The before and after photos of the meal
Well-fed and watered the group re-assembled for the inaugural
group photos of the combined Season 1 and Season 2 field schools, newly
christened Season 3.
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| Back row: Mahmoud, Sayed, Abu el-Hagag, Peter, WIll, JJ, Alaa, Shaimaa, Nadia Front row: Abd el-Ghany, Sayed el-Rekaby, Yaser (Hazem is taking the photo) |
Now down to business. The real work began with the students
converging on TT110 first thing Saturday morning. Following the renewal of the
traditional morning tea and coffee, as well as biscuits and chato, prepared by Abu Gomaa with Abu Hamada
assisting, we utilized the well-equipped tent to begin the instruction of the
students with a review of what each group had done at the end of the earlier
field schools. Mr. Will had created an additional 5 steps as a “prequel” to
the 5 steps of epigraphy the students had learned in the past. The new 5 steps
are designed to provide a system that the students can use to prepare their own
program of epigraphy, be it in a tomb, temple, or on a large block. Seeing as in the
initial field schools this preparation had been done for the students we
decided that we needed to give them the means to do it themselves. The remainder
of the day was spent back in TT 110 demonstrating how we had initially created
the drawing plan for the tomb back in 2014.
Tea and coffee making in progress
Teaching at the tent
Teaching in TT 110
Saturday evening we met Yaser for a coffee, though JJ opted
for ice cream, so that he could bring us up-to-date about all that had happened in
his professional life over the past 18 months. He explained that he is now the
Director for the Scientific Centre for Archaeological Training and Continuing
Research (SCATCR), which the Ministry has set up as an umbrella organization to
facilitate the training of Inspectors. This is ideal
for Yaser, as he has had so much experience with this type of work. Already being downtown,
it seemed expedient to have dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant, Pizza
Roma. We were welcomed as returning family, and JJ had to apologize profusely
for not bringing Declan, as he was known and adored by everyone working in the restaurant.
Sunday and Monday were spent in a larger adjacent tomb which
provided an opportunity for JJ and Will to demonstrate to the students the 5
steps of epigraphy preparation on a wall that was new to both the students and teachers.
As is always the case with our students, the 5 steps produced 15 steps of
discussion, which is no bad thing! The students were then paired off and each
pair assigned a specific wall to which they would need to apply the 5
steps. The idea of pairing them was so that they would need to work together and
share information, ask one another questions, etc., rather than coming to their
teachers for assistance. Will and JJ disappeared from the tomb when the students
weren’t looking in order to ensure that they truly worked on their own.
While the students were thrashing out their approaches Will and JJ returned to
the tent to drink cocktails out of tall iced glasses, you know, the kind with
the little umbrellas – just joking! In fact, we returned to TT 110 to thrash
out in our own way the issues of hacking and possible re-carving in the
cartouches, as well as the names and epithets of the god Amun, the one area that we
had left in some doubt at the end of the last field school, in order to
finalize the conventions necessary for publication.
Monday evening we were invited to dinner at Yaser’s home which
he made clear was at the invitation especially of his wife Manal. We realized
it was the first time we had ever visited Yaser at home, though we had met
his family previously when they made a fantasia on our boat Isis during our
previous field school. Manal made an amazing buffet of delicious foods, some of
which we had not had before in Egypt. We were re-introduced to their two children:
Mohammed who is now 6 and Tokaa who is 4. Just as we were sitting down to eat
we heard what distinctly sounded like a baby’s cry from the adjoining bedroom,
and almost immediately we realized that Manal had left the table, only tor return
with the newest addition to the family – 4 month old Lamar. Yaser in typical
fashion had forgotten to mention the birth of his third child, and second
daughter, to us! After dinner we were treated to multiple desserts, including homemade
basbousa and fruit salad with jello. Manal, seeing how Will kept surreptitiously
having seconds and thirds of the basbousa, sent a plate of the dessert home with
him. As I type this he is snacking on it!
