Thursday, March 26, 2015

Excavating a Pyramid (film clip)

(guest post by Jack Cheng, our draftsman, artist, and my friend and colleague for almost 20 years!)

In excavating the pyramid at El Kurru, we calculated that about 100 tons of fill had been deposited in just the last room (similar amounts were removed from the first two rooms in last season). Some of the fill would have been washed in from the desert, and some of it would have been rock collapse from the roof of the chamber. 


Digging it out was difficult, and so was removing the dirt from 8 meters below ground to the surface. The workmen organized themselves to move the dirt as efficiently as possible, as you can see in this video:

3 comments:

  1. Greetings Mr. Emberling.
    I would like to thank you for this magnificent blog. I was in El Kurru on Sep 12th,2015 when I heard about this archaeological site and got curious. The local custodian was kind enough to let us in the tomb, I guess no body actually cares about the security there. However, those doors you have put is still holding :)
    http://s8.postimg.org/8pesb52l1/IMG_20150912_085759.jpg
    http://s15.postimg.org/n7ow9gpnv/IMG_20150912_084511.jpg
    http://s15.postimg.org/eyi2s6297/IMG_20150912_090148.jpg

    Anyhow, I think I fell for the place and I will be following your blogs.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Ahmed--it is a magical place! We are hoping to be back there this coming winter for more excavation and restoration, and hope we will be able to open the temple to visitors before too long.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello,
    I would like to recommend that you turn off the suggested videos in your You Tube page, when placing here, because after the end of the video it shows completely unexpected things, including adult content. I'm sure you don't mean to have that appear on your page...
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete