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| overview Sections C and D in the main quarry |
Ten days in on our epigraphic survey
journey we could not have asked for more of Gebel el Silsila than has been presented
to us so far! Among us, our great inspector and the helpful guardians Silsila is
now referred to as the mother of the temples, and she has presented new
material in form of not only a huge amount of quarry marks (of course), demotic
and Greek inscriptions, but also a few hieroglyphic graffiti and insights into
the day-to-day work of “her” visiting workers.
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| arriving at site, ready to unpack and set up camp tent 1 |
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| orientation from the guard house |
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| first tent is being set up |
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| second tent with all work material being transported the old fashion way - by donkey |
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| one happy epigrapher - Adrienn\s first day at Silsila! |
So far, we concentrate our work in the main
quarry – the largest and central quarry at Silsila East, which has been divided
into six sections following a clock-wise orientation. Thus, this main quarry
now is labelled with the sub-titles Section A-F, starting and ending with its
two corridors.
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| epigraphic documentation - everything is to be recorded with camera and drawings on paper and plastic film if on accessible height |
Last week’s work completed the epigraphic
documentation of the northern corridor – Section A, the northern section –
Section B, and work is currently conducted in Sections C and D, which are
alternated based on the position of the sun: while photos in the shade can
provide highlighting of certain elements, we do prefer when the quarry faces
stand in full sun light, illuminating the details more clearly and creating a
better contrast towards the diagonal tool marks that form the most common
background for the inscriptions.
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| epigraphic work requires some ladder climbing... |
Work begins at 7 am each day - although we are up already at 4.30, to be picked up at 5.30, continuing
all day through until 4-4.30 pm with rest for lunch and then back to a oh so
needed nutritious refuel at the hotel we are staying. Unfortunately, we cannot
stay on site as there is no access to electricity on the east bank – a problem
that we hope to sort with time – so at the moment we travel some time each day
from our hotel to the site – not to mention the 25 minutes walk each morning
and afternoon to get to the main quarry...
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| view from Silsila East |
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| overlooking Silsila West |
For John and myself there have been many
highlights and we have been able to complete a comprehensive documentation of
those quarry faces we had documented already during previous visits. For
Adrienn, however, this mission is her first visit to the site, and it has
struck her with quite a surprise, and to be able to work with such a great
amount of previously unpublished material is a dream for any linguist who
specialises in demotic inscriptions! Most scholars who have visited Silsila
refer to the East as published by Spiegelberg, true of course, but this great
demotic expert in fact did not visit the site in person, but based his
translations of the text on the notes provided by Legrain. Legrain, who we
believe planned to return to the site, was instead caught up with the cachet at
Karnak, leaving the great material for us to
work with now!
Hopefully we will be able to provide
updates more regularly from now on, with some personal notes from also John and
Adrienn. Until then, we thank you for following us on our survey of Silsila!
