Blog

Deir el-Ballas 2025, Week 5

The Deir el-Ballas Expedition completed its work on site this past week. At the start of Week 5, we had minimal cleaning and excavation work that took place at the South Palace, under the supervision of Nicholas Brown and Piet Collet. Most work consisted of final on-site documentation and backfilling...

Deir el-Ballas 2025, Week 4

This week on site was our last week of archaeological investigations for the 2025 Season. Up in the north, Ahmed Abdelgawad continued his investigation of the North Palace and mud brick conservation efforts. Highlights of his work this week included discovering a possible rubble-filled doorway between some of the casemates as...

Deir el-Ballas 2025, Week 3

This week we were joined by AUC Egyptology student, Victoria Shakespeare, who worked with Matei Tichindelean in the North Wadi Settlement. Both conducted clearance and excavation work on two structures in the neighborhood, which were revealed by our surface cleaning (amounting to 1,925 square meters in total thisseason). We are...

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 and...

Deir el-Ballas 2025, Week 1: 1/4 – 1/10

The Deir el-Ballas Expedition started up work at the site on January 4 with a large contingent of archaeology students from the American University in Cairo, UCLA, and Yale University. This season we are concentrating our efforts on three locations, the North Wadi Settlement, where there are a number of...

Deir el-Ballas 2023, Week 4: 1/21-1/26 and 1/28-1/30

We finished up this season by completing our on-site documentation, which was followed by back-filling our excavated trenches with sand and laying mud bricks on top of the exposed walls to protect them for the next season. We are also continuing to make new mud bricks for the future as...

Deir el-Ballas 2023, Week 3: 1/14-1/19

This week, excavation work continued at the site as we further explored House E and House F, as well as the North Wadi Settlement. We were joined this week by Sara Ahmed Aziz, who was a great help to us with work in the North Wadi Settlement excavations as well...

Deir el-Ballas 2023, Week 2: 1/6-1/12

This week we were joined by two Egyptology students from the American University In Cairo; Victoria Shakespeare and Ana Oliveira Asuncion have already done an amazing job. Ana has taken over the work in House F, clearing an extension north of the house in order to discover if there are...

Deir el-Ballas 2023, Week 1: 1/3-1/5

The Deir el-Ballas Expedition started up work again on January 3 with a large, international crew. This season and are concentrating our efforts on the northern part of the site now that the restoration work on the “South Palace” is largely complete. This season we are continuing our archaeological survey...

Deir el-Ballas 2022, Week 6: 2/12- 2/13

Our last days on site were occupied with finishing the recording, registration, and storage of finds from the season, taking final photographs and measurements on-site, packing up the excavation equipment, and backfilling Houses E and F in the North Suburb. An important part of the Expedition's excavation work includes backfilling...