Field Work

Letter from Sudan: The Gold of Kush
Archaeology Magazine
Geoff Emberling

When frequent ARCHAEOLOGY contributor Andrew Lawler reported on the construction of Sudan's massive Merowe Dam on the Nile River at Hamdab, some 220 miles north of the capital Khartoum ("Damming Sudan," November/December 2006), innumerable ancient sites were about to be flooded. The disastrous situation also posed a humanitarian crisis, as those in the water's path were systematically forced from their homes. The following year, University of Chicago archaeologist Geoff Emberling joined an international salvage effort to document sites before they disappeared...

ArchaeoVideo - Saving Pharaoh Amenhotep III's Funerary Temple at Thebes
Heritage Key

Dr Hourig Sourouzian explains the excavations and work being carried out at the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III. Click the image to skip to the video.
18th dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III was the king of Egyptian kings. Under his rule, from around 1391 to 1353 BC, Egyptian civilization reached its very apex – all powerful, influential beyond compare, rich beyond dreams and basking in opulent artistic splendour. In a list compiled by American business and financial bible Forbes in 2008, Amenhotep was ranked as the 12th richest person in human history.
His funerary temple was therefore never going to be a modest affair. As we discover in a new video interview – shot by Nico Piazza – with the highly-respected German-Armenian archaeologist leading the excavation of the site, Dr Hourig Sourouzian, it was bold, groundbreaking, and very, very big. “It was something extraordinary,” as Sourouzian puts it.

Open Access to the publications of the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project

Ancient World Online
A fabulous resource for a terrific project - this website has links to publications from the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project dating to between 2003 to 2007.


More re fractures in the Valley of the Kings
ArchaeoBlog
Tony Cagle

Tony has posted some good photos to supplement information provided about the damage caused by natural fractures in the geology of the Valley. He was involved with a project which mapped joints in some of the uninscribed tombs which were often filled with "a hard precipitate stone". Tony has posted three photographs and describes what he believes they show.