VOL. 9 NO. 2 GRAM FALL 2008 ANCIENT EGYPT RESEARCH ASSOCIATES Groundbreaking Archaeology

Archaeological Science: Deciphering Ancient Code 2 Small Finds, Big Results 4 Ann Lurie Egypt's Oldest Olive on Board RainerEgypt's Gerisch, Oldest charcoal Olivespecial- ist,Rainer has identified Gerisch, charcoal olive wood analyst, in his 6 sampleshas identified from the olive 4th woodDynasty at Heit el-Gurobthe 4th Dynasty settlement, Lost the City earliest of Two Royal Towns: olivethe inPyramids Egypt to settlement, date. the Old Digs, New earliest olive in2 Egypt to date. Finds

3 8 Giza: Overviews and Ground Truths 14

http://www.aeraweb.org Egypt's Oldest Olive were used to transport oils. Some ar- Archaeological Science: Deciphering Ancient Code chaeologists believe they carried olive oil ERA researchers have discovered new early date? The because they have been found in olive oil ost of what we analyze is not Below: Looking something like a tiny guard's hut, or a secret entrance into the Great Pyramid, this A evidence suggesting that olive wood most likely factory sites in the Levant, where peo- diminutive entryway to the AERA Field Laboratory gives access to six rooms on two levels where Mentirely natural stuff. It is products was present in ancient Egypt 500 to 700 possibility ple have pressed olives since the 4th scientists study material culture from the Lost City of the Pyramids. Nestled among the tombs of or material left over after people have the nobles in the Western Cemetery, the lab is home to the AERA Archaeological Science and years before previously believed, a find is that it was imported, and there Millennium BCE. AERA ceramicist processed, worked, or digested it in Material Culture program. View to the east. The circles show the lab interior. that may provide new insights into the is much evidence to support this Anna Wodzińska has identified 14 some way. Archaeologists call it “mate- life of the pyramid builders. idea. Egyptians carried on a lively combed ware sherds at the Lost City site. rial culture." People select natural mate- “software” passively. In various ways pottery, animal bone, plant remains, The discovery, made by AERA char- trade with the Levant going back to the If the imported jars carried olive oil, this rial (clay, stone, mud, plants, animals, material culture, from the monumental chipped and ground stone tools, char- coal analyst Rainer Gerisch, suggests 1st Dynasty (roughly 2900–2730 BCE). might explain the presence of the wood. earth, wood, etc.), modify it, and distrib- to the elementary structures of every- coal, clay sealings, faience, pigments, that olive wood was at least present, if The main imports were woods, as well as Prunings from the orchard might have ute it according to the shared ideas that day life, actively affected the evolution mudbricks, and objects of everyday life) not grown, in Egypt as early as the time oils, resins, and wine. Egyptians sought come along with the jars as some sort of make up culture—the ideas behind their of ancient Egyptian society. The task of methodically analyze the enormous of Pharaoh Menkaure (about 2551–2523 wood for buildings, ships, and funer- packing material or shipping crates. social organization, needs, per- building on such a colossal scale quantities of material that we have BCE), builder of the third Giza pyramid. ary equipment since their native trees It is also possible that Egyptian work- ceptions, beliefs, and pat- required that the Egyptians amassed, in order to unlock the code: Until now, the earliest known traces of offered very little good timber. The Pal- ers brought in the olive twigs with wood terns of behavior. Culture organize and adapt their the ideas, and values of the people olive were fruit pits found in 12th Dy- ermo Stone mentions 40 ships arriving shipments. When crews were dispatched influences the shape human and natural who created and inhabited the Lost nasty deposits at Memphis. Even then, with wood during the reign of Sneferu to the Levant to fell trees and transport potters give vessels, resources, their social City of the Pyramids. The lab team there are almost no other archaeologi- (2543–2510 BCE). It is possible that olive the logs back, they may also have taken the ornamentation order and bureau- works under the aegis of the AERA cal finds of olive until the 18th Dynasty was among the wood imports during the firewood to use on their return voyage they add, the people cracy. They also had to Archaeological Science and Material (about 1569–1081 BCE). From this period Old Kingdom. or to fill out extra space on their ship. who use the pots, the adapt their most basic Culture program, directed by Dr. Mary and thereafter olive leaves begin to ap- But two important facts undermine Gerisch found the olive with small pieces means by which they structures, like bread Anne Murray. pear in tombs, suggesting that olive cul- this hypothesis. First, it is unlikely that of charcoal from other Levantine trees— procure them, how they pots and bakeries, for The results of the lab team, combined tivation had begun in Egypt. But the first olive wood ended up in the timber trade. cedar, pine, and deciduous and evergreen use and reuse the vessels, an intensification of pro- with the data from the site, allow us to definitive evidence that Egyptians were Olive trees are extraordinarily long-lived oaks—suggesting that they may have and how they discard them. duction that in turn may have “read” the patterns of everyday life in the growing olives dates from the Graeco- and valued for their fruit. The tree does come from the Levant together. Material culture both pas- affected how people used Lost City, and to relate these patterns to Roman era (305 BCE–337 CE). not yield good timber as it is pruned But what about the possibility that sively reflects and actively those structures back in the record of Old Kingdom monumental Gerisch first identified several olive vigorously to keep it short and produc- Egyptians were growing olive trees? In influences the ideas their everyday lives. architecture, art, and texts long-studied wood charcoal fragments in 2001 in