REPORT ON THE 2001 FIELDWORK SEASON OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF EL-HIBEH, BENI-SUEF GOVERNORATE

By Carol A. Redmount, Project Director 

Introduction

            The 2001 field season of the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) at the archaeological site of El Hibeh, Beni Suef Governorate, took place for two and a half weeks in May-June 2001. Members of the UC Berkeley team were: Dr. Carol A. Redmount, Director and Archaeologist/Egyptologist; Dr. Maurice E. Morgenstein, Associate Director and Geoarchaeologist/Geologist; Dr. Mahmoud Saleh, Environmental Chemist; Mr. Thomas Logan, Egyptologist; Mrs. Cynthia Sheikholeslami, Egyptologist; Mr. Jon Frey, GPS Mapping Specialist, Archaeologist and Ph.D. Student; Mrs. Susannah Van Horn, Illustrator; and Mr. Will Sinclair, student. Assisting the UC Berkeley team from the Beni Suef Inspectorate were Mr. Atef Helmy, Chief Inspector, and Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim, Inspector.

            The Berkeley team stayed at the Semiramis Hotel in Beni Suef during the field season. This location was very problematic for our work because it took us over an hour each way traveling to and from the site, because we could not stay at the site all day to work in the afternoon when the temperatures cooled down from the midday heat, and because the hotel did not have adequate facilities  for a workroom for processing and studying finds and there was no area for washing and drying pottery. Also, the hotel was expensive for our limited project budget. Given this situation, especially the long travel time, as we investigated the site we decided, with the approval of our chief inspector, to look for a suitable location where a more practical excavation facility might be built at the site so that we might be able to stay and work for much or all of the day.          

            Fieldwork in the 2001 season concentrated on three major activities: assessing the condition of the limestone temple built by Sheshonq I; GPS/GIS mapping of the entire site, beginning with the temple area; and excavation in the area adjacent to the temple structure.

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