Fayoum and Luxor are two magnificent Upper Egyptian regions with rich and interesting histories. Last week, as Egyptologists were busy digging across Egypt's various archaeological sites searching for more hidden treasures, the Egyptian mission working at Medinet Madi in Fayoum and the French-Egyptian mission at Karnak Temple in Luxor both came across interesting discoveries.
Archaeologists have discovered a yard at the back of the Medinet Madi Temple structure thought to have been used by ancient Egyptians for administrative work and as a residential area for the temple priests. With it was found a number of related artefacts.
The Medinet Madi news has been making the rounds of the EEF lists lately and I, belatedly, think it's an excellent project, especially because of the apparent residential area. There's really a dearth of settlement archaeology in Egypt, partly because most archaeologists have tended to gravitate towards the 3 T's -- tombs, temples, and texts -- but also because much of the land that was inhabited then is also inhabited now. Plus, the Nile has been aggrading for the last several thousand years, so several meters of sediment covers a lot of non-temple stuff. COnsequently, a lot of how the basic non-royal parts of society worked are a mystery. Plus it's Middle Kingdom which has also been traditionally somewhat under-represented.