tive. Second, the specimens found at the New Kingdom Queen Hatshepsut and values that people In search of the by Egyptologists. charcoal samples from the Lost City of AERA’s site are mostly from twigs. Thus maintained a botanical garden of exotic share. (The gigantic code—the software— In this issue of AERAGRAM we pres- the Pyramids site. But there was not the wood was probably not imported plants. Perhaps Menkaure made an early pyramids are material we compulsively, scru- ent two of the stories to emerge from enough evidence to rule out the possi- for carving small objects either. Carving and undocumented effort to cultivate culture writ large!) pulously try to recover the Arch Sci Program: the earliest evi- bility that these were intrusive. Gerisch could have left scraps for firewood that olive trees in palace gardens. every scrap of material dence of olive wood in Egypt to date and continued to find olive charcoal from might have ended up as charcoal. The Pyramid Age is early for olive in Raw Data and Code culture, from the largest the mystery of the odd stones that hint- different areas of the Lost City. With Perhaps then, our olive wood was not Egypt, but few Old Kingdom town sites So in a sense material cul- objects down to the small- ed of a 4,500 year old crank-shaft drill. that and additional finds this year, we an import in its own right, but rather have been excavated extensively and ture is like certain computer est seeds. Our archaeologists • Mark Lehner can now conclude that the olive wood entered Egypt with other products, pos- sampled methodically for wood char- software (especially in object-ori- assign every lot of material an ID tag, is genuinely part of the Old Kingdom sibly olive oil. Beginning in the 1st Dy- coal. Gerisch’s work may inspire others ented programming) in that it contains the number of the deposit from which settlement remains, dating at least 500 nasty, combed ware pottery vessels from to carry out similar studies and perhaps both raw data—the clay, bone, stone, they excavated the material. The “feature years earlier than any other known spec- the Levant appeared in Egypt. Made of a discover more early olive remains. etc.—and code—the ideas. In our work number” stays with the material through imens in Egypt. So how did olive wood very hard ceramic decorated with stria- • Rainer Gerisch, Wilma Wetterstrom, we are not so much interested in things- its registration and analysis in the turn up at the Lost City site at such an tions impressed with a comb, the jars By the Numbers and Mary Anne Murray as-such. We want to know the "software" AERA Field Laboratory. Specialists analyze enormous quantities that created the "hardware" of the pyra- of material every season. These are some Under the Microscope: Identifying Wood Charcoal mids, tombs, and temples. This highly Unlocking the Code of the numbers: All woods have distinctive patterns of cells and other microscopic structures symbolic, monumental material culture Thirty-eight scholars and Royal Administrative Building 12,049 animal bone fragments (2007) that are used to distinguish one species from another. Rainer Gerisch examines not only reflects the ancient Egyptians’ scientists (specialists in 12,950 diagnostic sherds (2007) 1 micron 1 micron Olive these features in split surfaces of the charcoal fragment, working at magnifica- 12,837 chipped stone tools & waste tions of 40 to 500 x. Transverse (cross) sections of Nile acacia and olive are Nearly 10,000 plant items shown in the circles at different magnifications to illustrate the differences in 81 pigment samples 459 mud sealings structure. The sections in the squares are at the same magnification. Nile acacia Area AA (possible storage facility) Olive Nile acacia is the most common wood at the site, accounting for 99.3% of all the charcoal (Olea europaea) (Acacia nilotica) Nile acacia 12,028 sherds that Gerisch has identified (143,482 pieces). Olive wood accounts for 15 pieces. 989 mud sealings Fall 2008 3 Craftsmen used crank-shaft drills Vessels for the Sacred or the Secular? necessarily went to tombs and temples. from Predynastic times until at least the Egyptologists have thought that ancient Some items, including some of the 26th Dynasty; the hieroglyphic depic- craftsmen used the crank drill and bor- stone vessels, may have been intended tion of the drill appears as early as the ers for making stone vessels intended to support daily life in the city. We do 3rd Dynasty. primarily for temples and tombs as not know to what extent the settlement offerings to gods and the deceased. The sustained itself. Some goods were clearly How to Start the Hole Lost City craftsmen, as workers in a provisioned, such as cattle, sheep, and The figure-eight, or flower-shaped, pyramid city, were undoubtedly produc- goat meat; grains; and wood fuel. But stones drilled through the vessel once it ing objects for mortuary purposes on textiles made here may have been for had an opening. How was that opening the Giza Plateau. We have evidence of the residents' use. created? How did the craftsmen begin other stone working on a more mas- the mouth of the vessel? They might sive scale for structures on the plateau, A Hidden Industry have used a tube-drill, a hollow cop- Most of the crank-shaft drill assembly— Small Finds, Big Results 0 1 cm per tube force fitted onto a wooden the wooden shafts, the lashing, and the Left: Ana Tavares and Emmy Malek search through small finds from shaft. Tube-drills were used to drill nets holding the stone weights—has Inconspicuous Stones a Key to an Ancient Industry the Lost City of the Pyramids site in the AERA Field Lab. hard stone sarcophagi and stone ves- disappeared. Only the quartzite stone by Ana Tavares, Co-Field Director Above: Two examples of drill stones, bottom and side views. sels, but they were very “expensive.” borers remain to tell us that this rather Mark Lehner (Drawings by Johnny Karlsson.) Copper was precious and cutting a complex and very effective drilling tool The most unassuming little objects can sometimes carry much Below left: Forked wooden shaft fitted with stone drill bit. Below hole