Round the World with Us

First day on the Tetisheri Pyramid within the Ahmose complex in Abydos. The pyramid is mud brick construction and dedicated to the Pharaoh Ahmose’s grandmother.  The pyramid collapsed at some point in time in history. The entire Ahmose complex is enormous.  Although the first excavations there were over 100 years ago, it is apparent that the scope and even the full purpose of the complex are yet to be defined.  The excavations at the Ahmose complex are lead by Dr. Stephen Harvey.

My first day on the job as a rank amateur was to start one step above hauling dirt; sorting mud bricks. The bricks have been removed from the debris of the collapsed sections of the pyramid to try clearing the way to defining its exact interior shape and construction.  The removed bricks then have to be sorted.  Many of the bricks are stamped with Ahmose’s name in one of four different forms.  The objective in sorting is to weed out the stamped bricks for later study.  The bricks are also sorted to separate out those that still have mortar attached.

The nice breezes that had kept temperatures low in Cairo and on the first non working day in Abydos had, of course disappeared and it was blazing hot in the site.  We get up at 4:30 AM and are on site by 5:30 to try to beat the heat.  The work day ends around 1 PM when it is too hot to even handle the bricks with your bare hands.  Laborious work, but I am constantly reminded as I handle the bricks that these bricks were made by craftsmen well before the time of King Tut. That stamp was applied by some individual and this gives each brick a reverence that I respect.