Returning after the holidays

First and foremost,

a truly happy new year, and best wishes for 2016 to be even more adventurous, successful, prosperous and joyful than years before!

How can one top a year that included three major discoveries, starting with the press release of the small Royal stele depicting Amun-Ra and Thoth,

followed by the re-discovery of the Temple of Kheny in May,

and now, most recently, the exciting discovery of six statues and relief scenes within shrines 30-31, previously thought to have been completely destroyed.

And, we shall not forget the unique discovery that forever has changed the history of our Speos - the rock cut temple - previously regarded as the work of Pharaoh Horemheb, but now with a chronology that is pushed back to the times of the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut, and with restoration work carried out by the famous boy-king Tutankhamun. 

Detail from within the speos showing the left partition of the usurped boat scene. Notice the small, square apertures

Wow, what a year it was! And to those amazing finds, Madam Silsila has delivered so incredibly much more... Rock Art, (more) Quarry Marks, Texts, demotic ostraca... the list goes on (...and includes some that you will have to wait a bit for).

So, with this post we would like to express our gratefulness towards all people involved in the work here at Silsila; all our scientists, assistants, inspectors, friends and family! Let us hope for another year of fantastic news for Madam Silsila!

And a new and exciting season has already begun! Here are some captured moments:

moon over Silsila

the place where it all begun back in 2007

Horus, our protector!

learning how to use a camera starts in early years around here

photographing a beauty through a rope hole...

and there was the beauty...

lovely visit from Prof. Cruz

Mr. Mohamed Abdalla, our inspector

Shihat working the prism magic

Moamen and Shihat mapping out 'Elephant Rock'

can it get any better?!

oh well, we guess it can

and until next time, safe journeys friends!

Acknowledgements are here in order for our sponsors for this season, including NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY and Gerda Henkel Stiftung! We would also like to express our deepest gratitude towards the Glen Dash Foundation for sponsoring the Silsila Team with our Total Station!

Digital documentation of the Speos at Silsila

inside the speos, looking south

Any visitor to Egypt who had the pleasure of sailing up or down the Nile past the river’s narrowest point has had the opportunity of gazing into (or even visit) the petite, but intriguing and stunning rock-cut temple on the west bank of Gebel el Silsila. This temple was epigraphically documented already during the last century by R. Caminos, who intended to publish the results as the second volume of his envisioned three monographs of the site. However, as many of you know, with his passing a large bulk of his work remained unpublished, and it was not until more recently – in year 2000 – that Ch. Thiem finally published preliminary results that supposedly were based on Caminos’ work.

the speos seen from the Nile

However, much remained to be done still, for which the current archaeological team’s Egyptologist and epigrapher – Dr. Philippe Martinez – returned to the rock-cut temple in 2014, and with results that forever would change our perception of the monument. Among the more important findings is a series of iconographic (illustrated) details that push back the chronology of the temple – with examples of images belonging to Tutankhamen, but also a Nile vessel of early 18th Dynasty date carrying an obelisk, comparable in size and style with the famous barque of Female Pharaoh Hatshepsut in Deir el Bahri – but also details that suggest a religious idiom very different from what has been proposed before. Now, this is not the place to go deeper into the various findings of Dr. Martinez, especially as a series of articles are currently prepared, but instead we will focus on the documentation that has allowed Dr. Martinez to take the epigraphic work one or a few steps further from the days of Caminos’ analogue recordings.

Dr. Martinez in action

Since 2014 Dr. Martinez has worked with traditional analogue recording methods by means of very thin acetate copies combined with digital photography and layer drawings in illustrator software. These traditional methods laid the groundwork – and still make up the larger part of the data – for the digital recording that was initiated earlier this year (2015). Thus, when Kevin Cain from American INSIGHT joined the team on site, Dr. Martinez had more or less completed the analogue 1:1 copying of the detailed illustrations and texts that decorate the sandstone walls of this small sanctuary. The main aim of Mr. Cain’s work is to complement that of traditional analogue recording methods – not only in the speos, but in various areas of the site – and the first step in their documentation of the speos was to re-photograph each and every wall and detail using both natural light and special studio lights on loan from MAFTO. 

