Archeologie/ Egyptologie

Archeologische expedities van Nederland en Vlaanderen voor wie het NVIC als belangrijkste dienstverlenend instituut in Egypte fungeert door andere bemiddeling met Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), de musea en andere Egyptische overheidsinstanties.

The Leiden Excavations in the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara

Dr. Maarten Raven

From 1975 to 1998 the joint mission of the National Museum of Antiquities (RMO) and the Egypt Exploration Society (EES, London) have excavated over 10 elit) tombs in the New Kingdom necropolis south of the pyramid of Unas, dating from the time of Akhenaten to the early Ramesside period (dynasties 18-19, c. 1350-1200 BC). Since 1999, the role of the EES has been taken over by the department of Egyptology of Leiden University.

Apart from the original aim to find background information on tomb fragments and statues in the RMO, the abundance of the data makes it possible to formulate penetrating research questions on the underlying conceptualisation of the necropolis (e.g. patterns of spatial/chronological distribution, of offering cults, of access and communication, of architectural and iconographic design, of social status, of demography and of reuse in later periods), revealing the dynamics in various subsystems of the Egyptian culture. The project has a website and a supporting society, the Friends of Saqqara.
The most important finds were those of the tombs of Horemheb (1975), Maya (1986) and Pay (1994) - all of them high officials of King Tutankhamun - and Meryneith (2001) and Ptahemwia (2007), who served under Pharaoh Akhenaten. In 2010 an anonymous tomb was found which is still being investigated. At the same time, galleries dating back to the Archaic Period (c. 2800 BC) have been found under the tombs of Maya and Meryneith.

For more information and a list of publications: http://www.saqqara.nl/

Tell Ibrahim Awad

Dr. Willem van Haarlem

From 1988 to 2004, regular excavations have been going on at Tell Ibrahim Awad, Sharqiya province, in the Eastern Nile Delta by the Netherlands Foundation for Archaeological Research in Egypt. The site of Tell Ibrahim Awad was selected for further excavation in 1986, after soundings indicated a rich 1st Dynasty tomb (in the zone later designated as Area B) and a large mud-brick wall (in Area A). This wall appeared to belong to a large early Middle Kingdom temple. These soundings were made during an extensive survey between 1984 and 1988 around the town of Faqus.
Tell Ibrahim Awad is situated just outside the village of Umm Agram in a remote corner of the central part of the Eastern Nile Delta. The highest point is now just ca. 2 m above the agricultural plain, but this must have been more in earlier days. About 30 years ago, the central part of the tell was leveled for a fruit tree orchard, thus destroying part of the archaeological record. An extensive subsoil drilling programme has shown that the present surface of approximately 20 000 m2  comprises not much more than 10 % of the original tell surface, the remainder having been reclaimed gradually for agricultural activities. A future magnetic survey may produce more data about the original extension. Finds made in 1999 during drainage activities in the area have confirmed the original extension of the tell as previously established by drilling.
The core of the tell is formed by a sandy turtleback or gezira in the  curve of a former Nile branch, but this gezira is now no longer visible under settlement and flood deposits. There were several shifting Nile branches nearby. In fact, this shifting may have been the cause of the abandonment of the tell after the early Middle Kingdom, comparable to that of nearby Piramesse as residence after the New Kingdom, when this river port became inaccessible due to the silting up of its waterways.
The first excavations were carried out on two locations, A and B. Since 1994, the work has been focused on Area A, with a temple and a settlement with cemetery.
The untouched surface of Area A is about level, and is covered with low vegetation such as camel thorn and halfa-grass. Remains of an old irrigation ditch are visible in Area B.
The excavation of the temple site was completed in 2001, when the sand of the original gezira, the supposed building site of the first temple, was reached. This cult location was almost continually in use from Naqada IId to the early Middle Kingdom. The most intriguing and numerous finds were made in the temple of the First Intermediate Period/Late Old Kingdom. They consist of several Early Dynastic deposits of votive offerings and cult objects. The contents of these deposits show close parallels to contemporaneous finds in temples in nearby Tell el-Farkha, and in Upper Egyptian Abydos, Hierakonpolis and Elephantine.
A cemetery beside the temple consisted of about 80 burials, dating from the late Old Kingdom to the early Middle Kingdom. The burials were very poorly provided with gifts, mostly consisting of some pottery and beads.
The cemetery excavations will be resumed in 2011, this time under the aegis of the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, and directed by Willem van Haarlem.

