In January of 2023, as part of my dissertation research, I set off to take part in the archaeological mission known as the Abydos South Project (ASP – like the snake!) as an excavation supervisor. This project is a new joint Egyptian-American mission co-directed by Mr. Mohammed Abdul Badia and Dr. Deborah Vischak, focused on a concession in Abydos, Egypt.

ASP began in its earliest form in 2018 as a solo Egyptian-led project started by a number of Inspectors from the El Balyana and Sohag offices of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. In 2021, under the guidance of Dr. Vishack, Princeton University joined the project with an early focus on assisting in restoring and protecting the project’s concession via the removal of trash, mitigation of damage at the site, and construction of a protective enclosure wall that would connect with older Ministry built walls. This work has completely transformed the landscape and has resulted in a more secure future for the archaeological area, which, in turn, will boost future tourism at the site benefiting the local economy and population.

Abydos is perhaps best known as the burial place of the earliest kings of Egypt, as well as the later, mythical burial place of the god Osiris. This religious-political history resulted in continuous occupation and activity at the site from the Predynastic Period (5300-3000 BCE) through to the end of Dynastic Egyptian history – although, technically, it has continued through to modern day as well, as the contemporary village of Arabah rests above where the ancient town of Abydos likely stood. ASP’s concession is, in particular, a stretch of land in South Abydos encompassing the funerary complex of the first king of the New Kingdom, Ahmose I (1525-1550 BCE); a complex that includes the final monumental royal pyramid built in Egypt.

With the final building stage of the project’s border walls concluding in 2022, the mission’s goals shifted for the 2023 season towards excavation - an excavation that the project directors generously granted me permission to guide as part of my dissertation project. In particular, the goal was to excavate a hitherto unexcavated portion of land to the west of the royal complex of Ahmose. This area, which was being used for animal pastoralism up until 2022, was marked on archaeological maps of the area as the Ahmose Town site due to a hypothesis put forth in 1904 based on domestic remains (now known to be part of the Middle Kingdom townsite of Wah-sut) found several hundred meters to the west. It was particularly interesting as a prospective site for my own research, which examines elite expressions of postmortem identity in the New Kingdom, as recent excavations immediately outside the concession suggested that at least a portion of the area was, in fact, a New Kingdom necropolis.

It is important to note that, as this research would include the excavation and study of ancient human remains, the project received approval from the Princeton University Human Remains Oversight Board prior to its start. The Human Remains Oversight Board provides guidance and oversight to Princeton University researchers to ensure that all human remains are managed appropriately in the course of any approved projects. In particular, they help to ensure that all remains are interacted with respectfully and in a manner that is consistent with all laws, policies, and regulations. In accordance with the current practices in Egypt, all of the remains will be re-interred in the ancient cemetery space after analysis.

When we all arrived in Abydos we settled into the American Dig House – a gorgeous blue and white Nubian styled building with domed rooms (to assist with temperature control) and two large courtyards. The house had been built over the 1967-68 season by the Pennsylvania-Yale mission under the supervision of David O’Connor. Our daily life over the next two months would take place between this house and the field (the former of which also holds the archaeological lab spaces) just as it had for all the archaeologists who had used the house before us, and all who will use it in the future. It’s truly a wonderful place to call home filled with so much joy, history, and hospitality, as anyone who has had the pleasure of working at Abydos will tell you - although I know I am of a lucky generation who gets to experience the house with running water and WiFi.

In the first week on the dig, I was personally assigned an area to excavate, with Qufti Ashraf Zeydan Mahmud and a team of workmen, in the southwestern corner of the site.

We knew from excavations by the University of Pennsylvania project in the vicinity, as well as test units we had excavated in 2022, that this area was the most likely to contain a portion of the theorized cemetery. What began as a single 10x10 meter operation, or op, quickly ballooned over the first two weeks to a collection of 7 ops as we began chasing the edges of tomb cuts, superstructures, and ritual deposits – all of which began appearing only about 30-50 centimeters below the modern surface.

Our excavations across the concession uncovered a total of 39 burials, encompassing a mix of simple burials of coffins in the sand, solo pit burials, family pit burials, and several large (2.5 – 5 meter cuts), multi-chambered shaft tombs – as well as a single dog burial. All of the burials had been robbed in antiquity, however, the data we were able to collect will still help to transform our understanding of the early New Kingdom at Abydos; a period which has been under studied.

In particular, the cross-section of the population present in the cemetery will allow us to better understand the local population, their religious ideology, gender expression, socio-economic statuses, general health of the population, and countless amounts of other information. Further, items and features found across the cemetery will also allow for the examination of outcomes of agricultural production, effects of climate changes, examinations of the society’s use of animals, and so much more.

While the entirety of the data collected will be of value to the academic community, there were a number of features, finds, and facets that were noted at the moment of their discovery as holding the potential to answer some burning questions held by the field about this period of time in antiquity.

The first of these data-rich features of the cemetery was a large shaft burial that, interestingly, was located at the farthest point away from the Ahmose Pyramid in the concession. This was particularly notable as prior studies of the landscape around pyramids have suggested that the largest and most ornate burials are located closest to the royal structure. In this cemetery though, the shafts were at quite a distance, while the pit burials were nestled closest to the pyramid. This offers a great example of how our knowledge about ancient practices can continue to develop with new discoveries.

