This week passed by very fast, the weekend is already approaching. Since half of the team left by now, we are working in a very small group these days. Huda, Jessica and me were busy at Ginis East, site GiE 001, where the surface is covered with primarily New Kingdom material.

Today, we made much progress in Trench 2 – first of all, we are currently excavating marog pits. Marog corresponds to sebbakh digging in Egypt and refers to recent pits excavated in the soil/mud bricks to use the clay as fertilizer in the fields.

The largest of these pits in Trench 2 is 2.40 m in diameter and 75 cm deep. It was filled with fine sand and the traces of the tools the marog diggers used are clearly visible on the sloping edges. We documented everything in 3D according to our standard procedure.

We have already much experience with these pits from Sai Island where they are also common in the New Kingdom town area. The material within the pits is usually very mixed – and this also holds true for GIE 001. Five baskets of pottery were collected from Trench 2 so far and although the majority is clearly New Kindom, including Ramesside material, there are also Napatan pottery and Christian ceramics. And of course some recent material like date seeds were also found in the filling of the pit.

Work will continue tomorrow, and since we have finished all the sandy fillings of the marog pits, we will now carry on with the muddy remains.