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The initial sorting of potsherds from the excavation at Grid 12.

Home/Recent Projects/Excavation/Grid 12/


Grid 12 - 2005


Contents


Results

Discussion

Selection of finds


Introduction

Barry Kemp
Our knowledge of the residential parts of Amarna derives to a great extent from the results of excavations carried out on a large scale in the 1930s and before. The style of these excavations was that of a relatively crude extraction process which freed buildings of their debris and handed to the excavators the objects that fitted the needs of museums and the interests of scholars who were not much concerned with routine categories of material. One cannot gain from their reports a picture of the site that an archaeologist would nowadays expect, and this makes it hard to evaluate certain aspects of past findings.

The greater part of Grid 12 at the end of the 2005 excavations. Facing south-west
The greater part of Grid 12 at the end of the 2005 excavations. Facing south-west

The excavation within grid 12, which arose from the re-examination (now completed) of the adjacent house of Ranefer, is the first time that a neighbourhood of mixed housing has been subjected to the kind of detailed examination that is regarded as the norm for archaeology. It represents the beginning of a longer plan to sample the site across an east-west line. Grid 12 represents the eastern end, and lies towards the outer edge of the city, facing towards the main easterly thoroughfare that has in the past been called ‘High Priest Street’ and where the houses and other buildings thin out. It is surrounded on all sides by buildings excavated by previous expeditions. The surface of this unexcavated island is not flat. Several small mounds must represent larger houses. One of them, which might cover a house of the size of Ranefer’s, rises close to the limits of the excavations.

The excavation is contained within a grid of five-metre squares that is aligned to the north wall of the house of Ranefer. It is the twelfth excavation grid that has been set out since the expedition began. Two seasons (2004 and 2005) have now been devoted to it, covering eighteen of the squares, thus an area of 450 square metres (follow link to 2004 report above). By the end of the 2005 season a compact area of houses had been cleared and studied, and a substantial and varied amount of material recovered. Whilst this is being prepared for publication further work at grid 12 has been suspended. At the end of the 2005 season, the site of the grid 12 excavations was largely filled again with clean sand.

Excavation has revealed an intricate layout of walls of mud brick, many of them of an orange colour derived from the local desert clay from which they were made. The walls belong to a series of eight ‘houses’ to which numbers have now been given. All lie within the 200-metre grid-square N50 of the original German survey. Previous excavations have allocated house numbers 1–35 to excavated buildings. The new houses thus begin with N50.36.

A series of walls built against the south wall of N50.36 belong to a house excavated in 1923 by the EES. It probably had the number N50.35, which is used here. The backs of three rooms appear at the south end of square R5.

The individual rooms and open spaces for each house have been given their own numbers in square brackets, thus [1], [2], and so on.

Grid 12 at the close of the 2005 excavations. Facing south-west
Grid 12 at the close of the 2005 excavations. Facing south-west

Backfilling Grid 12 at the end of the 2005 season. Facing south-east
Backfilling Grid 12 at the end of the 2005 season. Facing south-east

Grid 12 at the end of the 2005 season with the covering of sand thrown in for protection of the site
Grid 12 at the end of the 2005 season with the covering of sand thrown in for protection of the site

Results

Barry Kemp

Final top plan

N50.36

Largely excavated in 2004. It comprises two main divisions, the house proper on the west and a long rectangular courtyard on the east side. The courtyard [8] contained an oven, a limestone mortar sunk in the ground, and a brick box built against the east wall that probably served as the emplacement for a quern. The courtyard was entered from an open space to the south. The doorway had been remade at a level 30 cms above the original ground surface. A limestone door pivot serving the remade door was found still in position.

The house itself was arranged around a central and almost square room [2]. It was entered from the east, through an outer room [1] that had a doorway from the courtyard. Its main feature was a low brick mastaba on the south side. Two more doorways opened to side chambers [3] and [7]. A third, on the north, gave access to a staircase that occupied a small room on the north side [5]. Only the lower step of the staircase was preserved, the rest of the brickwork that formed the stairs having been removed in a past time.

