Study Season Week 5: On to writing
Hi Everyone! We've officially been home from Egypt just shy of a week but I wanted to drop in and update you all on our last few days and what I hope you got out of this visit's newsletter.
Before starting that though, I wanted to clear up some questions I got about last week's newsletter and the news release by the MotA. The project had two facets - the Ahmose Cemetery excavations and the excavation and restoration of the Tetisheri Pyramid. The news report made it a bit confusing as they posted many photos from the cemetery while primarily speaking about the pyramid. The mask, vessels, coffins, and the items I have discussed here are all from the cemetery, meaning they belonged to non-royal individuals. The pyramid, while it had later-period intrusive, non-royal burials, was a royal cenotaph for the king's grandmother. We did have some great finds in the vicinity of the pyramid, including a fragment of the Tetisheri stela. Still, I just want to highlight that the two parts of the project represent two very different contexts. I apologize for the confusion!
A photo of the Tetisheri Stela in the Tahrir Sq. museum.
The newly discovered stela fragment. It's small, but its implications are mighty!
Our final days in Egypt were primarily filled with last-minute lab work (mainly measuring every part of the corn mummy for a forthcoming publication) - and last-minute changes to the wifi to try to make it stable enough to survive until Matt can return. It's interesting to be working on a corpus that, while I have photos of everything, I have to fly halfway across the world to see. As such, there's a lot of last-minute note-checking and mind-wracking to make sure I don't forget to do anything that may become relevant between this trip and the next. I am confident I have a good dataset at the moment though, and I can start writing my next dreaded dissertation chapter.
I also got to play around with making 3D models, which should help when I need to glance at something from abroad!
It's like I'm right there! (sans the fact that photography is not objective truth...but it will have to do).
Our last few days were also quite filled with animal attention. Because it was so hot Kofta hung out in the planter boxes every morning after they were watered. The cats seemed to be getting less shy as well. One cat, who we all affectionately named Squeaker (because he never meowed, only squeaked), took a particular liking to the horribly-allergic-to-cats Matthew, and would sneak into our room to wait for him if he ran to the bathroom and left the bedroom door open. Unfortunately, while they're fundamental to pest control and thus, snake control - it is a hard life for cats. This is the third group of cats I've met since I started coming to the dig house in early 2022 - so it's always sad leaving them and not knowing if you'll see them again.
The end of our trip also included a whirlwind evening in Cairo where we visited our friends Sam and Nick - our steady lights in the chaos of the city - sadly they're leaving us for Amman later this year, but that simply means Jordanian excursions next year!
Squeaker forcing pets.
Bill, who howls through every meal until we give him meat.
Mimi, short for Magical Imps.
A very wet Kofta.
A very wet Kofta trying to cuddle.
On the news front, the project has been slowly gaining more news coverage (oddly enough, the Ministry posted about it again this morning, which is really not their MO), and got its first US-based coverage with an article in the Miami Herald. I was also asked to provide an interview for two local papers (Planet Princeton and the Asbury Park Press). The latter was framed a bit more: "local gal did something cool, let's see what her favorite NJ food is" than "breaking archaeological discovery" - so I'm interested to see how it turns out.
(not sure why they picked the only non-cemetery portion of the site to use as a photo...).
Matt's portrait of me for the Asbury Park Press.
But, that's really all for this week - it's been nice being back (Marcy is perhaps the happiest of us all). While this month hasn't been as focused on "new finds" as earlier this year, I still hope you got something out of it. If I were to give a handful of things I hope you learned they would be as follows:
1 - If you visit Egypt, don't only visit the royal sites. So many of the tombs I posted earlier in the month are badly preserved non-royal tombs and they look that good. My inspector in Luxor also noted that many people have an easier time understanding the motifs in the non-royal tombs, as they are a bit more relatable than the "Books of the Amduat" that fill royal tombs.
The tomb of Ramose - this is open to the public! Look at that carved detail!
2 - Labwork is 50% of archaeology. We all love finding new things, but that's the easy part. Most of the work that changes history happens back in the lab.
Field visits are suggested to keep your archaeologists sane in between lab days.
3 - You're never alone or without help, even when it feels like you are. It was really hard being semi-abandoned by my fellowship sponsor when I needed assistance, but the amount of people who stepped up to help me was a great reminder that there are people willing to assist everywhere. Yes, I know people in Egypt, but I didn't know the couple who agreed to exchange all their US currency with me. Always ask when you need help, especially in a foreign country.
Throwback to the Mena House.
4 - This one is an odd one, and perhaps the most abstracted, but - think about what you want for yourself after you die. Being around burials 24/7 really brings the human choices people made about their post-mortem care and rituals to the forefront. Seeing the variation in tombs and decoration makes it clear that there are a lot of really cool and beautiful things you can do to leave your mark on the earth for future archaeologists - even if that's just turning your burial into a tree. I think taking the ancient Egyptian approach - not letting/making your family decide on everything, and instead choosing your favorite things before death - could be really empowering. Death doesn't have to be something scary that we refuse think about!
A pyramid tomb at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in LA.
One of the shafts from earlier this year.
I hope you all enjoyed this month's newsletter and will stick around for the next iteration. Stay well! Emily