After several days of tamayya and fuul trials, with the
students deciding as to which was the best source of breakfast, a decision was
made to bring everything from one particular place and the meal expanded into a
general buffet with many options. By Monday’s breakfast we had not only the
staples of tamayya and fuul, but also batates (french fries swimming in
oil and mixed spices), roasted beitangan (aubergine swimming in oil and mixed
spices), a variety of salads, homemade gibna abyad (white cheese) coming from Gomaa’s home, and even mish (fermented salty cheese swimming in its own slimy
secretions of putrification), a true Egyptian delicacy that all the Egyptians love.
We thought mulikhaya separated the Egyptians from non-Egyptians, but it’s
actually
By Tuesday’s breakfast the students had finished planning
their walls, allowing them to begin presenting their work to Will and JJ along
with their fellow students. This continued through Wednesday, when Fathy
Yassin, the Director on the West Bank joined us for a short while to listen in.
He was quite impressed! Breakfasts, as you will have noted, have become a key
feature of our work on the west, and Wednesday’s breakfast was no different. In
honor of the arrival of Hassan Ramadan Aglan, who had reached Luxor from Berlin
late the previous night, Abu Hamada brought fatir, which is the exact opposite
of mish – a delectable Egyptian delicacy of layered sweet bread to be either
eaten with white cheese, or dipped in sweet thick molasses, a by-product of the
sugar cane refining. An Egyptian tradition both JJ and Will approve of wholeheartedly.
The student’s presentations were completed by the end of the
day Wednesday and the degree of informed questions and discussions elicited by
the presentations confirmed what both JJ and Will had been perceiving through
the course of the week. That the students really did understand the
complexities of planning a comprehensive drawing program for a wall, and by
extension a tomb, and they appreciated that the methodology was applicable not only
to drawing traditionally as they had already been trained, but also in organizing the photography they might rely upon in digital work. Therefore, we saw little
need to send them to other tombs for additional practice. Instead, we
felt the time could be better used on Thursday by setting up the digital component
of the program at the Karnak Lab, now that Hassan Ramadan was here. So almost before we
realized it, our week in the west had come to an end, and we would need to
shift operations to the east and Karnak. This meant transporting our tea and
coffee supplies to the east, as well as unfortunately having to say goodbye, at
least for the time being, to Abu Gomaa and Abu Hamada, who have other work on
the west.
Last day for the school on the west bank
Examples from the students' notebooks showing their planning work
At the end of the work day Wednesday, the students escaped,
while JJ, Will, Sayed, Hazem, Hassan, and Yaser (who joined us after his work
day ended at the Sphinx Avenue), gathered in the much loved – by Egyptologists – garden at
Sheikh Ali’s for a working lunch primarily to discuss how to go about the
digital teaching at Karnak, what approach Hassan preferred to take, and how
best to integrate it into the teaching we had already done. Seeing as we now
had the following day, Thursday, available to set up all of our equipment at
Karnak, it would mean that Hassan could truly start teaching at the beginning
of the next week. As is so common, we were not the only Egyptologists there! We
learned that Hourig Sourouzian had arrived earlier than usual to begin her
season at Kom el-Hetan (Amenhotep III mortuary temple), and it was delightful
to see her once again.
On Thursday we met the students at the side entrance to
Karnak Temple, and discovered that Saad Bakhit will be our Inspector while we
are at the Karnak Lab. This is beneficial for all of us, as we get to spend
more time with a good friend, and Saad will have the opportunity of learning
some of the digital epigraphy from Hassan. After spending some time setting up
the lab for our teaching needs, and organizing the kitchen for teas and
coffees, Hassan made a good start in helping the students install the necessary
drawing software on their laptops as a preliminary step to learning to use
their tablets. Breakfast was had in a shady spot under the trees near the lab,
and while the food was nothing by west bank standards, our new tea man Mostafa
promises to do better next week! Hazem is guaranteed to help him raise his
game, seeing as the students have all been spoiled by Abu Gomaa and Abu Hamada.
Hassan taught until nearly 2pm, by which time the students had become familiar
with the tablets and were keen to continue the instruction on Saturday.
Will and JJ chatting in the back of the classroom
Thursday saw the end of the first week of teaching for the students, and the occasion of the famed Chicago House Halloween party for JJ and Will. The
afternoon was spent fine-tuning our costumes which JJ had especially brought
from the US. The only thing you need to know are the words Star Wars. The rest should be
obvious! We leave it up to you to identify who we are.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away ……….
