The Egypt Exploration Society - Survey at Medinet el-Gurob

The EES has been working in Egypt since 1882. Our aim is to make all aspects of the culture of ancient and historic Egypt (to 1900 AD) better known to the public.

Our fieldwork and research is undertaken in Egypt itself and the results of this work are made available through our website (www.ees.ac.uk), our publications, and through events held in London and Cairo.

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Survey at Medinet el-Gurob

A team from the University of Liverpool led by the Society’s Chairman, Dr Ian Shaw, and Miss Claire Malleson conducted a very short survey season around the site of Medinet el-Gurob from the 25 March to 3 April 2008. Miss Malleson was awarded a grant from the Egypt Exploration Society’s Centenary Fund to undertake the work.

The team’s aim was to gain a better understanding of the wider landscape of the area around the ‘Harim Palace’ at Gurob, to try to identify the ancient settlement areas, and to examine the spread of cultural material across the cultivated areas next to the site. A GPS (global positioning system) survey was conducted allowing field boundaries to be mapped, and archaeological material on the surface was collected, analysed and recorded. A field-walking survey was conducted in the wider area.

Claire Malleson conducting a GPS survey of the area around Gurob.

The quantity of material collected was far greater than expected which limited the area it was possible to survey thoroughly. However, basic survey work was conducted in the areas closest to the palace site and it was found that very little material was visible on the surface further afield.

Ceramic sherds (1320 in total), mostly of the New Kingdom but including a few sherds from earlier periods, made up the bulk of the material collected. Most of these were gathered from small depressions created by the pumps that supply the fields with water from the canal, but some were collected from the ridges that divide the field plots.

Collecting ceramic sherds.

A few New Kingdom lithic fragments were also recovered.

The material collected from the field and canal edges seems to represent a spreading of cultural material from the Eastern Cemetery of Gurob. Local farmers revealed that they had had to reclaim land from a salty lake and area of low-quality land which had formed naturally in relatively recent times suggesting that any ancient settlement remains must lie many metres below the present surface. A systematic auger-core survey would be the only way to detect these remains.

For further information on the University of Liverpool’s Gurob Harim Palace Survey please see here: http://www.liv.ac.uk/sace/research/projects/gurob.htm

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