Karima, 2 - 4 February

Karima, Friday, 2 February
Too busy to write yesterday. Arrived Karima around 11 PM Tuesday. Couldn’t get the Land Cruisers across the Nile as the ferry was down for the night so retrieved sleeping bags and took a small boat across. Beautiful moonlit crossing of the Nile. More than ready to take off my boots, loosen my belt and curl up in my mummy bag to sleep in the house of Murtada, head of the Gebel Barkal Museum and an old friend of our inspector, MS. Spent yesterday scrambling around Gebel Barkal. Still getting used to local toilets (of the squat over a hole in the ground variety). Can’t puzzle out the aiming exactly or where to put my feet on the concrete frame thingie. I’ll have plenty of time to perfect my technique, though, over the next weeks.
Went to el-Kurru today. Not a lot left to see. Wandered around town looking for evidence of the ancient settlement. Not much visible at surface. Did find, with T and B and the aid of a local boy I promptly nicknamed “Flinders” several potsherds. “Flinders” had attached himself to T, watched what he was doing, and promptly found some sherds. Outside one of the houses, the lady of the house came to watch what we were doing and after a few minutes told us that if we were that interested in broken pots, she had plenty. The women here seem far more free to go out and more likely to talk to foreigners of either sex than I’ve seen in rural Egypt. Very refreshing.
Climbed Gebel Barkal last night to see the sun set. Rough climb, I needed plenty of help and busted my knee up on the rocks. Was more than worth it for the view.
I apparently snored loudly all night in the room with D and Mg. ☺ I’m hoping our more permanent residence will allow for a semi-private room with T to solve that problem.
Spent the afternoon cleaning plastic jerry cans that had been covered with/filled with peanut oil at some point. We’re planning on using a few of them for water transport and the rest will be cut up to serve as buckets during excavation. Went for a walk with T, G, and B through the palm groves near the Nile. Stumbled on a modern pottery production area for zirs. (Large, coarse ceramic vessels used for water throughout the Middle East. The relative coarseness of the ceramic fabric allows some of the water to evaporate, thus keeping it cool. Zirs are placed in stands in houses and throughout settlements, usually with a metal cup, to provide water for passersby.) Got some great photographs of the vessels air-drying before firing, the fire-pits, etc.
T has been going “like the Energizer bunny” according to G. I explained that he’s merely on T-crack. Hopefully we’ll get to visit our site tomorrow. We’re all getting antsy and setting up housekeeping wherever we live is likely to take a full day. Had a freezing shower last night using the tap in Murtada’s house. Setting out the sunshower today in hopes of a warmer evening shower.

Karima, Sunday, 4 February
Went up to visit our site at HG last night. Very rough ride and we were nearly lost on the way back to Karima after dark. Site looks very promising for surface collection, everything from Mid-Paleo to post-Meroitic remains. We’re on the “border” between Shagiya and Manasir territory. Apparently the Shagiya consider themselves more “civilized” than the Manasir. Most of Karima is Shagiya, as is our inspector, M, though his family has lived in Khartoum for a generation or two. M, incidentally, is awesome. His English is superb, he’s incredibly helpful and very personable. Our driver, also M but nicknamed “Bomba” is also great and proving to be a fairly good cook, so we may not need to hire a cook after all.
G, B, and M have gone up to the site area to try and find us a house. The rest of us are hanging around here. Did some laundry. Mostly just loitering around though. Hoping no one gets seriously ill up at HG. It’s pretty remote and a fairly difficult drive back to Karima, especially after dark when it’s difficult to see the tracks through the rocks and desert.
It’s almost 5:30 and the guys still aren’t back. We’re trying to decide how long to wait before either trying to cook something or wandering into town to find dinner. We’ve had troubles with the water purifier already, but no one is sick yet (and we would be) so we’ll see. T apparently drank Nile water the first night we were here, not realizing that the tap in the courtyard feeds directly from Nile water. M was amazed he didn’t spend the whole night regretting it in the WC.
I noticed today that the zir here in Murtada’s house is identical to the ones we saw in the palm groves – same shape, same fabric, same impressed design on the shoulder. Pretty cool.