House N50.36. North is to the right of the image.
House N50.36. North is to the right of the image

N50.37

The first of a line of three houses running eastwards from N50.36 and facing to the south. The house has three main divisions, one behind the other, and no courtyard or staircase. The third and final division was itself subdivided into two smaller rooms, [3] and [4].


House N50.37. North is to the right of the image

N50.38

A larger version of N50.37, extending further to the south and into unexcavated ground. The principal feature preserved is a staircase that began in room [2], in the south-west corner, and extended into the only partially excavated room [1] that was presumably the front room of the house. The entrance to the house was in the east wall of room [1].

House N50.38. North is to the right of the image
House N50.38. North is to the right of the image

N50.39

The easternmost house of the group, built over a downward slope in the ground. Along the eastern side it had been necessary to build up the floor with rubble and desert sand. This and the slope of the ground caused the eastern outer wall of the house to lean outwards slightly. In order to prevent the wall from collapsing we left a bank of unexcavated earth against the outside face. The house had a main room [3] around which the other rooms were arranged on three sides. It seems not to have possessed a staircase or its own courtyard. The entrance to the house was in the south wall of room [1] and opened from the same partially enclosed space that gave access to house N50.38.

House N50.39. North is to the right of the image
House N50.39. North is to the right of the image

The eastern side of N50.39, showing the slope of the ground to the east (right). Facing north
The eastern side of N50.39, showing the slope of the ground to the east (right). Facing north

Caption: House N50.39 at the end of the excavation. Facing south
Caption: House N50.39 at the end of the excavation. Facing south

House N50.39 at the end of excavation. Facing north
House N50.39 at the end of excavation. Facing north

N50.40

A small part was excavated in 2004, and the northern half remains unexcavated. The foundations of some of the walls of the house proper had been made with the width of a brick’s length, but one of them (the south wall of room [3]) was continued upwards as a wall of half this thickness. One external entrance, from the west, gave access to a room [1] that had later been enlarged slightly by rebuilding the west wall, including its doorway, about 50 cms further to the west, and at a higher level to reflect the depth of accumulated ashy floor deposit. In the room to the south, [5], much remained of the mud floor, but the central room and the rooms to the east, [6] and [7], had lost their floors. Room [2] on the west was not fully excavated, but a solid mass of brickwork at the southern end is likely to be the remains of a staircase. A long space on the east [7] was probably an open courtyard.

House N50.40. North is to the right of the image
House N50.40. North is to the right of the image

N50.41

The main room of the house [3] contained a deep pit for storage, lined with mud bricks and subdivided by a wall. It measured 1.80 x 0.7 metres and was between 1.10 and 1.00 deep. Beside it on the east the first step rose to the staircase the led to the roof and over a small storage space [6]. To the north the back of the house contained two small rooms, [4] and [5]. The main door into room [3] was in the south wall and led from an outer room [2] of which only a part of the foundation course of its east wall remained. Sunk into the floor of room [2] was a smaller example of a brick-lined storage pit, 1.10 x 0.80 metres, and 0.90 deep. Room [2] in turn was probably entered from an L-shaped courtyard [1] that lay at the end of a narrow alley also opening from the east.

House N50.41. North is to the right of the image
House N50.41. North is to the right of the image

Brick-lined pit beside the staircase in house N50.41. Facing south
Brick-lined pit beside the staircase in house N50.41. Facing south

Although the original floor to room [1] has not survived, the surface of the desert preserved traces of use dating from a time immediately before the building of the house. They consisted of a series of shallow pits coated with mud, and small areas of hard-packed mud mixed with ash and charcoal. A few small pieces of green corroded bronze embedded within the surfaces raise the possibility that they are places where crucibles were heated in a process to melt down tiny pieces of bronze scrap ready for re-use. Small bronze fragments and pieces of crucible were found scattered in the fill of all of the excavation squares.

