The Polish magnetometer team arrived at the dig house just short of 9am.  Their leader, Tomasz Herbich, who is fiercely Polish with a grey mane and arching eyebrows, was accompanied by two younger fellows who were going to do the brunt work.  Rafaat, my second-hand man, was available to chauffeur us around the site.  He’s […]

At the dawn of civilization in the Nile Valley, people settled upon four levees of the Mendesian branch of the Nile.  These sandy embankments protruded from the landscape in a southwest to northeast direction and provided the earliest settlers a safe abode from the annual floodwaters.  Here the first settlement of Mendes, initially known as […]