ELEPHANTINE IN THE NEWS:

Race on to save Egypt's ancient treasures

Swiss archaeologists are joining the scramble to recover invaluable ancient remains in Egypt before they are lost forever beneath modern developments.

Cornelius von Pilgrim is leading efforts to unearth evidence of how people lived thousands of years ago near the southern city of Aswan.

"Many ancient towns are being covered by modern towns with deep foundations that destroy the ancient remains," von Pilgrim told swissinfo.

The archaeologist from the Swiss Institute for Egyptian Architectural and Archaeological Research in Cairo has been working alongside Egyptian experts for the past six years in Aswan.

[...]

Since 1969 the institute has been working alongside German colleagues on the Nile island of Elephantine. A garrison of foreign mercenaries had occupied the island, stationed there from around the seventh to the fourth centuries BC to protect Egypt's southern border.

The digs uncovered remains of a Jewish temple and many other antiquities that greatly enhanced understanding about life in the garrison.

"I am convinced that we don't know more than a fraction about the history of Egyptian society. The time is over when we wanted to discover new things all the time. We now need to fill in the gaps in our knowledge about normal life in ancient Egypt," he said.

swissinfo, Matthew Allen

This is the first I've heard about current excavations at Elephantine and this is good news.

Looting is reported to be a serious problem at Aswan, although nothing is said about Elephantine. The latter is an island and so presumably (I hope) is hard for looters to get at conveniently.