October 2017

Dear all,

I am delighted to be writing to you from Coptos, a new EES joint venture conducted in cooperation with University of Lyon (France) and the Ifao. 

I am more than pleased to highlight the fact that the EES is happily returning to a site first excavated by one of our most glorious members, William Matthew Flinders Petrie. 

I flew to Egypt the day after the AGM. After having spent a first short night in Cairo, we drove to Coptos early Monday morning in order to arrive in the middle of the afternoon. At first, the Upper Egypt warmth was striking (37°C) but we got acclimated progressively :) !

After having signed the opening of the mission on the Tuesday 10th at the Qena inspectorate, we had our first day on the field on the Wednesday. This day and the second were used to remove the vegetation that was covering the whole site after a year left alone [fig.1].

Then came the Friday, our only day off from the field, used to organize the coming of the rest of the team. As we are staying in the French dig house of Dendera, we always spend a few hours in the afternoon to go pay our respect to the goddess Hathor in her beautiful temple [fig.2]. It is always magical!

From the Saturday onwards, I began supervising our annual field school. This year, four trainees are working with us: Abdallah, Iman, Naama, and Marsa, all future inspectors for the Qena area [fig.3]. I am delighted to be involved in the training and transmission of knowledge and skills to the next generation of Egyptian archaeologists. 

For this campaign, we are working in two main sectors of the site: the mammisi of Ptolemy IV and the Northwestern Roman enclosure. I decided to launch the field school by working first on the enclosure [fig.4]. This year promotion is very great and we got our first discovery very soon: we found a the doorstep of an important building whose function is yet to be understood. I have no doubt that thanks to our team and trainees we will quickly find out what it was! 

In parallel, our workmen dedicated their time to resume the work on the mammisi [fig.5]. 

This seventh campaign on this structure is still unveiling interesting surprises. A few days ago, we found another giant roof slab covered by hundreds of decorated wall fragments [fig.6], thus proving this mammisi was destroyed at a later period for its stones to be reused elsewhere on the site. Each fragment need to be carefully drawn by our team members and inventoried in our database to be later studied. 

Many secrets are still buried deep in the ground and I am glad to be part of those who are still uncovering the wonderful history of the ancient city of Coptos. 

Until next time, I wish you all the very best!