Dr. Martinez and Mr. Cain within the speos

The idea was to build so called ‘fronto-parallel orthomosaic views’ of the inscribed walls, which allows us to view an entire wall – regardless of how wide – as one combined image. Also, such photography ‘photogrammetry’ enabled Mr. Cain to produce 3D images, to complement and aid Dr. Martinez in finding further finer details also of older, superimposed scenes.

Mr. Cain photographing inside the sanctuary

Dr. Martinez and Mr. Cain doing their magic

Below are shown some examples of Mr. Cain’s 3D reconstruction of a scene from the south jamb leading into the inner chamber of the sanctuary. 

Shown here, the 3D models incorporate 1/8 of the full image resolution, based on approximately 500 photographs in –m full, -s3, and –F3. Mr. Cain describes the images:

a) The surface re-lighted without colour: the raking lighting angle is a familiar one used frequently in     epigraphic documentation

b) The surface without colour, lighting 180^ offset from above

c) ‘X-ray’ view, highlighting mesostructured. Note that the surface carving is accented in this view.

d) ‘Radiance scaling’ shading, in which the reflected light intensities are dependent on the surface           curvature and material characteristics (INRIA). This view is intended to help represent the 3D

    surface with characteristics of a 2D line drawing.

e) The surface, re-lighted, with colour extracted from studio light photography.

Similar resolution images were produced also of one of the criosphinxes in the 18^th Dynasty workshop within Quarry 15. Since the sphinx is partially hidden below sand, a complete reconstruction is not possible at this present time. 

The reconstruction(s) is based on there about 40 photographs in 1/8 source –m full, -s3, and –F3.

Key to the images:

a) Plan view, criosphinx, shaded with photography

b) Left view, criosphinx

c) Right view, criosphinx

and

d) Detail of head, without colour

e) The surface, relighted, with colour extracted from photography

f) ‘Radiance scaling’ shading, in which the reflect light intensities are dependent on the surface curvature and material characteristics: note the detail made visible in the shoulder area

g) ‘X-ray’ view indented to show surface curvature

The digital documentation will continue on site as a perfect complement to the archaeological work carried out in the field. Other examples of already recorded features on site include the stela of Amenhotep IV, the fallen naos of Amenhotep III, the re-discovered Temple of Kheny, an administrative building in Quarry 24, etc. Stay tuned for more!

Want to learn more about the awesome work of the INSIGHT team? See here or continue reading for a short summary:

INSIGHT is a California non-profit organization dedicated to documenting the human record for the benefit of researchers and the general public.  We currently focus on bringing computer vision techniques to the work of archaeologists and other researchers in the disciplines that comprise the world heritage field. INSIGHT provides a practical framework for the intelligent application of visualization for sciences and the humanities.  While INSIGHT’s foremost responsibility is to researchers, educational and museum work also an area of interest.

Cultural Heritage Visualization

Recording the past with the tools of the future, INSIGHT was founded to extend the visualization capabilities of scientists and foster education in visualization, with an emphasis on digital cultural heritage.  INSIGHT provides visualization and documentation tools to scientific fieldwork.  Staffed with specialists in both archaeology and visual computing, the INSIGHT team fills the useful role of “translator” between the normally exclusive worlds of technology and heritage.  INSIGHT provides relevant digital tools to researchers and work with specialists to develop visualizations.  Since current technologies are often too expensive for research budgets, INSIGHT believes it is crucial to provide free access to equipment and techniques on a 'pilot' basis.  INSIGHT also provides a research lens through which these digital tools can be profitably viewed.

In a world where time is running out for many heritage sites, INSIGHT is working to speed the process of site documentation.  INSIGHT both develops new tools and adapts digital documentation methods for archaeological use.  Innovative use of space sampling is at the core of all INSIGHT project work, including the use of digital photography, computer modeling, and laser scanning.