Bibliography
-Willem van Haarlem, An Introduction to the Site of Tell Ibrahim Awad, in: Egypt and the Levant 10 (2000), 13-16
-D. Eigner, Tell Ibrahim Awad: Divine Residence from Dynasty 0 to Dynasty 11, in: Egypt and the Levant 10 (2000), 17-36
-Willem van Haarlem, Temple Deposits at Tell Ibrahim Awad (Amsterdam, 2009)
-Willem van Haarlem, D.L. Phillips, J.C. Rose, Bioarchaeology of Tell Ibrahim Awad, in AegLev 19 (2009), 157-210

De reconstructie van de villa van Serenus

Dorothea Schultz

In 1979, tijdens een survey van de ruïnes van de laat antieke stad Trimithis (het moderne Amheida), ontdekte een team van het Dakhla Oase Project de bovenrand van rijk gedecoreerde muren. Het hoofdgebouw, inclusief de gedecoreerde kamers, werd vervolgens opgegraven in 2004 en 2007 door een team van de Columbia Universiteit, onder leiding van Roger S. Bagnall (inmiddels is de opgraving in Amheida een project van de Universiteit van New York). Het gebouw bleek uit de vierde eeuw te stammen en was ooit bewoond door een familie met een hoge sociale status: de heer des huizes maakte deel uit van het stadsbestuur.

De deels goed bewaarde decoratie in vier van de kamers bestaat  uit geometrische patronen en figuratieve scènes. Zowel de schilderingen in situ als de talloze verzamelde fragmenten kampen met dezelfde
conservatieproblemen: de pleisterlaag is extreem dun, niet veel meer dan de dikte van een eierschaal en net zo breekbaar. De beste manier om dit gebouw en de schilderingen voor latere generaties te bewaren bleek het opnieuw begraven van het gebouw te zijn, natuurlijk na uitvoerig onderzoek en documentatie.  


Aangezien dit unieke woonhuis onherroepelijk onherstelbaar beschadigd zou worden door openstelling voor het publiek, werd het  plan ontwikkeld om een reconstructie op ware grootte te bouwen. Het project wordt gefinancieerd door de Nederlandse Ambassade in Cairo, en geadministreerd door het Nederlands-Vlaams Instituut in Cairo. De villa, door Nicholas Warner direct naast de site van Amheida gebouwd, werd voltooid in 2009. Begin dit jaar werd een aanvang gemaakt met het aanbrengen van de schilderingen in de Groene en Rode Kamer. De decoratie in deze kamers bestaat voornamelijk uit geometrische patronen, ondermeer opgebouwd uit vele honderden cirkels en tienduizenden witte en gele punten. Het mooiste onderdeel is de afsluiting van de panelen in de Groene Kamer: twee kruisende golvende lijnen met bladeren, vogels, druiven en bloemen. Ondertussen wordt ook druk gewerkt aan de reconstructie van de motieven van de Grote Kamer om volgend jaar met de decoratie aldaar te kunnen starten.


Deir el-Medina

Dr Rob Demarée of Leiden University is working at the Cairo Museum to study their collection of ostraca from Deir el-Medina. A large part of this collection remains unpublished; this promises to bring more information on this workmen's village, which is one of the specialities of Demarée and the Egyptology section of Leiden University. More information on their website.

Rock art research at Qurta

Dirk Huyge (Director) & Wouter Claes (Vice-Director)

In 2007, the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels started rock art research at Qurta, on the east bank of the Nile, along the northern edge of the Kom Ombo plain. The project was funded by Yale University. Three sites have been identified on the upper part of the Nubian sandstone cliffs bordering the Nile. The majority of the rock art consist of naturalistically drawn animal figures. The bulk of these animals are representations of wild cattle or aurochs, but birds, hippopotamus, gazelle and hartebeest are also present. In addition, there are also several highly stylized representations of human figures (mostly shown with protruding buttocks, but no other bodily features) and a small number of probable non-figurative or abstract signs. All the images are very darkly coloured, bear a substantially developed patination and/or rock varnish and show traces of intensive weathering. This in itself is already an indication of considerable antiquity.

