General view of the royal cultic enclosure of king Khasekhemwy, the Shunet el-Zebib, seen from the south in 2009, prior to the start of excavation of the great south dune, which is visible at right. Photo by Greg Maka for the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

Excavation this season is focused primarily on the southern end of the Shuneh, where, given the prevailing north wind, a huge sand dune accumulated that filled the south corridor between the main enclosure wall and the outer perimeter wall, enveloped most of the perimeter wall, and extended for some distance toward the south.  This great dune has been excavated during the last several field seasons and have proven to be a quite ancient feature.  It appears to have begun to accumulate very shortly after the original construction of the monument, and the sand continued to do so for some centuries, until it reached a state of relative equilibrium below the wall tops.  This great dune seems to have been too intimidating to early excavators at the site, who do not appear to have disturbed it.  Excavations in recent years have demonstrated that the dune has sealed within it important and relatively pristine evidence for important aspects of the history of the monument and Abydos more broadly.

At the start of excavation in 2009 the south dune stood more than 5 meters high. Photo by Greg Maka for the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

After the end of the reign of Khasekhemwy, when later kings shifted their place of burial to the north, near the capital of Memphis, the area of the low desert at the edge of the Nile Valley where the kings of Dynasties 1 and 2 had constructed their monumental cultic enclosures appears to have been protected, perhaps even sacred, space.  While life in the nearby town continued uninterrupted, and extensive cemeteries serving the town’s population developed both to the north and south, the area of the enclosures themselves appears to have been assiduously avoided for around 700 years.  No tombs or other structures were built there, no burials were made, and the area may have been considered sacrosanct because of its early exclusive use by Egypt’s first kings.  Eventually, around 2000 BCE in the early Middle Kingdom, after a period of significant political change known as the First Intermediate Period, the area of the enclosures saw the first intrusions in the construction of tombs, accompanying offering chapels, and simple interments in the desert sands.  In fact, very quickly this part of Abydos became the main cemetery at the site and was filled with funerary constructions, which frequently were built on or cut into the buried remains of the early royal monuments.  The enclosure of king Khasekhemwy still stood, however, and it continued to be respected in the way the entire area had been previously.  Tombs were built and burials made up to the exterior sides of its walls, but they did not intrude upon the interior, a pattern that continued for another 1000 years.

2012 represents the fourth field season of work on the dune, and the level by the excavation as shown here is just above the original Dynasty 2 floor. Photo by Greg Maka for the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

This season’s excavations have shown that the great south dune preserved clear evidence of this important phase in the history of the monument.  In the lower part of the dune along the exterior side of the outer perimeter wall of the monument the excavation team found the remains of a number of wooden coffins that contain the burials of ancient residents of Abydos.  They had been carried to the site and placed into pits dug into the dune along the wall.  Several date from the Middle Kingdom, the initial period of post-royal use of the area, while others are somewhat later.

Excavation supervisor and IFA PhD student of Egyptian art and archaeology Tara Prakash drawing the side of the remains of a wooden coffin. Photo by Greg Maka for the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

In general the condition of wooden coffins at Abydos is rather poor.  Over time, insects consumed the wood, reducing it to a sandy material called frass that retains the shape of the original coffins but with very little wood remaining.  Any painted surfaces survive only as thin paint layers attached essentially to nothing but sand.  Considerable conservation effort is often required to consolidate the coffins and burials long enough for the archaeologists to define and document them.

Excavation supervisor and IFA alumna Dr. Deborah Vischak (right) and conservator Lucy Skinner cleaning a Middle Kingdom burial. The wooden coffin, originally rectangular, was poorly constructed of a number of separate panels tied together, which, under the weight of enveloping sand, have shifted, giving it an unusual bent shape. Photo by Gus Gusciora for the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

Excavation supervisor and IFA PhD student of Egyptian art and archaeology Patrick Salland examines a painted anthropoid coffin with Abydos Field Director Dr. Matthew Adams and Senior Conservator and IFA Conservation Center alumna Hiroko Kariya. Photo by Greg Maka for the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

Khasekhemwy’s monument did not stand in the desert in isolation.  It was part of an evolving broader context, in which the king’s monument eventually became a part of a ritual landscape in which ordinary Egyptians could, and did, choose the ground around it as their place of burial.  In excavating here, we cannot help but encounter the material remains of these ancient people and ponder how they thought of this place and their connection to it.

