2018 was the first year that the Sikait Project could start working in situ upon the arrival of the corresponding permits from the Ministry of Antiquities of Egypt. Therefore, we started the first excavation season in January 2018. This season was funded by the PALARQ Foundation.
As you may know, working in the Eastern Desert is not easy. The main challenge is carrying and supporting a group of up to thirty people, in a faraway area without any drinking water, electricity, or telephone signal. As such, the season’s first job was to solve all those logistical challenges.
Luckily, in order to achieve this, we were helped by members of “The Berenike Project,” who took us in their camp for several days, until we managed to have everything ready and travel to Sikait.
During this first campaign, the team was made up of four archaeologists, two restorers, two supervisors working for the Ministry of Antiquities, a police officer in charge of security, a 4×4 driver, a cook and up to twenty local workers.
The local collaboration from the Ababda people was especially important. They are the ones who best know the territory and life in the desert, and it would be impossible for us to conduct our seasons without them.
Once we arrived at Sikait and the camp was set up, we started with the archaeological work. The 2018 season was really important in order to become familiar with the site and the surroundings, as well as to develop efficient work and documentation systems. The campaign’s goals focused on three areas:
Administrative Building or Southern Temple
Firstly, the building known as “Administrative Building,” which is located on a promontory by the entrance of the settlement. It is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular and notorious settlements in Sikait, with a clearly exceptional function. It is an unusual building because it has three consecutive rooms, and the third and smallest one is carved in stone.
The ensemble, built with local schist with presence of mortar, shows high levels of preservation, and it has standing walls of up to four meters.
There are three monument-like entrances to the building from the wadi: one at the southern wall, with a staircase and a ramp; one at the front, with a big staircase; and one at the northern wall, with a simpler staircase. Once inside the building, there is an entrance at the front, which still has its lintel and a side entrance on the southern end.
The first room is the biggest one, and it has a rectangular shape and decorated windows and niches on the western wall. The second room, which is smaller and has a square shape, also includes a small niche on the southern wall. It would lead to the third room, which is the smallest one, carved in stone and covered by a partially preserved ceiling that is made of big schist slabs. The main goal of its dig was to gather more data regarding its constructive structure, its chronology, and its functionality. That is why two sondages were conducted in the first two rooms.
Large Temple
Secondly, “Large Temple” was excavated. It is without a doubt the most emblematic building at the settlement, and it has been arousing visitors’ curiosity from the 19th Century until now. The temple is a “speos” or “hemispeos,” partially carved in stone. The building shows typical characteristics of the Egyptian Greek-Roman period, and it combines elements that are typical of the Pharaonic tradition with other classical characteristics.
It had an entrance that could be accessed from the wadi (now gone) and would lead to a hall flanked by two masonry walls. From there, a first room could be accessed, with two interior columns; further on, a second room could be accessed, which was a tripartite room. From these three rooms, we would arrive at the most sacred area of the temple, which also includes three rooms, with an altar in each one of them. On each side of the temple, there were two small chapels, in which we can find ornamental elements, such as niches and inscriptions.
A Greek inscription painted in red on the inner southern wall stands out (next to several subsequent graffities), as well as the scraps of another inscription on the lintel by the entrance, even though only a few letters are preserved. The dig’s objective was to obtain more data regarding the chronology and structure of the temple. Unfortunately, due to its poor preservation and stability problems, it was not recommended to dig inside the temple.
Therefore, it was decided to perform a big sondage in the entrance hall, in order to determine how the temple was accessed and, at the same time, try and recover remains of the principal inscription.
Six Windows Building complex
Finally, the third intervention area was the one called “Six Windows Building complex.” It is a group of structures based on the north-eastern side of the settlement, among which the “Six Windows Building” stands out. It is a remarkable building due to its great level of preservation and is made up of two rooms (the second one is resting on the rock) with a total amount of six windows.
The complex is made up of an open patio that includes poorly preserved structures and a quadrangular building at a lower level. Three sondages were conducted on this spot in order to try and determine this building’s characteristics, as well as the chronology and functionality of the complex.
In spite of the challenges in terms of logistics and lack of time, the season was a success. We managed to learn in-depth about the settlement, but also about the emerald exploitation in the Eastern Desert during the Roman Period in general.
We must underline that we did not dig only during the campaign. The purpose of documenting archaeologically the Wadi El Gemal National Park area is also part of the Sikait Project.
As such, several sites linked to emerald exploitation were visited during this project: Nugrus, Zabara, Kab Marfu’a or the fort of Wadi Gemal. We even found sites that nobody had ever seen! All this work helps us fill in the gaps and complete the information we gather through the dig, and it also provides territorial context for the data we have on Sikait.
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