Based on the particularities and the nature of the rock art, its general geographical and archaeological context, there is little doubt that the rock art repertoire at Qurta is extremely old. It can most probably be attributed to the Late Pleistocene Ballanan-Silsian culture which is dated to about 16000 to 15000 BP. As such, Qurta constitutes the oldest graphic activity recorded in Egypt until now. Whatever its precise chronological position in the Late Pleistocene, the Qurta rock art is quite unlike any other rock art found elsewhere in Egypt and Africa. It moreover provides clear evidence that Africa in general and Egypt in particular possess prehistoric art that is both chronologically and aesthetically closely comparable to the great Palaeolithic art traditions known for a long time on the European continent.



Selected bibliography:

- D. Huyge, M. Aubert, H. Barnard, W. Claes, J. C. Darnell, M. De Dapper, E. Figari, S. Ikram, A. Lebrun-Nélis & I. Therasse (2007), ‘Lascaux along the Nile’: Late Pleistocene Rock Art in Egypt, in: Antiquity –Project Gallery, vol. 81, nr. 313 (http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/huyge/index.html).

- D. Huyge (2008), Côa en Afrique: Art rupestre du Pleistocène récent le long du Nil égyptien – Côa in Africa : Late Pleistocene Rock Art along the Egyptian Nile, in : INORA, nr. 51, p. 1-7.
(http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/inora/pdf/51.pdf)

D. Huyge & W. Claes (2008) : ‘Ice Age’ Art along the Nile, in: Egyptian Archaeology. Bulletin of the Egypt Exploration Society, p. 25-28

ElKab

The Belgian mission to Elkab continued its work from 9/1 until 19/3/2000, directed by Dr Luc Limme and Dr Dirk Huyge (Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, and sponsored by the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders). Continued was the investigation of the 2nd Dynasty cemetery on the lower slope of the main rock necropolis. So far more than 30 tombs have been excavated containing skeletons of both adults and children in contracted position. Many of the tombs are lined with unworked sandstone slabs. They are arranged in three circular structures, possibly originally covered by a mound and having a tumulus-like appearance. The grave gifts include pottery, stone vessels, faience and stone necklaces, and bone bracelets. In addition, a number of test trenches was sunk in the area immediately North of the town enclosure (between the Northern wall and the small temple of Tuthmosis III). Several thoroughly looted and/or previously excavated shaft and mastaba tombs of the Old Kingdom were found, including a large, well-preserved mudbrick mastaba structure with an offering niche on its Eastern side. Associated with this structure was a huge amount of pottery, mostly votive beer jars, datable on typological grounds to the 4th Dynasty. In the main rock necropolis epigraphical work was continued and completed in the tomb of Setau (EK4), dating from the Ramesside period (20th Dyn).

Recent publications:
A. Burnet, Elkab. Richesses d\'un sanctuaire, in: Archeologia 338 (1997), 44-51
S. Hendrickx, D. Huyge, Elkab, 1995. Tombes rupestres de l\'Ancien Empire, in: BLGIECE 20 (1997), 36-39
L. Limme, S. Hendrikx, D. Huyge, Elkab: Excavations in the Old Kingdom Rock Necropolis, in: Egyptian Archaeology 11 (1997), 3-6

Belgian Middle Egypt Prehistoric Project

This research project of the Catholic University of Leuven was created in 1976 by Professor Dr Pierre Vermeersch, who assumed its direction until 2003.
The present director is Professor Dr Philip Van Peer.

The main aim of the project is to establish the Palaeolithic occupation history of the Lower Nile Valley and the Eastern Desert through interdisciplinary field research.
During the campaign in 2003, the last one under the direction of P.M. Vermeersch, areas around Wadi Bili (Hurghada) and Denderah were surveyed. At the newly discovered site of Taramsa-8, a test excavation revealed the presence of Palaeolithic mining pits which may be of Middle Pleistocene age.
After an interruption of 7 years, the fieldwork was resumed in 2010. The project has now established a collaboration with Collaborative Research Center 806 'Our Way to Europe' of the University of Köln, aiming at investigating migration corridors for Pleistocene human populations. Work at the site of Sodmein Cave near Quseir was resumed and another campaign is planned for the fall of 2011.

el-Hosh

In March-April 2004, a Belgian-Egyptian team, sponsored by the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders and directed by Dirk Huyge of the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, continued rock art research at the sites of El-Hosh, on the west bank of the Nile, about 30 km south of Edfu. In addition to further recording, excavations were undertaken at several locations in order to find archaeological traces of the creators of the rock art. These activities led, amongst others, to the unexpected discovery of an intact tomb of the Naqada II period.