N50.42

The outermost part was the long narrow courtyard [3] that opened from the same narrow alley that led to N50.41. The entrance, in the south wall of the courtyard, had been raised as the street level rose, but then seems to have been blocked. Close to the east end, which had a separate small room [5], was a third example of a brick-lined storage pit, measuring 1.60 x 0.70 metres and 0.90 deep. At the west end of [3] the floor was well preserved. On it stood a brick box that had served to support a quern, and beside this a pottery jar was sunk into the floor. The main room of the house [2] was entered from beside the quern emplacement. Part of the mud floor was preserved and contained a row of three circular holes probably where pottery jars had stood. A further doorway led to a single rear room [4] at the back of the house.

House N50.42. North is to the right of the image
House N50.42. North is to the right of the image

The brick-lined pit in square V8, south of N50.43. Facing north-east
The brick-lined pit in square V8, south of N50.43. Facing north-east

N50.43

No external entrance to this house is visible. It presumably lies to the north, in the part of the house not yet excavated. Only two rooms were excavated, side by side, an outer room [1] and what must have been the main room [2], which contained a broad low bench on the west side, and a staircase in the north-east corner. A third room [3] behind room [2] was left unexcavated. After the walls of the house had been built, a thick wall was added to the east, parallel to but 0.60 metres beyond the east wall of the house. The narrow space so created [4] contained much pottery, so was presumably accessible, but what purpose it served is hard to tell.

House N50.43. North is to the right of the image
House N50.43. North is to the right of the image

House N50.43 at the end of the excavations. Facing south
House N50.43 at the end of the excavations. Facing south

Possible ancient well

At the eastern end of the excavation area the ancient ground level sloped downwards. The reason for this was explored in squares V6 and W7. This was the site of a small and irregular building that had been excavated before, by the Borchardt German excavation, in 1912. The building was then numbered as part of N50.23, being given the room numbers 21 and 22. Having now re-excavated it and made a fresh plan, the excavation was continued downwards in room 21. This showed that the building stood upon earth that had been thrown into a large hole to fill it up. At the top the earth was the same as the natural gebel, although it contained a few sherds and pieces of charcoal. Lower down, however, it consisted of rubble and dark soil mixed with many sherds. The base of the hole was not reached although a short length of a straight edge was uncovered in square V6. The hole might have been a large well, or a quarry to provide raw material for the making of bricks (or it could have served both purposes).

North baulk of V6, showing the lip of the possible well cut through the gebel in the lower bottom of the image. Facing north
North baulk of V6, showing the lip of the possible well cut through the gebel in the lower bottom of the image. Facing north

N50.23

This building, which lies adjacent to grid 12 on the east, had been completely excavated by Borchardt in 1912. He had suggested that glass and faience had been prepared there. In view of current interest in the manufacture of goods at Amarna, including glass and faience, it seemed worthwhile to re-examine the building. This was done in stages through the 2005 season. At the end the greater part of the building had been exposed again, and was planned at the standard Amarna scale of 1:25. Most of the walls had survived, and parts of the brick floors. On the south side two of the ovens that Borchardt had found were still there, although preserved up to only the first course of bricks. Both were roughly square. In one of them, the floor, made from pieces of mud brick, remained in fairly good condition.

Building N50.23: room with brick compartments. Facing north
Building N50.23: room with brick compartments. Facing north

Building N50.23: the two kilns or ovens at the south end of the complex. Facing east
Building N50.23: the two kilns or ovens at the south end of the complex. Facing east

Discussion

Barry Kemp
It is immediately apparent from the plans of previously excavated housing areas that the greater part of Amarna was not laid out according to a preconceived design, but grew as a series of spontaneous urban villages that coalesced to form a city. One of the aims of excavation of houses at Amarna is to explore in greater detail how this process worked.

