Bir Umm Fawakhir 3
Excavations 1999-2001
by Carol Meyer, Lisa A. Heidorn, Richard L. Jaeschke, Thomas C. Roby, Wendy Smith and Salima Ikram
Bir Umm Fawakhir 3 is the last of the final reports on the archaeological surveys and excavations at the Byzantine site of Bir Umm Fawakhir in the central Eastern Desert of Egypt; it remains the only intensively studied ancient Egyptian gold-mining operation, and one of very few completely mapped towns of the era.
Bir Umm Fawakhir 3 is the last of the final reports on the archaeological surveys and excavations at the Byzantine site of Bir Umm Fawakhir in the central Eastern Desert of Egypt; it remains the only intensively studied ancient Egyptian gold-mining operation, and one of very few completely mapped towns of the era. Along with other recent excavations and surveys, it demonstrates the Byzantine empire’s continuing activities in the Eastern Desert, not abandonment, as had long been believed. Four survey seasons, in 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997, succeeded in dating the site to the fifth- and sixth-century Coptic/Byzantine period, mapping in detail the main settlement and one of the fourteen outlying settlements, and determining that it was a gold-mining operation. The goals of the 1999 excavations and the 2001 study season reported in this volume were to answer questions about the site and its occupants that surveys alone could not address, primarily the history of occupation of the site and the status of its occupants. The 1999 excavations of a sample of the houses and middens were undertaken to provide more information about the occupants and their well-being or lack thereof. Two houses, two middens, and one single-room outbuilding were excavated. Like the earlier Roman-period stone quarries in the desert, the miners seem to have worked intermittently and abandoned, or nearly so, the sitebetween mining campaigns. The pottery study extends the corpora published with previous seasons, and the chapter on small finds discusses the wine jar dockets (dipinti), coins, jewelry, emeralds, metal, glass, and other objects. Analysis of the faunal material during the 2001 study season supports the picture of a town well provided with meat, not only sheep and goats but also an unusual amount of beef. The volume is rounded out by an archaeobotanical study and the conservators’ reports, including the construction of a barricade at the entrance to the site to help preserve it. A final chapter summarizes what can now be said about life and work at ancient Bir Umm Fawakhir.
- By (author) Lisa A. Heidorn
- By (author) Salima Ikram
- By (author) Richard L. Jaeschke
- By (author) Carol Meyer
- By (author) Thomas C. Roby
- By (author) Wendy Smith
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The Graffiti on the Khonsu Temple Roof at Karnak: A Manifestat
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The Egyptian Book of the Dead
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Archaeology of the Bronze Age, Hellenistic, and Roman Remains at an Ancient Town on the Euphrates River
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The Archive of Thotsutmis, Son of Panouphis
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Reliefs and Inscriptions at Luxor Temple, Volume 1
The Festival Procession of Opet in the Colonnade Hall
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Excavations in the Plain of Antioch III
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The Origins of State Organisations in Prehistoric Highland Fars, Southern Iran
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Town and Country in Southeastern Anatolia, Volume II
The Stratigraphic Sequence at Kurban Hoyuk
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Kerkenes Special Studies 1
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Old Babylonian Public Buildings in the Diyala Region. Part One
Excavations at Ishchali, Part Two: Khafajah Mounds B, C, and D.
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The Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies, Volume I
The Foundations of Research and Regional Survey in the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Armenia
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Town and Country in Southeastern Anatolia, Volume 1
Settlement and Land Use at Kurban Hoyuek and Other Sites in the Lower Karababa Basin
Volume 109
Cuneiform Texts from the Ur III Period in the Oriental Institute, Volume 1
Drehem Administrative Documents from the Reign of Shulgi
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Medinet Habu IX
The Eighteenth Dynasty Temple, Part 1: The Inner Sanctuaries, with Translations of Texts, Commentary and Glossary
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Theban Desert Road Survey in the Egyptian Western Desert, Volume 1
Gebel Tjauti Rock Inscriptions 1-45 and Wadi el-Hol Rock Inscriptions 1-45
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