Cenotaphs go 3D!

overview of the west bank with its 32 shrines

Other than the traditional Egyptologist, who per automatic knows the basics about Gebel el Silsila’s characteristic cenotaphs, anyone who has had the pleasure of sailing the magnificent River Nile could gaze upon these glorious shrines that lay scattered along the west bank to the south of the famous rock-cut temple and ends just north of the capstone. These cenotaphs – ‘false/empty tombs’ – were the object of extensive study by T. G. H. James and R. A. Caminos during an epigraphic survey conducted on behalf of the EES (Egypt Exploration Society) during the last century. James and Caminos published the shrines’ original epigraphy and iconography (hieroglyphic text and illustrations) and short comments on their layouts and style (James, T. G. H. and Caminos, R. A., Gebel es-Silsilah, vol. I: the shrines, London 1963). Since then, A. Kucharek has continued the study in her Master thesis Die Felskapellen der 18. Dynastie in Gebel es-Silsilah, followed by the article ‘Senenmut in Gebel es-Silsilah’ (MDAIK 66, 2010, 413-160).

photo by Scotty Roberts

Still, however, there are many aspects of these 32 shrines that await further study, including later additions (graffiti, quarry activity, reuse, etc.), for which we, as the current archaeological team, have taken on the task to re-document them. As part of this re-documentation more effort is placed on the monuments themselves, and making them available for the larger public also outside the academic world.

As such, we incorporate up-to-date digital technology in our work, such as 3D imaging/photogrammetry, which not only provides us with the most extraordinary ‘movable’ objects, but also the possibility to put fragmented/broken items back again without having to even touch the monument itself. As an example, we would like to share with you a preliminary reconstruction of three broken statues of shrine no. 4 (James and Caminos 1963, 16-18):  

shrine 4

The scanned monument is a room located on the southern side of shrine 4, with three statues that have been broken in three parts due to a fracture in the bedrock, plausibly caused by a natural catastrophe. The room initially measured 1.27 m deep x 1.50 m high. Three statues are seated on a bench, facing forward towards the northern-facing opening/door. The three figures depict two men (left/east and centre) and one woman (right/west). While there are no preserved inscriptions or decoration, it can be presumed that the main male figure depicts a man called Djehutmose, who was a scribe of the treasury during the 18^th or early 19^th Dynasty (based on an adjacent, plausibly associated hieroglyphic text) (James and Caminos 1963, 16). With the words of Stefan Lindgren, our 3D recorder from the Humanities Laboratory at Lund University: “At some point in time, the mountain where these three statues are carved, split in two parts and divided the group for a long time. But now, thanks to 3d-technology, we have been able to make at least a virtual reunion. I think they look happy about it.”

The southern group of statues

3D recorder Stefan Lindgren busy photographing an early Roman graffiti-panel

For those of you who want to ‘play around’ with the 3D image of the statues, you can find the movable object here, and below is a 'still' demonstration:

Back for a new season!

The Silsila Team has once more returned to site for another exciting season of fieldwork!

The spring season, which is expected to run from 1 March to the end of April, is hoped to result in more information on the 'stables of Tiberius', transportation aspects and pictorial scenes within Corridor A in the Main Quarry, further understanding of the infrastructure, chronological aspects based on ceramic material, rock art, geological features, digital archaeology, etc. etc.

So, with this brief note, please keep your eyes open for new updates within the coming few days with photos and personal blog entries from our members from our first week of fieldwork!

Gebel el Silsila in the news

As an answer to a general request to learn more about the recent press release regarding our finds at Gebel el Silsila, below will follow a short summary of the finds, as well as links to a selection of news articles that spread the word. Thank you all for your support and shown interest!