The rock art of El-Hosh has already been the subject of a survey organized in November 1998 (Huyge et al. 1998; Huyge 2000-2001). On that occasion a multitude of sites with thousands of petroglyphs was located. Attention was paid mainly to the oldest manifestations of rock art in the area representing intensively patinated, mushroom-shaped, curvilinear and geometric designs (including possible representations of labyrinth fish traps), as well as a number of seemingly associated anthropomorphic figures and zoomorphs. These drawings occur at three sites: Gebelet Jussef, Abu Tanqurah Bahari and Abu Tanqurah Qibli. At El-Hosh, it has been possible, for the first time in African rock art research, to obtain direct ages (termini ante quem) for the rock drawings on the basis of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating of organic matter enclosed in rock varnish [see Huyge et al.200; Huyge et al. 2002-2003]. The results indicate that part of the rock art at El-Hosh pre-dates the early 7th millennium BP 9mid 6th millennium cal BC), making it the oldest graphic activity thus far recorded in the Nile Valley.

Further surveying of the El-Hosh area in March-April 2004 has led to the discovery of several new rock art localities bearing an archaic repertoire of drawings. The most remarkable find, however, was a new petroglyph location at the southernmost tip of Abu Tanqurah Bahari. It shows several images of bovids executed in a ‘Franco-Cantabrian, Lascaux-like’ style. They are quite different from the stylized cattle representations in ‘classical’ Predynastic iconography of the 4th millennium BC. On the basis of patination and weathering, these bovid representations are definitely extremely old (possibly Late Palaeolithic or Early Neolithic?). They are comparable to similar bovid images that had been discovered in 1962-1963 on the opposite bank of the Nile, in the Gebel Silsila area (see Smith 1985).

With the intention to recover archaeological traces of the people responsible for the creation of the archaic rock art repertoire at El-Hosh, several soundings were made at the site of Gebelet Jussef. Three of the four soundings were made at shelter-like overhangs in the vicinity of rock art panels. Unfortunately, the shallow deposits in these shelters were thoroughly disturbed and no archaeological material was found in situ. The finds, mainly ceramics, indicate that the site of Gebelet Jussef was frequented throughout the Predynastic and early pharaonic periods. Traces of occupation phases which could be linked to the pre-7th millennium rock art repertoire, however, were not found.

In addition, a number of circular stone structures were investigated at the southern extremity of Gebelet Jussef. On the basis of the rough ceramics found in and near these constructions, these are probably ‘Bedouin’ and/or ‘Nubian’ in nature. Their function and age remain unknown. Below one of the structures, but evidently unrelated to it, an intact tomb was found, dug into the bedrock. This tomb is clearly of Naqada IIC age (c. 3500-3400 BC) and contained a skeleton and a number of grave goods including two small Rough jars, two large Red-Polished bowls and a superb Decorated vase. The latter item is decorated with boats, human figures and birds. The deceased faced west and was buried in a contracted position, the hands covering the face. Below the skeleton lay several well preserved fragments of a reed matting. According to a preliminary anthropological analysis (by Dr. Caroline Polet) the skeleton is probably that of a female aged between forty and fifty and with a stature of about 1.55-1.60 m. It is currently unknown whether or not this tomb indicates the location of a Naqada II cemetery.

References

D. Huyge, M. De Dapper, D. Depraetere, M. Ismail, E. Marchi, R. Mommaerts, I. Regulski and A. Watchman, Hilltops, Silts, and Petroglyphs: ‘The Fish Hunters of El-Hosh (Upper Egypt)’, Bulletin van de Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis/Bulletin des Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire 69 (1998), 97-113.

D. Huyge, ‘Rock Art Research in Upper Egypt: The Environs of El-Hosh. Report on the work done in 1998’, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Egypte 76 (2000-2001), 45-52.

D. Huyge, A. Watchman, M. De Dapper and E. Marchi E., ‘Dating Egypt’s Oldest ‘Art’: AMS 14C Age Determinations of Rock Varnishes Covering Petroglyphs at El-Hosh (Upper Egypt)’, Antiquity 75 (2001), 68-72.

