EGYPTIAN
ARCHAEOLOGY
Fahmi (crouching) and the team (Shaaban and Sabr) working on sediment coring at Memphis
Fahmi, Said Salim and Hilmi working on the consolidation of a donkey skeleton at Memphis, with our then conservator Fiona MacAlister
cultured colleague, Mahmud, was an invaluable asset. The idea that Egyptian workmen treat foreign excavation (especially on pharaonic sites) only as a casual ‘day job’ is often quite wrong: it is perfectly possible to engage those who are interested in their work in a serious discussion (usually in Arabic of course) of what we are trying to achieve. One of my favourite memories of Balat was when Lisa Giddy (then director) and I were laying out survey triangulation points (ABC and so on) and had got as far AA, BB etc, when Mahmud popped up and asked if that was BB (Pepi) I or BB II! A hugely encouraging development in recent years has been the establishment of field schools – mainly funded by foreign projects but working in association with the Ministry of State for Antiquities – which are training Egyptian students in modern professional excavation, recording, conservation and publication methods. This is surely the way of the future.
Fahmi, Hilmi, Mahmud and the crew taking drill-cores at Memphis
It should not be forgotten either that on many archaeological projects in Egypt, both past and present, local workers have also developed similar expertise to that of their better-known colleagues. Many skilled excavators, not necessarily directly related to the family structures of the Qufti and Qurnawi networks, emerged during our years at Memphis. One of our best friends and one of the most intelligent and skilled people at Memphis and Saqqara, Fahmi, was central to our excavations and geoarchaeological survey and at Balat a similarly gifted and
Directors David Jeffreys and Ana Tavares with the members of the Memphis (Mit Rahina) field school on a site tour in 2011. Photograph: Mark Lehner q David Jeffreys is Director of the EES Survey of Memphis. Photographs, unless otherwise indicated, © Egypt Exploration Society.
Trainees at the MSA/AERA/EES Memphis (Mit Rahina) field school in 2011. See EA 40, pp.5-6. Photograph: Said Salah el-Talbeya
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