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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Plover on the bank of the lake.

The Isheru has fewer birds than last summer, but I have seen a few kingfishers briefly. The plovers, however, are here in numbers, and here is one moving about the banks of the lake looking for whatever seems tasty.


Afaf, Meg, and gufti Sayeed busy at the baulk.

You see Afaf, Meg, and gufti Sayeed busy at the baulk between trenches G Central 6 and East 13. The primary burial here is covered at the top of the photo, but they are finding that within the small Kom (mound) there are other human remains, as well as well-preserved pottery. In the second photo you find the northern part of the baulk’s mound where Afaf has partially cleaned the small skull of an infant. Nearby are two pots, one larger and slightly higher than the other, and the other an oval red streak-burnished pot. Work will proceed.

Skull and two pots.

Jessica, Maggie, Yasin, and Yehyia working to define the skeleton.

In trench East 12 the remains of a burial had been mistaken for an infant, but now we understand it to be an adult rather tightly flexed oriented with the head out of the baulk – the head having been found and taken to the laboratory in 2012. Jessica (standing), Maggie, Yasin (kneeling), and Yehyia are working to define this skeleton. You see a bit later a process shot showing arms (bent up), trunk, and pelvis. Later in the day with further cleaning, the full pelvis is visible and the arms are far more visible. This one has no legs remaining, despite the fact that they should have been in the baulk. It will be removed tomorrow.

Skeleton showing arms, trunk and pelvis. Skeleton after further cleaning.

Jessica discusses the findings in Trench Central 6.

We have had a visit from the University of Memphis Karnak expedition (sans their leader, Peter Brand, who was not well), and you see their members listening to Jessica discuss the Kom in Trench Central 6, as well as the large flexed burial and the emerging infant. She is explaining the context of the burials as we now understand it, that of a flexed burial placed without a pit covered with a bricky dome into which at least one additional burial (child) was desposited.

Visitors from the University of Memphis Karnak expedition.

Meredith proudly displays a red burnished Nile silt “tagin” of the Late SIP to early 18th Dynasty that she has glued together.

Meredith proudly displays a red burnished Nile silt “tagin” of the Late SIP to early 18th Dynasty that she has glued together. We have a very close parallel in the Petrie (thank heaven for their photos online and in the AERA handbook!), so we know that we lack only a simple rim in the center. This pot derived from a very small room in trench East 10 where a stack of red burnished dishes was left in a stack, as in a pantry. The small room was within a complex of walls representing storage areas, most likely. The early to mid-18th Dynasty predominated here, but the later Second Intermediate Period walls appeared to be in the same orientation.


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