Press release 1: Unique stela discovered at Gebel el Silsila

the now famous stela

A small rock carved stela was discovered during the ongoing Swedish archaeological survey within the sandstone quarries at Gebel el Silsila, 65 km north of Aswan. The 46 x 38.5 cm round-topped stela was discovered to the east of the famous unfinished sphinx, overlooking the Nile from the East Bank by a team from the Gebel el Silsila Survey Project (Lund University) currently documenting the archaeology and epigraphy in the area.

The stela depicts an unidentified pharaoh presenting offerings to the gods Amun-Ra and Thoth, a unique combination rarely depicted as a pair. The combination of the pair may be due to a lunar aspect of the cult at Gebel el Silsila, a topic which is currently studied by the team. All three figures are rather poorly preserved, but some details can be made out, including the characteristic double feather crown of Amun-Ra, and the moon disc of the ibis-headed Thoth. The item presented by the pharaoh is no longer discernible. 

The readable inscriptions are merely titles of the gods, "Amun-Ra, King of the Gods, Lord of [-]", and "Thoth, Twice Great, Lord of [-]". Just below the winged solar disc (adorned with two uraei) the text reads “Lord of the Two Lands, Behedet (Horus of Edfu)”. The personal text of the pharaoh is limited to “Lord of the Two Lands” followed by a cartouche and short epithet. The royal titles and the single cartouche are poorly preserved.

The preliminary study suggests a later dynastic date, presumably para or post Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BC). The team is currently working on the stela (photogrammetry and other digital forms) in order to retrieve more information.

at the time when we discovered the stela

Press release 2: Swedish archaeological mission rewrites the early history of Gebel el Silsila

Epipalaeolithic motif

Over 60 rock art sites were discovered during the ongoing Swedish archaeological survey at Gebel el Silsila in Upper Egypt. The rock art sites were discovered on both sides of the Nile and incorporate material from the Epipalaeolithic (c. 8500-6500 BP), Predynastic (c. 4000-3100 BC), and Early Dynastic (c. 3100-2686 BC), plus rock inscriptions from Early Dynastic and throughout the subsequent ancient periods.

Early Dynastic motif

The more spectacular finds include a series of unique Epipalaeolithic “masterpieces” similar to those found in nearby el Hosh. Associated with those are two lithic surface scatters/workshops contemporaneous with the el Kabean industry, but also include examples of the Late Palaeolithic. The high concentration of rock art combined with the chronologically wide repertoire clearly establishes Gebel el Silsila as one of the earlier sites in Egypt.

Predynastic motifs

Other things that have been mentioned in the various international reports includes the find of a relief depicting two obelisks transported on a boat. This is a scene which Dr. Philippe Martinez discovered during his epigraphic work with us, and which we are preparing for publication, so no images of this yet. There was also reference made to two unfinished obelisks, which is based on two large sandstone blocks that we have documented in the Main Quarry of the East Bank. Contextual epigraphic material shows depictions of obelisks, combined with a technical sketch of how to lower an obelisk, which indicate that these blocks may have been extracted to be sculptured as obelisks. The topic will certainly be further explored.

Maria and John showing the technical mark to Mr. Nasr Salama
(General Director of Aswan) and Mr. Abd el Menum (General Director of Kom Ombo).

The large sandstone blocks, possibly extracted to be carved into obelisks.
The block shown here contains a graffito of an obelisk

Links:

Archaeology News 

Discovery News

  

Ancient World Society

Ahram English

The Cairo Post 

Luxor Times 

The Peninsula Qatar

Lund University News 

Archaeology and Arts

Lundin Orient (the first one out) 

Aftonbladet 

Sveriges Radio 

SvD

Sydsvenskan 

GöteborgsPosten 

Swedish Radio

Spiegel Online

AEDE Web

Djeser DjeserouBlog

Djedmedu Blog

Selket Blog

Ulster news 

Yahoo News 

Sherdy Season

 “Wait a sec, I’ve got sherdy hands,” has been my favourite phrase this season. Occasionally, when John and Maria have been showing visitors around site, or just when it seemed a pity to disturb baby Freja’s slumbers, I have been called upon to be employed in a spot of babysitting. So, when Freja calls out, I’ve had to quickly dust the sherdiness from my hands before picking her up to soothe her. A new experience for me this season!

