Wittenberg in Egypt

well, first of all, we are really sorry for the lapse in blogs. The internet connection here is a little shaky at best, and it has been down for a while now. That being said, we have certainly been keeping busy! Last weekend we went to Alexandria, which Nikki will write about later on. This week is our last full week of excavation, as we leave to come home the beginning of next week! I can’t believe how fast the time went here. The work has really been exciting, and the architecture in our units becomes more defined everyday. Right now, Nikki and I are hoping to finish our excavation experience with hitting floor level in our rooms. We are very close, hopefully the next few days will seal the deal and we can have finished the complete excavation of the rooms in the time we were here. That is the goal at least!

So the last few weeks our schedule and routine has stayed the same, but now that the end of our work is approaching, there are more steps to be taken. In addition to our weekly report, we will also write a final report about what happened in our units over the last month. We will also work on 1:20 top plans of what our units look like, which are much more detailed than the 1:50 plans we do on a daily basis. The final plans take a lot of time and precision, and require us to use drawing squares that make sure we have as many details as possible in our drawings. We also will clean and prepare our units for photography. All in all, the last week of work is always the busiest!

Last night, we attended a lecture by Stephen Davis, our project director, who was speaking in Cairo about our work. It was really interesting to hear what we are doing put in a new light. When you are working in a small 8 x 5 meter unit every day, it is easy to get caught up in the little details of your finds, or your daily agenda, or your end of day photographs, and to lose sight of the larger picture. As he spoke about why EDMAP was formed and what our purpose is, it really hit us that we are part of a huge project. One reason that our work is so important is that the site we are excavating is endangered by encroaching Delta area farms. We need to excavate, record, and preserve this area so that it will continue to be protected from the people who live and work on areas of land around our site. Already we can see parts of the site that have fallen prey to farmers seeking to extend their land. It is sad that these areas may never be properly excavated. It also became apparent to us why it is so important to learn about the way these monasteries would have looked and been used several hundred years ago. In the surrounding area of lower Egypt, there are many modern monastaries that have ties to the ancient one we are studying. It is important to these churches to learn about their own history and to preserve parts of their past that have been covered for centuries. We are helping to provide a greater body of knowledge about this aspect of Egyptian history. It was amazing to re-learn these things during our last week especially, because, as I’ve already said, it can get pretty hectic. Putting things in perspective really helped give us that push to get us through the week!

Look for an entry soon on Alexandria!

Erin and Nikki

well, we are winding down another great weekend in cairo. Right now, we are sitting in a coffee shop relaxing after a busy day. Last night, we took a trip to Khan al-Khalili, a massive bazaar in the heart of Islamic Cairo. Imagine the craziest, loudest, most colorful place you have ever seen, and then multiply it by ten, and that will give you some idea of what the Khan is like. Amid beautiful architecture, including arches, balconies, and columns ranging from many periods of Egypt’s history are an unimaginable amount of stalls, shops, and stores. The Khan is great for shopping, but you better be ready to haggle, because everything is way overpriced and you really have to work the vendors down. The three of us had a fantastic time walking around and bartering, and we ate a delicous meal of kaftan kebob, which is basically spiced, grilled lamb. All in all, a really fun night!

This morning we went to the Great Pyramids. They were definetely a highlight of the trip. The pyramids are every bit as big as you think they would be, and actually, even bigger! One thing that really surprised us was the size of the bricks. As we climbed a few meters up on the Great Pyramid, we stood next to bricks that were as tall as our armpits, and so wide that our outstretched arms couldnt touch one side to another! Now imagine thousands of bricks like that piled on top of each other and stretching all the way around the pyramid, and it seems impossible that human beings could have made them. Absolutely incredible and mind boggling! We ventured inside the Second Pyramid, and it was an adventure unto itself. We had to climb down a tiny, dark, near-airless passage that required us bend over double it was so low and narrow. At the bottom, we found ourselves inside a stone chamber that conatined a sarcophagus, but unfortunately the combination of heat and almost no air forced us back out of the pyramid rather quickly, and we couldnt look around too much. After that we walked over to the Sphinx, which was just as cool as the pyramids. From the front, the Sphinx is flanked by the pyramids, so it was a breathtaking visa. It was an amazing morning, and we took a ton of pictures, which hopefully we will be able to upload onto the site soon.

Another really cool thing we did this weekend was visit two monasteries on Saturday morning before we left for Cairo. These were the monasteries of St. Bishoi and the Monastery of the Syrians. They were incredibly beautiful–stucco, arched buildings surrounded by palm trees and flowering vines, and the desert atmoshphere made them very peaceful. It was so cool to look at existing versions of what we are excavating at our site–St. Bishoi and the Syrian Monastery are part of a cluster of monasteries at Wadi Natrun. We were given a tour by one of the monks at St. Bishoi, who showed us the church, the mill where the monks ground flour for bread, and the outside of some of the old monastic cells. One interesting fact about the cells were their doors–they were so small! We learned that Coptic cells had doors that size because when one would enter the room within, they would have to bow (reminding them to be humble) and also because Jesus said to follow the narrow way. Another fact he shared with us was the symbology of the hood Coptic bishops wear. Each side has six crosses, representing the twelve disciples, a line down the center, representing the battle of good versus evil, and a cross at the back of the hood reprenting Jesus. He also showed us the old fortress monks used to use in the days of barbarian invasions, which was really neat to see. At the Monastery of the Syrians we saw a gorgeous church with unbelievable plaster walls depicting biblical scenes and icons of saints. It was a really interesting and fun trip!

We will write again soon!

Maas Salaama!

Erin, Nikki, and Trinity

Greetings!

Erin and Nikki are currently writing from the Newark International Airport en-route to Cairo, where they have already survived many disasterous encounters, including a near-miss invloving the laptop and a full cup of orange soda. Trinity is at this moment recieving her diploma, signaling an end to her days at Witt, and therefore she will be flying solo tomorrow and rejoining us at the site in a few days. Before we arrive in Cairo and have actual important and interesting things to tell you, we thought we would at least introduce ourselves.

Trinity Rufus is a graduating senior, who majored in Integrated Social Studies, and when she has a chance to log on, she will edit this post and add more info about herself : )

Nikki (who will go by Nicole in Egypt, as her nickname means a very bad word in Arabic) is a scrappy upcoming senior and is also majoring in Integrated Social Studies and minoring in Political Science. She is from Ohio and after our work in Egypt will head straight off to work as a camp counselor.

Erin will be a junior in the fall and is majoring in History and double minoring in Sociology (Anthropology) and the Pre-Modern World. She is also from Ohio and the remainder of her summer will be spent babysitting and going on vacation with her family. Erin has prepared for this trip by learning the followng Arabic words, which we will list so you can learn them as well!!!!

shukran: Thank You
fayn: Where is…
bikam da: How much is…
ana badowwar ‘ala assifara United States: I’m looking for the United States Embassy.
min fadlak: Please
min fadlak la’ tilmasni: Please don’t touch me

Thanks for looking at our blog…check it out frequently as we will be writing as much as we can!

ma’as salaama! (goodbye!)