The new School for Excavation and Advanced Studies in Archaeological Materials has inaugurated its first course in the study of Egyptian archaeological materials. The course is conducted in the Saqqara necropolis in Giza, which belongs to the First Dynasty (circa 3100BC, during the early Bronze Age).
The school was opened by the Ministry of Antiquities; the first course on archaeological materials runs for seven weeks starting 23 September 2018.
Bassem Gihad, Assistant to the Antiquities Minister for Human Development and Training, said that this was the first course of its kind in Egypt. He said that, together with the other courses the Antiquities Ministry runs, it serves the Ministry’s plan to train young archaeologists and upgrade their skills.
The current course, Mr Gihad Said, trains 16 of the Ministry’s archeologists in the study of archaeological materials, including bones, animal mummies, and ancient pottery, also in using them for dating the site. It also trains them as in site conducting surveys and excavations.
Other courses had been conducted, he said, on excavation. They were placed in Saqqara and Rosetta’s Tell Abu-Mandour in the Nile Delta region, and in Abydos and Kom-Ombo in southern Egypt. Young archaeologists are trained in digging and excavation, indexing and cataloguing, photographic documentation, measurement of spaces and preparation of scientific reports.
Mr Gihad said that other courses would extend to cover the Nile Delta region and Upper Egypt.
Watani International
25 September 2018