Amarna News

Amarna news by Barry Kemp

1) Conservation appeal

One of the successful results of the excavations at the South Tombs Cemetery at Amarna has been the recovery of substantial parts of three decorated coffins and fragments from a fourth. Their decoration is a rare record of funerary beliefs held by the non-elite inhabitants of Amarna.

Much of the wood of the coffin panels has been consumed by termites, leaving little more than the brittle layer of paint itself. The conservation of this material, by professional conservators, has begun and will be pursued during the Amarna season that has just started.

To aid the work, we have recently launched an appeal on the Amarna Justgiving website:

http://www.justgiving.com/Amarna-Project2

Donation is easy, and the Gift-Aid element is automatically handled.

Please, if you can, help this project to succeed.

2) A specialist tour of the Nile Valley and Delta, with full day visit to Amarna, to run between December 1st and 14th, 2012, is now taking bookings.

It is organised by Far Horizons (Archaeological and Cultural Trips, Inc) and Barry Kemp will be the accompanying specialist. Go to the website:

http://www.farhorizons.com/trips/EgyptAfrica/UndiscoveredEgypt/TravelwithBobBrieronUndiscoveredEgypt.php

3) The new season has begun

The last season at Amarna - seeing further excavation at the cemetery - continued until the very end of 2011. After a break of nearly three months the expedition has resumed. The fieldwork is now at the site of the Great Aten Temple, fully excavated in 1932 but left unprotected. The aims are to clear it of debris, including rubbish dumped from the nearby village, to record afresh what is left, and to begin to mark the most prominent features in fresh brick and stone; this last in the hope of halting the steady advance of the village cemetery which now threatens to engulf the site. The first day of work was yesterday.

More news soon.

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Support the work of the Amarna Project at:
http://www.justgiving.com/Amarna-Project2