Philae, Egypt

People must know the past to understand the present, and to face the future.

~ Nellie McClung (1873 - 1951)

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archaeologist's drawing table for pottery

Pottery illustration and analysis - Tausret Temple Project, Egypt (2015)

 
goats foraging near the Red Sea

View from the fort at Tell Ras Budran, Sinai, Egypt (2004) - Beware of goats that eat your excavation drawings when you turn your back!

 
limestone block carved with head of Hathor, view from Serabit el-Khadim in the background

Hathor Temple, Serabit el-Khadim (2004)

 

At the end of a hot season in the Sinai. Enjoying a meal with our Bedouin colleagues.

I have been involved in archaeological research and excavations in Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Sudan, Mali, Crete and Canada.

Debborah Donnelly illustrating pottery sherds
 

Archaeologists don’t normally dig dinosaur bones, but we tried to at least capture the information of these bones on the surface.

Debborah kneeling and looking at dinosaur bones in situ - in a wadi in the Sinai

Slab of dinosaur bones found in a wadi next to our site in Sinai (2002)

fossilized dinosaur bones with a photographer's scale

Some of the fossilized dino bones, in situ.

 

When at last we anchored in Jeddah's outer harbour, off the white town hung between the blazing sky and its reflection in the mirage which swept and rolled over the wide lagoon, then the heat of Arabia came out like a drawn sword and struck us speechless.

~ T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935)

So too, the summer heat in the Sinai!

Debborah kneeling next to a partial Roman column in an olive grove, Crete

Roman column in an olive grove, Crete (2008)

hills and fields in Crete

Views of Crete - during survey work for the Knossos Urban Landscape Project (2008)

archaeologists analysing ship timbers

Drawing, measuring and photogrammetry of ship's timbers

Maritime Archaeology course - Ontario (2018)

Our field director in a window at Krak des Chevaliers (2002)

hill at Tell Acharneh, Syria with bedouin tents in the foreground

Our archaeological team atop Tell Acharneh, Syria (with Bedouin tents in the foreground) (2002)

Partially reconstructed bowl from Acharneh

Top L: ACH02-TE1b-1 TC56 - Ottoman pipe, buff fabric, finely levigated, stamped & incised

Bottom L: ACH02-TE1b-1 TC55 - Ottoman pipe, light buff fabric, finely levigated, stamped & incised

Illustration of Ottoman period pipes from Tell ‘Acharneh, Syria

921.4.70 Gift of Sir Robert Mond - Royal Ontario Museum

Bronze Statuette, having a very tall headdress. (Osiris figure?) Arms appear to be crossed on chest holding a flail and crook. Badly corroded w/ encrustations on front and back.

Meroitic - Meroitic period

H: 6 cm W: 2.3 cm Th: 0.9 cm

drawn by DA Donnelly - 25/7/2003

Photo of original illustration - Mourning Woman vase

Tausret Temple Project - 2015 Season

drawn by DA Donnelly

preserved height: 15cm; rim diameter: 7 cm

Full description in JAEI 42 (2024)

Finding archaeology in random places.

mossy old timbers on a rock strewn beach

Remants of the jetty at Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Nova Scotia

Favourite artifact from the MacBride Museum (Whitehorse, Yukon) - Bentwood box - traded up from the Pacific Coast and over the mountains by Tlingit traders.

Abandoned cabin - Chasán Chúa / McIntyre Creek, Yukon (2021)

human modified conifer

Indigenous modified tree - McIntyre Creek, Whitehorse, Yukon (2020)

various pottery sherds in the sand

Pottery strewn across the site at Deir el-Hagar, Dakhla Oasis, Egypt (2017)

Egyptian pound for scale

Modern modified tree, sculpture by Elmer Gunderson at Cottonwood Island Park, Prince George, BC (2019)

blue and green Persian bowl on display in a museum

Persian bowl - found at the Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons museum - Midland, Ontario (2018)

Future archaeology - Qurna, Egypt (2023) - Fathi Mahmoud & Co

 

References

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