Matthew Adams, Field Director

Panorama of the site, February 2012. Photo by Greg Maka for the PYIFA expedition

The Abydos Project of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, has resumed its fieldwork!  Although much remains uncertain in post-revolutionary Egypt, the Ministry of Antiquities continues to function, and archaeological projects throughout the country are operating normally under its authority.

For a brief introduction to the history of the site and the project, please see Introducing Abydos

The on-site work of 2012 focuses primarily on the funerary cult enclosure of king Khasekhemwy (ca. 2750 BCE), known locally as the Shunet el-Zebib, or simply as the Shuneh, and continues the project’s program of archaeological excavation, documentation, and architectural conservation at that monument, which is, in turn, part of a broader long-term program of research on the nature of early royal activity at the site.  This season’s team of twenty-five includes IFA students in art history and archaeology, as well as archaeologists, preservation architects, conservators, surveyors, photographers, and collections managers, most of whom were part of the foreshortened 2011 field season and are returning to continue the work interrupted by the events in Egypt of early 2011.  In the coming weeks, posts on this blog will introduce members of the team and will aim to present a sense of the range of the project’s operations at the site.

In returning to the field, the IFA’s Abydos Project is reconnecting with and continuing work begun in early 2011 and halted prematurely, due to events in Egypt at that time.  Areas of the Shuneh that were backfilled with sand for protection from the elements after the close of work one year ago have been reopened, a process that sometimes involves considerable manpower, time, and clouds of dust.

As the level of the protective sand is lowered, the ancient brick walls emerge and begin to convey a sense of the scale intended by their builders.

Removing sand along the ancient mud brick walls. Photo by Greg Maka for the PYIFA expedition.

Once again Khasekhehmwy’s monument is full of activity, an annual “resurrection” that both echoes its ancient use and is part of the continuing story of the place, as the IFA archaeological team and local work force together reveal more of its long history.

Matthew Adams, Field Director

Workers remove sand deposits from around the Shuneh's walls. Photo by Greg Maka for the PYIFA expedition

Field Season: records, wandering perspectives, side notes, a selection of photographs from Abydos, by Greg Maka, Amanda Kirkpatrick and Gus Gusciora. Curated by Ileana Selejan.

On view:
Thursday, January 5th 2012 – Sunday, April 15th 2012

Stovall Gallery, 8th Floor
Kimmel Center for University Life New York University
60 Washington Square South
New York, New York 10012

Visit http://fieldseason.tumblr.com/ for more information. Exhibition tours available on request. Contact: Pam Jean Tinnen pjt254[at]nyu.edu and Ileana Selejan ils219[at]nyu.edu

We hope you can join us for an opening reception at the IFA (Computer Labs), Tuesday September 6, 6-8PM.

Matthew Adams and Ileana Selejan in conversation. Photo by Gus Gusciora for the PYIFA expedition. Video: Greg Maka. Sound: Gus Gusciora. Technical Assistant: Patrick Salland

Abydos is not anyplace, as anyone who has been here can confirm, but for certain people it does hold particular fascination: “The ancient Egyptians viewed it as perhaps their single most sacred site. It was a kind of point of origin for them. Later kings certainly seem to have viewed it that way. And the landscape here is so dramatically beautiful and the story of the history of Abydos is so compelling and the fact that each season we tease out a little bit more of that story, I find that very very compelling.” Dr. Adams has been working at Abydos for over 30 years. And he doesn’t return only for the history, or the glory of the ancients. “I love the place, I love the people that we work with here. We have wonderful staff that we’ve had for many years who take wonderful care of us. And the whole combination, that entire package of what Abydos is to experience, living and working here, somehow it’s in my blood.”

We spoke about the practice of archaeology, about how knowledge not only accumulates but also changes in time, about how hypotheses about the past are constantly reformulated based on new finds.

MA: “We’re not ancient Egyptians. And we can never have a full understanding of how they viewed their own existence and how they viewed this place, and its position in the larger context of ancient Egypt. We only have access to the material, to what was generated and left by them through very selective activities, so we’re looking through a very narrow window trying to tease out a very big picture. […] Every season when we’re here we’re looking at another piece of the place, another piece of the story that we haven’t seen before. Sometimes it’s something that no one has seen before since it was put in the ground. In other instances it’s something that early workers at the site, 100 years ago, 150 years ago, saw but they had no context in which to interpret what they were looking at. So we have to first be aware not only of the kind of basic material that we’re looking at archaeologically, we have to be aware of the processes that have affected the place in the past 150 years.”

