EES Minufiyeh Survey

The last few days!

Thursday 13th to Saturday 15th October 2011

So, we moved into the very last few days - and Thursday 13th saw another early start as Jo headed up to Alexandria to give a talk at the Library! The talk described the work of this EES mission across the province since the start of 2005, focussing mainly on the investigations that have taken place during 2009-2011, both the ground survey as well as the excavations/research at Quesna. There was also time to discuss our first fieldschool, which was very well received.  There was a good audience, with members of the SCA, the EES (our Cairo representative, Faten, who had kindly organised the talk together with Sherine Ramadan at the Library), and colleagues from the Library and the University of Minufiyeh. It was a very nice occasion and a great opportunity to bring the results of the project to Alexandria as well as to Cairo for the first time! Today also saw the delivery of our end of season report to our inspector, who has been incredibly helpful during the season, as has our former inspector in August.

After the talk, outside the Library!

Friday 14th October was a busy day of finishing accounts, downloading data from the total station and saying goodbye to friends and colleagues once again. It has been a very successful season, once again, particularly in view of the fieldschool, but also the important attention that we were also able to give to survey work - at Khatatbah, Kom Usim, el-Rimaly and, of course, Quesna. This season we also had a good ten days to focus on post-excavation recording at the site, which was hugely valuable for analysis of the skeletal remains from T9, for completing both reconstruction and drawing of the coffins, for drawing small finds, and photographing not only the small finds from this season, but small finds from the past seasons which will find their way into our publication on Quesna - insha’allah by the end of 2012!

Saturday 15th October saw Jo’s return to Berlin, with other members of the team having departed at various points during the preceding week.  I, and we, are very grateful for the financial, logistical and other types of support that have been given to the mission during our work. We have been here since August and various team members have come and gone during this time, but all are equally appreciated - everyone has worked incredibly hard and shown much commitment to the project, as ever. I am thankful to everyone and look forward to returning early in 2012, insha’allah, to continue with our important work at Quesna and later in the year to work across the province!

Now …. the work doesn’t finish! It is now time to complete the full report for both 2011 seasons, to prepare ourselves for 2012 and, most importantly, to publish our results! 

Thank you for reading our blog once again, we will be back in 2012. In the meantime, please do keep an eye on our webpage at:

http://ees.ac.uk/research/Minufiyeh%20Archaeological%20Survey.html

which will be updated in the coming weeks with new information!

The team at Quesna, with our local workforce!

The fieldwork in Minufiyeh was funded by The Egypt Exploration Society, the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) and the Michela Schiff Giorgini Foundation.

Finishing things up!

Sunday 9th and Wednesday 12th October 2011

Sunday saw the last real day of work up at Quesna! There were many small tasks to be completed and, importantly, the re-organisation of the storeroom before closing the site on Wednesday! Our conservator, Yasser, and one of the team from Berlin, finished work on one of the ceramic coffins, while some of the small finds were drawn by our illustrator who came up from Cairo for the day! Then the task of transferring boxes, chairs and tables from the teaching room back into the main storeroom!  A busy, but satisfying day - it is always good to leave things in very good order ready for the next season!

Finishing stages on one of the reconstructed coffins!

On the Wednesday, with the exception of drawing a final coffin (the one pictured above!!) the main business of the day was awarding the certificates for the successful completion of the fieldschool - also recorded on video by one of the students! It was a really special event - the closure of our first fieldschool at Quesna (generously sponsered by the German Academic Exchange Service, at which Jo had given a talk the night before!) - and the closure of the season at Quesna. The students were so grateful for the knowledge learned and we were grateful that they had been such active participants at the fieldschool.  The attendance was overwhelming and it was incredible, although unsurprising, to see the desire to learn new methods and techniques for recording the cultural heritage of this wonderful country.

Students receiving their certificates!

Nearly the whole fieldschool team!

Pens down!

Saturday 9th October 2011

Exam day!  Today was the final exam for the end of the fieldschool!  We met with the students in the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Minufiyeh for the last time this season, and handed out the exam papers!  This is a 2 hour exam with questions covering the whole of the fieldschool!

The exam went well with everyone passing and then everyone came back to the appartments to have a little end of fieldschool party.  Our inspector cooked several dishes (including pudding!) and we had lots of fizzy drinks too.  It was a very nice occasion and a time for the students to relax after the exam.  We are going to miss them all very much - they have been a great group!

The exam in progress!

Outside the Faculty of Archaeology Buildling - after the exam!

A change of scene!

Wednesday 5th October 2011

Today we headed towards the site of Sersenna! The site contains material of Ptolemaic and Roman date and gave the students a chance to look at another site in the province that was excavated by an SCA mission.  With the trenches left open it was possible for the students to look at the stratigraphy in light of their tuition over the past weeks and to get a better understanding of stratigraphy and relative chronology. Although the sections were rather dry and dusty and hard to see, just a little spray of water helped to clarify the contexts for the students and much discussion took place.

