Egypt
- Dig Diary: Malqata
iMalqata The Malqata excavation is now underway at Luxor, and a dig diary with plenty of photographs can be found at the above address. Other tabs show information about the site, including its history. Here's a short expert: While the tombs of the...
- More Work By The Ees Delta Survey
EES Delta Survey With photos. Thursday again and the last working day of the week. We’ve continued investigating some of the high mud-brick walls, though some of the chunks of what look like mud-brick are deceptive. In some cases what has survived is...
- Ees Delta Survey - First Visit To Daba
Egypt Exploration Society (Patricia Spencer) With photos. This morning we went to the SCA office and met the Director for Kafr esh-Sheikh, Dr Mohammed Abdel Rafaa, who made us very welcome and actually remembered us from when we were touring around tells...
- Online Resource - Reports On The Palace Of Malqata, Luxor
iMalqata A series of online reports about the complex of Amenhotep III on the west bank of Luxor. Here's an exerpt from the introduction but look at the page itself for links to all the online articles available, dating from 1914 to 1992 (PDFs). ...
- Deadly Creatures Of The Desert
New Stuff () A short overview on the Explorer School's blog of some of the deadlier occupants of the Egyptian deserts. In the last five years of desert exploration and travel I have seen one scorpion and one horned viper. I have seen sand viper tracks...
Egypt
The Horned Viper
iMalqata
Although once a palace-city that housed hundreds of people, as an archaeological site Malqata is part of Egypt’s low desert. When you visit the site, it is not immediately apparent that wildlife is part of Maqata, but if one is quiet and patient after a little time local birds –like the crested lark appear. But not all the wildlife is innocuous and this season we were reminded of that while clearing the large patches of camelthorn (see blog post for Feb. 15, 2010) from across the site. Camelthorn is damaging to mud brick if it is allowed to grow in archaeological sites because its tough roots explode the brick as it grows. Since we don’t have much left in the way of brick, down to the last few rows, eliminating camelthorn to preserve any piece that still survives, is part of our site management program.
So we tackled this unpleasant task in a big way each season, setting a crew of about 12 men to cut the camelthorn and burn it. During this process, another of Malqata’s hidden occupants was discovered. Buried in the sand under two separate clusters of camelthorn were horned vipers.
- Dig Diary: Malqata
iMalqata The Malqata excavation is now underway at Luxor, and a dig diary with plenty of photographs can be found at the above address. Other tabs show information about the site, including its history. Here's a short expert: While the tombs of the...
- More Work By The Ees Delta Survey
EES Delta Survey With photos. Thursday again and the last working day of the week. We’ve continued investigating some of the high mud-brick walls, though some of the chunks of what look like mud-brick are deceptive. In some cases what has survived is...
- Ees Delta Survey - First Visit To Daba
Egypt Exploration Society (Patricia Spencer) With photos. This morning we went to the SCA office and met the Director for Kafr esh-Sheikh, Dr Mohammed Abdel Rafaa, who made us very welcome and actually remembered us from when we were touring around tells...
- Online Resource - Reports On The Palace Of Malqata, Luxor
iMalqata A series of online reports about the complex of Amenhotep III on the west bank of Luxor. Here's an exerpt from the introduction but look at the page itself for links to all the online articles available, dating from 1914 to 1992 (PDFs). ...
- Deadly Creatures Of The Desert
New Stuff () A short overview on the Explorer School's blog of some of the deadlier occupants of the Egyptian deserts. In the last five years of desert exploration and travel I have seen one scorpion and one horned viper. I have seen sand viper tracks...