(PDF) Sesebi 2011

Sudan & Nubia Sesebi 2011 period town, but its location vis-à-vis the mud-brick walls remains problematic. Kate Spence, Pamela J. Rose, Rebecca Bradshaw, Pi- The stratigraphy in this area is very complex and includes at least four phases of construction and demolition activity; eter Collet, Amal Hassan, John MacGinnis, Aurélia in addition, many graves have been cut through the archaeo- Masson and Paul van Pelt logical remains. All the 18th Dynasty remains appear to be of foundations and no occupation levels have been identi- Sesebi is a New Kingdom Egyptian colonial temple-town fied. Although there are few sealed deposits associated with constructed on the west bank of the Nile opposite the these phases, it is clear from the ceramics that all predate the modern town of Delgo. The town was excavated for the Akhenaten enclosure, and almost certainly date to the early Egypt Exploration Society between 1936 and 1938, but part of the 18th Dynasty. Although no direct stratigraphic only preliminary reports were published (Blackman 1937; links can be made with the Akhenaten town site, ceramics and Fairman 1938). Our work at the site since 2007 has sug- other traces such as the deposits beneath the later northern gested that the town played a role in gold exploitation in enclosure wall (Areas 13 and 14) suggest substantial early 18th Nubia and that, although the town and temple were con- Dynasty activity in this area. The presence of bread moulds structed during the reign of Akhenaten, there Area 1 is evidence for Egyptian presence at the site from very early in the New Kingdom (Spence Area 14 Area 13 and Rose 2009; forth.; Spence et al. 2009). Our aims for the 2011 season were to continue investigation of the remains of early New Kingdom material at the site, to test the results Main Temple of 2010’s magnetometry survey, to continue Crypt recording the main temple, and to take samples for micromorphological analysis. The areas 0 investigated are shown on Figure 1. From 2011 the project is a joint venture of the University Area 16 of Cambridge and the Austrian Archaeological Area 12 Area 9 Institute in Cairo.1 50m Excavations outside the north-east Area 8 Area 7 corner of the town (Area 1) Excavation of an area of visible archaeological remains outside the main town enclosure wall north east of the site began in 2009 and 2010. This year the trench was expanded northwards under the supervision of John MacGinnis. The excavation revealed the foundations of a rectan- Area 15 gular structure built of large sandstone blocks, at least some of which are reused (Figure 2). The stone feature measures 4.7 x 4.8m and lies Area 11 between two parallel substantial mud-brick walls Area 10 (the southern parts of which were exposed in 2009–10). The stratigraphy suggests that the two mud-brick walls are of different dates; that to the west seems to have gone out of use before the construction of the stone feature. The function Figure 1. Excavation areas Sesebi 2011. Drawing by Pieter Collet of this stone structure remains enigmatic: it is possible that based on the original excavation plan (Fairman 1938, pl. VIII). it was a gateway into an enclosure predating the Akhenaten- suggests a temple bakery and thus presumably a temple, an interpretation which would fit well with the monumental 1 The team comprised Dr Kate Spence and Dr Pamela Rose (directors), mud-brick walls and large sandstone blocks excavated in Area Pieter Collet (surveyor), Dr John MacGinnis, Dr Aurélia Masson, Paul 1. Samples were taken from this area for micromorphology, van Pelt (archaeologists) and Rebecca Bradshaw (epigrapher). Amal Hassan Gismallah represented the National Corporation for Antiquities which may provide additional information on earlier activity and Museums as inspector. at the site. 1 magnetometry survey as strong bipolar anomalies, perhaps related to kiln activity. Clearance of two of these features, however, showed that they were deep pits cut into the alluvial fill on which the occupation layers of the site are constructed. Nothing found associated with these pits gives any indication of purpose. The pits were filled with alternating layers of wind-blown and wet-laid sediments. Very little in the way of pottery was found in them: the few sherds were of post-New Kingdom date, and were probably Napatan. Area 12 is a rectangular feature noted by the Egypt Exploration Society in the 1930s. It was highlighted by the magnetometry survey as a strong