With plenty of ceramic sherds scattered around, it was also very useful for them to discuss with Mandy the date and types of ceramics that would have been in use at the site - so they really put into practice the knowledge that had been gained in the preceding weeks!

It was also a chance for the students to practice laying out new excavation squares using Pythagorus’ Theorem and the 3, 4, 5 method! The students had remembered the basics of this method, so armed with some wooden sticks, a tape measure and a compass, two teams set to work - completing the squares sucessfully at just about the same time!

There was also the opportunity to theoretically look at the working of the burrima - the drill corer - since this is another piece of equipment that is fairly freely available and which can get excellent results both in terms of chronology and geology - it is very cost effective!

On the way home a few of us were lucky enough to stop by the local hotel in Shuhada where the manager wanted to show us around. We were treated to ice cold fizzy drinks and a tour - which included a precious half an hour in the games room - where much uses of the pool and table-tennis tables was made!

Laying out the grid - check the bearings!

Getting the right angle….

and finally, balancing the level!

Working in the storerooms!

Tuesday 4th October 2011

The processing of the finds from the 2011 and earlier seasons has been ongoing since Saturday morning when we headed back up to Quesna. Today the post-excavation analysis of the skeletons excavated from T9 began, with Larry and Sarah confined to the bones ‘lab’ to focus on this material. One of the individuals examined today was the very tall individual found within the trench. Also relating to T9 our conservator, Yasser, continued to look for joins and to reconstruct the ceramic double vessel coffins that have been found during this season. The work of drawing the ceramic coffins began again as well, having been started by our ceramicist back in mid-August! Two more coffins - of varied types - were draw by Tass and Jo today and more will be completed on Thursday! 

The students continued to be put through their paces by Mandy and Ashraf today as they worked again with ceramic finds and practiced drawing sherds - some apparently quite tricky!  Practice is what is needed now!  For a change of scene and to put their new knowledge into context, a field trip will take place to a Ptolemaic-Roman site in Minufiyeh tomorrow, where it is possible to examine the stratigraphic sections of old archaeological trenches and find the ceramic material in context! One of our ceramicists will join the trip, so this should really be quite enlightening!  We will also be showing the students how to work with the theodolite as opposed to the total station which was mainly operational during the excavations at Quesna!

Today the backfilling of this season’s trenches was completed, ahead of schedule for the first time ever! The workers did a great job and we are going to miss them all - but they’ll be back next year (insha’allah).  The day concluded nicely with a dinner of kushery from the corniche kushery stall. Very nice and a relaxing mealtime for everyone!

Sara, our inspector, measuring in the bones ‘lab’.

Mr Yasser, seemingly behind bars until he finishes the reconstruction of the pottery coffins!!

Back at the site!

Saturday 1st October 2011

The mornings and evenings are certainly starting to cool down as we head into autumn! We returned to the site this morning following a short break towards the end of last week. The students, as usual, joined us in the afternoon at the university, but the morning was spent in the excavation of one of three burials currently open in Trench 9, that had been drawn, measured, photographed - and levels taken - during the end of last week. The students did much of the drawing and their skills are being quickly honed! The burials are very fragmentary and therefore a solution of paraloid (a consolidant) was used in the field in order to strengthen the bones. 

In the afternoon it was the turn of the ceramicists to talk to the students - and Mandy and Ashraf discussed elements of ceramics’ analysis from the origins of different clays, to the temper found within the clay, to how to draw a pot (from a sherd) and what to include - Ashraf repeated the key elements of the talk again in Arabic - a task that we all share in!  It certainly improves all of our language skills in various directions! Mr Yasser, our conservator, also presented a talk highlighting some key issues of conservation in the field as well as showing the results of his work at a Roman site in Beheira province, including the collection and reconstruction of a mosaic!

This week will see a slightly different approach to previous weeks as we take the field school on the road for two days!  We will head to Kom Usim later in the week so that the students can gain some experience in drill coring and the using of the simple theodolite - as well as field walking and ceramic observation! We also plan to visit a working pottery!  In the meantime, the students continue their ceramic tuition for a further two days - this time looking at the material collected on the ground survey this summer - we will wait for the results most eagerly!

Students and teachers on Saturday afternoon at the University!

A full day!

Monday 26th September 2011

Another busy day! Today we had a new team member with us for the day - from Germany - who was of great help with the preparation and consolidation of a number of burials in the trench! The students, as yesterday, spent the period before second breakfast in the trench and then moved into the workrooms to receive more instruction - more practical today - in conservation and ceramics analysis!

In the trench a new area was uncovered within the trench, already revealed a number of new features which were planned today and which will be worked on in the coming days! Much drawing was carried out in T9 and further parts of one of the coffins were excavated - having been marked by our conservator - and carried back to the room on a door!

