Blog

Deir el-Ballas 2023, Week 2: 1/6-1/12

This week we were joined by two Egyptology students from the American University In Cairo; Victoria Shakespeare and Ana Oliveira Asuncion have already done an amazing job. Ana has taken over the work in House F, clearing an extension north of the house in order to discover if there are...

Deir el-Ballas 2023, Week 1: 1/3-1/5

The Deir el-Ballas Expedition started up work again on January 3 with a large, international crew. This season and are concentrating our efforts on the northern part of the site now that the restoration work on the “South Palace” is largely complete. This season we are continuing our archaeological survey...

Deir el-Ballas 2022, Week 6: 2/12- 2/13

Our last days on site were occupied with finishing the recording, registration, and storage of finds from the season, taking final photographs and measurements on-site, packing up the excavation equipment, and backfilling Houses E and F in the North Suburb. An important part of the Expedition's excavation work includes backfilling...

Deir el-Ballas 2022, Week 5: 2/5- 2/10

In our final week of excavation, Nicholas Brown finished his excavations of House E covering Room 4, the W2 "Corridor", Room 5, and Rooms S1-S3 (the ancillary spaces south of the textile workshop). The work at the North Suburb not only includes discovering domestic artifacts and collecting samples for future...

Deir el-Ballas, 2022 Week 4: 1/28 – 2/3

Excavations continued in the North Suburb, with Nicholas Brown and Hassan Elzawy in House E, concentrating on Room 5 (the Textile Workshop) and Room 4, an unexplored area of House E. Work progressed nicely in both rooms, and we are learning more about the architectural elements of these two rooms...

Deir el-Ballas, 2022 Week 3: 1/22 – 1/27

At the end of Week 3, we are now halfway through our excavation season for 2022. Alhumdu-lilah our excavation work and conservation efforts at the site are progressing quite nicely and we are enjoying our work with our Egyptian colleagues from Qena and our local Egyptian teammates from Luxor and...

Deir el-Ballas 2022, Week 2: 1/15-1/20

Work is progressing nicely at Deir el-Ballas, as we continue our conservation and excavation efforts at the site. This week we were joined by two more expedition members, Sara Ahmed Abdelaziz and Hassan Elzawy, who are working with the team at the North Palace and North Suburb. At the South...

Deir el-Ballas 2022, Week 1: 1/6-1/13

Finishing up restoration on the façade of the “South Palace” This marks our first week back at the site. We are continuing the restoration on the “South Palace” and have finished the façade and are now capping the inner stairway wall preparatory to restoring the stairway next week. During the cleaning...

Deir el-Ballas 2021, Week 3: 5/15 – 5/19

We have finished up our work for this short season and turned our reports into the Antiquities Inspectorate at Qena and had a meeting with the Governor of Qena Province to discuss the importance of the site and its preservation. In the final week of the season, we undertook some more...

Deir el-Ballas 2021, Week 2: 5/8 – 5/13

We finished up our restoration work on the ‘South Palace’ for this season, stabilizing the façade and the inner stairway wall, and will move on to the North Palace next week. We also exposed two large areas in the South Wadi (tentatively designated Areas 1 and 2). In just cleaning the...