#dig diary

Dig Diary, February 10, 2019:

We arrived in Luxor on February 1 and had a day off to relax and get over jet lag. As always, the view across the Nile is spectacular, particularly in the early morning with the balloons flying over the west bank.

After finishing all the paperwork involved in starting a season on Sunday, we began work on Monday, February 4. Our inspector this year is Dina Yousuf Abdallah, a graduate of the American Research Center in Egypt’s archaeological field school. We are very happy to have Dina with us.

Once again our foreman is Abdel-Aziz Farouk Sharid (left), and we are fortunate to have his brother, Ayman, working with us as well. Both are excellent and experienced archaeologists.

Along the south side of Temple A’s First Court runs a raised colonnade. At the east end of the court is a chapel dedicated to Nitocris, a God’s Wife of Amun during Dynasty 26 that we discovered in 1980. In 1996 we uncovered a row of limestone rectangles bounded on the south by the colonnade, on the west by the 2nd Pylon, on the east by a sandstone wall, and on the north by a row of sandstone blocks. We suspect the limestone blocks are the remains of sphinx bases that were incorporated into the flooring of whatever this feature is, particularly since the westernmost segment was cut in half by the construction of the temple’s 2nd Pylon in Dynasty 25. As you can see in this photo looking south across the court, both the limestone and the chapel have become obscured by windblown dirt in the intervening years.

This year we decided to explore the area between the two features to see if we can figure out how they relate. By Thursday, Ayman had cleared the face of the colonnade and the west wall of the Nitocris chapel (background) and had uncovered a pair of walls running east from the wall bounding the limestone bases (foreground), some paving associated with them, and two small north-south walls just west of the Nitocris chapel. We have no idea what they are yet, but hope that further work will make things clearer.

We also planned a couple of what we hoped would be fairly simple conservation projects. On the north side of the same court stand three pieces of granite statues of Ramesses II and a broken and tilted rear half of a sphinx. We intended to move all four sculptures onto bases that will isolate them from further damage by the damp and salty soil. More about the statues next week.

We are fortunate to have the conservator, Salah (in the blue sweater), working with us again this year, aided this time by Anwar (foreground). Once they had removed the broken pieces from the sphinx, it was a fairly easy matter to move the largest piece onto its new base using simply a crowbar and rollers – and considerable skill.

Once the base was properly positioned, Salah and Anwar could begin treating the statue.

The north side of the court also has a colonnade along its north wall, but these columns are mostly fallen and little remains. Our second project this season was to re-erect at least the two columns in the northeast corner of the court. These two, with four drums each preserved, seemed worth putting back together. Simple, right? Just roll the column drums aside (relatively easy – no winch needed), build new bases for them and use a tripod and winch to put the drums back in place.

It turns out the situation isn’t simple at all. Much to our surprise, when we rolled the lowest drum of the eastern column out of the way we discovered that the original base still exists, although its two halves – of very differently colored sandstone – are badly deteriorated. Even more surprising is that the base sits on paving that is about 50 cm below modern ground level!

Since we don’t have time to excavate the whole north side of the court nor to consolidate and rebuild the column base, we have decided to cover it with a protective sheet of plastic and lay down a thick layer of sand covered by earth. On this firmer ground we plan to build a new “base” for the column drums so we can set them up in their original location if not on their original base. If that works our, we’ll do the same with the second column.

There’s often a surprise waiting for us back at the hotel. The housekeepers get very creative with towels.  Sometimes we get a swan, but on Wednesday we were greeted by this ship sailing on the Red Sea.

At the end of the day it is very pleasant to sit on the hotel balcony and watch the feluccas sailing along the Nile. What a view!

Dig Diary, February 24, 2019:

The season ended on February 21. We got an incredible amount done in just three weeks. 

Here you are looking east across the south side of Temple A’s 1st Court, which has been completely cleared for the first time. The next few pictures will give you a more detailed view.

The limestone sphinx bases we saw for the first time in the 1990s are now visible again along with the walls built over/around them. There is even a patch of original paving (rear) between the base on the left and the one on the right. It is impossible to date any of this precisely, but we can at least determine the sequence of construction. The sphinx bases are the earliest feature as the one on the right was cut by the construction of the 25th Dynasty 2nd Pylon. The south wall, which abuts the footing of the colonnade,  sits on several centimeters of earth above the limestone and rides over the lip of the pylon, so it was built after the pylon was completed, that is, no earlier than late Dynasty 25. The east wall is part of the same structure as the south wall and sits on top of another sphinx base.