At grid 12 the walls have mostly lost their plaster surface, revealing the intimate details of how they were put together. We can see that were often built in relatively short and separate lengths, either in a single line or turning at least one corner. Each length could represent the work of a builder (who might have been the house owner) in a single day. Bricks were being made in small batches in part from soil dug from the desert, and the batches varied somewhat in colour, ranging from orange-yellow to grey-brown. These distinctions help to distinguish individual wall lengths. Brick courses were not levelled other than by eye, but wall lines were normally kept straight evidently by the use of a builder’s line, a taught length of string. The lines of some walls were maintained even when crossing from one independent section to another, implying co-operation and simultaneous work.

Because of a simple trick in building technique it is sometimes possible to follow the order in which they were put up, and thus the order in which spaces were enclosed and houses created. Walls were commonly the thickness of the width of a single brick, thus around 16 or 17 cms. The foundations were normally a single course laid in a shallow trench and therefore no wider than the wall it supported. When a new wall was built at right angles to an existing wall, it was abutted directly. But to increase the surface area of mortar in contact with the older wall, a common practice was to begin the new wall with a short L-shaped turn that, in effect, doubled the thickness at this point of contact and presumably helped to stabilise it, at least whilst it was being built. Joins of this kind point to the order in which walls were built. This particular characteristic shows up even on old plans made at a small scale where wall outlines have been solidly filled with black. Using this characteristic, work is currently being undertaken to reconstruct the sequence and circumstances of building construction at Grid 12. It is already clear that none of these houses is of the same size or design. They do not look like the work of a single builder independent of the occupiers, thus a ‘speculator’ or contractor. Time and again their idiosyncracies point to decisions made on the spur of the moment by owners who were working simultaneously according to their own preferences but also having to co-operate.

Throughout the course of the excavation the fill from all parts of the site produced evidence of manufacture. One class of material represented metal-working, presumed to be copper alloy, perhaps bronze. The most obvious evidence consisted of numerous sherds from hand-made pottery crucibles with partially vitrified interior surfaces and patches of green-stained crust. As to what was being melted within them, the answer is perhaps provided by several very small pieces of metal which had clearly been cut from larger sheets or bars. This minor industry might therefore have been one of rendering down scrap metal into crude ingot form.

Numerous fragments of glass rod, ribbon and bar (as well as fragments from glass ingots) similarly provide evidence for craftwork in glass. The rods and ribbons, a few of them having melted ends, were presumably the raw material for making small glass objects, such as ear-rings and beads. The absence of any pieces coloured yellow argues against the making of polychrome glass vessels in which yellow was a common colour. The glass bars, by contrast, seem to have been made for subsequent cold-working, especially for inlay strips and perhaps hieroglyphs, and also for beads. Inlays were also made in faience. Those that were red in colour were cast in shallow moulds. But those that were blue were cut from larger more irregularly made tiles. The destination of the inlays is not clear.

The fragments were not only spread through the debris that covered the houses, they also appeared in the deeper deposits at the eastern end of the site which filled the abandoned deep pit and had been subsequently built over by the house walls. Some of the craftwork must therefore have taken place early in the occupation of Amarna, on ground not yet built upon. Within the houses themselves (and also within building N50.23) there were very few traces to show where any of the work had been carried out. The square kilns in N50.23, for example, had nothing attached to the walls or embedded in the floors that related to these industries, nor had the kiln been fired to a temperature that caused vitrification to occur. The temperatures needed must have been created in small containers that did not need to be built into the structures.

That said, it is also the case that large areas of the floors of the houses had been thoroughly dug over, at a time very close to the abandonment of the site, when the walls were still standing to most or all of their original height. The purpose of the digging was presumably to retrieve items of value buried beneath the floor, a common custom of the time. One object overlooked was a bronze bowl found buried beside one of the walls of building N50.23.

