Egypt

Dig Diary highlights

Hopkins in Egypt Today

16th February 2008: There are some splendid aeriel photographs of the Temple of Mut on the Dig Diary, taken from a tiny seaplane.

Brooklyn Museum

20th February 2008: Conservator John Steele recently arrived on site at the Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut in south Karnak, and has updated the blog with his experiences:

I set about surveying my conservation supplies, and examined the small finds from this season, including a group of about forty coins. Pictured above is one of the first coins I cleaned mechanically with brushes and dental tools that shows the head of a Roman emperor yet to be identified. In the other picture I’m cleaning another coin with the pointed end of a wooden skewer after softening the outer layers of corrosion in a chemical solution of 10% EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid) in water made basic with ammonia. Uncovering legible details on heavily corroded coins requires a steady hand and a lot of patience but if successful can aid in dating the area the coins were found in.

Proyecto Djehuty

21st February 2008: More beautiful photographs (click on them to expand them) and more news from the newly discovered tomb of Iker. The tombs are now closed for the season, but the team will be back next year for their eighth season, when their main aim will be to excavate the funerary chamber of the tomb of Djehuty, which they discovered at the base of an eight metre deep shaft:

Hoy tocaba recogida general y, a medio día, hemos cerrado las tumbas. Hasta el año que viene. Ha sido una campaña intensa, llena de fantásticas sorpresas. La próxima campaña, la octava, también promete emociones intensas y respuestas a importantes cuestiones planteadas en la excavación. El principal objetivo será, sin duda, la excavación de la cámara funeraria de Djehuty que descubrimos al fondo del pozo de más de ocho metros de profundidad. Djehuty nos espera.

Still nothing from KV63.

- Diario Djehuty
Diario Djehuty The Djehuty dig diary is in full swing for those of you speak Spanish, or are prepared to use a translation engine. Daily posts in January and February are accompanied by lovely photos. There's also a summary, in English, of the 2011...

- Dig Diaries
In all the fuss about Tutankhamun don't forget that work carries on as normal at the excavations in Egypt. In the north, the Leiden team at Saqqara have now posted seven weeks of their Mission Digging Diary. Even though the new tomb failed to produce...

- Proyecto Djehuty Closes For The Season
Proyecto Djehuty The 8th season of the Djehuty Project has now ended for the year. The site was closed up with locks on the iron gates, the seal of the SCA put in place. It was then walled up with stones and cement. The preliminary report for the Supreme...

- Conservation At The Temple Of Mut
Brooklyn Museum (John Steele) John Steele has updated the Brooklyn Museum blog with news from the Temple of Mut at Karnak. Here's an extract but see the above page for the full post, accompanied by some great photographs (Kat, there's a good one...

- Dig Diary Updates
It is always good fun to see history unfolding on the annual dig diaries. It is only a shame that more missions don't employ this simple device to inform and involve. The JHU excavations at the temple of Mut at Karnak are well underway and the diary...

Egypt