JUNE and JULY 2008This 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 June and July of 2008, continuing their exploration of the Mut Temple's early history, Dr. Bryan and her team of graduate students, artists, conservators, and photographers will expand their investigation this summer into the Sacred Lake. In a collaboration with the American Research Center in Egypt, which also provides grant support with USAID funds of the JHU work inside the temple proper, Dr. Bryan will excavate on the north east arm of the lake after ARCE's engineers have drained the lake in early June. Excavation is anticipated to begin around June 11 or 12 and will proceed from the region of an ancient stone dock, above present water level in a swath around 20 meters in breadth down into the basin of the dewatered lake. 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 brief season of about one month will largely aim to develop procedures for more extensive excavation of the lake next year. The lake will be refilled with less saline water after the work is completed in July and will be drained again next winter. The team will also consist of former JHU grad student Violaine Chauvet, now Lecturer in Egyptology at University of Liverpool in England, Jay Van Rensselaer and later Will Kirk, JHU Photographers, Hiroko Kariya, stone conservator, Will Schenck and Keli Alberts, artists, Lotfi Hassan, conservator and three graduate students, Ashley Fiutko, Shaina Norvell-Cold, and Meredith Fraser, all are finishing their first year at JHU. As always, the Johns Hopkins University thanks the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and, in particular, its Secretary General, Dr. Zahi Hawass, for their ongoing support of our archaeological work in Egypt . The Supreme Council of Antiquities supervises all fieldwork research in Egypt and also monitors and preserves the ancient monuments. To follow the day to day progress of the JHU Expedition, click on the thumbnail images in the calendar below.
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