ground up the metal. was used on our site. We have excavated right: Shaft with drill bit being lowered into the stone vessel. (After information about daily life and industry. But we can easily overlook Amidst our objects we found an fragments of stone vessels, remains of Stocks 2003.) them because they are inconspicuous. Removed from their original alternative: inverted conical quartzite the products of the drill assembly, but context they are often incomprehensible. Then, during careful scru- pieces, with hafting grooves on the until we identified the stone borers tiny in the lab, some attribute catches our eye and provides a clue to upper part and cutting surfaces on we had no direct evidence that people the story the object has to tell. the blunt pointed end. Craftsmen might have been making stone vessels used these bits to start the hole and in the pyramid city. Just as a weaving s I examined ground stone tools at our AERA Field Lab, a then replaced them with different industry was revealed at the Lost City Asmall quartzite piece caught my eye as highly unusual. sizes of circular or figure-eight bor- (AERAGRAM 7/2, 2004) through care- Indentations on either side gave it a figure-eight shape, like ers as the cutting progressed. From ful analysis of small, inconspicuous a dog biscuit. Then I found other examples, including stones the thousands of stone fragments finds—spindle whorls, bone points, and with a second set of indentations—making a sort of stone and tools excavated at our site, we needles—another hidden industry came flower with four petals. What were these curious stones? have identified 11 drill-stones of fine to light through our work with the arti- The objects offered several important clues: the indentations, quartzite, ranging in color from dark facts in the Giza Field Laboratory. or grooves, did not develop during tool use, but were prepared purple, through red, to light orange. deliberately when the object was shaped. On the other hand, The drill was very versatile. Different sizes of stone borers Acknowledgements the very fine, regular striations around the circumference, could be fitted to cut the internal shape of stone bowls and A Craft Industry I would like to thank Emmy Malak, along with a bruised, glossy surface, were scoured by fric- vessels, especially in vessels with wide shoulders where the in- Our archaeologists have recovered Marie-Astrid Calmettes, and Henan tion when the tool was in use. It was not used for hammering, ternal diameter is wider than the vessel’s mouth. borers from the Royal Administrative A craftsman using a crank-shaft drill in a work- Mahmoud for all their meticulous work shop scene in the 5th Dynasty tomb of Ti at grinding, or cutting, but held horizontally, it drilled out small Building, the Eastern Town, pro- on the Lost City artifacts. Saqqara. The end of the drill is inside the ves- areas in a circular motion. A conical stone borer, shown upside down, would have been fitted on duction areas such as East of the sel that he is boring out. But next to him the The tools are drill-bits, or borers, for hollowing out stone the forked shaft with the tip downwards. Galleries, and Main Street East, as hieroglyph for craftsman is a clear representa- vessels. Scenes of craft work, such as in the tomb of Ti, show well as from House Unit 3 in the tion of the actual drill fitted with a borer. (After these drills placed between forked rods at the end of a tall Western Town, where we found three L. Épron 1939.) References wooden crank drill. As a craftsman turned the handle, the sides examples. Épron, L. 1939. Le Tombeau de Ti. Cairo: of the borer ground through the mass of stone. Did these sites include specialized including stone pounders and granite Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale. The hieroglyph for “Hm,” , used in writing the word for workshops in separate buildings or areas dust left by masons. We also have evi- Shortland, A. J. 2000. The Number, Extent craftsman, is a detailed depiction of this type of drill. It shows within the town? Or was stone drilling dence of finer craft industries, such as and Distribution of the Vitreous Materials a central wooden shaft with two stone weights placed just un- and vase-carving a cottage industry, an the manufacture of faience plaques and Workshops at Amarna. Oxford Journal of der the crooked, tapering crank handle. A second shaft, with a activity done within domestic areas, as amulets, which also may have been for Archaeology 19 (2): 115-134. forked end fitted with the stone borer, was lashed to the central was the case with textiles, faience, and funerary purposes. Still, while the focus Stocks, Dennis. 2003. Experiments in shaft. This made the drill long-lasting as the forked shaft would glass in the New Kingdom town of Tell of the settlement was probably the Giza Egyptian Archaeology. Routledge, Taylor & be replaced just as one replaces a modern drill-bit. Mark Lehner el-Amarna (Shortland 2000)? Necropolis, not all the workers' products Francis. London and New York.

4 AERAGRAM 9/2 Fall 2008 5 analyses in the Giza Field Laboratory, Giza, Saqqara, and Luxor—the Salvage Ann Lurie on Board! nestled among the tombs of the nobles in Archaeological Field School, the Saqqara When Ann Lurie came to Giza in 1999, on a cool day in the cemetery west of the Great Pyramid. Laser Scanning Survey of the Step Pyra- February, she and Mark Lehner walked together over the mid, and the work at Giza, which we immense mounds of sand and debris that covered the site of Continuing Support report in this issue. the Lost City of the Pyramids. Already an AERA supporter for Since that day with Mark on the sand AERA could only carry out this impor- two seasons, Ann took in the scene, but she could see noth- mounds of Giza, Ann and the Ann tant work on three fronts with the sup- ing of the bakeries, workers’ houses, and hints of long gal- and Robert H. Lurie Foundation have port of all our contributors. The David H. leries that we had glimpsed in our small excavation trenches continued to help AERA grow. Ann's Koch Foundation, the Ted Waitt Family because, after every