JANUARY 2009

JHU/ARCE Mut Lake Collaboration, 2008-2009

This is an educational web site that aims to provide the viewer with the elements of archaeological work, including the progress of excavation. The daily results are crucial to an understanding of how field investigation takes place, since decisions must be made on the basis of ongoing work. The people involved in the work are also an essential feature and contribute profoundly to the final outcomes. The focus of our diary is thus often on the people and their activities.

In January 2009, Dr. Bryan and her team of graduate and undergraduate students, conservators, and photographers will continue their investigation of the Sacred Lake and its perimeter. In a collaboration with the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), which also provides grant support with USAID funds of the JHU work inside the temple proper, Dr. Bryan will excavate the north perimeter of the lake after ARCE's project director Fraser Parsons has overseen the lowering of the lake during December. He will be assisted by his engineering staff and by ARCE Egyptologist Andrew Bednarski. The resources of the local Luxor ARCE office will also be a great help to our work.

Excavation will continue work done in June and July of 2008 proceeding from the region of an ancient stone dock on the east of the temple. Areas on the south, and west of the temple will also be investigated. Any materials found in the lake bed will be conserved and desalinated near the bank of the lake before being transferred to a further protected environment. This work will continue for about one month and precedes other work by ARCE to clean and freshen the lake. The lake will be refilled with less saline water after the work is completed in July and will be drained again next winter.

The JHU Mut Temple Foundation Project

Inside the temple between January and June, 2009, Mr. Franck Burgos, stone mason, will rebuild walls dismantled to support the temple’s west foundations, and he will do further strengthening at the south end of the temple. Assisted by two other stone masons, Mr. Burgos will also re-erect the porch of Hatshepsut found between 2004 and 2007 beneath the present foundation level of the temple.

The team this year consists of Dr. Betsy Bryan, Dr. Violaine Chauvet of the University of Liverpool, Mr. Chuck Van Siclen, Mr. Franck Burgos, Mr. Kent Severson, Ms. Hiroko Kariya, and Mr. Lotfi Hassan, all conservators, Mr. James Van Rensselaer and Mr. Norman Barker, photographers, and, most importantly, our students Ashley Fiutko, Shaina Norvell-Cold, Meredith Fraser, undergraduate major Jessica Popkins, and former undergraduate major Emily Russo, now a graduate student in Egyptology at Brown University. 

As always, the Johns Hopkins University thanks the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and, in particular, its Secretary General, Dr. Zahi Hawass, for their ongoing support of our archaeological work in Egypt . The Supreme Council of Antiquities supervises all fieldwork research in Egypt and also monitors and preserves the ancient monuments.

To follow the day to day progress of the JHU Expedition, click on the thumbnail images in the calendar below.

Calendar for January 2009 S M T W T F S         1 2 3 9 30 31

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© The Johns Hopkins University 2009
The images shown on this web site have been approved for one time use through the kindness of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. No other use of any kind is allowed without their further permission.
For additional information contact: macie.hall@jhu.edu