negative anomaly and interpreted as being the possible remains of a sandstone structure. However it proved to be another deep and barren Figure 2. Area 1 looking south. In the centre of the picture are the pit in the alluvium. foundations of a rectangular stone structure abutting a A further excavation in the same area, Area 7, was intended substantial mud-brick wall to the east. In the foreground to investigate the square trench, an early feature in the centre are three more recent burials (photo K. Spence). of the east side of the enclosure. However the edges of the Excavations outside the south–east corner of trench proved badly eroded and little could be learned of the the town (Area 11) nature of the feature at this point. A stone structure outside the town enclosure at the south end of the east wall is visible on the surface. It is shown on Limited excavations for the purpose of sampling the Egypt Exploration Society plan of the 1930s but was A number of small sondages were undertaken by Paul van not otherwise documented. We decided to investigate the Pelt for the purpose of obtaining soil and floor samples for structure as its position relative to the later enclosure wall micromorphological and geochemical analysis. Obtaining is similar to the foundations of the mud-brick walls in Area good samples proved more difficult than anticipated as in 1. The excavation and documentation of this feature (Area most parts of the site the excavators of the 1930s seem to 11) was supervised by Amal Hassan. The work established have cleared down to, or through, original floor levels very that the structure was built from reused blocks including col- thoroughly. The traces of original surfaces that were found umn drums which are smaller than those found in the main had also been badly degraded as a result of rainfall and wind temple, thus perhaps relating it to the demolition of an early erosion. Other deposits such as the alluvial fill on which the temple. No associated walls were found and it, therefore, town was built have become completely concretized over seems unlikely to have been a gateway, but its interpretation time, making extracting samples a frustrating and time- is as yet uncertain. Adjacent deposits included a stone chip consuming activity. level associated either with its construction or demolition Areas 8 (a silo associated with the temple magazines), 10 but further excavation needs to be undertaken to investigate and 15 (houses at the south end of the site) produced rather the surrounding area and the structure’s relationship with limited archaeological evidence of occupation deposits. It is the enclosure wall. The pottery found in this area on the hoped that some results will be forthcoming from the analysis surface and in adjacent deposits suggests that this feature also of samples from Areas 10 and 15. One additional feature of predates the construction of the Akhenaten enclosure wall interest that emerged from this work was the re-clearance but is perhaps not as early as the material found in Area 1. of a domestic crypt in Area 15. Previously documented in the 1930s with only a note of the size of its opening and its depth, excavation showed this to be a subterranean ‘room’ Test excavations relating to the 2010 2 x 1.5m in size, with plaster lined post-sockets in three of magnetometry survey the walls which presumably supported some sort of floor- In 2010 a magnetometry survey of the north-eastern part of ing. This gives a very different picture of the scale of the the site was carried out by Sophie Hays and Rose Ferraby crypts, which are known to have existed in many of the of the British School at Rome and Southampton University houses on the site. (Spence and Rose, forth.). Two particular areas of interest Samples were also taken from Area 1 (extra-mural foun- within the town site just north of the square trench were dations north east of the site), Area 16 (main temple, late pinpointed by the survey as of possible interest. These were occupation deposits) and in Areas 13 and 14 (Figure 3) where investigated this year by Aurélia Masson, with disappointing deep deposits of archaeological material are visible underlying results. the main north enclosure wall. Areas 13 and 14 may provide Area 9 consisted of a series of shallow depressions appar- valuable information on activities at the site prior to the reign ent on the surface of the site. These were highlighted by the of Akhenaten. 