season, we backfill our trenches to protect very significant role in our work shows Foundation, the Peter Norton Family the ancient city ruins. Sweeping her gaze over the sand that what impact a donor can have. The Foundation, and the Charles Simonyi blanketed the surface stretching the length of two football Lurie Foundation has been key to AERA’s Fund for the Arts and Sciences provided fields from us to the Wall of the Crow, Ann asked, “What would capital campaign, with another chal- major support. The Dash Foundation it take to find out what is really underneath all this?” lenge grant to help AERA establish a for Archaeological Research funded the permanent facility in Giza to house the 2008 Geophysical Survey at Giza. A Challenge Ann Lurie with Mark Archaeological Center and Field School. We are deeply grateful to Ann Lurie Ann couched a challenge within her question: Could the AERA Lehner visiting the In 2008, realizing that a great part and the Lurie Foundation for making team plan, fund, and manage a long-term, major archaeologi- Millennium Project of what we know of life in the ancient possible the results we report in this cal project to retrieve what we knew were the ruins of a major excavations in 2000. pyramid city comes from the analysis of issue of AERAGRAM. And we are very settlement dating to the time of the pyramids? We already our material culture finds by ceramicists, pleased to announce that this year Ann knew from our small looks down through the overburden, that botanists, zoologists, and geologists has joined AERA’s Board of Directors, so underneath the sand we had what is essentially a horizontal in the Giza Field Laboratory, Ann sup- appropriate considering that our work is section through the ancient city of the pyramid builders, cut ported AERA’s Archaeological Science as much Ann’s as that of the AERA team by powerful forces of erosion, signalling a dramatic climate archaeological missions working in Egypt Program. Her donations, working in con- members. It is good to have Ann on shift not long after people abandoned the site. The thick cover and the major field school for Egyptian junction with the generosity of AERA’s board. We hope our scientific contribu- of windblown sand soon thereafter hid and protected the site archaeologists serving as inspectors other contributors, made possible an tions honor Ann’s trust and loyalty to for the remainder of history, until recent decades when work- for the Supreme Council of Antiquities. extraordinary 2008 season, comprised of AERA’s core mission at Giza. ers removed sand for cleaning the many riding stables at Giza As for the Lost City, capturing the major projects at three of Egypt’s most and mechanized equipment cut down into the compact, clayey broad footprint of the pyramid famous archaeological sites— Ann Lurie's very significant impact on AERA's settlement ruins. builders’ infrastructure established work can be seen by comparing our site map We told Ann that we could meet her challenge with a proj- a unique framework for understanding from 1999 (below), before the Millennium ect that would clear the immense overburden, map the outlines how the Egyptians organized their forces on Project, with our current map on the left. The of many of the walls to salvage the ancient footprint of the the ground. It gave us a basis for devel- yellow areas on the left are the squares in the pyramid builders, and excavate selectively with our extremely oping hypotheses that we could 1999 map below. meticulous methods to understand the life of the people who go on to test in subsequent inhabited this city 4,500 years ago. meticulous excava- tions and The Marathon Project The challenge was on! Ann Lurie and the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation agreed to match the donations of other contributors to create what would become AERA’s Millennium Project, a marathon 21 months over three years (1999–2002) of survey, excavation, and mapping the ancient city across an area of 5 hectares. The results? The AERA team Left: The site during the 2000 field season with the Millennium Project in full swing. unveiled the Lost City of the Much of the work involved clearing a mas- Pyramids, true, but Ann’s vision sive blanket of overburden. Note the "cliffs" and challenge was also a catalyst at the edge of the excavations. View to the for AERA’s growth into one of the largest northwest. 0 25 50 m

6 AERAGRAM 9/2 Mark Lehner Fall 2008 7 Menkaure Khafre Khufu Tunnel and stairway, cut under the Pyramid Pyramid Pyramid NW Northern Enclosure Wall causeway to connect segments of a To Khentkawes Monument street from an earlier phase. When the causeway was built it ran across the street and separated the earlier phase Houses I-J from K-L Khentkawes Entrance Far left: The Giza Plateau showing the location of the Menkaure Valley Temple Bedrock extension (MVT), Khentkawes monument and MVT Muslim W a d i Knoll Cemetery embedded by Town, and Lost City site. See a satellite Wall of the Crow House I Enclosure Wall Street image of the area on page 15. Lost City of the North doorway Pyramids into lower building Left: Isometric drawing of the north- Causeway House J east corner of the Khentkawes Town. Open court (Drawing by Mark Lehner.) Water Tank Corridor Below: Hassan's 1943 map of the Tunnel Khentkawes Town and monument and Doorway Two Royal Towns: Old Digs, New Finds Oven Menkaure Valley Temple. The red dot- House K Vestibule ted line shows the area illustrated above by Ana Tavares, Co-Field Director Upper Terrace Earlier phase wall in the isometric drawing. The boxes Sleepingroom If you stand at Giza on the high desert knoll overlooking our Lost City indicate the areas worked in 2008. The Terrace edge southeast corner of the site has been site, you will see just “around the corner” the remains of two other 4th Street under the modern Muslim cemetery and Dynasty settlements, both of which were excavated in the early 20th beyond reach since Hassan’s time. century: a town built in front of the tomb of Queen Khentkawes and Stairway House L nearby, the Valley Temple of Menkaure with a village “grafted” onto it.