Bronze bowl found buried beneath one of the walls of N50.23. Facing north
Bronze bowl found buried beneath one of the walls of N50.23. Facing north

Selection of finds

Anna Stevens

34751 Poppy seed-head(?) pendant 34751 Poppy seed-head(?) pendant

Q6 (10281)
Length 0.9 cm. Diameter 0.5 cm. Glass

Solid pendant in the shape of a poppy seed-head(?) made from opaque mid blue glass. The shape recalls faience pendant type C13B, but it is formed in the round. The stem has been broken off, presumably taking with it the aperture. Much of the surface is covered by flat planes, almost invisible with the naked eye, indicating that the piece has been cold-worked. The base is flat and slightly more textured than the remaining faces, and may be an original, unworked surface.

34938 Spacer bead

V8 (10803)
Length 1.6 cm. Width 0.7 cm. Thickness 0.6 cm. Glazed steatite

Fragment of a rectangular(?) steatite spacer bead. The fragment preserves a thin faded glaze, originally probably mid to dark blue. A design has been cut into the glaze, extending partly into the stone surface. On one face is a ‘spiral’ design formed of a central dotted circle from which radiate groups of lines ending in further dotted circles. On the other face is part of a curved line and a flattened semi-circle, possibly part of an abstract floral design. The edges appear to have been undecorated. The fragment is pierced by a circular aperture, possibly passing along the central axis.

34943 Ankhkheperure bezel
V6 (10916)
Lenth 1.6 cm. Width 1.3 cm. Thickness 0.3 cm. Faience

Almost complete bezel preserving most elements of the name Ankhkheperure. The hieroglyphs are relatively sharp and are bordered by a sunken oval border. The design recalls Petrie Types 97-100. The glaze is a strong mid greenish blue, slightly matted in some of the design recesses. A small chip from the edge of the bezel occurred pre-glazing. On the reverse are cut marks from the trimming of the bezel and a patch in which the core, fine-grained with a bluish tinge, is exposed. The shank appears to have broken along the line of its original point of attachment.

34961 Hemispherical bowl 34961 Hemispherical bowl
N50.23 (10857)
Height 9.4 cm Diameter 16.5 cm Weight 280 gr. Copper/bronze

Corroded but intact bowl formed from a single sheet of metal. At the rim the thickness is around 0.3 cm at the point where the corrosion is least. The rim seems to be slightly thicker than the rest of the body.

 

 

35046 Blue crown from statuette 35046 Blue crown from statuette
U6 (11002)
Height 3.4 cm. Width 4.2 cm. Thickness 4.0 cm. Limestone

Solid fragment of a blue crown preserving the upper face and part of each side. The fragment is badly preserved, the surface abraded. A horizontal ridge spans the upper back. A second ridge runs vertically up the centre of the front surface. It is badly preserved, particularly along the top of the crown, but seems to join the back ridge. Traces of pale blue paint are preserved around all surviving surfaces. There is no trace of further carved decoration on the crown surface, such as the circles that decorate faience examples of these crowns. A patch of heavy blackening covers much of the original top surface and the stone has turned pale pink here, suggesting that the stone was exposed to direct heat. The blackening stops at a broken edge, which implies that the burning occurred pre-breakage. The crown was probably slightly asymmetrical. It presumably originated from a statuette of a king.

35046 Blue crown from statuette 35067 Head of male ?figurine
U6 (11028)
Height 4.5 cm. Width 3.7 cm Thickness 4.3 cm. Fired Nile silt

Solid head of a bearded male. The facial features are modelled out from the body of the clay. The eyebrows appear as arched ridges that join at the junction with the nose, a short vertical ridge ending near the bottom of the eyes. The eyes are slightly almond shaped, raised with a central depression. The mouth comprises a straight horizontal ridge, probably enhanced by an undercut groove. The ears are set far back on the head and may have been applied separately; one has been broken off. A slight ridge around the chin, extending almost to the ears, indicates a beard, the hairs of which are marked in places by pre-firing linear incisions. The chin seems to jut forward slightly. At the back of the head a slight ridge encircles a patch of smooth, slightly darker surface, suggestive of a point of attachment. The base of the neck is unfinished. A slight ridge around the perimeter of the break may indicate that the head was applied to the ‘body’ as a separate piece. The surface has a greyish patina, seemingly a product of weathering, which in places seems to overlie a pinkish-red slip/paint. The presence of the beard, and slightly dehumanising treatment of the facial features, suggests that the figure represents not an Egyptian but a foreigner.

