The 2009 Mut Expeditions

Brooklyn Museum

Thanks to Lin Wang for this good news from the Brooklyn Museum's Temle of Mut team, with some excellent photographs:

The Brooklyn Museum Mut Expedition’s next season of fieldwork will take place between mid-January and mid-March, 2009. Once again we will be posting a blog each Friday describing the work of the past week. We hope the blog will help viewers understand the complexities of archaeological excavation and the many activities it involves. If you aren’t familiar with the precinct and our work there, check out the Mut Expedition part of the museum’s website.

As always, the Brooklyn Museum thanks the Supreme Council of Antiquities, particularly its Secretary General, Dr. Zahi Hawass, for their support of our work in Egypt. The SCA supervises all archaeological fieldwork, research and preservation projects in the country.

Here is an overview of the work planned for 2009.

And at the same time Kat sent me a post from the JHU website about the JHU team's upcoming activities at the Temple of Mut, also with photographs:

JHU

This is an educational web site that aims to provide the viewer with the elements of archaeological work, including the progress of excavation. The daily results are crucial to an understanding of how field investigation takes place, since decisions must be made on the basis of ongoing work. The people involved in the work are also an essential feature and contribute profoundly to the final outcomes. The focus of our diary is thus often on the people and their activities.

In January 2009, Dr. Bryan and her team of graduate and undergraduate students, conservators, and photographers will continue their investigation of the Sacred Lake and its perimeter. In a collaboration with the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), which also provides grant support with USAID funds of the JHU work inside the temple proper, Dr. Bryan will excavate the north perimeter of the lake after ARCE's project director Fraser Parsons has overseen the lowering of the lake during December. He will be assisted by his engineering staff and by ARCE Egyptologist Andrew Bednarski. The resources of the local Luxor ARCE office will also be a great help to our work.

Excavation will continue work done in June and July of 2008 proceeding from the region of an ancient stone dock on the east of the temple. Areas on the south, and west of the temple will also be investigated. Any materials found in the lake bed will be conserved and desalinated near the bank of the lake before being transferred to a further protected environment. This work will continue for about one month and precedes other work by ARCE to clean and freshen the lake. The lake will be refilled with less saline water after the work is completed in July and will be drained again next winter.

See the above pages for full details