D. Huyge, M. De Dapper, E. Marchi and A. Watchman, ‘Les chasseurs de poissons d’El-Hosh (Haute-Egypte): l’art rupestre le plus ancien de la vallée du Nil’, in J. Polet (dir.), Afrique: Archéologie & Arts 2 (Paris, 2002-2003), 39-46.

P.E.L. Smith, ‘An Enigmatic Frieze from Upper Egypt : A Problem in Nilotic Rock Art’, in M. Liverani, A. Palmieri and R. Peroni (eds), Studi di paletnologia in onore di Salvatore M. Puglisi (Roma, 1985), 359-368.


Dayr al Barsha project

Director: Professor dr Harco Willems (Catholic University of Leuven).

This project began in 1988 as an initiative of Harco Willems, then working for Leiden University. The original intention was to publish the field records of Reisner’s expedition in 1915 in conjunction with an epigraphic record of some Middle Kingdom tombs. Because Reisner's records are kept in the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston, a joint mission was started with that museum and the University Museum at Philadelphia; this collaborative effort realized one field campaign (1990). After hibernating between 1992 and 2001, Harco Willems restarted the project, which is now based at K.U.Leuven. Its is mainly funded by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek-Vlaanderen and the Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds of Leuven University.
The project aims at providing a regional description of the archaeology of the region around Dayr al-Barsha, the southern limit being at al-Shaykh Sa’id and the northern one at Dayr Abu Hinnis. A main focus of attention is the cemeteries at the desert fringe in this entire area, which span the period between the Third Dynasty and the Graeco-Roman Period. The current research interest is to analyze the spatial distribution of the many cemeteries in the region. Based on surface surveys, ground- and satellite-based remote sensing, targeted excavations, and epigraphic work, the project is generating site histories of each of the cemetery sites in the region, in order to establish a basic demographic profile of the buried populations. Preliminary results can be summarized as follows. 
In the Third Dynasty, a poor but huge cemetery emerged on the hill slopes between northern Dayr al-Barsha and Dayr Abu Hinnis. Later in the Old Kingdom (as of the Fifth Dynasty, but mainly in the Sixth) several rock cut tomb cemeteries emerged on the north and south flanks of the Wadi Nakhla (in Dayr al-Barsha). At the same time, an important cemetery for provincial governors, which is now being investigated, emerged at al-Shaykh Saʽid. In the First Intermediate Period a cemetery of the highest elite emerged in what is now the village centre of Dayr al-Barsha. In the Middle Kingdom a vast cemetery extended from here across the desert plain and the hilltops further east, the latter area being occupied by the nomarchs' tombs. In the Second Intermediate Period and Early New Kingdom, poorer burials were mostly deposited in older tombs. After this, burial activity stopped almost until the Late or Ptolemaic Period. Probably the main provincial cemetery was now moved to Tuna al-Jabal on the west bank. Extensive late cemeteries exist, however, near al-Shaykh Saʽid. All these cemeteries must relate to settlements in the Nile Valley.
Reconstruction of this landscape is currently being undertaken, the aim being to contextualize the cemeteries within its floodplain environment. Therefore, geomorphological research is now also being carried out on the west bank, in collaboration with geographers of Leuven University.
Research is also focusing on ancient economic activity in the region, and most notably on quarrying. In collaboration with historians of Leuven University, the vast limestone quarries from the time of Nectanebo I in the Wadi Nakhla, which among other things contain hundreds of demotic graffiti, are being recorded. At al-Shaykh Saʽid, quarry and stone processing activity dating back to the Fourth Dynasty is being investigated. Here probably a royal domain of that date existed. The site was later re-used between the Amarna Period and the Late Period. Most importantly, a recent initiative is the investigation of the Amarna Period quarries in the entire region. Although some exist near al-Shaykh Saʽid, the most important cluster extends between Dayr al-Barsha and Dayr Abu Hinnis. This is currently being mapped and the texts, bearing on the building history of Amarna, are being recorded.
The area also contains extensive testimony of early Christian activity. Study of this has mostly focused on the laura and rock church of John the Baptist at Dayr Abū Hinnis.