Since 2005 AERA has been working at these two towns in order to bet- Lower Level Lower building ter understand the context in which the Lost City functioned. up to causeway Area in isometric Our work over three seasons has incrementally shed light on the archi- drawing above Ramp tecture and history of the settlements. But the 2008 excavations yielded Khentkawes Lower Terrace monument some truly surprising discoveries, offering new insights into life on the Giza Plateau in the late Old Kingdom. We were most surprised to find a building that had never been reported before, deeply buried in front of the Khentkawes Town—perhaps a valley temple for Queen Khentkawes. SE Valley temples are a standard part of a pyramid complex and each of the ostensibly serving the memory of a king or queen with rituals. pharaohs buried at Giza had his valley temple. The Khentkawes Town was planned and carefully laid out, while the Menkaure Valley Temple community looked like a Another remarkable find was evidence of gateways into the Giza Pla- Khentkawes Town teau, one through the Khentkawes Town and the other between the town squatters’ village; it developed “organically” over time as mud- and the Menkaure Valley Temple. This area may have been a portal for brick houses crowded up against the front of the sanctuary and people and goods going up to tombs that continued to be built on the squeezed into the interior spaces of the temple. Both temple towns were longer-lived than the Lost City. knew that with our systematic, meticulous methods we could plateau long after the pharaohs left Giza. Perhaps the inhabitants of the Area worked People occupied the Menkaure Valley Temple community for extract new information, even though the Khentkawes Town 2008 two towns even exerted some control over the flow. Menkaure Valley three centuries, as we know from the 1908–1910 excavations and Menkaure Valley Temple had been left exposed to the ele- Temple Ramp Temporary Towns vs Temple Towns that George Reisner published in 1931. He mapped the different ments and badly eroded in the 73 years since Hassan’s excava- In the waning years of the 4th Dynasty people occupied at phases of the town and published the pottery and other mate- tion. Walls that stood waist-high now rose only a few centi- the same time the Lost City, the Khentkawes Town, and the rial. Selim Hassan’s 1943 publication of his excavations in 1932 meters, and parts had been completely scoured down to bed- Menkaure Valley Temple village, but these settlements served of the Khentkawes Town is not adequate to establish how long rock. We expected that the two temple towns would provide a Ante-town different functions. The large Lost City (aka Heit el-Ghurob the settlement was occupied. Unlike Reisner, he reported little picture of life at Giza that complemented and contrasted with site, Arabic for Wall of the Crow, HeG, for short), where AERA of the artifacts and other remains. The most important result what we had learned from the Lost City. We hoped to develop has worked since 1988, was a short-lived “company town” put of Hassan’s work was the map, which took in the Khentkawes a more complete picture of the interconnections between the up to house the infrastructure for pyramid building and Town, the Menkaure Valley Temple, and the eastward exten- settlements and how they related to the landscape. i decommissioned when construction ceased. sion of the Menkaure Valley Temple that we call the Ante-town. d a The two other communities nestled at the southeastern A Town Reconfigured W foot of the plateau, slightly higher than the spread of the Lost AERA Reopens the Investigation After three seasons of work our conviction grows that peo- City on the low desert. The plateau communities were “sacred AERA began work at the Khentkawes Town in 2005 in order to ple inhabited the Khentkawes Town to the end of the Old towns,” attached to temples, and probably inhabited by priests understand the wider urban context of the Lost City site. We Kingdom. We see two major building phases (Reisner also

8 AERAGRAM 9/2 Fall 2008 9 found two major periods of building in the Menkaure Valley along a vertical bedrock ledge that drops more than 2 meters Filling this space we found another ramp, much broader Temple), with complex rebuilding of various parts. (about 6.5 feet). But then we found that the town actually than the one east of the Khentkawes Town, and ascending Modular houses arrayed along the northern side of a nar- continues eastward, but at a lower level! Geophysicist Glen from east to west. The core of massive limestone debris is row causeway leading east from the Khentkawes monument Dash discovered the first indication of a building on the lower similar to the cores of 4th Dynasty construction ramps else- make up the “leg” of the L-shaped settlement. The rectangular level during his 2006 radar survey. In 2007 we found the where at Giza, prompting us to wonder if this was originally set of four buildings (I, J, K, and L) on the a building ramp for delivering materials from the east. When northeast, where the town turns south, construction stopped on Menkaure’s pyramid complex, the belong to the earlier phase with an older ramp served as a roadway to the town and temple, and to the entrance on the east that included a necropolis higher on the plateau. Glen Dash’s 2006 radar sur- monumental limestone threshold and a vey shows that the ramp continues as a broad roadway to the large door jamb. When builders laid in Menkaure Valley Temple west along the northern temple wall. the narrower causeway they quarried a During 2008 at the northern end of the Ante-town, we Photo below tunnel under it so that people could still taken here partially excavated the vestibule opening north onto the top go between buildings I - J and K - L, via of the ramp. This was the vestibule for the second phase of the north–south street. the Menkaure Valley Temple, after the Ante-town closed off the first vestibule inside the original eastern temple entrance. Town’s Turn and Buried Building People who occupied the vestibule sunk pots in the floor, Ever since Hassan’s excavation, which they re-plastered numerous times. They successively Egyptologists have wondered why the Photo on right augmented the interior walls, adding an additional 1.69 me- Khentkawes Town turned south so taken here ters (over 5 feet), perhaps because they had removed the four abruptly. In 2007 we discovered why. Left: Hassan's 1943 map overlaid onto a Royal Air columns that once supported the roof, leaving only the beau- The eastern town wall runs exactly Force aerial photo, both geo-referenced. The red tifully formed alabaster bases. By thickening the walls they outline shows the AERA 2008 excavation squares. narrowed the interior space that the roof beams had to span. Right: Hassan's 1943 map overlaid onto a Royal Air Force aerial photo, both geo-referenced. Egyptologists have thought that the Khentkawes and Men- The red outline shows the areas that AERA kaure Valley Temple settlements were “sacred towns;” that worked in 2008. Excavations in the vestibule on the east end of the Menkaure Valley is, maintained and occupied for liturgical reasons. Given the Below: