Saturday, December 13, 2008

Karanis target of 1st Archaeology Field for US Undergrads

Passionate about History

Further to Ben's post about inspector-in-training Adel Saad Mondy, who has been working with the UCLA team at Karanis in the Faiyum, here's another post about Karanis:

For the UCLA students, exploring the sprawling agricultural settlement that was Karanis and uncovering plant remains and animal bones from the fourth through sixth centuries is turning into the trip of a lifetime.

Just two weeks into the dig, the field school has made some new discoveries.

"Based on dates in Greek papyri previously found at Karanis, the city was thought to have been abandoned in the fourth century … but the section we are working on dates from the fourth to the sixth centuries, which expands the occupation of Karanis by approximately two centuries," Wendrich said. "It certainly was rural, but it was also a large town, in which the inhabitants, mostly small landowners, created a comfortable life for themselves."

There are more mysteries to uncover, she added.

See the above page for more details and a photograph.

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