Visit to Saqqara

Above: Teti Pyramid (right) with the Step Pyramid

in the distance (left)

Since my professors were finishing up a season of excavation near the Teti Pyramid at Saqqara when I arrived in Cairo, a visit to the site was called for. After several days of troublesome communications, it was settled on that I would visit the site this past Monday. After a little bit of confusion about which entrance into Saqqara my driver and I should take, we found the local Taftish (SCA Office), and I was welcomed by the inspectors there and told I could move on to the site.

Left: Jean working on the photography while men work up on top of the wall in the background.

Below: Little A running down the hill/wall with the inspector's son.








With it being the day before the start of the Eid el-Adha, the small team was in a rush to complete their work. However, we got a chance to talk during their lunch break, after which Joe showed me around the site and explained what they had been doing. The most exciting part of the trip was getting to climb down a rope ladder into one of the shafts and crawl around through the ancient tunnels, following Joe as he gave me the full tour. I convinced Joe to take a couple of pictures of me underground with my camera.

The one of me next to the tunnel with a femur in it (below) is my favorite of the two. It wasn't as hot down there as I had feared it might be, but you can see that
I still broke a sweat


from all the crawling around and squeezing through holes.

After this, I got to climb back up via a different shaft and take a look around on the surface. I had not thought I would have a chance to slither around in the dirt while I was there, so I had dressed more appropriately for the city than an excavation. You can see the thick layer of dirt I accumulated. There was apparently some sort of soot on my cheek also, which I didn't know was there until I got home and looked in the mirror. Needless to say, I immediately threw my clothes in the washing machine and hopped in the shower upon arriving home.

Back in Egypt

I arrived in Cairo last week, narrowly missing an ice storm back home. Though the weather has been much more pleasant in Cairo, it has still been on the chilly side, with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the 40s and 50s. This sounds warmer than it is. It has always seemed to me that whenever the temperature gets below 80 in Egypt, it starts to feel colder than one associates with the same temperature at home. So, while I would love 70-degree weather at home and think it quite warm, here it feels chilly unless you're in direct sunlight.

The best part of my view at the ARCE residence

I settled into the ARCE residence, where I spent 3 nights while making arrangements and running errands during my days. By Thursday (2 days after arrival), I had my permissions from the SCA in-hand and an apartment to move into (though only temporarily). However, the head curator at the museum will not be in for another week and all of the libraries and other main institutions will be closed for the Eid el-Adha for the rest of the week. So, I'll be cooling my heels at home, working on my computer, and running errands at the places that will be open for the next several days.Nighttime, when the buildings and streets don't look so dirty, but the traffic never stops

A sad return

When the German team arrived at Abydos to take up residence in their house, the police rolled a tank out to their house and ran over our phone line, snapping it in two. So, we had no internet access for the last week at Abydos.

We departed Abydos Monday evening, October 22, arriving in Cairo the morning of October 23. At our first check of email, we discovered sad news had been waiting for us. We spent several hours crying before deciding to return to Philadelphia a day early in order to get to Boston in time for the memorial service in honor of our friend, Stine Rossel, who was an amazing light in every situation.

I will not recount the details of her tragic death here. For those who don't know about it already, there are many newspaper articles available online, one of which you can see here http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-102307-newlyweds,0,6074391.story

Luxor problems strike again...

A couple of hours after my previous post, we went out for a tasty and cheap dinner at the Amoun restaurant. On our way back to the hotel, I twisted my ankle on stairs leading down from the restaurant. It promptly swelled to the point of not looking like an ankle anymore. Antonio ran to a pharmacy for an ACE bandage and something to kill the pain while Jane and I managed to move me down to the ground floor.

We were up late icing my ankle and feeding me ibuprofen before going to bed and getting up early to catch the train back to Balyana. Hopping around train stations on one leg (where would one find crutches in Luxor?) is tiring work, but we made it back without more of an incident than being stared at a lot while hopping down the platform (I called this the "bouncing hawaga show"). Once back at the house, Hasan promptly made me some makeshift crutches from some wooden poles that were at the house.

Breakfast the next morning (ankle up, of course)

Getting around was pretty hard for a couple of days, but I'm back on my feet now with only a little pain and swelling remaining.

Update: after we returned to the States, I discovered that I actually had a fractured fibula, which I had walked around on for a couple of weeks before we came home. However, as of December it is all healed and doing very well.