartouche reminds one of the stamped bricks attested from the early 18^th Dynasty onwards. However, it held most probably a symbolic character. It was found in the sandy pit cutting the enclosure wall in Square 2 at SAV1 West – it is possible that it once belonged to a foundation deposit for the town enclosure. Comparable cartouche-shaped plaques are regularly found in foundation deposits in Egypt, but most often in other materials (faience or stone) and smaller in size. According to Weinstein (1973, 94), cartouche-shaped plaques are new additions to foundation deposits in the mid 18^th Dynasty (Thutmose IV/Amenhotep III). This could be of significance for the possible connection of SAV1W 532 with the town enclosure and its dating – at present, all is in favour to date the foundation of this wall as not prior to the reign of Thutmose III.

The only foundation deposits attested in Upper Nubia for town walls have been found at Sesebi (Thill 1997, 115 with further references) – at Sai itself, several deposits came to light in the foundations of Temple A.

SAV1W 532 finds a close parallel in the fragmented piece SAV1W 031, also from the sandy area in Square 2, and of comparable cartouche shape with incised hieroglyphic signs. Further exploration of the area in the upcoming season might allow us to contextualize these intriguing finds and to date them more accurately.

Overview of eastern part of Square 2 with remains of the town enclosure wall.

References

Budka 2014 = J. Budka, Neues zur Tempelstadt der 18. Dynastie auf Sai Island (Nordsudan) – Ergebnisse der Feldkampagne 2014, Sokar 28, 2014, 28–37.

Thill 1997 = F. Thill, Les premiers dépôts de fondation de Saï, Cahiers de Recherches de l’Institut de Papyrologie et d’Égyptologie de Lille 17/2, 1997, 105–117.

Weinstein 1973 = J. Weinstein, Foundation deposits in Ancient Egypt, Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania 1973.

Faunal remains from Sai Island, New Kingdom town: Pigs at SAV1 North

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Nadia Saliari

In the last months, a total number of 492 faunal remains were identified and analyzed from the New Kingdom town of Sai Island. The identification and analysis of species was carried out on Sai Island during the field season 2014 and it was continued in Vienna (Austria) at the Museum of Natural History (1^st Zoological Department, Archaeozoology) and at the Department of Palaeontology (University of Vienna). My sincere thanks go therefore to the Sudanese Authorities (NCAM and especially our inspector Huda Magzoub) and also to Dr. Erich Pucher and Dr. Karl Kunst for their constant support here in Vienna!

The bone deposits derive from SAV1 North within the New Kingdom town of Sai, from three levels numbered from 5 to 3, datable to the 18^th Dynasty (see Budka and Doyen 2013). Human intervention related to butchery techniques has been detected on the faunal remains from all levels investigated.

Diagram 1: Distribution of mammals and birds from Sai Island, SAV1 North according to the Number of Identified Specimens (NISP) for levels 3-5. The prevalent species are mainly sheep/goats and cattle, but with some differences from level 5 to 3.

The faunal composition demonstrates the prevalence of domesticated mammal species at SAV1 North (Diagram 1). However, the very limited number of bones available from good archaeological contexts (levels 5-3) has to be stressed ‒ the material did not allow statistical processing and all results are of a tentative character based on a restricted corpus of faunal remains. Yet, I do believe that there is rich potential in the study of the animal bones from the New Kingdom town area of Sai, especially with the new stratified material from recent excavations as in SAV1 West, still waiting for analysis. Today, I would like to present some first data concerning one of the interesting species among the attested mammals: the pig (Sus scrofa f. domestica).

Pigs are recorded at a relatively higher percentage, after sheep/goat, at level 5, but a reduction follows at level 4. The profile changes at level 3, where the number of the bones is again increasing.

Pigs correspond to 8 bones from level 5, 10 from level 4 and 55 from level 3. As it is illustrated in Diagram 1, they are found at a relatively high percentage at level 5. Evidence from level 4 demonstrates that cattle and caprine prevail, whereas pigs are found in a smaller number. Pigs remain just the third prevalent species at level 3, although the total number of bones is higher.