The monumental ramp between the Temple. Two round alabaster column bases sit in the floor, all that is left monumentality of the ramps up into these complexes, and Menkaure Valley Temple and the Khentkawes of columns that once supported the roof. The ramp can be seen in the their location in front and left of the northern exit from the Town. The uppermost surface shows a faint background and beyond, the Khentkawes Town operations. View to the gate in the Wall of the Crow, and at the low southeastern ac- north. (Photo by Mark Lehner.) channel that may have been used for drainage. cess on the southern edge of the mouth of the wadi, it is pos- Two other channels show in the lower surface sible that the two temple towns may have functioned as gate- exposed in the trench. View to the west. continuation to the east of the northern town wall, and a thick ways to the necropolis. They may have controlled access up wall, with entrances, running parallel to and forming a corri- into the Plateau for generations of Egyptians who continued Corner block of Menkaure Valley Temple dor with the bedrock ledge, confirmation that this was a large to make monumental tombs and receive burial in the great mudbrick building, which Hassan’s team had partially seen, Giza Necropolis, long after the Lost City, the “company town,” but never excavated. Founded on a lower bedrock terrace, this went out of business. could be a valley temple for Khentkawes. We next had to ask, how did people reach the causeway Future Explorations threshold, 2 meters higher than the base of the lower building? In 2009 we will continue to investigate the Khentkawes Uncleared post-1932 sandy overburden Embedded in the ruined mass of mudbrick, we discerned a Town and Menkaure Valley Temple. We will excavate the ramp on which people ascended from the south, along the face lower building on the east and clear and record more houses Channel of the bedrock ledge. along the Khentkawes causeway. At the Menkaure Valley temple we will explore the course of the monumental ramp Ramping Up Between Two Towns westward and the area between the two settlements. Ramp Yet another monumental ramp came to light in our clear- ing between the Khentkawes Town and the Menkaure Valley Temple. Reisner’s excavation of the Menkaure Valley was a This article is a brief overview of the work and insights of Mark virtual island in a sea of sand. Hassan’s forces excavated south Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, Lisa Yeomans, Pieter Collet, Amelia Channel of the Khentkawes Town at the front of the Menkaure Valley Fairman, Daniel Jones, and the teams they have supervised during Temple, but his map left a blank space in the area between the three seasons in the Khentkawes Town. The remote sensing work Ramp To Khentkawes Ante-town Town two towns. was conducted by Glen Dash and his team. Mark Lehner

10 AERAGRAM 9/2 Fall 2008 11 Please Join Us for Your Contributions Are Making a Difference in Egypt Today The Field School class of 2009 is preparing for an intense cer- determination to advance archaeology, and experience in site A Holiday Open House tification program scheduled to begin in February. The Field work. The committee also assessed each candidate’s ability to with Dr. Mark Lehner School is funded in part by a grant from USAID. Additional function in a fast-moving, motivated archaeological team. and members of the AERA Team funding is provided through the generosity of AERA’s individu- “There were many superb candidates and it was difficult to al donors, benefactors, and members. narrow it down to 35,” said Mohsen Kamel, AERA’s Co-Field Di- December 4, 2008, at 6 pm This year’s student body of just 35 was selected from more rector and a member of the Interview Committee. “But we are Cocktails and light hors d’oeuvres than 180 applicants. Each prospective candidate was person- very pleased with the quality of the students this year and we Ancient Egypt Research Associates ally interviewed over a two-day period by the AERA Interview feel it will be a very successful session.” 26 Lincoln Street, Second floor Committee. The selection process included a scoring system This year marks AERA’s fifth Field School session. This Boston, MA 02135 based on knowledge of the English language, professionalism, unique program provides Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiq- RSVP to Jim Schnare Sherif Abd al-Moneem and Mohamed Hatem, proud graduates of the uities (SCA) archaeologists with the skills they need to carry out 617-783-0737 ✦ [email protected] 2005 AERA Field School, after the graduation ceremony. and monitor archaeological work throughout Egypt according to internationally accepted scientific methods. With well- trained SCA archaeologists in the field, Egypt’s rich and vast Save the Date! Join Our archaeological heritage is protected and properly studied. 20th Anniversary Celebration! In light of recent economic news, the AERA team is work- ing hard not to let this important and unique program lose AERAOn a chilly morning in February Field 2008, ULI Governors Noteswatch excavators working in a trench on We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of our momentum. Each year AERA’s Field School teachers work hard their tour of the Salvage Archaeology Field School site in Luxor. (Photo by Jason Quinlan.) Giza excavation! to ensure that every student receives the support they need to Special events on March 14–15, 2009: successfully complete this rigorous program. Now more than ✦ Lectures ever your contribution is essential. Your tax-deductible dona- ULI Group Rallies to Support AERA’s Research ✦ Tours of the site and the AERA Field Lab tion goes directly to support the Field School and the archaeo- ✦ Invitation-only reception A group of 25 members of the Urban Land Institute Governors have together logical research that makes it possible. Please consider a gift to ✦ Other festivities donated $75,000 to AERA, given in honor of Bruce and Carolyn Ludwig. the Field School today. Please help us mark this important occasion by Kawae Yukinori A long-time AERA board member and friend, Bruce has been a fervent supporter joining us in Giza next March. Contact Cindy ever since first meeting Mark Lehner. In 1985, on the recommendation of Kent Sebrell at [email protected] for more Give the Gift of Discovery! Please send application and payment to AERA in the return envelope. Weeks, Bruce caught up with Mark mapping at the base of the Khafre Pyramid. The information. Giza Plateau Mapping Project was a modest operation with few resources and a A gift membership to AERA is a great way to celebrate the holi- Memberships: meager budget. But Mark had ambitious goals—a database and computer model of day season this year. Join AERA today and receive a free gift Basic: $55 Student/Senior: $30 Non-US: $65 the Giza Plateau, a long term excavation at the workers’ settlement that supported AERAGRAM membership for family or friends. Respond by December 15th Egyptian National: LE100 Supporting: $250 pyramid building (which he had yet to locate). No sooner had Mark finished listing Volume 9 Number 2, Fall 2008 and we will send you a gift card that you can wrap and present Name his goals