Thursday, January 29, 2009

Finnish researchers dig through millennia in the Valley of the Kings

University of Helsinki

Docent Jaana Toivari-Viitala heads the first-ever research project managed by Finns in Egypt.

The first field season is now over at the hut village of the workmen who built the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. However, the archaeologists working on the excavation have found that they still have a great deal to do. The sun, the wind and tourists have left their mark on the village, originally discovered by Bernard Bruyère in 1935.

“From our modern perspective, it is upsetting to see how the village was first excavated and then left to be destroyed. Passers-by have used the huts as dumps and restrooms,” says Jaana Toivari-Viitala, Docent of Egyptology at the University of Helsinki. “Fortunately, while we still have some surface cleaning to do, documentation and conservation are off to a good start.”

The hut village offers rare insight into everyday life in ancient Egypt.


See the above page for the full story.

1 comment:

Geoff Carter said...

This is good to see, it is very important archaeology, and provides some balance for the wholesale tomb-hunt that is going on in the Valley