A recent blog post by Shadia Abdu Rabo (curator, Sudan National Museum) and Neal Spencer (Keeper, Department of Ancient Egypt & Sudan, and Trustee of the EES) explores life at the Amara West excavations during the late 1940’s through the first-hand experiences of Mohamed Sayed.
The full blog article can be read here on the British Museum’s Amara West Project site. But we thought to contribute a couple more images from the EES Lucy Gura Archive that may add some further light on the Egypt Exploration Society excavations at Amara West under H. W. Fairman and P. Shinnie. The records from the EES excavations at Amara West are all kept in the archive at our London Office but were also more recently published in two volumes by Dr Patricia Spencer, which are available in the Ricardo Caminos Memorial Library.
An exterior view of the Amara West dig house in the 1940’s
A view of the Nubian workmen moving some large masonry from the dig area, the ‘narrow-gauge railway used to move spoil’ mentioned in the blog article can be seen in the background.
The memories of Mohamed Sayed, one of only three surviving men on the island to have worked during the Egypt Exploration Society excavations at Amara West, shed a fascinating light on the Nubian perspective of life at Amara West.
Further details of the current work at Amara West can be found in a number of publications, given here. Also, keep an eye on their constantly updating blog, and twitter feeds (#amarawest)