than Bruce pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check. Ever since that Editor: Dr. Wilma Wetterstrom at gift time. Or, if you have another special event coming up first meeting, Bruce has continued to write checks and serve as an unofficial devel- Assistant: Alexandra Witsell and would like to give the gift of discovery, just let us know Address opment officer, connecting Mark to other potential donors interested in his work. AERAGRAM is published by AERA, the date so we can ensure delivery in time. (For a profile of Bruce Ludwig, see AERAGRAM 3/2, 1999. Download at our website: Ancient Egypt Research Associates, Gift memberships to AERA not only help introduce a new a 501(c) (3), tax-exempt, non-profit Phone http://www.aeraweb.org/aeragram.asp). organization. reader to the world of archaeology and ancient Egyptian cul- The Urban Land Institute, a non-profit organization founded in 1936, represents ture and history, but it also helps AERA continue its mission E-mail Ancient Egypt Research Associates land use and real estate development disciplines in the private and public sectors. PO Box 382608, Cambridge, MA 02238-2608 to advance and protect the quality of archaeological research Gift Membership The ULI Governors group and Bruce and Carolyn toured Egypt in February with E-mail: [email protected]. while sharing new information about ancient Egypt with the a stop at AERA’s Salvage Archaeology Field School in Luxor. Divided into small Website: http://www.aeraweb.org. rest of the world. Name groups, the attendees sat in briefly on Field School classes, observed archaeologists AERA Board Members Your AERA membership and your free gift membership will Address President and Treasurer: Dr. Mark Lehner excavating, and spoke with our specialists in osteology, plants, and ceramics. Secretary: Glen Dash each include: "Carolyn and I were thrilled when we were told on the last evening of our trip," Dr. James Allen j invitations to special events Bruce Ludwig said. "We have been supporters of AERA for a long time, so we were Ed Fries Please make check payable to AERA. Jon Jerde j access to regional lectures Or charge your membership to a credit card: very pleased to learn that our colleagues were impressed with AERA's work, es- Bruce Ludwig j notices & updates on research as it happens in the field pecially the Field School and its mission to help protect Egypt's archaeological Ann Lurie j Matthew McCauley two issues per year of the AERAGRAM newsletter Name on card treasures. We are very grateful for their interest, support, and generosity." The ULI Peter Norton j connections with friends, colleagues, and associates Card type & number Governors’ group donation will work with a match challenge placed by the Waitt Dr. Richard Redding around the globe who support and follow archaeologi- Expiration date Foundation to help us establish a permanent campus in Giza to serve as a home for © Ancient Egypt Research Associates 2008 cal research in Egypt. the Field School and to support AERA's ongoing archaeological research. Signature

12 AERAGRAM 9/2 Fall 2008 13 it the stepped and slightly Giza: Overviews and Ground Truths vaulted mastaba for the The Giza Plateau Mapping Project (GPMP) started with an analysis of the overall geomorphology (shape of the ground) of the Giza plateau. I wanted to queen. The quarrymen never understand the pyramids as a huge architectural landscape project. The landscape holds clues about how the Egyptians organized their forces to build cut down the irregular block the pyramids. My ideas about their quarries, ramps, delivery areas, and the urban infrastructure that fed and housed the labor force emerged from of bedrock north of the sepa- trekking across this landscape at all hours of the day and night over the years from 1973 until we started excavations in 1988. After I returned to the rating corridor. Why did they reserve the original plateau USA following 13 years of full time residence in Egypt, I walked the plateau less, and less so, too, after we began our intensive excavation seasons. But I surface at this point? This still walk the plateau and experience completely new perceptions of the Giza Plateau and its ancient monuments. I find it sobering that understanding may have been a result of a site is learning how to see it, and that I am still learning to see Giza after more than 35 years of interacting with this special place. quarrying by quadrant: they The Ikonos Bird’s Eye View never got around to working In recent years I have been able to virtually re-trek the plateau thanks to a large blow-up of a black and white photo taken by the Ikonos satellite. Ikonos, the northeastern quadrant from the Greek eikōn for “image,” is a commercial earth observation satellite launched September 24, 1999. Ikonos photographed the Giza Pyramids deeply, so they left its corner Plateau at a one-meter resolution (AERAGRAM 5/1:4, 2001) on November 17, 1999, a few weeks after we started our Millennium Project to clear and map standing tall. But the fact that the ruins of the Lost City. I had a copy of the image, 35 inches square (courtesy of Peter der Maneulian), dry-mounted and secured to the slanted ceiling the Khentkawes monument of my attic home office. A glance up from my keyboard and I am looking straight down onto the pyramids, tombs, and temples of Giza. I sometimes pedestal juts forward from ponder this aerial perspective and combine it with ground truth impressions derived from years of physically trekking the landscape. the corner, as it occupies the With this issue of AERAGRAM I launch a new column on my observations. I start with ponderings about the location of the Khentkawes monument center of the greater quarry circle, suggests that they re- to accompany the report on our 2008 field season at the Khentkawes Town (page 8). • Mark Lehner served this patch of bedrock The Quarry Circle superimposed on an excerpt from a Quickbird Satellite Sensor Image of the Giza Pyramids as some kind of benchmark. Plateau, taken in February 2002. Copyright 2007 Digital Globe. MVT is the Menkaure Valley Temple; KK is the We might guess the purpose Khentkawes and the Great Circle of Quarrying Khentkawes monument; and KKT is the Khentkawes Town. was to calculate volume of It appears to me that the Khentkawes this is the “hole” corresponding to the western edge of the quarry is about 200 The bedrock in the southern part of Town that its builders founded the stone or to monitor work. monument occupies the center of a cir- “pile” of the Great Pyramid. meters due west of the Khentkawes mon- the great circle of quarrying is buried settlement on a quarry plane, the top How appropriate that at the end of cle, actually a gigantic gaping hole, that ument. The horseshoe-shaped quarry under an immensely thick blanket of of one of the natural limestone beds, the 4th Dynasty of pyramid building pyramid quarrymen gouged incremen- A Tour of the Great Circle of Quarrying broadens out to the north to just over sand that fills the central wadi between which they exposed by stripping off the kings, the benchmark at the center of the tally into the plateau, leaving the bedrock Let us scribe a true circle, with the 230 meters—about