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REPORT ON THE 2002 FIELDWORK SEASON OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL
SITE OF EL-HIBEH, BENI-SUEF GOVERNORATE
By Carol A. Redmount, Project Director
Excavation
We
extended our main excavation unit from last year, STT 1-6, and
reoriented our grid system from one oriented to the temple to one
oriented towards magnetic N-S and E-W. We expanded the STT 1-6 to the
west, opening STT 7-9 (Figures 16, 17). In all, our main excavation
area measured 15 m E-W by 11 m N-S. Our goal was to keep tracing
horizontally the plan of the Late Roman/Early Byzantine structure we
had uncovered last year and to define its architecture before
excavating deeper. We continued to investigate and define the mudbrick
walls that were appearing at the very end of the 2001 season. It is
clear now that the building is quite a large structure (Figures 17,
18, 19), and that the mudbrick and limestone blocks are part of the
same structure. We are still unsure, however, of the extent and
function of the building.
Main area of excavation 2001-2.
Main area of excavation 2001-2.
Along the
western end of the north balk and the northern end of the west balk of
our main STT excavation unit we encountered secondary deposits of
limestone rubble and debris, and chunks of orange mudbrick. The
limestone rubble included some relief fragments (see below),
presumably from the temple, and some of the mudbrick had partial or
poorly preserved cartouches of the High Priests of Amun Pinudjem and
Menkheperre. We believe these secondary debris deposits represent
remains of a German expedition dump location. We continued to probe
downwards in the northwest corner (STT 9) of our main excavation unit,
since none of the Late Roman/Early Byzantine structure was preserved
here. We excavated a probe trench, approximately 3.5 m x 2 m, to a
depth of 2.16 m at its deepest point. We encountered no structures
here, only a mottled fill that was initially sterile but soon became
full of broken pottery. We have not yet reached the end of this
pottery-bearing layer. Preliminary dating of this pottery is 4th-6th
century C.E.
In an
area at the southern end of the temenos enclosure, close to the
remnants of the southern mudbrick temenos wall, four limestone blocks
in a row were visible on the surface. We decided to investigate this
area and first opened a 3 m x 2 m probe trench (STTA)
against the north side of the two easternmost blocks. We took it to a
depth of approximately 60-70 cm, and found a great deal of fallen
debris, including large chunks of mudbrick, that had tumbled downslope
from the temenos wall. We also found part of a small limestone column,
and a mudbrick wall aligned with the edge of the easternmost limestone
block. We next expanded this trench 2 m to the south
behind the two limestone blocks, so that we had a trench measuring 2 m
E-W by 5m N-S. We found that the mudbrick wall continued on the same
NW-SE line behind the limestone blocks, and that there may be a
perpendicular cross wall associated with it. We do not yet have a firm
date for this wall, and the relationship of the wall and the limestone
blocks to the rest of the area remains unclear.
Plan drawing of trench STTA located along
southern temenos wall.
Finally,
we opened a 2 m x 5 m probe trench, STTB, on a topographic
high near the road. The surface of this trench sloped up to the
north. We excavated down 2.35 m at the north end of the trench and
1.64m at the south end of the trench, where we hit the water table.
This trench contained only secondary debris, including broken mudbricks with partial cartouches of the High Priests of Amun Pinudjem
and Menkheperre, and a few badly fractured pieces of relief,
presumably from the Sheshonq temple. It is likely that this debris
also represents remains of a German expedition dump.
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