Greetings from Abydos
Greetings from the American Dig House at Abydos! I had an uneventful few days of travel and am settled in nicely with my friend and roommate for the next 6 weeks, Robyn. By the time this newsletter goes out we will have done some preliminary work, including a ground survey and marking out our ops - square units where we dig [usually placed based on the data we have]. I promise to update you again by the end of next work week, even if we find nothing [God forbid!].
I know I gave you a little background on the project in the last iteration of this newsletter, but I in some ways jumped the shark. You can't possibly hear about the Abydos South Project without knowing about Abydos! I'm here to rectify this.
The first time I visited Abydos was May of 2022 - I had just flown in on an evening flight from Cairo and had been picked up from the airport by my advisor, Debbie, and the house manager, Ahmed. As we pulled into the site, Ahmed turned to me and said "Welcome to Abydos" in the exact same intonation as John Hammond takes when he says "Welcome to Jurassic Park" that first time [completely unintentionally]. My reaction was similar to Drs Sattler and Grant, except instead of dinosaurs, I was seeing monuments from nearly five thousand years ago [I know, not as old as dinosaurs, but stick with me].
Most of you have probably heard others wax poetic about the pyramids - I won't lie, I cried the first time I saw them - but Abydos is...well...Abydos. It's frankly an awe-inspiring place in its own way. An easy drive from the "more famous" site of Luxor, Abydos was the most significant ritual and religious site in Egypt, and remained so from the Predynastic Period (3500-ish BCE at Abydos, but likely earlier) until 648 AD. That being said, Abydos is a living city; occupation never ceased.
What makes the site so special is a combination of things, this is the burial place of the earliest proto-kings and kings of Egypt, who were buried with potential sacrifices in the area of the site known as Umm el Qa'ab. This is at the mouth of a long wadi (dried riverbed) which meanders through the high cliffs into the eastern desert. It is likely this was perceived as some sort of path to the afterlife. The earliest kings of Egypt copied these proto-kings building larger tombs and then large mud-brick enclosures closer to the valley. These enclosures (which are open, four walled courts for which the purpose is still debated, see photo below) were torn down when the king died, perhaps meant to send it to the afterlife with him. The last one, built for Khasekhemwy, remains to this day - likely because the kings moved their burial places up to Saqqara after him.
Later down the line, these tombs became associated with the burial place of the god Osiris - the first "king" of Egypt. This led to the site becoming a cult center for the god, and people came from far and wide to witness the god's annual festival. This hubub, along with the enticing Wadi, also led to the installation of small chapels and tombs along the processional route to Umm el Ga'ab, allowing individuals to "attend" yearly, or be participants even if they weren't present, or had died.
Kings still took interest in the site throughout history, building new parts of the temple to Osiris, or their own temple sites nearby. If you come to Abydos you have to visit the temple of Seti, it is purely breathtaking. Some kings, like Ahmose, also built tombs, or possibly cenotaphs (secondary tombs where no one was buried). There was even an Abydos Dynasty! All of this history is quite complicated though, and I won't bore you with it all. Simply, know that Abydos is amazing, everyone found it a very necessary place to visit, and you should too.
Be in touch soon! Emily