the width of the Khu- the Moqattam and Maadi Formation higher layers for building material, per- great quarry circle entombed a queen immediately north of Khentkawes as a Khentkawes monument as its center, fu Pyramid, to which it aligns! This west- outcrops at Giza. The southern knoll, the haps carrying on from Khafre’s reign. At named Khentkawes. Her name could kind of reference to the original Giza Pla- and the distance to the Khafre causeway ern rock-cut edge curves around toward Qebel el-Qibli, of the Maadi Formation, the end of major quarry works, they had mean, “may her life force predominate” teau surface. For the queen’s monument, (200 meters) as its radius, so about 400 the east-northeast to meet the Khafre located 273 meters due southeast of the isolated great rectangular blocks of bed- (James Allen, personal communication the quarrymen reserved a roughly square meters diameter. The circumference causeway. Khafre’s workers founded his Khentkawes monument, gives a sense of rock in the northeastern quarter where 2008), from the term khent, “in front” block of this unquarried limestone bed- corresponds with the Khafre causeway, causeway on a linear ramp reserved in a border to the greater quarry area. they had not worked the bedrock down or “predominant,” and the plural of ka, rock, 11 meters high, on which workers approximates the line of the western the bedrock. We could take this ramp as nearly as deeply as in the other three generic life force transmitted through built a stepped, vaulted mastaba super- quarry cliff, and roughly corresponds the northern edge of the greater circle; Counterclockwise Quarry? quadrants of the quarry circle. These generations. A parent could say of a structure, rising another 7 meters. with the limit of the bedrock exposure indeed, the causeway is just about 200 What Does It Mean? bedrock blocks stand tall along the child, “my ka repeats itself.” The Egyp- If I line my half-meter ruler along east of the Khentkawes monument. The meters north of the Khentkawes monu- It is possible that the 4th Dynasty northern side of the Khentkawes Town tians said of burial in the necropolis, “the the eastern side of the Great Pyramid scribed circle shows that the western ment, just as the western edge is about Egyptians exploited the great circle of where people used them for rock cut kas of your ancestors reach out to you.” of Khufu, it aligns to my left (south) cliff and the Khafre causeway are about 200 meters west of the monument. The quarrying counterclockwise. Khufu’s tombs in the 5th and 6th Dynasties. The Khentkawes monument stands like with the Khentkawes monument to the equidistant from the Khentkawes monu- greater circle of quarrying brushes forces may have begun in the northwest- We certainly would be wrong to think a sentinel on the eastern front of the south. The Khentkawes monument is ment. If we quarter the circle by extend- the Khafre causeway tangentially and ern quarter, the closest to his pyramid. the 4th Dynasty surveyors and quarry- gigantic pyramid tombs of her ancestors. like a great corner post of a horseshoe- ing the center axes of the Khentkawes then curves toward the southeast just As they quarried deeper, they extended men intended to create such a neat and Together the Menkaure Valley Temple shaped quarry within the greater circular monument, we see that the lesser- behind the Khafre Valley Temple. On farther south, into the southwestern perfect circle, but it seems they did ap- and Khentkawes monument and town depression, and both the eastern (Khent- worked part of the quarry fits nicely a southwest–northeast diagonal, the quarter, forming the southern end of proximate a center to their greater quar- closed off the passage up into the plateau, kawes) side and the western side of this within the northeastern quarter. quarry and later Old Kingdom rock-cut the horseshoe shape. Khafre’s quarry- ry area. They reserved much of the origi- and dominated the quarries that had quarry align rather neatly with the east- The western side of the horseshoe tombs extend about 224 meters from the men may have quarried bedrock farther nal height of the plateau immediately served to build the pyramids. ern and western sides of the Great Pyra- quarry within the larger circular area Khentkawes monument. On a direct line south yet, and then east into the south- around this center point. They cut a deep Reference mid. Located 300 to 600 meters south is the human-made 10-meter-tall cliff, due east of the monument, the bedrock eastern quarter. The Menkaure Valley and yawning corridor to separate off a Lehner, Mark. 1985. The Development of of the Pyramid, the volume of missing studded with dark tombs hollowed out of quarry exposure disappears under sand Temple and Khentkawes Town fit rather squarish pedestal as a base of Khent- the Giza Necropolis: The Khufu Project. stone is close to that of the pyramid bedrock, the earliest belonging to some along a line 175 to 195 meters from the neatly into the southeastern quarter. We kawes’ tomb. They leveled and lowered Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen (Lehner 1985:121). We might infer that of the children of Khafre. The farthest monument. know from our work in the Khentkawes the top of that pedestal to build upon Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 41:109–143.

14 AERAGRAM 9/2 Fall 2008 15 Lost City Site, Dry!

We reported in the last issue of AERAGRAM that our Lost City site October 2008 was flooded by rising ground water. January 2008 But now, thanks to the efforts of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Cairo University, the site is dry!

Like the Lost City, the Sphinx and nearby temples have been threatened by rising ground water. In an effort to lower the water table, the Supreme Council of Antiquities began a test program to pump the water away. Since late June, Dr. Hafiz Abd el-Azim Ahmed, from the Engineering Center for Archaeology and Environment, and Dr. Reda M. el-Damak, from the Center of Studies and Designs for Water Projects, both of Cairo University, have been working with Dr. Zahi Drs. Hafiz and Reda suggested setting up two or Hawass, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, to three wells at the north and south ends of our site. With test three pump a diameter of about one foot, these wells are not in- January 2008 sites. They set up trusive. Mohsen Kamel, AERA Co-Field Director, and I a pump in front gladly accepted and encouraged the efforts of the Cairo of the Sphinx University team, and conveyed our support to Dr. Zahi and Khafre Hawass, hoping for an even drier site by the time we re- Valley Temple, sume excavations in January 2009. • Mark Lehner another in the All photos by Mark Lehner. Sound and Light Show building October 2008 complex, and the third in the slope east of the Khentkawes Town. Operating continuously, the pumps drew water from the wells, about three meters deep, a level roughly commensurate with the inundation of our site. Pumping over two or three months seems to have worked wonders. The water is now gone from the low area around the Sphinx, the target for Drs. Reda and Hafiz. And gone too are all the puddles and ponds across the Lost City.