!سلام عليكم
Hello and welcome! I am so happy to see you all here and extremely excited to get to share our 2023 excavations with you.
While I plan on giving you an introduction to Abydos once I get there, here is some background information about our project for you all:
As part of my dissertation research, I am excavating a small, previously unknown, New Kingdom Cemetery located in Southern Abydos (Ah-bee-dos or Ah-bye-dos, your choice). This location inspired the project's name (Abydos South Project - or ASP). ASP as a whole is co-directed by Dr. Deborah Vischak and Mr. Mohammed Abdulbadea. Our work includes the New Kingdom cemetery as well as the conservation of the Pyramid of Tetisheri; a remarkable pyramid built for the grandmother of Ahmose (ah-mose-ah), the first king of the 18th Dynasty. You can see both the pyramid of Tetisheri (shrine of Tetashera) and the Pyramid of Ahmose (the pyramid above the "Aahmes Cemetery) on the map below.
[Sourced from the EES]
We are working to the immediate north of the Pyramid of Ahmose (fun fact! The last ever pyramid built in Egypt!), which is where Dr. Joe Wegner of UPenn first identified our cemetery. I am forever grateful to him for allowing me to take it on as my dissertation topic.
Here is a photo from the northern part of the cemetery - yes that is the pyramid in the background (or what is left of it). It might not look like a lot, but this stretch of sand is pure paradise for an Egyptologist! We have a rather large area to work in so we will have to be strategic, however, work just beyond the wall in the photo below has been quite successful, so we know we're standing just above some amazing data here.
What we expect to find is a number of tombs dating between the 18th and 20th Dynasties (1150-1069 BCE ish). It's rather remarkable (and at times, unfathomable) to know that we're probably the first people who will see some of these things since those dates. I feel lucky that I get to tell these peoples' stories and to do it in a respectful manner with the local community's participation. As with all archaeology though, we won't really know what we have until we start digging!
That's all for now, stay tuned for a history of Abydos and some info on our first few days coming next week!
Keep digging (heh...), Emily