Season five approaches

at Amara West
Neal Spencer, British Museum
For the Amara West team, Christmas and New Year is always
coloured by the anticipation of a return to site Ahead lies the
un!nown of new e"cavations, and undoubtedly some surprisin#
lo#istical challen#es$
%ouse &'(), between the town wall *left+, and house &'((, e"cavated last
year
Wor! on site will concentrate on two areas, Michaela Binder will be
leadin# a team of specialists in cemetery -, our second full season
in this burial #round where &#yptian.style tombs of the New
/in#dom are found alon#side later burials reflectin# Nubian
traditions And this season, we0ll be 1oined by the first participants
in the Amara West Field School, #enerously supported by the
2nstitute of Bioarchaeolo#y Mohamed Saad, from the National
Corporation of Anti3uities, and 4shild 56#ene, recently #raduated
from -urham 7niversity, will to#ether learn the methods for
e"cavatin# #raves 8 often badly disturbed 8 to retrieve the
ma"imum information on s!eletal remains
%ouse &'(9 last month, now buried beneath sand *and with a later house
built above it+
-own in the town, all our efforts will be concentrated on the dense
bloc! of housin# in the northwest of the town We0ll continue wor!
in house &'(9, the early dwellin# with white.painted walls, but
also start wor! on two new houses, &'(: and &'() We can
already see the layout of the house, but cannot predict what awaits
us in each room, or what earlier architecture mi#ht lie beneath;
Fra#ments of painted plaster, with che3uerboard pattern, from a possible
shrine in house &'(9
<f course, the e"pedition house will also be a hive of activity, with
wor! on pottery, finds and of course or#anisation of scientific
samples continuin# =his year we0ll also be 1oined by >hilip /evin,
a conservator from the British Museum, who will wor! on revealin#
the colourful decoration on the painted plaster fra#ments from a
possible house shrine
We0ll be sendin# updates on the various aspects of wor! over the
ne"t two months, e"cavation starts ? @anuary$