Date: Saturday, July 10, 2010, 5:00 p.m.

Chapter: Illinois

Speaker: Nadine Moeller, Assistant Professor of Egyptian Archaeology, Director, University of Chicago Tell Edfu Project

Location: The Oriental Institute, LaSalle Bank Room

This lecture, sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt, is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 773-702-1062. 

Description: The 2009 season at Tell Edfu focused on the full excavation of the SIP silos after permission was received to excavate the exposed wall remains and layers covering them. Three small silos abutting one of the large ones (Si 303) were newly discovered. In the demolition layer filling the inside of one of those silos another clay figurine has been found showing a female carrying a baby on her back. At least three phases of silo building can now be distinguished in this area. More than 120 hieratic ostraca recording administrative activities have come to light in the enormous fill layers that accumulated during the NK and were covering the granaries. Another unexpected find of this season are numerous bones and jaw fragments of hippopotami. According to the stratigraphy, these hippo bones were deposited during different periods (SIP and NK) and are not from a single animal. In the same area, excavations also uncovered more elements of the columned hall dating to the late MK. In the N-E corner of the tell, close to the Ptol. temple enclosure wall, several meters of sebbakh and old excavation debris were cleared in order to reach the OK levels beneath which were already visible in the vertical sections along the side of the tell. Ceramic evidence indicates archaeological remains, which date to the 4th Dynasty.

About the speaker: Nadine Moeller is Assistant Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute. Since 2001 she has been the Director of excavations at Tell Edfu in southern Egypt. She received her Ph D from Cambridge University (UK) in 2003. She has excavated and worked at many sites in Egypt including the Valley of the Kings, Abu Rawash, Dendera, Memphis, and Elephantine.