We are getting close to the end and panic set in amongst the
Field School executives, so on Saturday we decided to extend the working day
until 3pm for Saturday through Tuesday to provide more drawing and research time
for the students. The 4 long work days gave each group 2 days drawing in TT110
and two days either doing research or pottery and object drawing. The students
took this surprisingly well, and we discovered how keen they are to accomplish
as much as they can before the end of the school.
Even despite having to draw in some pretty cramped and uncomfortable positions...
The others, in the comfort of their tent, had ample opportunity to practice using different types of tools to assist in the object drawing ...
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| Ahmed using a profile gauge |
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| Shaimaa cleverly using both a set square and calipers |
On Sunday we had a visit from Hourig Sourouzian and her team,
who are working at the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III (Kom el-Hetan) located
behind the Memnon Colossi. They were given an archaeological tour of the site
by Saad Bakhit, which included beautiful photos of the 2 new tombs discovered
last year, and then Mudira JJ and Mr. Will showed them TT110 and talked about
both the Field School and the history of the tomb and its owner. It was amusing
to pack all of her team in such a small tomb when they are more used to working
on a colossal scale at Kom el-Hetan scattered over the large area of the temple
with hundreds of workmen in the more traditional 19th century style.
Unbelievably as the day ended and we came out of the tomb we were met by the
first few rain drops which by the time we had reached the ferry had turned into
a downpour. When it rains in Egypt it is a major event, so we stopped the
minibus alongside the road in order to take – guess what? – another group photo
of the field school! This time in the rain. Those of our friends and colleagues
living in the UK can only shake their heads in disbelief at such an event. Egyptians
(and non-Egyptians) do not like to get wet, therefore we all huddled together
in the center of the boat to avoid getting wet as we crossed the Nile, looking
more like we were taking a subway ride in NYC than traveling by boat in Luxor.
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| Hourig Sourouzian and her team with Saad Bakhit |
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| Hourig inside TT 110 |
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| The rain splattered windshield - no wipers, it NEVER rains in Egypt! |
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| Rainy day group shot |
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| Strap-hangers on the boat |
Over the last several weeks we had been in secret
negotiations with the Ministry in order for Mudira JJ to give a lecture on the
2 Field School seasons to our Egyptian and foreign colleagues working in Luxor.
This was carrying on a great tradition of different missions working in Luxor
speaking at the end of their seasons, which has not occurred in over 3 years.
It involved a convoluted series of phone calls and emails to secure the date, space,
and permission from the Director of Museums in Cairo. It was all finally
settled in the last few days, with the lecture to take place on Saturday March
19 at 6:30 pm in the Mummification Museum. This meant that we needed to deliver
invitations to all of the Ministry Offices and Foreign Missions. As a result,
Mr. Will, Mudira JJ, and Hazem spent the better part of Monday playing “Postman
Pat” (a British TV series). When we finally made it to the tomb we found that
Chuck Van Siclen and Francois Larche were visiting the site, and getting both
the archaeological tour and an explanation of TT110 by our ARCE colleagues.
Chuck is an old friend of both Will and JJ, even a distant Dutch cousin of Will’s,
so it was a wonderful reunion and we subsequently were able to kidnap him for a
post-excavation meal on Tuesday at his hotel, the Etap.
Tuesday morning we were met by a low-flying hot air balloon as we waited on the steps of the building for our morning lift from Ayman. Declan was intrigued, and has come to expect balloons every morning, point at the sky and saying "balloon?" Once on the west, we started the day by visiting the work of
Gabor Schrieber and his Hungarian team in TT 32 and TT 400, two tombs located
just a short ways to the east from ours, and which are part of a
mini-necropolis on the Khokha hillside. Despite the wind, and cold, dark, and dreary
weather that the rain had brought in, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Especially
as most of it was underground in a serpentine-like series of passages and chambers
that had been constructed over the long history of the Ramesside Period tombs.
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| Balloon at 7:15 am directly over our top-floor flat |
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| Gabor Schrieber explaining their work at TT32 and TT400 |
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| Group shot seeking shelter from the wind |
Wednesday the weather finally changed, and overnight it had
miraculously turned into the lovely weather that is more characteristic of Egypt.
After our 4 long days, we decided to end the work a bit early, to give the
students a break, and to allow time for a visit to the work of Hourig
Sourouzian before they stop for the day at 2pm. Mudira JJ, Mr. Will, Yaser, Sayed,
Hazem, and ARCE archaeologist Saad Bakhit were treated to a wonderful tour of
the entire site, which is a good 2 football fields in length. We finished the
tour by having a look at the amazing collection of grano-diorite Sakhmet statues
that their project has recently excavated out of a pit under the temple floor.
Although most were intentionally broken in order to stave off any anger from
the goddess, some of the paint has remained, including her iconic red eyes.
Absolutely stunning.
We finished the day with a wonderful boat excursion and
picnic dinner provided by Yaser and his wife Manal. An amazing buffet of food
was cleverly packed in a series of large-scale plastic containers and within a
matter of minutes Yaser and Manal had covered a series of tables that Mahmoud
had set up on the boat with a delectable feast. We had no sooner set sail than
everyone crowded around piling their plates full of homemade salad, rice, mashi
(spiced rice stuffed peppers and courgettes), kofta, potatoes in tomato sauce,
meat, and rounded off with two roasted ducks. And then there was the dessert –
homemade basbousa! Everyone laughed, ate, and took endless pictures throughout
the event. The boat made its way past the grand Luxor hotels as far as the Jolie
Ville and almost to the southern bridge that crosses the Nile before turning to
take its return journey to Luxor proper at duck. This proved the perfect
opportunity of distributing the new team t-shirts to all of the students, which
included 2 t-shirts for Yaser’s children. The weather was perfect, the company
excellent, the food amazing, and a fabulous time full of general rejoicing was
had by all.
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| Yaser and Mohamed |
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| Yaser and Tokaa |
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| Peter at the tiller |
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| Shaimaa's husband Ahmed with Lena / Maryam |
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| Abu Gomaa looking bemused at the general rejoicing |
We ended the week with our 2 groups in separate places.
Mudira JJ at Chicago House for the last day of the students doing research in
the library, while Mr. Will worked at TT110 with everyone else and hosted a
return visit by Egyptologist, and Hourig’s husband, Rainer Stadelmann and
others of their team who missed the initial visit to the tomb at the beginning
of the week. Thursday evening Mr. Will and Mudira JJ spent a working meal at
Pizza Roma to prepare both for the lecture on Saturday and the field trip to
Hierakonpolis scheduled for the following day – Friday – which was for the
entire Field School. We were gearing up for a 2-day marathon in which we would
have very little down time.
Please see the following entry to learn if we survived the
weekend!