The weather has dramatically improved - quite cloudy today and not too hot at all - which is a relief given the previously very hot weather that we have had! The workers were in fine form today and everyone very much enjoyed the day. We got the ladder out for the first time to take a picture of the new quadrant of the square - see photo below - and tomorrow we will further investigate these features!  Another new area of investigation will be opened in the morning!

Larry up a ladder - ready to take the photos!

All change for the students!

Sunday 25th September 2011

This morning saw a big change - the students switched their activities to focus on the analysis and drawing of ceramic finds and also on conservation.  They did, however, work in T9 until second breakfast at 10am and made considerable progress there before heading into the work rooms after breakfast!

Five of the students worked with Mr Yasser on conservation - already looking at the cleaning of metallic artefacts and they started working on the reconstruction of the ceramic coffins that they have been involved in excavating this current season!  The other five students worked with Mandy and Ashraf, looking at the importance of ceramic finds and their archaeological context and they will be learning the principles of drawing ceramics as well as how to best describe the ceramic ‘fabrics’ themselves.  Everyone seemed very happy with their new tuition!

Back in the field T9 was full steam ahead and during the day we were able to record - photograph and draw - two coffin burials and also two of the students from Germany did an excellent job of drawing and starting to lift the burial of a tall individual! This work was completed by a small team this afternoon and there is much to continue with in the morning!

The conservator (left) and fieldschool students labelling and removing pieces of a ceramic coffin for restoration in the conservation lab.

Excavation and off to the university!

Saturday 24th September 2011

Today, as with last Saturday, was quite a long day - but successful!  This morning was spent up at the site where most of the activity - and manpower focussed on T9!  T11 continued to go down and now the extended section of the trench is at approximately the same depth as the original western part.  Plant remains below the surface may suggest that we will soon be coming down upon a feature - but we wait another day to see!

In T9 the trench was extended in order to allow us to see the full outline of a number of burials which were - as is always the case - running into the baulk of the trench. This work was carried out mostly successful in a short space of time this morning and the drawings commenced.  In the rest of the trench, one burial was lifted and another prepared for drawing, which will take placed tomorrow.

Our conservator, Yasser, continued to work with yet another fragile coffin, but with the consolidants he is managing a very good job of reconstruction and tomorrow the students will spend part of the day either in conservation or pottery training!  So there will be many students drawing pottery sherds and also in reconstructing coffins!  The students will spend the period before second breakfast in the trench, however - since we missed their input in the trench today!

At 2pm we all met in the university and Tass spoke to the students about the Harris Matrix and the recording of archaeological stratigraphy and Larry discussed some of the burials that had been excavated during the previous week.  The students were very discussive today and everyone enjoyed the weekly quiz too! 

We were joined tonight by our ceramicist Ashraf el-Senussi who will work together with Mandy, our visiting ceramicist and fellow fieldschool teacher.  We are very happy to welcome them both!

Excavations in the Ptolemaic cemetery continue!

Wednesday 21st September and Thursday 22nd September 2011

Work continued at a good pace in T9, the trench investigating the northern extent of the main part of the Ptolemaic (and possibly Early Roman) cemetery.  More information will become available after Friday when Ashraf el-Senussi joins us from the Fayum to investigate the ceramics that have been collected from the surface layers and from the individual burials until now! As usual the ceramics are all broken into small pieces - sherds - but there is at least one amphora that might be reconstructable!!

Investigation and excavation of the ceramic (double vessel-type) coffins continued as the students got to grips with drawing burials over the course of the week. Some of the students have picked up the main aspects of archaeological drawing very quickly and there have been a number of excellent drawings of the burials in addition to the coffins.  As is usually the case at Quesna, the bones are in a poor state of preservation, but our conservator from the SCA mixed a solution of Primal which is being used as a consolidant before lifting the skeletal remains so that there is a chance to study the bones in more detail in the on-site ‘lab’.

Two of the local university students drawing one of the burials in T9.

In the north of the site, not far from the mastaba, another trench was opened to investigate the radar results and it now seems that the features may be a little deeper than had originally been anticipated, so the number of local workers increased on Wednesday and Thursday, enabling us to work at a quicker rate - although still sieving every basket of sand as we move down.  We still hope for good news on this front in the course of the next few days!

The students are all really enthusiastic and keen to stay and work as many hours as possible!  On Thursday they finish a little early, although one asked if he could stay a little longer with us until 3pm, when we all pack-up to head home.  It was a very quiet couple of hours at the site, but Jo managed to help out with Larry, Tass, Mohamed and our inspector, in T9 in order to further investigate one of the coffin burials as well as a very tall individual!

In the conservation ‘lab’, Yasser continued to work with the reconstruction of the ceramic coffins, including the consolidation of part of a double-vessel coffin which had been reconstructed during 2010 but had not held together. He is now attempting to reconstruct it for a second time and hopefully it will remain intact this time.  On Saturday, when Ashraf el-Senussi joins us, one of the aspects of his work will be to draw the ceramic coffins, which will be another interesting experience for the fieldschool students!

Yasser consolidating and reconstructing the ceramic coffins