The 2021 season of the Sikait Project increased our knowledge about Sikait and the mining work conducted in its surroundings.
Just like in the 2020 season, the team focused on three types of interventions: excavations in Sikait, mining exploration in the wadi, and conservation and restoration work.
Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the season ran as usual, and the team constantly followed the pertinent security measures.
The excavation
During this season, the archaeological work focused on the main religious complex of the settlement, the Large Temple. The team has been working on this building since 2018 with remarkably interesting results.
During this year’s season, the goals were to clarify some small pending queries regarding the temple’s main nave and to continue exploring the southern area of the temple.
Regarding the first objective, a small sondage was performed inside the central aisle, more specifically by the eastern side of the staircase that led to the tripartite room of the temple. During the previous season, the team identified a space or hole that could confirm the existence of a potential crypt or votive storage space.
After all, the dig confirmed that it was simply a hole resulting from pillaging.
On the other hand, the excavation work of the entrance hall ─almost completely excavated in 2018─ came to an end as they reached the access that led to the south chapel through a partially preserved masonry door.
After all, the largest intervention was performed in the southern side of the temple, where a wall that led from the staircase to the chapel was documented, thus confirming the continuity of its structure.
Therefore, in an attempt to find the access area to the upper sanctuary of the temple, a large sondage was performed throughout this area. As a result, the team found new rooms that were added to the temple in the late Roman Period, enlarging the ritual space of the complex, and proving its vitality and relevance up until the end of Sikait’s occupation.
Work will continue during future seasons since structures of the southern area are still being documented.
Mining exploration
The most remarkable intervention of the season focused on pursuing and intensifying the documentation of the beryl mines in Wadi Sikait and its surroundings. The work done during the season confirmed the intensity of the mining activity in the area, but it also showed how and when that mining activity happened in Wadi Sikait, and who was behind it.
The work done around emerald mining was divided into two big actions.
Firstly, a systematic exploration of the area to document all the possible mining structures. In order to do so, several team members combed Wadi Sikait for three weeks, in an attempt to find the exploitation areas. The team obtained excellent results since up to eleven mining areas (from A to K) and over 150 mines were identified.
In addition to the mines, during the exploration, several elements that were linked to the logistics behind the extraction process were also identified, such as small settlements, necropolis, wells, paths, “cairns,” work areas, altars, etcetera.
The second step focused on the detailed analysis of the mining structures by accessing and documenting them.
Therefore, during this campaign, 1,500 meters of mining galleries were covered.
In the end, in two specific cases, the team decided to run a more detailed study around the topography of the mines. This type of intervention, which had never been done before in this area, will allow the team to know how the Roman emerald mines were exactly for the first time.
Therefore, this means a huge qualitative step in terms of our knowledge about the typology, morphology, evolution and chronology of the beryl mines. Furthermore, it will substantially contribute to our knowledge about those who worked at the mines and how the production was registered, thanks to different inscriptions the team found, which are still being studied and will radically change the way we see mining in this area.
Conservation and restoration
Finally, the conservation and restoration interventions are a fundamental aspect of the work done during the campaign, thus continuing with a task the team started in 2018. Interventions were performed on some of the buildings, which were extracted during the campaign, and which had to be consolidated or treated in order to improve their reading and manipulation.
Nonetheless, the conservation and restoration work focused on isolated consolidation and reintegration jobs of the ornamental covers from the Tripartite Building and the Large Temple that were severely damaged, as well as on the reintegration and stabilization of the inner paving of Room 1 from the Southern Temple (previously known as Administrative Building).
Tripartite Building
The goal of these interventions was to guarantee the durability and integrity of these structures, as well as to improve their legibility, but avoiding aesthetic reintegration work that was excessive or unnecessary.
Southern Temple
In the main room of the Southern Temple, a slate floor was discovered during the 2018 dig. The team covered this room as a protective measure up until this season and decided to fill in the missing parts with slabs that are similar to the original flooring, but only after the room had been documented.
A system has been put in place in order to know where the original slabs are. All the recovery work performed on the floor has been done by using local rock.
Lastly, it should be noted that the criteria of every situation have focused on keeping interventions to a minimum, respecting the needs of the objects, and using reversible and sustainable materials. Furthermore, it should also be highlighted that the restoration team was made up of postgraduate restorers specialized in archaeology.
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