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REPORT ON THE 2004 FIELDWORK SEASON OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF EL-HIBEH, BENI-SUEF GOVERNORATE
By Carol A. Redmount, Project Director
The archaeological site of El-Hibeh lies on the east bank of the Nile
River in northern Middle Egypt (Beni Suef Governorate), approximately
165 kilometers south of Cairo and 55 kilometers south of Beni Suef
(Figure 1).
El-Hibeh is located at a point where there is a break in a line of
desert cliffs almost adjacent to the river and where there is a good
view of the river to the south. The site itself consists of an ancient
Egyptian provincial town comprised of a walled settlement with a
limestone temple built by Sheshonq I of Dynasty 21, and surrounding
desert cemeteries. Historical and archaeological evidence both
indicate that the site was founded very early in the Third
Intermediate Period, and our fieldwork increasingly suggests that the
greatest extent of occupation at the site also occurred in the Third
Intermediate Period.
The 2004 field season of the University of California, Berkeley at
El-Hibeh took place between July 20 and August 11, 2004.(1)
During this field season, we continued our site characterization
activities, focusing our work around four major activities: continued
GPS mapping and surface survey and monitoring of the tell mound and
surrounding area; salvage excavation of two areas with endangered
burials; ceramic study; and geoarchaeological investigations.
Notes:
[1]
Members of the expedition were: Dr. Carol A. Redmount, Director;
Dr. Maurice E. Morgenstein, Associate Director and Science
Director; Dr. Robert Yohe, Palaeo-osteologist; Mr. Jon Frey, GPS
mapping specialist and archaeologist; Mrs. Joan Knudsen, Object
Registrar; Ms. Jill Gardner, Palaeo-osteologist; Ms. Deanna
Heikkinen, Palaeo-osteologist; Ms. Celeste Henrickson,
geoarchaeologist; Ms. Christin Engstrom, archaeologist and ceramic
specialist; Ms. Virginia Emery, archaeologist and mudbrick
specialist; and Mr. Emad Ahmed Nooh, Inspector of Beni Suef
Taftish. As always we are grateful to Dr. Zahi Hawass and the
Supreme Council for Antiquities for permission to work at the
site, and to the Beni Suef Taftish, especially Mme Nadia Ashour,
Director of the Taftish, and Mr. Atef Helmy, Senior Inspector, for
all their help and assistance.
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