Umm Huyut
The settlement in Umm Huyut comprises a row of attached huts and this building in a slightly elevated area, which might have been an administrative building or a shrine:
 
Apart from a larger building, with two staircases leading up to it, the settlement in Umm Huyut comprises this row of huts which probably once housed the men working in the quarry nearby:
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Objective of visit:
 
 To draw a measured plan of the site and study the surface remains (including the ceramic finds).
Date of visit:
   - August 1997
Fellow visitors:
   Prof.Dr. Steve Sidebotham (University of Delaware).
Results: A survey was performed using the Global Positioning System and a theodolite with steel tape measures. Off-site assistance was given by pottery expert Dr. Roberta Tomber (Museum of London). No excavations took place. Part of our work has been published in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 1996; 82: 186-9, a full publication is pending.
Approximate position and date of the site:   Umm Huyut is in the northern part of the Egyptian Eastern desert, north of the Qena-Safaga asphalt road and just south of the Mons Claudianus-Mons Porphyrites area.
Surface pottery dated to the beginning of the Roman period (ca. 30 BC- 300 AD).
Short description of the site:   The settlement of Umm Huyut is associated with an ancient stone quarry in a gully to the north were a gneiss similar to that in Mons Claudianus was quarried but probably at a slightly earlier date. Stone quarried here was subsequently roughly shaped, transported to the Nile valley and from there to Alexandria and Rome.
Additional remarks: Examples of the use of stones from Umm Huyut can be found in the right colonnade of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and some of the kerbstones in the Piazza di San Petro in the Vatican. Our work was sponsored by the University of Delaware and private donors.
HOME