2 Sudan & Nubia Figure 3. Extracting a sample for micromorphology in Area 14. The deposits sampled lie beneath the Akhenaten-period north enclosure wall (photo P. van Pelt). The Main Temple Recording of the main temple began in 2010 and continued this year. Between the end of January 2010 and the beginning of 2011 illicit digging was undertaken in a number places on the site causing substantial damage to both temples and Figure 4. Image of a falcon-headed deity from the Main Temple crypt. to a number of late tombs. The most serious damage was The bright white traces are the remains of consolidation undertaken in to the unique crypt of the main temple. Several blocks had the 1930s; the blocks below the figure and to the right were prised out of been removed from the walls of the crypt and a substantial the wall between January 2010 and January 2011 (photo K. Spence). amount of the decoration damaged. As a result resources and manpower were diverted into recording the damaged wall remains. The work revealed further evidence of a complex reliefs and recovering displaced plaster fragments and blocks. building history. Decorated plaster and stone fragments on the floor of The clearance of the southern part of the main temple the crypt were carefully collected and removed. They were revealed a small area of in situ deposits preserved above the taken to the house where significant areas of decoration 18th Dynasty floor in the western part of Room 2 (Area 16). were reconstructed by Pamela Rose and Aurélia Masson and The area was examined and partly excavated by Aurélia Mas- recorded by Kate Spence. Kate Spence copied the remaining son. The upper level of the deposit consisted of mud-brick wall decoration in the crypt onto acetate and, despite the rubble from walls inserted along the north and south sides damage, a significant amount of information was recovered of Room 2. This sealed a series of floor deposits associated (Figure 4). The majority of the figures originally shown on with the use of the temple in the later 18th Dynasty. The the walls had been chiseled out in ancient times but the lowest of these floors is associated with the stone temple number, orientation and location of figures and whether walls. Unfortunately the relationship of the later floors to they represented the king or divinities could be established. either the stone walls or the mud-brick wall to the south has A few of the better-preserved figures can be more precisely been destroyed by a trench. It is not clear whether this trench identified on the basis of texts or iconography. The decora- dates to the EES work in the 1930s, or whether it is an earlier tion includes an image of Nebmaatre Lord of Nubia, with trench cut through the temple fill. very similar iconography to that seen at Soleb, and a unique Rebecca Bradshaw recorded the graffiti on the upper parts but very badly damaged depiction of Aten, Lord of Nubia. of the three standing columns of the main temple. This The decoration is pre-Amarna in style with sensitively carved work complements the recording of the Pharaonic panels low-relief figures similar to work elsewhere dating to late in of decoration undertaken by Kate Spence in 2010. the reign of Amenhotep III. Two of the royal figures appear to have been re-cut in a style closer to that of the Amarna The pottery period. The entrance to the crypt was blocked by a stonema- Pamela Rose continued to study the pottery from the site. son before we left the site. As in previous seasons, relatively little ceramic material was Work continued with the recording of the plan and decora- recovered during the excavations, and no complete vessels tion of the upper part of the main temple. The southern part were found. All the pottery was washed and a basic quantifi- of the structure was cleared and brushed for the purposes cation was made by fabric group; the body sherds were then of recording. Pieter Collet recorded the plan at a scale of discarded and the diagnostic pieces were kept for detailed 1:20 as the structure was exposed and photographed the processing. A local fabric classification has been created for 3 wheel-made silt wares, to allow for what seem to be minor but the quantity of handmade wares is strikingly less, with differences from the ‘Vienna system’ fabrics, perhaps reflect- an average of 5% in each excavated deposit. There appears ing local manufacture; for handmade wares a new classifica- to be a relatively high number of beer jar fragments present, tion