The rest of the time I’ve been working on the new inflow of ceramics from the different campsites around Silsila, and also working with John on how to plan and draw sections of the various dry stone walls we’ve been encountering. This season, we’ve focused more on the West Bank, including the infamous pottery hill, but also its sister sites Pottery Hill 2, Wadi Tean and Mo’s Tavern. Further North we have identified at least another 4 camps close to the New Kingdom quarries and cartouche of Tutankhamen, and I worked a bit on one of them Black Camp. On the East, we investigated some of the hut clusters above the main quarry. With each week, I’m adding to the site ceramic typology, which means that I can work even faster. I’m now starting to see the same types occurring again and again, which is brilliant as I can simply count the same types, record that I have for example, 4 rims type of 8.12 (which is a narrow necked direct rim storage jar in case you were interested).

What sort of things have we been encountering? Well, at Mo’s Tavern, which is across the Middle Kingdom road from Pottery Hill, we found some of our first complete pots, or at least complete profiles of vessels, including a rather fabulous 48cm diameter coil-built lid (Nile C GES14/MT/C5).

Large Lid reconstructed on my desk!

It took us 2 trips to find all the pieces scattered as they were down the hillside. The top of Mo’s Tavern is relatively sterile, with the remains of one hut and 2-3 possible hearths or beacons. It is likely that it was not in continuous use due to the infrequency of sherds, how little they had been moved or broken up, and the fact that most of the sherds uncovered were able to be fitted together cleanly. Most of the material from Mo’s Tavern, Pottery Hill, Wadi Tean and Pottery Hill 2 (all within a c200m radius) seem to be contemporary Early Roman (1-2^nd Century AD). 

Maria and Reis Shihad collecting the remaining sherds of the lid that had fallen down from Mo's Tavern into Wadi Tean.

Some of the material from Pottery Hill may be a little later up to the time of Emperor Hadrian and comparable to the ceramics uncovered at the quarry site Mons Claudianus by Peacock and Tomber in the Eastern Desert. Pottery Hill is also interesting in that so far, no bread trays or cooking vessels have been uncovered there. The ceramic assemblage is in the main, amphorae, meat jars, storage vessels and water jars. All Roman period. The only finewares uncovered have been the Aswan-made Barbotine vessels, which are rich in Kaolinite and give a beautiful white appearance. So far we have no Samian or African Samian wares.

Aswani made Barbotine vessels from Pottery Hill. These could originally have been for drinking cups

The other campsites that we have been investigating include the huts above Corridor A in the main quarry. If you recall last season, we counted over 4000 surface body sherds in this very small 30m area. Here we are getting quite an interesting range of dating material (though mostly eating bowls and water jars) from the New Kingdom (18-20^th dynasties 1550-1069 BC), then a jump to the Ptolemaic and Early Roman periods (323 BC - 117 AD). It seems that up on the escarpments above the working quarry faces, the quarrymen took their pack lunches to enjoy the view of the Nile and perhaps have a short nap in the huts in between shifts to get out of the hot sun.

A picture is starting to develop at Gebel Silsila that fits in quite nicely with the dates of the inscriptions with the last periods of occupation of the quarries, with the ceramics pushing back the dates a little. The latest dated Roman inscription names emperor Claudius (AD 41-54), whereas some of the pottery from Pottery Hill (e.g. the Barbotine) is perhaps a little later to the time of Emperor Trajan (AD 98-117). The Romans clearly spent quite a long time working at Silsila, as the various sandstone Roman temples testify to, but also to the great quantity of camps with lots of pottery dotted across Silsila. Next season, we plan to work quite solidly at Pottery Hill on the West Bank, which has c23 circular dry stone huts and a vast quantity of ceramics to be explored.

