Fandom High School

Daniel is cupping a large cup of coffee protectively, starting to look a bit tired.

"I hope you had a good Thanksgiving," he begins. "Well, at least those of you who celebrate it that is. Thank you for the essays... Mr Connor? You will be in dentention on Saturday for failing to hand yours in. And does anyone know if Delirium of Endless is still registered at this school, and for this class? If she is, she's also in detention. I'll be handing out grades next week, I expect."

He pauses and takes a mouthful of his coffee.

"Now, I don't know how many of you are aware that I was in Egypt over Thanksgiving. I actually paid a flying visit to Sais - Sa el Hagar - which is an AHRB funded project, in collaboration with the Egypt Exploration Society and Supreme Council for Antiquities (Egypt) and the University of Durham, in North-East England. It's a five year project which started in 2002 and is undertaking an integrated programme of drill auguring, object recording, magnetometer survey, excavation and off-site research.

The project also includes work for the West Delta Survey project. Its aims are to survey the archaeological sites of the Central and West delta in order to map them and study settlement distribution, growth, diminution and abandonment reflected over the whole period of Egyptian history (Predynastic to present).

The 1997-1998 EES survey established that there are two main archaeological areas at Sais. The first of these is a Northern Enclosure about 1km to the north of the village, comprising the last vestiges of an enclosure wall about 750 by 700m in area and containing two protected areas of antiquities called Kom Rebwa. These low mounds seemed to be the remains of mud brick buildings recorded as still standing in the 19th century. The second area lies just to the north of the village and is the 'Great Pit' containing a few granite blocks, limestone monumental remains and excavated mud brick structures.

Following successful completion of the topographical survey and an encouraging trial with a magnetometer, it was decided to obtain environmental and other data by beginning a series of drill cores across the site. In 1999 and 2000 this work resulted in 53 cores being taken at the site, as a result of which some small scale excavations were begun in 2000.

Full analysis of the results of the survey have not been completed, but the preliminary findings suggest future avenues of enquiry. The modern course of the Rosetta Branch of the River Nile lies about 2km away from the village of Sa el-Hagar and the site. It forms a huge westward bend away from the town, but inside the bend are clear levees or artificial dykes closer to the settled areas. They suggested that the river has moved westward over time and, in fact, is still doing so. The drill cores clearly showed that the river channel had changed and that it might once have run almost beside the site. Further, the drills also picked up evidence for a possible buried sand island (or gezira) lying on the western side of the village. The gezira seems to be lying at an oblique angle north-west to south under the present village and out to the western side of the archaeological areas. In Predynastic times, gezira were the focus for settlement in the delta, as they provided high ground above the level of the annual inundation. Over time many of the islands were buried by alluvial mud, but this area could have been the first settled part of the site. One of the drill cores from the west side of the Great Pit brought up pottery from 7m below the ground surface (approximately 8m below sea level), of which some was black topped and some was burnished, suggesting a possible prehistoric date. In 2000 we dug a small test trench in this area to ascertain whether it was possible to retrieve material from beneath the water table, as has been done elsewhere in Egypt. In the end we were thwarted at a depth of 3m by the sandy matrix and by a broken water pump. However the sand also contained pottery, lithics and bone which is Pre-Early Dynastic in date (c. 3100 BC). This suggests that the original pottery from the drill augur is older and possibly of Buto-Maadi culture date around 3500 BC. However the contexts in which both sets of material were found are not clear. The excavated material may have come from a river deposit against a shore or beach at the side of the gezira, and in this case may not have originated at Sais. There are clearly important questions still to be answered and as this area is earmarked for building development, further excavation is planned here in 2001.

The drill core survey picked up human cultural material in the form of pottery and burnt brick from various places around the site itself, suggesting that there are other archaeological zones beyond the limits of our original survey. A magnetometer sweep in a field between the Pit and Enclosure in 1998 had indeed picked up substantial walls of a large building. The drill core survey confirmed that they were of limestone and that the soil contained stone fragments from the destruction of a monumental building some 3m below the surface. In one of the areas to the west it is possible that there may be a harbour for the city and to the north-east of the site there is a small village called Kawady which seems to have been the site of a satellite necropolis from the Late period onwards.

In the North Enclosure, drill results from the 'walls' themselves could be interpreted as the last remaining 3m of foundation wall from the main enclosure. This area had many of its mud-brick buildings removed over the last two hundred years, for use as fertiliser on reclaimed agricultural land. However the drill cores showed substantial layers of destroyed pottery and stone up to 3m thick and often down to depths of about 7m below the modern ground surface. In field walking and the drill cores a few small sherds of Greek black gloss ware and one of East Greek pottery were also found, suggesting that comparisons with the relatively nearby Greek colony of Naukratis might be possible one day.

The drills also produced samples of soil for analysis which should give information about the plants which grew in the area in the past. Most interesting was a thick black, organic layer lying about 8-10m below the lowest ground surface (at sea level). In some places this layer was up to 80cm thick and may represent a thick peat level, perhaps the remains of the marshy reed beds of the prehistoric delta.


I've decided that we'll be looking at Sais over the next few lessons as an example of an ongoing excavation. Whilst it's unfortunately impossible at this time for me to actually take you to Egypt to dig, I understand that there's technology in the school which will allow me to simulate an excavation, so I'm going to be looking into that.

Any questions or comments about Sais?

Daniel is in his classroom at the times of these classes. He's reading a big thick, heavy book. It looks boring, but as far as Daniel's concerned, it's as good as the latest Harry Potter bestseller.

Lists are available for his classes to sign in on.

[ooc: Mun is having laptop problems, and won't be able to guarentee when she'll be on for... actually, she doesn't know how long. Clearly it was fate that he set midterm work for this week...]

Daniel has added a framed picture of a six-month old baby to his desk, with ones of Janet and his parents.

"Sorry for the lack of class on Friday... although I'm sure you were quite happy about it. I had a call from an old friend who was back in the country, and that threw me so I tried to set an extra linguistics class before heading to New York for the weekend to see her. Which, also explains why I missed parent's weekend. Should your parents require any updates, let me know, and I'll write a letter, or call them or something." He grins.

"Now, today we're going to be looking at child-bearing and family life in Ancient Egypt.

The relationship between coitus and pregnancy was clearly recognized by the ancient Egyptians. For example, the Late Period story of Setna relates, "She lay down beside her husband. She received [the fluid of] conception from him"; and a hymn to Khonsu relates, "the male member to beget; the female womb to conceive and increase generations in Egypt." Although the Egyptians understood the general functions of parts of the reproductive system, the relationships between parts was sometimes unclear. For example, they knew that the testicles were involved in procreation, but they thought the origin of semen was in the bones and that it simply passed through the testicles. Female internal anatomy was understood even less well. Anatomical naivety can be gleaned from the fact that, although the function of the womb was understood, it was erroneously thought to be directly connected to the alimentary canal. Thus, placing a clove of garlic in the vagina was supposed to test for fertility: if garlic could be detected on the breath of a woman then she was fertile; if not, then she was infertile.
( Cut for length )

Now... Images and symbols of fertility were of importance to the ancient Egyptians. So, for homework, I'd like you to find examples of these images and symbols and write about them. Thank you, guys: I'll see you on Wednesday."

[OOC: Once again, laziness ensues. I'll just group together the two/three classes that go together. This time, I'm posting in the right place. Yay!]

( Intro )
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( Egyptian Archaeology )