Shanhur

In 1992 K.U. Leuven, then in collaboration with the Université Charles de Gaulle Lille III, began research at the Roman temple and surrounding settlement at Shanhur. Initially, the project was directed by Jan Quaegebeur, and, since the latter's death, by Harco Willems. Research has been mainly funded by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen and the Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds of K.U.Leuven. This enabled an intensive programme of field research until 2001. In 2010, in collaboration with Swansea University (Martina Minas-Nerpel), a last field season was carried out sponsored by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.
During the field campaigns, it has been possible to reconstruct the building history of the temple, which was initiated by Augustus, and where the latest texts date to the reign of Trajan. However, occasional finds at the site suggest that the temple had earlier precursors. To date, one volume of the final publication has appeared, which describes the decoration of the interior. From this, it appears that the temple was dedicated to a form of Isis of whom four manifestations were venerated. The temple clearly stands in the theological tradition of the temples at Coptos. 
Architectural study has revealed that, as a secondary addition, a colonnade was built around the rear part of the temple (or at least at the northern and western sides), giving the building the partial appearance of a peripteral temple. As of the fifth century AD, the building became inhabited by Copts. There are clear traces that they ransacked and burned the temple prior to establishing themselves. Among the spoils, some badly damaged pieces of temple equipment were found.
Currently, the final volumes are being prepared for publication.

The Qasr Dakhleh Project

Project director: Dr. Fred Leemhuis

The Qasr Dakhleh Project (QDP) started in 2002 with two objectives:

1. To document and restore some of the unique mud brick architecture of the little oasis town of al-Qasr in the Dachla Oasis.
2. To try to find out as much as possible about the history of al-Qasr.

Supported by the University of Groningen and the Netherlands Embassy in Cairo we were, over the years, able to restore or reconstruct five rather large houses, some of them four stories high.  In the course of this some six hundred documents were found in the largest house; all part of a family archive. Since the end of 2006 we have tried to obtain permission to introduce water and electricity. The idea behind this was to make them ready for contemporary use, so that they will be maintained in good order. Just now, we have put the first electrical conduits in place.

After the discovery in 2006 of big part of a Roman wall of about six meters wide excavations were started in 2008 to know more about it. We now know that al-Qasr started as a Roman castrum. This year the excavations are going on. We hope to find indications of the continuity of habitation, or otherwise, since the Byzantines left the oasis.

More information on dachlalog.posterous.com

De pottenbakkers van Fustat

Door Kim Duistermaat (NVIC) en Niels Groot (TU Delft)

Wie recentelijk in Fustat geweest is, heeft het kunnen zien: in de pottenbakkerswijk tussen Koptisch Cairo en de archeologische site van Fustat wordt druk gebouwd aan nieuwe, betonnen gebouwen met koepeldaken. Waar zijn die voor bedoeld? Wat gebeurt er met de oude pottenbakkerswerkplaatsen? En waarom is NVIC daar een nieuw ethnoarchaeologisch project begonnen?

Fustat, de naam van het middeleeuwse Cairo, was beroemd om het prachtig geglazuurde aardewerk dat er werd geproduceerd. Sindsdien hebben er altijd pottenbakkers gewerkt in dit deel van de stad. Nog steeds zijn de pottenbakkerijen in Cairo geconcentreerd in dit gebied. Lange tijd waren de pottenbakkerswerkplaatsen gelocaliseerd rond de moskee van Amr Ibn el-‘As. Toen de archaeologische site Fustat door de oudheidkundige dienst werd ommuurd en voor publiek toegankelijk werd gemaakt, moesten de pottenbakkers verhuizen. De meesten verplaatsten hun werkplaatsen naar het zuiden, naar een gebied dat ‘Batn el-Baqara’ heet. Maar in 1999 wilde de Egyptische overheid de pottenbakkers ook hier weg hebben: de zwarte rook van de ovens was te vervuilend. Daarop ontwikkelden de pottenbakkers samen met een locale NGO een plan om de werkplaatsen te moderniseren. Op dit moment worden de oude werkplaatsen een voor een afgebroken, om plaats te maken voor nieuwe gebouwen. Het is de bedoeling dat de pottenbakkers hier straks terugkeren, en onder modernere en schonere omstandigheden hun werk voortzetten. 

