That is why I decided to send in my application for a Scholarship for Fieldwork Participation from ASOR in order to join the EIMAWA mission of September. When, on May 3, 2024, I received an email from ASOR with the news that I had won a Katherine Barton Platt Fieldwork Scholarship I literally jumped for joy! Indeed, this scholarship gave me the opportunity to continue and complete, together with Prof. Piacentini, the epigraphic study of all the inscriptions found on the site from 2019 to the present.

So, on September 10 I left for Aswan with a team of scholars from various disciplines: Egyptologists, anthropologists, radiologists, chemists, restorers, engineers, etc. The first few days challenged us with extreme weather conditions (temperatures of about 44 degrees!) and the site being in the middle of the desert! But even these temperatures failed to discourage us from doing our work and so, from our home on Sehel Island, we took the boat each morning to the site where, together with the Egyptian team, we discovered and excavated a tomb between two previously excavated ones. Back home, we would spend the afternoon working on the collected data, which we presented each day at the 6:30 p.m. meeting.

This very afternoon meeting was the most awaited moment of the day since it took place in the veranda of our house in Sehel Island. Before our eyes (and our data-filled computers), the sky was ablaze with the setting sun that descended just behind two knolls drawing the perfect hieroglyph of akhet (“horizon”). There was no fatigue or worry that did not fade away as we walked out of our rooms and were dazzled by the setting sun or moon between the river and the desert, smiling at the song of the ibis that perched on the cliff in front of the house or admiring the elegant flight of the hawk Horus that often passed over our heads. The poignant beauty of Egypt is shown in all its moving power on the first cataract of the Nile, the natural boundary of ancient Egypt.

Beyond the beauty that filled our eyes, taking part in the September mission gave me the opportunity to complete together with Prof. Piacentini the study and edition of all the hieroglyphic texts unearthed in recent years. The resulting paper has been sent to an international Egyptological journal (Aegyptus 104) and has already been accepted for publication in December. But this mission not only allowed me to refine my epigraphic field studies – working with experts from other disciplines allowed me to enrich my cultural background. I was able to follow every step of the excavation of a new tomb and learn a lot about archaeological methodologies (especially in extreme environmental conditions such as those of the Aswan Desert), I lent a hand to anthropologists in their reconnaissance of human remains, learning a lot from their discipline, and I listened to the timely reports of the restorer and chemist on the treatment of materials.

But the main enrichment was the human one. Working and living side by side with many people for three weeks was a really good experience. I made new friendships and consolidated existing ones. I interacted with the local community and became, along with the other mission members, a resident of Aswan! And for all this, I have to thank the mission director Prof. Piacentini, ASOR who gave me the opportunity to join the team, and, finally, Egypt for the beauty with which it continues to fill our lives every day.

Lorenzo Guardiano is a research fellow in Egyptology at the University of Milan where he obtained his PhD in 2022. His areas of research are Egyptian astronomy and cosmology and the hieroglyphic epigraphy of the New Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Period. His book “Il Cielo dei Faraoni. I soffitti astronomici nell’Egitto del Nuovo Regno” was published in 2024 by Milano University Press.

Want to help more students and early career archaeologists get into the field? Donate to the cause today by selecting “Fieldwork Scholarships” as your gift purpose!