Digging Holes

This may not look much, but it is our first piece of Cretan pottery from the site. Good Huh?

Min of the Desert (Min being an Egyptian god and not a character from the Goon Show!)

Exciting news, you may remember that this blog was started as a way of letting friends know what was happening on the dig where I work in Egypt. Then last year we couldn't dig but I have just heard that we will be working in 2009-10 over the New Year period. Flights are booked and I'm really excited especially as we've been asked to put on an exhibition at the museum in Cairo so I am busy selecting photos and writing text. At the top of the blog is a photo of the replica of an ancient Egyptian seafaring ship, designed by a naval architect and nautical archaeologist Cheryl Ward (who worked with us in 2005-06 and will be with us again in 2009-10). It is based on representational evidence & ship remains from Wadi Gawasis. It was built in Alexandria and was successfully sailed on the Red Sea for a week in Dec.-Jan 2009. Isn't she beautiful? Name: Min of the Desert. It's amazing to think that vessels like this one were navigating the Red Sea and almost certainly further afield about 3500 years ago. We know they were visiting areas outside Egypt because at the site there is pottery from Yemen, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Nubia, The Levant and Crete (identified by guess who!?). All very exciting.