Voor archeologen zijn ‘traditionele’ ambachten interessant. Immers, alleen op deze manier is direct te zien hoe bepaalde technieken werken, hoe gereedschap en ruimte gebruikt wordt, hoe mensen zich organiseren en hoe hun activiteiten materiele sporen nalaten. De pottenbakkers in Fustat werden twee keer gedocumenteerd door ethnoarcheologen. De eerste keer, in de 70-er jaren, deed een Frans-Egyptisch team een uitgebreide studie naar de werkplaatsen, de gebouwen, gereedschappen en producten. De meeste pottenbakkers maakten ‘olla’s’, waterkruiken, die gebakken werden in reusachtige ovens met twee of drie verdiepingen. In 1998 bezocht een klein team van het NVIC de pottenbakkers nogmaals voor een korte inventarisatie. Het bleek dat de productie van waterkruiken was gestopt, en dat er nu allerlei soorten potten werden gemaakt. Vandaag de dag maken de pottenbakkers een grote varieteit aan tuinpotten, dakpannen, lantarens en tuindecoraties. De grote ovens zijn verdwenen, en in plaats daarvan worden kleine ovens gebruikt. Door de aanstaande veranderingen in Fustat zal ook het werk van de pottenbakkers veranderen. Sommigen zullen niet in staat zijn de afbraak van hun oude werkplaats en het wachten op de nieuwe ruimte te overbruggen. Zij zullen elders een werkplaats beginnen of het ambacht zelfs helemaal verlaten. Anderen zullen verder gaan, maar hun werk zal veranderen. Ze zullen gasovens in plaats van houtovens gebruiken, een ander soort ruimtes tot hun beschikking hebben, misschien meer aanloop van toeristen krijgen, etc.

Om de pottenbakkerijen van Fustat nog een laatste keer in detail te documenteren voordat deze veranderingen plaatsvinden, begon het NVIC in 2008 een ethnoarcheologisch documentatieproject. Het project wordt uitgevoerd in samenwerking met de Universiteit Leiden en de Technische Universiteit Delft, en wordt gefinancieerd door de Nederlandse Ambassade in Cairo. Op basis van archeologische vraagstellingen wordt een beschrijving gemaakt van technologie, ruimtegebruik en organisatie. De beschrijvingen worden geillustreerd met kaarten, foto’s en video. De eindpublicatie zal verder worden aangevuld met informatie over de archeologische en historische bronnen over aardewerkproductie in Fustat, en zal de huidige situatie vergelijken met die in de 70-er jaren. Toen het project begon, waren er nog ca. 10 werkplaatsen in bedrijf, van de tientallen die hier ooit gelocaliseerd waren.

Het meeste veldwerk werd uitgevoerd in oktober en november 2008. Het Nederlandse team, bestaande uit A. Van As, L. Jacobs (Universiteit Leiden) en Niels Groot (TU Delft) bracht drie weken door in Fustat. Zij bestudeerden productietechnieken en ruimtegebruik. Drie Leidse studenten archeologie assisteerden hen (R. Zineldeen, N. Staring en J. Schoester). Een studente Visuele Antropologie, F. Breeksema, legde alle werkzaamheden in detail vast op film. De architectuur werd gedocumenteerd door D. Bakhoum en haar assistenten, terwijl M. Kačičnik de fotografische documentatie verzorgde. Verder werkt K. Duistermaat aan een studie van de productie-organisatie, en zal P. Sheehan zich buigen over een overzicht van de archeologische en historische informatie over de pottenbakkers van Fustat.

Tijdens dit onderzoek zijn we geraakt door de gastvrijheid en de bereidheid van de pottenbakkers om ons te helpen met ons onderzoek, zelfs toen we als groep met camera en al door de werkplaatsen rondzwierven. Ze stonden ons daarnaast vriendelijk te woord als we vragen hadden, en zelfs als we geen vragen hadden was er altijd tijd voor een praatje.

Verdere literatuur:
Duistermaat, K. and N.C.F. Groot (2008), A new ethnoarchaeological documentation project at the Fustat pottery workshops, Egypt. Leiden Journal of Pottery Studies 24: 181-186.

Golvin, L., J. Thiriot and M. Zakariya (1982), Les potiers actuels de Fustat, IFAO Cairo.

Van der Kooij, G. and W.Z. Wendrich (2002), The potters of el-Fustat (Cairo) and el-Nazla (Fayoum). In:
W.Z. Wendrich and G. van der Kooij (eds.), Moving Matters. Ethnoarchaeology in the Near East, Leiden: 147-158.
 


 
Laatst Gewijzigd: 29-05-2011