Weekly Websites

I've been turning out my files - these were all print-outs from websites which I went online to check, making sure that they are still current. Some of them had changed web address but had popped up elsewhere. Here are some of them that might be of interest:


Tell el Fara'in / Buto
DAIK

Details about the site, which has occupation layers from the Predynastic to the Graeco-Roman period. It includes details of previous and current work, and includes photographs and diagrams. Here's an extract:

The investigations of the DAIK directed by Th. von der Way started in 1983/84 with a widespread archaeological and geological survey carried out in cooperation with the University of Marburg. By means of drillings the existence of early settlement layers was confirmed which were subsequently excavated. This was the first time that settlement remains of the predynastic Lower Egyptian culture came to light in the Nile Delta proper. Early Dynastic layers yielded parts of an administrative building complex which underlined the importance of Buto during the early 3rd millennium known from written sources. On the other hand, the investigations emphasized the technical difficulties which accompany the search for Buto's early history (see Methods, Fig. 5).

From 1993 to 1998, D. Faltings (in one campaign together with M. Ziermann) continued this work and yielded a lot of new information, especially on the earliest settlement.
While this is an important step in the research on Buto, it remained obvious that, compared to the extent of the complete settlement mound, the limited excavation area is merely a tiny window revealing only a small portion of the historical events. Therefore, when excavation activities continued in 1999, a survey was initiated which incorporated both geomagnetic recordings as well as core drilling in the terrain (see Methods) in order to study the general history of the settlement.

The Egyptian Economy and Non-royal Women: Their status in public life

By William A.Ward
The Stoa Consortium

Before looking at the position of women in the economic structure of Pharaonic Egypt, we must first understand something about that structure itself. We are, of course, limited to the available documentation which only indirectly touches the bulk of the population, the peasant-farmers at the bottom of the economic scale. There are ample written records to show how the economy functioned at the level of the royal family, the wealthier strata of officialdom, and the temple hierarchies. We can even go as far down the economic scale as the professional middle class and the independent peasant landlords. But the records stop here and we know next to nothing of the economic status of the majority of farming families who, for want of a better term, labored as tenant-farmers on land held by others.

A similar page is available for Abydos on the same site.


Italian-Libyan Mission in the Acacus and Messak
Missione Archeologica Italo Libica

I've drifted a little east here, but I thought that the site might be of use to anyone who has an interest in the archaeology and rock art of eastern Africa as a whole.

The Mission initially concentrated its efforts on finding, cataloguing and studying the region’s extraordinary rock art. Today, traditional survey and excavation activities are accompanied by more modern techniques employing satellite analysis, digital platforms and electronic archives. The scientific aims of the Mission, which from the outset has acted in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities in Tripoli, is the reconstruction of the human presence in the area – from the remotest prehistory to the advent of Islam – set and analysed within an appropriate climatic and environmental context.

To reach this objective, the Archaeological Mission carries out one or two excavation campaigns each year, with a total of 60 to 110 days of fieldwork. This fieldwork, including both surface surveys and systematic archaeological excavations, is organized according to themes. These vary depending on the specific project underway: geology and geoarchaeology, prehistoric archaeology, historic archaeology, and rock art form the basis for our activities in the Sahara. In recent years, these have been accompanied by increasingly pressing requests for training and expert advice on the conservation and protection of this area by the Libyan authorities, engaged in an ongoing battle to defend its cultural and environmental heritage, under increasing threat from oil drilling and the enormous increase in tourism.

A New Comparative Chronology for the Predynastic-Early Dynastic Transition
By Toby A.H. Wilkinson
ISIS Archive

The entire article is available in PDF format from the above address.

The Predynastic period, carbon-dated to c.5000-3100BC, has been the focus of intense study in recent years, but its precise chronology is still beset with problems. One of these is that, up to now, little account has been taken of regional and local variations in cultural development. Another is the complex relationship betweeen cultural and poltical change towards the end of the Predynastic. Seriation analysis of the cemeteries helps to clarify this relationsip and emphasises the importance of a regional perspective.