The interior of the shaft also provided us with extensive amounts of data. Of particular note though, was the presence of three in situ vessels at the entrance to the burial chamber. While the tomb had been robbed in antiquity, these items were left intact allowing our Ceramicist to easily date the burial (1525-1550 BCE) and for the collection of the vessel’s contents for future flotation and analysis. Further, because the vessels had been left intact we were also able to reconstruct a portion of what the burial chamber may have looked like at the time of the funeral; data that is the first of its kind for this site.

In recalling my participation in this specific moment, the only term that comes to mind to describe that feeling is one of gratitude; gratitude that I was the one who got to take part in this historic event and the one who gets to tell the story of the individuals we excavated - and even more gratitude that you get to do it all hand in hand with your team. I’m sure non-archaeologists rarely get misty-eyed about ancient pottery, but it happened more than I would like to admit over the season’s progression.

Similarly significant was the day we found the first chapel space. As we came down on the u-shaped mudbrick chapel, I remember throwing my hands in the air and actually yelling: “we have superstructures!” This was such a big deal because there is almost no data regarding what tomb superstructures looked like at Abydos, especially in the New Kingdom. Because of this, coming down on this chapel space was like having a thousand questions answered all at once – and as I brushed away the sand, we realized it even had a stela base in situ. While I’m still working on the actual analysis of the data, I cannot overstate just how much information this is going to provide the field about superstructures, chapel spaces, and even ritual activity in cemeteries in the early New Kingdom – especially because we found two additional intact chapels, and potentially four more that had been destroyed, all surrounded by large ritual deposits of ritually killed beer jars.

Towards the end of the season the site was offering us an absolute abundance of data – we joked that the only real archaeology curse is that you will always find the best stuff in the last week with no time to keep excavating. One of the things we did have time to finish was a remarkable shaft tomb right near one of those u-shaped chapels. What was unique about the tomb was that, as we were excavating, we noticed that the edge seemed to have been dug as a shallow ramp, which moved counter-clockwise around the opening in the middle. A shaft tomb usually is cut straight into the tafla (think bedrock-ish material) with miragi (hand and foot holds) carved into the side wall to allow for egress from the vertical opening – so this was odd to say the least.

I remember having many discussions with Dr. Vischak about how it seemed purposeful, but it was hard to separate agency from the intricacies of tafla quality in the area. Imagine my absolute delight when we began excavating at the lowest part of the ramped platform and found steps carved into the wall leading down to the burial chambers - confirming, indeed, that the sloped entrance had been purposeful.

What is so interesting about this architecture is that we have absolutely no comparison for it, meaning I’ve had to dig deep into the records to try to explain it in my dissertation. Elucidation is [hopefully] forthcoming! This was also, by far, the tomb that contained the highest number of items, with us excavating four anthropomorphic masks from coffins, at least four bricks stamped with the throne name of the king (Neb-phety-Re, mry-Wsr – Neb-phety-Re, Beloved of Osiris), and quite a bit of gold leaf.

Interestingly, immediately outside the cut of the tomb we also found a small tented structure built of three mudbricks – two on either side, and one brick broken in half to cover both short ends. Inside the structure was a small (~ 30cm x 10cm x11cm) white-washed ceramic coffin with an offering dish on top.

As with all intact items - in the interest of preserving as much data as possible - we carefully packaged the small coffin for transportation to our lab, where we would open it in a controlled environment with our Conservator’s assistance.

Upon opening the item we found that it housed a very curious mud figure that had been seemingly wrapped and sealed shut with two intact mud seals featuring a matching djed-pillar design. We, again, can find no comparison for the item (seems to be a pattern for this part of the cemetery), but we’ve settled on the fact that it may be an early Osiride “corn mummy.” These items - generally classified as mummified botanical remains - are extremely rare before the Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BCE), but are known from as early as the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BCE) meaning ours could contribute quite a bit to the understanding of the development of this artifact type. That being said, we have to scan the mummy first to confirm if there is anything inside – so in the meantime it’ll remain catalogued as a “mud Osiris.”

Now, while I was slated to head home to start writing my dissertation at the end of the Ahmose Cemetery excavation, I chose to stay a few extra days so I would be able to participate in the second portion of ASP’s season – the excavation, conservation, and partial reconstruction of the Tetisheri Pyramid.

This pyramid was a mortuary shrine erected by Ahmose along the axis of his mortuary complex and dedicated to his grandmother, Tetisheri. As a monument, this pyramid highlights the importance royal women had in the formation and continuation of the New Kingdom. Although I was only briefly involved, to be able to excavate in and around the shrine of a woman so very important to the period in which I work was an amazing experience.

The resulting work and reconstruction has also made news headlines around the world and portends to be a really important tourist attraction in the coming years.

My ASP teammates had told me from the beginning of the season that they could tell I was محظوظة (lucky), but I continuously brushed it off. Looking back on the season though, I have come to realize that they may have been right- we had really found and accomplished an incredible number of things in just under two months.

I wasn’t only lucky archaeologically though, I was also lucky to be a part of such an amazing team and to be able to bond so deeply with all of my teammates. It can be really difficult working six days a week from 6 am until 7 pm, but we somehow spent every day laughing with one another and sharing our passion in a way that made even the most difficult parts of the season feel effortless.

I’ve been back to the field a few times since March to work on the cataloging and analyzing of our finds, however, moving forward my immediate focus is on finishing my dissertation, which will be the first publication of this new cemetery and all of its data.

For ASP, there are also plans to return for an untold number of additional seasons to more completely explore the Ahmose North Cemetery and everything in its vicinity; work that will exponentially increase our knowledge of this little-studied period at Abydos and work that I cannot wait to take part in.