This task was directed by Harold James Plenderleith (1898-1997), then the Director of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property.ĭuring the 1961 field season, investigations 150m north of the outer fortifications uncovered a sprawling settlement stretching over 300m along the river front. Ricardo Caminos (1915-1992) was recruited in winter 1960 to record the 18th Dynasty temple of Buhen before it would be dismantled and moved to safety at the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum during 1962. Right, a map of the region of Lower Nubia with an estimated region of submersion highlighted as well as concessions granted along the river. Left, a leaflet announcing the inauguration of the UNESCO salvage campaign on 8th March 1960. For the UK, all operations in Nubia went through the Egypt Exploration Society, making the Buhen dig house a hub for all visitors to the region. Inaugurated on 8th March 1960, the UNESCO Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia resulted in an international effort to record or move archaeological sites under threat. What had started as a routine excavation, now turned to a rescue campaign. Work continued at the fortress and in 1960 news came of the imminent destruction of the site due to the planned construction of the Aswan High Dam. The surrounding defences of the inner fortress at Buhen after clearance by Emery’s team.
BRYAN MACLEVER ARCHITECTURE FULL
Within one season Emery found that the previous excavators had not cleared enough of the sand away to reveal the substantial Middle Kingdom bastioned perimeter walls surrounding the inner fortress, or the full extent of the defences around the settlement area. Originally constructed under the guidance of David Randall-MacIver (1873-1945) and Charles Leonard Woolley (1880-1960) in 1909, Emery organised substantial restoration to the building in 1957 and later additional features such as a drawing studio to complete his large illustrations of the site.
He reopened the Penn dig house, now 50 years old, and recruited a local workforce to begin the mammoth task of clearing the ditches of the fortress. Though Buhen had already been investigated by the University of Pennsylvania’s Eckley B Coxe Expedition in 1909-10, Emery felt that there was more to discover. His choice of site came because of the lack of opportunities in Egypt during the Suez Crisis which started the year before and put Emery’s work at Saqqara on hiatus. In 1957 Walter Bryan Emery (1903-1971) began excavations at the fortress site of Buhen in Lower Nubia (northern Sudan). Plan of the fortress of Buhen during the Middle Kingdom after the EES excavations of 1957-64.
0 kommentar(er)
