From Sweden to the Nile

Egypt’s Colonial Empire in Nubia

by George Wood • September 12, 2018 • 0 Comments

Artist’s reconstruction of Buhen in the Middle Kingdom, Image: Wikimedia Commons

“Nubians, I was hoping to avoid them” (from “The Jewel of the Nile”)

Egypt’s ventures south, into Lower Nubia (Wawat) and Upper Nubia (Kush), were colonial, to secure access to resources, both those available through direct mining and quarrying as well as those procured through trade. In mineral wealth, Nubia offered primarily, gold, but there was also amethyst, turquoise, copper, and gneiss. It was also the channel for exotic items from the African hinterland from ivory, giraffes, and incense to a famous dwarf.

General, Sweden, Swedish Archeology

Gudings slott

by George Wood • August 23, 2018 • 0 Comments

The ancient gate in the walls of Guding slott

In mid-July I finally had an opportunity to take part in an archaeological excavation. I spent four days on a dig by the Gotland Archaeological Field School at a place called Gudings slott, near Eke in southeastern Gotland.

Egyptology

Watering Deir el-Medina

by George Wood • April 19, 2018 • 0 Comments

Deir el-Medina, Photo: Steve Cameron, Creative Commons

This is the paper I wrote for Archaeology B, describing how the Egyptian New Kingdom workers’ village of Deir el-Medina, the desert home of the men who built the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, was provided with water. Basically, it was all carried in on donkey back (although an attempt was made to dig a well):

Watering Deir el-Medina

Europe, Sweden, Swedish Archeology

Ancient Monuments on Lidingö 1: Revisited

by George Wood • November 6, 2017 • 0 Comments

Stockby Burial Mound, Lidingö 6:1

After visiting the Stockby burial mound Lidingö 6:1 recently, I wrote to the Stockholm County Administrative Board,to point out that the sign describing the site was gone and that cement blocks had been dumped on the side of the mound. They replied last week that they’d check it out.

I visited the mound today, and the while the sign is still missing, the cement blocks have been removed!

Stockby burial mound

Europe, Sweden, Swedish Archeology

Ancient Monuments on Lidingö 3: Långängen Grave Field

by George Wood • October 31, 2017 • 0 Comments

Not far from Stockby is Långängens gård, a farmstead that apparently dates back to the Viking period. Today a popular cafe, the hill behind the current farm buildings was the cemetary (Lidingö 9:1) for the farmstead during the Late Iron Age (ca 800-1050 AD).

Europe, Sweden, Swedish Archeology

Ancient Monuments on Lidingö 2: Stockby Grave Field

by George Wood • October 30, 2017 • 0 Comments

Just a couple of hundred meters from the Stockby burial mound is an unexcavated gravefield with five stone-setting mounds. The graves are believed to date from the Viking Age (the Late Iron Age ca 800-1050 AD). According to the sign, it served as the cemetary for the nearby Stockby farmstead.