For level 5 and the small number of bones, the skeletal part distribution is not well understood. A small amount of vertebrae, humerus and dentes are noted for this level. Dentes, tarsals and pelvis have mainly survived from level 4. More remains have been recovered from level 3. Mandibles prevail (14.5%) followed by humerus (10.9%), costae (9%), radius (7.2%) and pelvis (7.2%). Smaller bones (carpals, tarsals, and phalanges) lack completely.

The analysis of the age profile shows that the vast majority of the material coming from level 3 belongs to individuals between 1 and 2.5 years. Some of them are younger than 1 year and only in one case up to 3.5 years. The dental examination confirms the young age for the majority of the animals (16 months). Level 4 presents mainly individuals younger than 2-3 years and in one case older than 3.5 years. From level 5 only one individual is recorded, which seem to be younger than 1 year.

The butchery marks recorded on pigs are mainly related to disarticulation and portioning.

Mandibula of a pig from Level 4.

Proximal part of a humerus from Level 4.

To conclude, pigs recovered at SAV1 North were slaughtered at the optimum age for meat consumption. The very rare cases of older pigs could be related with the needs of reproduction. It is noteworthy that as far as we know pigs in Nubia are mainly connected with Egyptian presence. For instance, the pyramid tomb G301 at Cemetery D of Amara West (19^th Dynasty) brought to light a neonate piglet from the western chamber (Binder et al. 2011, 53). On the other hand, pigs have not been found at Kerma in the town or cemeteries (see the studies by L. Chaix, e.g. 1988 and the extensive list of publications available at http://kerma.ch/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=79#animal).

In New Kingdom Egypt, pig is among the most numerous species killed for meat and a preference for young animals is traceable in settlements (see e.g. at Amarna, Kemp 2012, 219-220).

It can be very tentatively suggested that the presence of pigs in the earliest level 5 at SAV1 North corresponds to the analysis of the ceramics from the same contexts: The material is New Kingdom in date and Egyptian in character, supporting the assessment that a Pharaonic settlement was founded on the island very early in the 18^th Dynasty (cf. Budka 2011; Budka and Doyen 2013).

For now, only some preliminary tendencies for the faunal material from the New Kingdom town of Sai have been outlined. The low amount of the material studied so far has to be taken in consideration, implying that the results might significantly change during the next campaigns. However, the case study of the pig remains from SAV1 North illustrates that the study of the faunal remains from Sai will significantly contribute to the interpretation of the character of the site during the 18^th Dynasty.

References:

Binder et al. 2011 = M. Binder, N. Spencer & M. Millet, Cemetery D at Amara West: the Ramesside period and its aftermath, British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan 16, 2011, 47–99.

Budka 2011 = J. Budka, The early New Kingdom at Sai Island: Preliminary results based on the pottery analysis (4^th Season 2010), Sudan & Nubia 15, 23–33.

Budka and Doyen 2013 = J. Budka & F. Doyen, Living in New Kingdom towns in Upper Nubia – New evidence from recent excavations on Sai Island, Ägypten & Levante 22/23, 2012/2013, 167–208.

Chaix 1988 = L. Chaix, Cinquième note sur la faune de Kerma (Soudan). Campagnes 1987 et 1988. In C. Bonnet et al., Les fouilles archéologiques de Kerma (Soudan), Genava, n.s. 36, 1988, 27–29. http://kerma.ch/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=247

Kemp 2012 = B. Kemp, The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Amarna and its people, Cairo 2012.

Every year: London calling

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Julia Budka

Like last year, some of AcrossBorders’ team members are heading this weekend for London to the SARS colloquium at the British Museum (Recent Archaeological Fieldwork in Sudan). The focus of this year’s presentations on Monday is on projects within the framework of the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project. The programme looks great as usual and it will be exciting to get all this first-hand information and fresh data. I am also very much looking forward to the social aspects and meeting our British and Sudanese colleagues to chat and exchange thoughts.

I am very happy to be able to combine this travel with a long-waited-for trip to Swansea – was kindly invited to give a lecture at the Egypt centre and will talk about settlement archaeology and especially our 2014 season at Sai. I will highlight the new findings at SAV1 East and summarize the importance of SAV1 West for our understanding of the town development! An exciting week is approaching and we’ll keep you posted!

AcrossBorders

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

Tag Archives: SAV1 West