Deir el-Ballas 2025, Week 2: 1/11 – 1/16

Conservation and consolidation work is progressing on the North Palace. The capping of the western face of the casemate core is nearly complete and work is continuing on building up the southern enclosure wall. In the North Suburb, Hassan Elzawy is continuing the excavations in Houses G and F, where we found our first inscribed scarab, and Ana Oliveria is investigating a well-preserved silo next to House E.

In the North Wadi Settlement neighborhood, we have cleared the overlying debris in a wide area (ca. 180,000 square meters) and have found more mud brick structures than previously noted. We have had some interesting finds in the North Wadi Settlement where Matei Tichindelean, Karim El-Eita, Sara Ahmed Aziz, and Waleed Hawatky have been working, including fragments of an imported ceramic vessel decorated with geometric patterns and a bird along with sherds of Nubian pottery and Egyptian cooking vessels. These are all being studied by our pottery specialist, Bettina Bader, who started work with us this week. Additionally, we were joined by the Expedition’s videographer, Wael El-Kady, who came from Cairo to document the team’s work for two days on site and interviewed several of the workmen about their experience working at Deir el-Ballas.

Claire Malleson has been processing the botanical remains from the site and is conducting an interesting study to compare the “recipes” of several different mud bricks from the site and has found they were using sheep and goat dung in the mix. In addition to helping the archaeologists in their trenches, Piet Collet is working to complete a new map of the entire area, which will help in our joint efforts with the Qena Inspectorate to protect the archaeological remains in the area.

The team has also staged three days of Community Outreach to the local villagers of El-Deir and El-Deir el Gharbi. We are working with our local inspectors and workers on site to visit families in their homes, meet with elders from the village, and even staged a children’s outreach, where we talked about our work and provided an activity and snacks for the kids. We hope to continue to foster and grow our relationship with the local populations to include them as stakeholders in our efforts to conserve, protect, and promote the site of Deir el-Ballas.