As always, Gebel Silsila is a remarkable place, with great beauty and wonders to behold across the whole site. There is so much to be learnt here about the everyday Egyptian, and I cannot wait to return to join with the team again. A small success, I managed to convince John to wash his feet and lucky socks!

     Sarah- @sherd_nerd

A new season!

The Gebel el Silsila Survey Team is back on site for yet another, hopefully, great season's work.

Work this season includes some new exciting features, such as 3D-scanning, GIS recording and the setting up of a proper archaeo-geographic gridwork for the first time, and of course the continuation of our previous recording including Sarah's pottery analysis, John's study into extraction methods and transportation, Maria's project on quarry marks and petroglyphs, Philippe's epigraphic work on Egyptological matters, as well as the documentation of prehistoric rock art sites and lithic industries. This season we are also delighted to have with us the splendid Egyptian scholar Moamen Saad, who is currently collating material for his doctoral thesis on the Nile Stelae here at Silsila. Of course, this season brings also another member; one who has become famous among most of you already - Lady Freja! She expresses her warmest gratefulness to her favorite friends of the Petrie Museum for bringing her some most wonderful gifts! We also give a warm welcome to Mohamed Ibrahim as our inspector!

Keeping this post short (another one will be posted by John tomorrow, giving you a description of our first week on site, including some prominent visits by TARA (Trust for African Rock Art) as well as Friends of the Petrie Museum and the Plymouth Egyptological group), we wish to welcome you once more to join us here virtually on our work at Silsila!

Season summary

Oh dear, how does one begin to summarize 2 months, almost 9 weeks, of survey work? This first half of the 2014 season’s fieldwork has brought an incredible amount of new material, knowledge and understanding of the site in general, and chronologically span over 10 000 years of history. Epigraphy, topography, ceramic analysis, geological (surface) analysis, lithic studies, rock art recording, ‘contemporary’ epigraphic documentation (early travellers, etc.), quarry marks, team marks, extraction techniques, transportation routes; these (along with many more) are all topics that have been incorporated into the larger umbrella of our comprehensive archaeological study of Gebel el Silsila this season.

Glorious equinox sunrise over the East Bank

We have reached a greater understanding as to the chronological development of the site, from its earliest visitors in the form of nomadic hunter-gather groups that temporary found shelter and hunting ground along Silsila’s shores and wadis, to the various quarrying expeditions that were sent out by this and that pharaoh for the building of  one or another sanctuary. Epigraphic, ceramic and archaeological material comes together and help us understand in greater detail the smaller differences of techniques used on site – this may not sound very interesting or important, but each one of these details aid us in pinpointing Silsila’s function and importance during antiquity.

One of many shrines at Silsila

In addition to the purely scientific work, we have enjoyed a peaceful and successful season filled with excitement and adventure! We have been visited by various friends and colleagues, individually and groups; each one of which have reminded us of how blessed we are to work in such a magical ancient site as Madam Silsila.

One of many quarry marks on the West Bank

So, how can we then summarize this spring season? Well, let us divide it into weeks and take you on a visual journey (like so often before).

Week 1:

During the first week we conducted a general visual overview of the site, walking through the landscape and reminding ourselves of the diversity of archaeological material presented. It feels good to start each season with a couple of days’ inspection in order to estimate current state of preservation, to see the material in new light, with new experience and with the stored knowledge and understanding from previous seasons. The light changes incredibly much from season to season, month to month, morning to night, so a revisit now and again to already recorded locations can be very fruitful. It is also a nice introduction for our new inspector (s), to get a quick and summarized insight into the site. This week we had the great pleasure of welcoming Dr. Sarah K. Doherty to the site, and efficient and driven as she is she jumped straight into the task of recording the pottery in our Main Quarry. Scott A. Roberts visited the site this week and provided the team with some professional photographs in preparation for a nice coffee table publication (!). The team was furthermore joined by three inspectors in training from Kom Ombo, and received during the season field experience necessary for their education.