has been devised, since the Vienna system only deals and of Marl D sherds relative to Marl A. Interestingly, like with such pieces in a summary manner. Marl clay vessels Area 1, Area 11 lies outside the existing enclosure and may are rare, and are classified according to the Vienna system, also reflect an earlier occupation at the site. supplemented where necessary with other types (particularly The ceramics from stratified deposits in the southern part Memphis fabric G6a, Bourriau 2010, 24). of the main temple (Area 16) were few in number, but could Excavations in Area 1 continued to provide the main be dated to the late New Kingdom. This is useful confirma- body of stratified ceramics. These are dated to the earlier 18th tion for the date of the use of the temple, and the ceramics Dynasty (the equivalent of Bourriau’s Level IV at Memphis, were apparently associated with architectural modifications to which runs from the beginning of the 18th Dynasty to the time the temple in the form of added mud-brick walls. Unfortu- of Hatshepsut/Thutmose III; Bourriau 2010). In general, the nately the vessel types identified are simple, including bowls pottery includes types well known from contemporary Egyp- with red-slipped interiors and a rim band on exterior and a tian and Nubian sites. Bowls, often carinated, are common biconical jar neck (Figure 6, 11/161), and it is not possible and often show a red slip with a decorative, streaky burnish. to date them more closely from the current sample. One There is little evidence for decoration on them, and when vessel for burning incense was found (Figure 6, 11/162), found it usually consists only of painted black bands and rim of a type known from Deir el-Medina (Nagel 1938, fig. 97 ticks (Figure 5, 11/84, 11/09), and occasionally incised wavy no.12). The only handmade sherds found from these deposits lines (Figure 5, 11/150). There are very few examples of were bread cones, and thus are part of a common Egyptian bowls with black rim bands, and none of ‘splash’ decoration temple repertoire. No marl-clay sherds were found from the which is found in the period of Thutmose III-Amenhotep stratified levels, but amongst the surface sherds from this area II (Aston 2006). Silt jars are also common, including large there were several examples of Memphis fabric G6a, which jars with a raised cordon at the base of the neck (Figure 5, appears at the start of the 19th Dynasty. 11/131). Rare finds are a fragment of a so-called ‘fish dish’ with deeply in- cised geometric decoration, and a few pieces of imported red lustrous ware bottle. Marl-clay vessels are restricted to occasional coarse Marl D amphora fragments and squat, decorated jars in Marl A2 and A4. The assemblage is well paralleled at, for example, Bal- las (Bourriau 1990) and Memphis in Egypt, and in Nubia at Askut (Smith 1995) and Sai.2 The handmade sherds show clear relations to the Kerma corpus, and include the spout of a Kerma beaker. However, most of the handmade pottery consists of coarse wares, and particularly basketry-impressed cooking pots. One of the earliest deposits in this area, 1.131, contained an unusually high percentage of badly Figure 5. Eighteenth Dynasty pottery from Sesebi, scale 1:4 (drawing P. Rose). eroded handmade sherds (61%, about double the average of An interesting aspect of the work this year was the iden- the rest of Area 1). The reason for this is at present unclear, tification of a wide range of Napatan period ceramics from but raises the possibility that there may have been an earlier across the site (the term Napatan is here used to mean mainly Kerma settlement on the same spot. the 25th Dynasty, but the repertoire includes types that could What may be slightly later 18 Dynasty material comes th be a little earlier on the basis of parallels from Qasr Ibrim; from Area 11 (although as yet all the material excavated here there appears to be nothing significantly later in date). The comes from surface deposits, or only just below it). Types material comprises both handmade and wheel-made wares, are generally similar to those from Area 1 (Figure 5, 11/85) many of the latter being marl-clay vessels of fabric marl A4 variant 2 from Upper Egypt (Figure 6, 11/43, 11/111). Only 2 Personal observation, P. Rose. Thanks to Ms Florence Doyenne and one fragment of a keg from the western oases was found. Dr Julia Budka for making this material available. 