SHEMKHIYA 2006/2007
SHEMKHIYA 2006/2007

Summary/Abstract: The fourth season of the PCMA effort in the Fourth Cataract Region under the MDASP Salvage Project ran concentrated on the Shemkhiya area. About 100 new sites were registered in the area southeast of the fortress of El-Ar around the Sahrat el-Kalakil. Of these, 22 were surveyed, sampled, measured and mapped, intentionally leaving for later the region to be affected by the dam. Twelve sites were excavated. Altogether, 41 tumuli and cairn graves were explored (from two to nine at the most from a single cemetery). Reconnoitering of the area south of Tanta Island was continued on a limited scale, giving priority to the lowest lying ground. Follow-up work at the sites of the Christian cemetery SH9 and the tentative church at SH10 near el-Meghera had to be postponed to the next season. Moreover, the gold rush in Gebel el-Gurgurib, which started in the autumn of 2006 after an auriferous vein had been hit in Wadi el-Akhla, while a hindrance for the fieldwork in unexpected ways, provided interesting ethnographical insight into the process of gold mining.

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