Ahmed and John inspecting rock art, with Scotty capturing the moment from another angle

John describing the transportation of blocks within the northern corridor of Q37

Maria using a ladder to capture epigraphic material on higher grounds

Our visitor Scotty busy photographing

The arrival of a great Irish(wo)man

Inspector Mohamed

Week 2:

This week the team divided into a ceramic study group and a rock art documentation group. As Sarah continued working her way through the pottery of the Main Quarry she generously took the time to teach our visiting inspector students the various ins and outs of ceramic analysis. Meanwhile the rock art survey continued on the west bank, including a more comprehensive photographic documentation, production of acetate copies and hand drawn images, measurements, marking of GPS coordinates into the system, etc. The surface in and around the various rock art sites was studied, and in some cases revealed lithic material that may bring a better understanding in terms of chronology. The lithic work shop (surface scatter) that was discovered during our 2013 season was studied in more detail, and other than the vast amount of debetage (waste material/’left overs’), we were happy to record various cores, triangular geometrics and scrapers made of quartz, flint, volcanic stone and the odd silicified sandstone –used as tools or for tool making.   During our second week we were all taken by the beauty captured in a series of fossilized leaves and branches dating some 75 million (!) years back. The word of the day was ‘wow’ as we all painted an inner picture of what Silsila must have appeared as all these millions of years ago. Humbleness for sure!

Documentation of a Roman road

Sarah at her best!

assistant worker Salah having some time off for Shisha

Salah helping Maria in directing/reflecting light for rock art photography

Ahmed drawing the rock art by hand

  

Week 3:

The rock art survey continued on both sides of the Nile and the ceramic analysis moved from East to West to take a closer look at the various scattered layers on and around Pottery Hill. The aim was to begin the long process of setting up a stylistic database for the site, something that has never been done before. Those of you who have worked with pottery before know very well how long this process is and it goes without saying that Sarah’s job this season was only a beginning, but hey, one has to start somewhere!? Despite one or two curses of Roman pottery our honorable ceramic specialist seemed to have come to terms with the somewhat later material than the Old Kingdom material she had grown so fond of previously.

Lunch time on Pottery Hill

Understanding from the hat and scarves, March was rather chilly

Breakfast time on the motorboat

John trying to argue for his cause

During this week the Gebel el Silsila Survey Project team was honored to participate in the UNESCO organized conference ‘the southern gate of Egypt’ in Aswan where we presented the latest research from site.

The Silsila Team at the Aswan conference

           

Weeks 4-5:

Prof. James Harrell joined the team during week 4 and we spent some quality time studying and discussing the various extraction techniques and geological features of the site. The plan is for Jim to return to site and begin a larger geological study in 2015. As always, it is a true pleasure and delight to have him present!

One of Silsila's many strange but wonderful geological features

As we said our farewell to our Irish team member the focus turned towards the south where two rock inscription sites were documented in more detail. As reported previously we were pleased to find more evidence of Middle Kingdom activity in the area, represented in epigraphic material as well as in quarrying techniques. During a day with a heavy, but beautiful thunderstorm we recorded some 50 textual and pictorial inscriptions in this area with representations ranging from Predynastic pictographs to Roman game boards!

Quarrying (trench) detail

Week 7:

There was no fieldwork carried out during what should have been week 6 since we left Egypt for the UK to participate in the CRE XV conference in London. No rest for the wicked though, as we returned to Silsila the day after our return to Egypt, and we were joined by visiting Egyptologist Dr. Philippe Martinez. Philippe will join the team officially as a team member for the coming season and will be responsible for the recording of foremost hieroglyphic material. As reported in our last blog post, this week brought with it some proper daredevils as we had a 15 m scaffolding system erected in the northern-most part of Silsila East. Forget about western health and safety measures, this piece brought us an opportunity, not to mention experience and adventure, of a lifetime as we climbed the external ladder to record the stele of Amenhotep IV. At the same time, five Predynastic rock art panels were recorded and two Epipalaeolithic clusters of depictions were added to the forever growing list of Prehistoric material at Silsila. Then one shall not forget to mention the excitement (?!) of entering the bat-colonized subterranean quarry gallery that revealed one or another piece of interesting information. Dressed in chicken-yellow rubber clothes from top to toe, an internal sauna was to be expected, but hey, who said archaeology is an easy task?!

