McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research annual report 2018-19

Research Highlights
The Ancient City of Amarna, Egypt
Barry Kemp (McDonald Institute)
The Amarna Project was able to complete two periods of
work at Amarna in 2019, in June and between October
and December. Study was made of the wealth of material
stored in the site magazines, from the cemeteries, from the
city (in particular a workshop for glass) and from the Great
Aten Temple. At the temple further areas within the huge
temenos were excavated and the plan to make visible the
outlines of the monumental front of the temple using new
limestone blocks was finished.
The Amarna Project is funded from a range of sources including the
Amarna Trust (incorporating many private donations), the Amarna
Research Foundation (Denver, Colorado) and the Egyptian Department
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Web reports are:
http://www.amarnaproject.com/documents/pdf/
great-aten-temple-report-May2019-hi-v2.pdf
The South Georgia Archaeological Project
Marcus Brittain (Cambridge Archaeological Unit)
The first recorded hunting of seals on the sub-Antarctic
island of South Georgia occurred in 1786. The pelts of
Antarctic Fur Seals were distributed across a global market
and oil rendered from Elephant Seal blubber was a hugely
important resource. Within 40 years, however, both species
were near to extinction, though hunting continued
intermittently into the early twentieth century. Today, their
numbers have significantly regenerated, but the seals are
now continuously exposing and eroding archaeological
deposits and built structures. A partnership between the
Cambridge Archaeological Unit and the South Georgia
Heritage Trust, the project conducted its first season of
fieldwork in February/March 2019 in order to assess the
nature and condition of these remains. Aerial (UAV) and
ground surveys were augmented by targeted excavation.
Sites with material traces of early sealing were identified at
12 of the 17 landing points; further human activities were
noted at the other five. These included foundations of
stone and timber structures, including large iron cauldrons
(trypots)—three set within a stone and brick fire chamber—
used to boil slices of blubber. Samples from timber, soils,
bone and preserved seal pelt have been returned to
Cambridge for further analysis. Investigations will resume at
South Georgia and, it is hoped, the Falkland Islands in 2021.
https://www.sght.org/sealing-archaeological-project/
This project is mainly citizen science-funded, with support also from
the McDonald Institute, National Geographic, the Gino Watkins
Memorial Fund (SPRI) and the South Georgia Association. Drone survey
was contributed to the project by the SAERI Coastal Habitat Mapping
project, grant-aided by the Darwin Initiative (DPLUS065) through UK
Government funding.
Miriam Bertram
The main excavation area at the Great Aten Temple,
view to the east. In the background the front of the
temple has been marked out with new stonework.
In the foreground a section of the earlier ground
is exposed, revealing a sequence of floors and the
remains of short-lived structures serving different
purposes.
© SAERI, 2019
The team at Elsehul with stone-encased trypots,
South Georgia.
Archaeology at Cambridge 2018–2019 29