Successful field season, Aswan

The first QuarryScapes survey in Work-package 4 (Aswan Quarry Landscape) took place in November and December 2005, and involved Work-Package leader Elizabeth Bloxam (UCL), Adel Kelany (SCA), Tom Heldal and Per Storemyr (NGU), Patrick Degryse (KUL) and Ashraf el-Senussi (SCA). The fieldwork has revealed numerous quarries of different age and type, including prehistoric and Pharaonic grinding stone quarries, Pharaonic monumental quarries and Graeco-Roman monumental and building stone quarries. Furthermore, this quarry landscape comprises extensive road systems, rock art and other epigraphic features associated with the quarrying. Part of the Aswan quarry landscape is under threat from modern development, and in addition to being a good case study area for the general purpose of QuarryScapes, the project will also contribute significantly to documentation and conservation of this unique quarry landscape.

Partly worked obelisk base found in one of the silicified sandstone quarries, West bank Aswan. The Nile and the suburbs of Aswan is seen in the background. Photo by Tom Heldal.