Weeks 8-9:

During our last week and a half we spent some quality time recording the epigraphic material in the Main Quarry of the West Bank, which also resulted in the production of a preliminary plan drawing of the quarry’s 50+ quarry faces. As this gigantic ‘hole’ in the mountain was created during various chronological phases it came as no surprise to discover texts and images ranging from the New Kingdom throughout to the Roman Period. Quarry marks, proper identity marks, labels of the quarry, names of individuals, and pictorial graffiti in various forms were all presented before our eyes.

the Main Quarry of the West Bank

Our last couple of days on site was spent recording the area commonly known as the ‘harbor’ at the West Bank, and it was during these days that we had the great pleasure of welcoming Mr. Francois Tonic and his tour group who defied the heat and visited the site one morning. We like to express our gratefulness for their support of our work and look forward to future visits!

'Harbor' Quarry with inspector Sayed acting providing scales

French group on a day's visit to Silsila

the same group invited to share drinks on the floating dig house

Then it was time to pack up, collecting one’s belongings from the floating dig house of two months, try to write up and summarize a report of what had been done and what results had been achieved, and try to return to a more normal office life where the first task would be to deal with the thousands and yet thousands of images that had been produced during the season.   As so often before, this season has brought us more questions, thankfully also many answers, but we count ourselves fortunate to be able to now gather our thoughts, review the material and prepare for the next season of work to come. Maybe we will manage to put another little blog post in here before the autumn season takes off, and either way, we hope to have you with us virtually along this exciting journey of surveying Madam Silsila!

Inspector Sayed giving scale to prepared blocks

Maria documenting epigraphic material and extraction layers

John, Philippe and assistant Mohamed having a closer look at one of the shrines

Philippe enjoying himself in the Speos

John with inspectors Sayed and Mostafa in one of the shrines

Thank you for all your support and encouragement this season, for your comments and for all the new contacts that we have made during this journey. In the not too far future we will present our new, proper website for you and with it the ‘Friends of Silsila’, which will enable various exciting features to the project!

first half of the season's team

second half

The team of spring 2014:

Stretching from March 1 to April 30 2014 the team for this season consisted of Mission Director Maria Nilsson, topographic recorder John Ward, ceramic specialist Sarah K. Doherty, geological specialist James A. Harrell, visiting Egyptologist Philippe Martinez and SCA inspectors Mr. Mohamed Hamdy, Mr. Ahmed Sayed, Mr. Mohamed Hassan, Mr. Mostafa Mohamed and Mr. Sayed Mahmoud. In addition three inspectors were trained in fieldwork, including Mr. Khalid Ahmed, Miss Walaa Ali and Miss Asmaa Mohamed.

one cannot forget to include Mr. Carter in the team of spring 2014

We owe our deepest gratitude to the members of the Permanent Committee for giving us permission to work at Silsila. Our gratefulness is directed also to the inspectorates of Kom Ombo, especially Ahmed Sayed and Mohamed Ngar, and Director Abd el Moniem Said, and equally to the General Directors of Aswan Mr. Fathy Abuzied, and to all the inspectors assigned to our project.

Varia:

Lightning over Silsila

One of our symbolic protectors

one cannot forget our flying friends

Maria

John

Sometimes the desert present strange artifacts, such as plastic sunglasses' frames

and what a laugh we had...

no words needed

hiding from the smell of a dead animal

assisting the erection of the scaffolding from the top

John busy broadcasting for Intrepid Radio each Monday morning

migrating storks

visit from our Dutch friends 

more lightning

yet some more

rock art recording...