Interactive Hierakonpolis updated - 2008 Field Note 2, Fixing the Fort

A cooking pot incised with the cartouche of Queen Hatshepsut (New Kingdom), is the only evidence for activity inside the Fort from the time it was built until the Sixth century. It appears to have been hallowed ground for at least 2,000 years after it was built.

In February 2009, we will face one of the biggest challenges in our efforts to conserve the Second Dynasty (ca. 2700 B.C.) mud-brick enclosure of King Khasekhemwy (a.k.a. the Fort). It will soon be time to do something permanent about the large and ugly gap in the interior face of the west wall, the last, but more serious, threat to the long-term survival of this intriguing monument. We have long known it was going to be a big job, but the true measure of this task only became fully apparent last season, when we began to flatten the dishevelled ground surface of the interior, which was no small job in itself, since it covers an area of about 47x57 m (or roughly 51x62 yards, the size of half an American football field).

The area enclosed by the Fort's walls has been a mess since 1905 (if not before) because of the excavations of John Garstang, who uncovered more than 166 Predynastic graves within it. The excavations were never properly back filled leaving a depression up to 2 m below the level of the wall bases, especially on the north side, while undulating ridges of excavation back dirt towering over 2.5 m above the level of the original floor filled the southern and western sectors. In order to prevent further subsidence of the walls, improve the general appearance and create workspace for the large-scale repairs we were going to have to make to the interior walls, we embarked on a massive flattening operation in January 2008. Our aim was to return the ground level to near or above the original floor level by manually redistributing the dirt from the higher piles into low lying areas. A large local workforce was recruited for this mammoth task, for which they were remarkably enthusiastic especially as the results soon became apparent.

Our excavations inside the Fort in 1999 showed that the higher heaps contained only redeposited debris, but we remained on the alert for undisturbed areas. None were found except for a small ridge in the southwest which contained evidence for animal keeping in the form of stratified layers of animal dung. Pottery recovered nearby suggests occupation in the Persian period (6th-3rd centuries B.C.) and later. Interestingly, one stratum was filled with tumbled bricks, indicating that already at the relatively tender age of only 2,500 years, the Fort was becoming a little fragile. This area has been reserved for future investigation and it is hoped that below, undisturbed layers from the Second Dynasty will be preserved.

It was notable throughout the work that we observed no material from the periods between the Second Dynasty and the Persian period. We found no further evidence of New Kingdom activity to complement the straw tempered cooking pot incised with the cartouche of Queen Hatshepsut recovered within the Fort in unclear circumstances in 1978. Overall, it would appear that for at least two millennia after it was built the Fort remained hallowed (or at least unused) ground.