35046 Blue crown from statuette 35135 Block of folded lead
V6 (10951)
Length 6.7 cm. Width 4.9 cm. Thickness 2.4 cm. Lead

The block seems to have been made from a sheet of lead, 0.13 cm. thick, to judge from a protruding area. The sheet has been folded over and over and formed into a block by hammering. One end has been pushed up and has spread; the other has been pushed in at an angle. On one face a few green particles of copper/bronze are impressed into the surface.

35046 Blue crown from statuette 35164 Faience inlay
V6 (10795)
Length 1.2 cm. Width 1.3 cm. Thickness 0.4 cm. Faience

Faience inlay with mid blue glaze, probably copper-based. On the reverse is a linear groove, scratched into the pinkish body material post-firing. Inlays of this kind occur in proliferation at Amarna, and close consideration of the Grid 12 examples is revealing evidence of how they were shaped. The faience seems first to have been shaped into a large flat tile, perhaps using a simple wooden frame. After firing, these 'master' tiles were then reduced to smaller shapes by grinding linear grooves into their reverse, along which they were then snapped. The current piece displays one original edge, over which the glaze extends, and three 'snapped' edges. The groove on the reverse seems to represent an abandoned attempt at reducing the piece further, to a rectangle. The question of what these pieces were ultimately used for remains, but it is conceivable that they were set in wooden items.

 

35046 Blue crown from statuette 35575 Fragment of end of folded green glass bar
V8 (11048)
Length 1.5 cm. Width 2.2 cm. Thickness 0.4 cm. Glass

Many fragments of glass bars were found at Grid 12. They typically have a roughened outer surface, probably caused by rapid shrinkage during setting. Some, like the current piece, seem to have been formed by folding a flat strip. The folds are visible both in plan and in section across the intact end of this fragment.

 

 

35046 Blue crown from statuette 36454 Lotus flower collar terminal
V8 (10822)
Length 2.1 cm. Width 2.2 cm. Thickness 0.7cm. Faience

Fragment of a lotus flower collar terminal. The background is off-white, probably originally yellow, with the outer leaf in dark blue and petals in alternating mid red and dark blue. The reverse is glazed and flat apart from a flattened ridge running along the flower top. Parts of three stringing apertures are preserved, passing from the top edge at an angle to emerge from the base of this ridge. At least two further apertures would have been located along the broken section. The core material is very hard and fine-grained, off-white in colour.

35046 Blue crown from statuette 36708 Two joined glass rods
V8 (10804)
Length 0.5 cm. Combined width 0.5 cm. Single rod diameter 0.3 cm. Glass

Cylindrical glass rods are common at Grid 12 (see also object 36981 below). Here, two cylindrical drawn glass rods, one pale and one mid blue, have been fused together side by side to create a two-colour rod of double-barrel cross section. The surface area of the join represents about 60% of the thickness of the rods. One explanation for the making of this piece is that it was a step preparatory to twisting it (and perhaps drawing it out further) for adding to the outside of glass earrings, on which thin twists of glass are sometimes seen.

35046 Blue crown from statuette 36981 End of drawn glass rod with pinch marks
T8 (10818)
Length 4.0 cm Width 1.4 cm Thickness 0.5 cm. Glass

Outer end of a drawn glass rod. The end is broad and rounded and the broad faces are flat where they have been held and pinched by presumably a pair of tongs.

Progress Map 2006

 
 

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