You are looking southwest across the central area, which we excavated this year. The small structure against the west wall of the area (right) may be a small chapel. What the square feature in the foreground is we will never know. Both appear to be built on the remains of the row of sphinx bases. The wall dividing the area into east and west was cut back to accommodate the north wall of the chapel(?), so it is either contemporary with or slightly later than the western structure.

As well as excavating the area, we neatened it up by straightening up the column drums in what is left of the colonnade along the south side of the court (background).

The Nitocris chapel at the end of the season. Attributed to her on the basis of a lintel found nearby, it was presumably built in Dynasty 26, and is thus the only datable structure on the south side of the court. Earlier in the season we discovered the broken block that formed the east doorjamb, with its granite pivot. We put it back in place so that the chapel now has a doorway in roughly its original position. While we couldn’t excavate the rear room, we have at least leveled the pair of raised sandstone blocks against the south wall and put the eastern column drum (left) back on its base.

Here’s another view of the chapel looking north. Once we had cleared the first two rooms, we laid down sheets of plastic and covered them with sand and a layer of gravel in hopes of inhibiting the growth of weeds and grass. The doorjambs and their door pivots are a bit clearer in this picture.

Once all the excavation was done, Mary began to map the area. It’s a fussy and time-consuming task, but has to be done.

On February 16, I noticed this gaping hole in the lowest course of the court’s north wall, whose reliefs depict the birth, circumcision and presentation of Taharqa to the gods. This is one of the most important relief sequences at the site, so repairing the wall became an instant priority. There was a similar but smaller gap nearby in the 2nd Pylon.

By February 20, Salah and Anwar had repaired both areas using sandstone blocks. The surface will be coated with a layer of mortar tinted to match the original stone after we leave – we just ran out of time.

On February 17, the torso of the Ramesside statue was lifted out of the dirt and placed on its new mastaba.

The three pieces of the statues and the rear half of the sphinx at the end of the season. They are now at least somewhat protected against encroaching dirt and dampness.

We had originally planned on re-erecting only the two eastern columns on the north side of the court, but concluded that we could use the blocks from the disorganized heap of column drums Mary described last week to build a third column. This column’s base was partly covered by the pathway leading to the Taharqa circumcision scene, one of the most popular features of the site. We had to cut the path back a bit, but it was worth it to get this column back in place. We’ve also generally cleaned up the area, including putting an elaborate column capital up on a mastaba. Pillet had left it with its decorated side facing the 3rd Pylon and thus hidden from view. It is just in front of the column on the right.

Here’s a view roughly northeast along the complete colonnade on the court’s north side. All the columns are now in their proper locations After we leave, Salah and Anwar are going to build new bases for the 4th and 5th columns from the left, which are now just sitting on bricks.

Before I leave you, I want to introduce one more important member of the team: Ezadin Mohamed Abdel Razik. Eza keeps us supplied throughout the workday with hot tea and karkadeh (a drink made from hibiscus blossoms). This may sound minor, but hot tea is very welcome on cold mornings, and karkadeh is very refreshing in the heat of the day. Eza is also a very cheerful and conscientious person.

On Thursday morning we saw a large number of harriers (I think- we need Jaap to tell us for sure) scavenging on the surface of the Nile.

For some reason, a few of the trees in the hotel garden have been severely pruned and the spaces where large branches used to grow have been filled with cement in which white stones have been carefully set. Each tree has a plaque commemorating a couple. No one now at the hotel remembers why this was done or who the couples were. There’s always some mystery in Luxor.

Dig Diary, February 12, 2018:

We finished the new retaining walls and stairway down to the Thutmoside gate on  February 6. We installed a post and rope barrier around the area for the safety of visitors as the excavation is quite deep. At last people will be able to get a close look at this important monument, one of the earliest standing structures in the Mut Precinct.

We were very lucky that Julia Harvey was willing to come again this year even though there is no pottery for her to sort. She arrived on site on February 3 and was an immense help with the final documentation and photography of the site’s Sekhmet statues. Here she is dusting off the lap of the large and famous statue in the Mut Temple’s 2nd Court so I can photograph it.

In 2001 we painted inventory numbers on all the Sekhmet statues then visible at the site. On February 6, Julia and I added numbers to the statues found since then but not numbered. The tools of the trade for documentation: brushes to clean dust off surfaces about to be photographed or numbered, a mirror to cast good light on inscriptions, and paint for numbering. On the right, adding its number to the large statue Julia dusted a few days ago.

