EGYPTIAN
blue-painted sherds. Small finds included amulets, fragments of ‘woman on a bed’ pottery figurines, a hieratic docket from a Canaanite amphora and a possible limestone weight. Dan Boatright undertook a magnetometer survey immediately N of the palace area. Judith Bunbury and Omar Farouk took drill cores principally in the cultivated area E of the settlement site. www.gurob.org.uk/ Tuna el-Gebel: The joint Cairo Univ/Munich Univ mission, directed by Abd el-Halim Nur elDin and Dieter Kessler, excavated a Ptolemaic Period complex of mud-brick buildings (house E) 500m E of the ibis burial place. It consisted in its centre of a square multi-storeyed, tower-like building, with only its cellar part surviving. Lying to its E side a rectangular house revealed on its main axis a central cultic room with a single ritual scene painted on its N side. To this belongs the find of a situla with a demotic inscription and a stone offering stand. Nearby numerous oven structures and bread moulds indicate a large bakery. Deir el-Barsha: The Katholieke Univ expedition, led by Harco Willems, continued work in the OK and MK rock tombs together with a new initiative to excavate a 3rd Dyn cemetery in the N of the site. This turned out to have a N-S extent of 1.3km, and must have belonged to a sizeable settlement in the region. It is currently rapidly being demolished by land reclamation projects. Deir Abu Hinnis: Harco Willems and the Katholieke Univ team began research in the limestone quarries which must have been a major stone source for constructions at Amarna. Shaykh Said: Excavation by the Katholieke Univ, led by Harco Willems, continued in the stone working site where some late NK and/or TIP dwellings were found both on the hill and in a 3m deep trial trench in the cultivation. Amarna: The Amarna Project, led by Barry Kemp, continued its work at the Amarna Period
ARCHAEOLOGY
Amarna. Limestone stela from the South Tombs Cemetery. Height 55cm. Photograph: Gwil
S Tombs Cemetery. The work was spread over three areas at the mouth of the wadi. The finds included two painted wooden coffins with texts, and a stela set into the side of a small pyramid, depicting a couple in the Amarna style. A small excavation was also undertaken behind the old dig house in the N City, to gather more discarded fragments of statues. The structural repairs at the N Palace continued, completing the animal enclosure on the N side. Gillian Pyke directed further work on the early Christian settlement in the N cliffs (see also pp.25-27). www.amarnaproject.com Abydos: The Ahmose and Tetisheri Project, led by Stephen Harvey (Stony Brook Univ) continued excavation of the pyramidal shrine of Queen Tetisheri, first investigated by Currelly for the EEF (now EES) in 1902. In 2004 it was established that the brick structure was a pyramid, surrounded by an enclosure wall (see EA 24, p.6). A further 400sq m were excavated around the exterior of the structure, revealing substantial amounts of mud-brick collapse, below which were found additional fragments of the inscribed limestone pyramidion. A system of corbel and barrel vaulting was documented enabling a better understanding of the pyramid’s unique method of construction. In the entry corridor, further inscribed fragments of the limestone Tetisheri stela now in Cairo (CG
jim@pandpbooks.eclipse.co.uk 29
34002) were found. Additional evidence of a GR sacred dog/jackal cult was also encountered in and around the structure. E of the Ahmose pyramid complex, 250m of salvage trenches were excavated, ahead of the construction by the SCA of a protective wall encompassing all of Abydos. A substantial 18th Dyn cultic deposit was found, as well as a kiln and abundant evidence of bread and beer manufacture. A regional survey S of the Ahmose monuments revealed quarrying activity, including a 6th Dyn royal inscription, as well as a series of previously undocumented (prehistoric to Roman) sites. Aswan area: The Yale Univ and Univ of Bologna Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project, directed by Maria Gatto and Antonio Curci, continued rescue excavation of the predynastic cemetery at Nag el-Qarmila (see EA 35, pp.12-15), where an intact Naqada IIB-C grave was found. Work also continued on the digital archiving and 3-D landscape modelling of the rock art in Gharb Aswan and Wadi Abu Subeira. www.akapegypt.org Aswan: The Swiss Inst/SCA Aswan team, headed by Cornelius von Pilgrim and Mohammed elBialy, and directed in the field by Wolfgang Müller, conducted five rescue excavations. Late MK domestic structures were found beneath a poor Roman Period cemetery and a medieval street of suburban character. A pharaonic and Roman quarry was investigated beside the swimming pool of the Old Cataract Hotel. Remains of Ptolemaic houses and an additional ten 13th Dyn rock inscriptions were uncovered close to previously investigated areas E of the Domitian temple. Another small site close by revealed remains of terraced houses of different periods. www.swissinst.ch Thanks to Rafed el-Sayed, Colin Hope, Barry Kemp, Silvia Lupo, Maarten Raven, Angelo Sesana and Hourig Sourouzian for providing photographs.