4 Sudan & Nubia Despite the large number of Napatan sherds that were recovered, none came from well-stratified contexts. The largest group came from the surface deposits over the southern part of the main temple platform. Here handmade wares predominated in the assemblage and suggest perhaps that the temple was not in use at this time, although the presence of breadcone frag- ments (Figure 6, 11/23) may suggest otherwise. More Napatan ceramics came from backfill in Area 15, a New Kingdom house within the enclosure (Figure 6, 11/118, 11/85, both handmade wares). In fact, there is a widespread surface scatter of similar ceramics over the whole enclosure, on the surrounding spoil heaps, and in the New Kingdom cemeteries to the west which derive from the reuse of the graves. However, there are no identifiable structural remains of this date within the enclosure.3 The deep pits seen over much of the site, some of which were excavated this season in Areas 9 and 12, may perhaps represent the last surviving ele- ments of such buildings. In relation to this, it may be significant that in Area 12 all but one of the marl-clay sherds recovered were Napatan in date. The evidence thus suggests that there may have been widespread Figure 6. Late New Kingdom and Napatan pottery from Sesebi, Napatan occupation at Sesebi, but that deflation and scale 1:4 (drawing P. Rose). erosion has removed almost all traces of it. A very small quantity of Post-Meroitic pottery was re- Bibliography covered from surface and redeposited contexts. Its scarcity Aston, D. A. 2006. ‘Making a Splash. Ceramic Decoration in the Reigns suggests that it does not reflect occupation of Sesebi at this of Tuthmosis III and Amenophis II’, in E. Czerny, I. Hein, H. time, but rather may derive from the nearby site of Jebel Sese. Hunger, D. Melman, A. Schwab (eds), Timelines. Studies in Honour of Manfred Bietak. Vol. 1. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 149, 65-74. Blackman, A. M. 1937. ‘Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Acknowledgements Sesebi, Northern Province, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1936–7’, Journal We thank the National Corporation for Antiquities and of Egyptian Archaeology 23, 145–151. Museums for their assistance throughout the planning and Bourriau, J. D. 2010. The Survey of Memphis IV. Kom Rabia: The New execution of our work at the site, in particular, Hassan Hus- Kingdom Pottery. Excavation Memoir 93. London. sein Idriss, Dr Salah Mohamed Ahmed, el-Hassan Ahmed Bourriau, J. D. 1990. ‘The Pottery’, in P. Lacovara, Deir el-Ballas. Pre- liminary Report on the Deir el-Ballas Expedition, 1980-1986. American Mohamed, Dr Abdel Rahman Ali and our inspector, Amal Research Center in Egypt Reports Vol. 12. Winona Lake, Indiana. Hassan Gismallah. We thank Yousuf Tahir, Governor of Fairman, H. W. 1938. ‘Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Sesebi Delgo Region for his efforts to protect and preserve the (Sudla) and ‘Amarah West, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1937–8’, Journal site in the face of significant changes in the region. Abdul of Egyptian Archaeology 24, 151–156. Shafy Yassin and his family provided a comfortable house Nagel, G. 1938. La Céramique du Nouvel Empire à Deir el Médineh. Tome and assistance in the field. 1. Le Caire. Smith S. T. 1995. Askut in Nubia. The economics and ideology of Egyptian The 2011 season was funded by grants from the Mc- imperialism in the second millenium BC. London and New York. Donald Institute for Archaeological Research (excavation), Spence, K. and P. J. Rose 2009. ‘New Fieldwork at Sesebi’, Egyptian the Thomas Mulvey Fund of the University of Cambridge Archaeology 35, 21–24. (temple recording), and the Austrian Archaeological Institute Spence, K. and P. J. Rose forth. ‘Fieldwork at Sesebi 2010’, in J. R. An- (excavation). We are very grateful to all for their generous derson and D. A. Welsby (eds), Proceedings of the Twelfth International support for the project. Conference for Nubian Studies, London 2010. Spence, K., P. J. Rose, J. Bunbury, A. Clapham, P. Collet, G. Smith and N. Soderberg 2009. ‘Fieldwork at Sesebi 2009’, Sudan & Nubia 13, 38–47. 3 A building postdating the construction of the main town was found in the south-east corner of the town in the 1930s and this could have been of Napatan date. However, it was demolished by the earlier excava- tors in order to study an enigmatic circular feature found beneath it; a reassessment of its date is thus impossible (Fairman 1938, 143, pl. IX). 5