Speaking of Sekhmets, Jaap found two pieces of a Sekhmet inscription lying on the mastaba (platform on which stone blocks are kept) at the front of the precinct. It only took him a few minutes to realize that they belong to a badly damaged statue in the Mut Temple’s 1st Court.  Incredibly, he also found a fragment of the statue’s base nearby; the pieces fit perfectly! Congratulations, Jaap!

Most of the effort this week has centered around the restoration of the Sekhmet statue in Temple A. Putting the two sections of the base together was the most nerve-wracking as the stone remains fragile even after consolidation. On the left, Mohamed Abdu pours epoxy into the holes in the rear part of the base to hold the stainless steel rods once the two pieces are joined. Then comes the painstaking effort to lower one piece onto the other. Breaths were held all round.

The two pieces are almost together (left), after careful adjusting to make sure everything lines up properly. Once the pieces were in place, Salah Salim (left) and Mohamed Abdu (center) filled in the cracks in the join. They are justifiably proud of their work, as is Ayman Farouk Sharid (right), the Qufti who is working with them.

Even though the block of stone is much larger, putting the body of the statue onto the restored base was child’s play by comparison to fixing the base. The two pieces were joined, aligned and attached over the course of work on February 5.

Much to our delight on our last day of work (February 7), I found Sekhmet’s left hand sitting on a block in the temple, and the conservators found her right ankle among the miscellaneous chunks of diorite nearby.

Mohamed, Salah and I check to be sure that the hand really does fit. It snapped into place beautifully.

By February 6th, the detached pieces of knee, right leg and back were in place, and on the 7th, Mohamed and Salah re-attached what is left of the statue’s torso. Now instead of just a lower half, we have an almost complete statue. Here is how she looked at the end of work. An improvised funnel on her right knee allows epoxy to be infused into a deep crack between the knees and the body of the statue.

As you can see from the picture of the statue’s right side, there is still considerable work to do to fill in the many cracks in the stone, some shallow, some deep. Mohamed has the painstaking task using an epoxy colored to match the stone. Without this infilling, moisture and dirt can infiltrate the cracks and cause further damage to the statue. He and Salah will stay on at the site to finish the work after we have gone.

Dig Diary, March 10, 2018:

Although we left Luxor on February 11, our conservators, Salah Salim (left) and Mohamed Abdu continued their work on the Sekhmet statue they have been restoring. Here they are with the finished product on February 22. Jaap and Julia were able to visit the site again and sent us most of the photographs that follow.

Just a reminder of what the statue looked like at the start of the 2018 season: a bunch of sadly broken and badly damaged pieces of stone, with remains of the failed 1920s restoration.

By February 18, Mohamed and Salah (aided by Ayman Farouk) were in the final stages of the actual restoration. In this photograph, taken by our foreman Abdel Aziz Farouk, Salah is filling the mould he made to replace the statue’s missing left forearm while Mohamed is consolidating a broken part of the base.

Even though the broken piece of the base was successfully re-attached by February 20, there was still a gap at the bottom, which needed to be filled. The white plaster and wood seen here hold the fill material in place. In the meantime, Mohamed went on with filling in cracks and tinting the fill to match the stone. There is a delicate balance between matching the fill color to the stone so that the contrast isn’t jarring to the eye and making sure that the fill cannot be mistaken for part of the original statue.

The restoration was finished on February 22. Here is the left side of the statue, which was in the best shape, with the restored forearm. While it is not always a good idea to replace a missing component completely, here it made sense as a support to what is left of the upper arm and a firmer attachment for the left hand.

If you remember, from the February 12 post the right side of the statue was still in a very fragile condition when we left, with deep cracks and a large portion of the right rear missing. Mohamed and Salah did a great job filling in the gaps and adding a new rear support. It’s not beautiful (the statue is too badly damaged for that to be possible), but it is now stable.

Here is the team that worked so hard on the restoration. Our inspector Mai Yusuf Abul Hagag agreed to stay on after we left to supervise the work on behalf of the Supreme Council of Antiquites. Salah and Mohamed did the delicate work, with the assistance of Ayman Farouk and two other helpers. We thank them all for their efforts that have turned a bunch of damaged pieces of stone back into a recognizable statue of Sekhmet.