As a student of contemporary art I was very curious as to how scholars and practitioners relate to the loss that is inherent to the archeological process. After all, they look at sites that show remarkable survival throughout millennia. Many contemporary artists for instance have reflected on the ephemerally and fragility of art, when, as any other human activity, it is subject to changes in the environment, and the passage of time. So how does one reconcile the destruction of certain remains for the study of others?

MA: “Archaeology, any excavation, is destruction. The archaeological record here has accumulated over more than 5000 years and I think every archaeologist is very keenly aware when he or she is excavating that the material record generated by people in the past is being destroyed. And there are times when this really is a powerful feeling and gives one pause. Nevertheless we can never ask fundamental questions about the past, about human beings in the past, ancient societies, if we don’t access them through the material remains that they left.”

Click on the video above to hear more of Dr. Adams’s thoughts on the topic.

Throughout the years Dr. Adams has been working at Abydos the social, cultural and political landscape of Egypt has altered dramatically. Lastly, we asked about the power of that context, and how it has impacted the work on site.

MA: “Since the beginning of the expedition in the 1960s, everyone who has worked here has been keenly aware that we’re working in a traditional village context, this is a very rural area, a conservative area socially, and we have tried to conduct the work of the expedition in a way that presents us and our work in a positive light in the local context. So as Egyptian society changes we also have had to adjust somewhat over the years, and basically it just involves being sensitive to the views and perspectives of our Egyptian staff, of our Egyptian workers, and of the local context generally, and to conduct ourselves in ways that will garner us respect. We want to be seen as a positive presence here. We come and we benefit from the scientific knowledge from being able to work in Egypt, we aim to give back as we can to the Egyptian context in a number of different ways and we aim to be seen as being sensitive to the concerns and the perspective of Egyptians and Egyptian society.”

[Ileana Selejan] ]]> http://www.abydos.org/blog/2011/introducing-matthew-adams_version-2/feed/ 0 http://www.abydos.org/blog/2011/january-25-rhythms-and-routines/ http://www.abydos.org/blog/2011/january-25-rhythms-and-routines/#comments Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:14:09 +0000 ileana http://www.abydos.org/blog/?p=162 Continue reading →]]> It’s 6 PM, local time in Abydos. Half of us are in the lab, the other half strewn around the field house. 5 days into the new season. We’re acclimating, settling in; our paths draw lines that turn into daily rhythms and routines.

Shauna Diederichs and Danielle Sheptow working on architectural drawings. Photo by Greg Maka for the PYIFA expedition

Beginnings…How to begin? You’re looking at a description, visual and textual, of what life on site looks like on a more or less weekly basis. A series of notes, observations and subjective visions. Ideas drifting around things, histories, philosophies; around stories of people and the places they belong to, the places they return to. In reality this is at most an attempt to come closer to all these, since this place is of the kind one should experience first hand.

The team watches the sunset from the roof of the field house. Photo by Greg Maka for the PYIFA expedition

[Ileana Selejan]

Workers clearing backfill sand. Photo by Greg Maka for the PYIFA expedition

Tara Prakash (IFA Phd candidate in Egyptology) supervising excavations in her unit. Photo by Greg Maka for the PYIFA expedition

Tara Prakash (IFA Egyptology student) and Ahmed Fahmy (Egyptian staff member) evaluating finds. Photo by Gus Gusciora for the PYIFA expedition

Architectural illustration team mapping the northern gateway. Photo by Greg Maka for the PYIFA expedition

Michelle Marlar (Assistant Professor at Morehouse College, Assistant field director and IFA alumna) discussing excavation work with Matthew Adams (Field Director). Photo by Gus Gusciora for the PYIFA expedition

Maria Ivan (illustrator) at work in the lab. Photo by Gus Gusciora for the PYIFA expedition

Registrars Doha Fathy and Jerrie Clarke cataloging objects stored on site. Photo by Gus Gusciora for the PYIFA expedition

Hiroko Kariya (head conservator) and Raina Chao (IFA conservation student) at work in the conservation lab. Photo by Gus Gusciora for the PYIFA expedition