Egypt

AERA Giza Plateau blog

Aeraweb

The AERA (Ancient Egypt Research Associates) blog for the 2012 Field Season has been running for some weeks at the Giza Plateau, with four posts to date. Here's the most recent of the posts:

With two photos.

Posted by Rabee Eissa, SCA archaeologist

One of the most interesting things that I noticed in my excavation, in what seems to be a storage building that dates to the Old Kingdom in Giza, is a concentration of ash. This ash surrounded circular mud brick silos that had been constructed beside each other forming an L. The ash itself was very dark, dense and soft. Thinking about the silos and the ash, I remembered my mother and her storage methods for the butter. She put the butter in a big aluminum jar and surrounded the jar with a layer of soft ash to prevent the ants from reaching the butter. My colleague Hussein Rekaby, an excavation supervisor, told me that the people in his village near Aswan still use the same idea in their construction of storage silos. They start by spreading ash horizontally, then they put clay to make the base of the silo before building the silo itself. Hanan Mahmoud, hearing Hussein’s story, told me that she exposed a layer of ash deposit under a sequence of round mud brick silos when she excavated House E to the East of Queen Khentkawes tomb at Giza. We follow some of our ancestors’ daily life behaviors and customs.

- Online: Aera Open Access Publications
Ancient World Online (Charles Jones) A useful summary of all the freely available resources on the AERA website, Egypt Research Associates explores Egypt’s archaeological record seeking the origins of civilization. Our mission is to contribute insight...

- Aera 2009 Annual Report From Giza
AERA Ancient Egypt Research Associates I could have sworn that I had posted this before, but I cannot find it on the blog, so above is the link and apologies if this is a repeat posting. The following is part of the introduction by Mark Lehner. It is...

- 400 Impoverished Burials Found At Giza
Unreported Heritage News (Owen Jarus) Owen Jarus has reported on findings announced at the Atlanta conference, which he attended. Great story Owen! At a scholarly conference in Atlanta archaeologists announced that the burials of 400 people – dating...

- Aera Blog - Season Ending
AERA blog The Ancient Egypt Research Associates team who have been working for another season in Giza are now beginning to pack up and go home, but their blog is still online with lots of posts and photographs to review. Here's Brian Hunt's post...

- New Website Re Giza Plateau Mapping Project
http://www.aeraweb.org/ The above is a new website, which is the official Web site of the Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), specifically Dr. Mark Lehner and the Giza Plateau Mapping Project. It is a good looking site, with some nice features,...

Egypt