Wadi el-Hudi Expedition

Wadi el-Hudi Expedition Wadi el-Hudi encompasses multiple Ancient Egyptian amethyst mines that may be the source of all purple jewelry in the ancient world. www.wadielhudi.com

Wadi el-Hudi is an area southeast of Aswan that is made up of many archaeological sites, consisting of fortified settlements, amethyst mines, and rock inscriptions. Egyptians mined this region during the Middle Kingdom and the Roman period. The state of preservation of the settlement areas is astonishing; the distribution of artifacts on the surface allows for a reconstruction of the various activ

ities that took place at Wadi el-Hudi over three-thousand years ago. The area was first discovered in 1917 and has been intermittently studied by geologists and archaeologists since. In the 1940’s Ahmed Fakhry conducted a survey of the area, where he identified 14 archaeological sites and recorded over 100 inscriptions. In the 1990s the sites were also visited by Ian Shaw, Robert Jameson, Rosemarie Klemm and Dietrich Klemm as part of large studies of Egyptian mining operations. The Wadi el-Hudi Expedition was launched in May of 2014 to continue studying the area and to yield answers to questions of settlement planning, organization of state-sponsored projects, the mechanics of semiprecious stone mining, interactions between Nubians and Egyptians, literacy among a soldiering class, and much more. Since beginning our work, the expedition has identified new, unknown archaeological sites and a dozen more inscriptions that were previously unpublished. The hope of the initial season was to mark a beginning of a long-term effort to investigate these archaeological gems in the desert. The expedition is currently directed by Kate Liszka and Bryan Kraemer and is sponsored by California State University, San Bernardino. We would like to extend our thanks to the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo and especially the Aswan Inspectorate for their continued support of and assistance with our project.

To document the architecture and rock inscriptions found throughout Wadi el-Hudi, we often need to climb the gebel to ge...
08/06/2026

To document the architecture and rock inscriptions found throughout Wadi el-Hudi, we often need to climb the gebel to get the perfect shot!

Next up in our "Meet the Team" series is Amy Wilson. Amy has worked with the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition since 2014. She is ...
06/06/2026

Next up in our "Meet the Team" series is Amy Wilson. Amy has worked with the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition since 2014. She is a member of the Epigraphy Team and has led the team on one short survey (pictured). Her research interests include various ancient officials who have come and left inscriptions at Wadi el-Hudi. She was the lead author of the recently published article, "Stela of the Viceroy Usersatet from Wadi el-Hudi (WH 255)." Her manuscript on Horus, the High Steward of Senusret I, and his Monuments at Abydos and Wadi el-Hudi is currently in preparation. She is a freelance archaeologist who has worked on various international heritage projects throughout the Middle East.

Everyone's excited when we find ostraca! Over the years many Greek and Demotic ostraca have been found at Site 4. In 202...
30/05/2026

Everyone's excited when we find ostraca! Over the years many Greek and Demotic ostraca have been found at Site 4. In 2025, Cristina excavated another stunning ostracon. These ostraca help us to understand the movement of people in this part of the Eastern Desert as well as how Wadi el-Hudi was provisioned.

Next up in our "Meet the Team' series is our Lab and Collections Manager, Brooke Norton. Each season she manages artifac...
29/05/2026

Next up in our "Meet the Team' series is our Lab and Collections Manager, Brooke Norton. Each season she manages artifacts in the Aswan magazine and assists WeH specialists, photographers, and the epigraphy team. At this point, she’s probably handled every object excavated by the Wadi el-Hudi team! When she has time to leave the lab, Brooke is happy to help out in the field when she can!

Brooke also works at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston managing the Egyptian Expedition Archives. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and her research focuses on Egyptian and Canaanite temples in the Sinai and southern Levant.

Have you read about the amazing work of our digital epigraphy team in our newest The American Research Center in Egypt -...
28/05/2026

Have you read about the amazing work of our digital epigraphy team in our newest The American Research Center in Egypt - ARCE SCRIBE article yet? "Tales from the Land of Amethyst" is now available!

https://www.academia.edu/165704950/Tales_from_the_Land_of_Amethyst_Part_2_Stelae_Revealing_Religious_Practice_of_Miners_and_Administrators_at_Wadi_el_Hudi_and_Dihmit_South?fbclid=IwY2xjawSFAp5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFTNDQ1UXkyOGFrNWl3YUNNc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPNTE0NzcxNTY5MjI4MDYxAAEe8cEUFN-Q960IBhrPszQz5JFnUFx5l6F-AYVuXV8CdW9oXXDGD26cR_nlemg_aem_1_Wmy0xo7BQ4fW1Z_WeASA

Next up in our "Meet the Team" series is our Chief Field Archaeologist and Surveyor, Magdalena Włodarska! Magda graduate...
19/05/2026

Next up in our "Meet the Team" series is our Chief Field Archaeologist and Surveyor, Magdalena Włodarska! Magda graduated from the Department of Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Nubia at the University of Warsaw and she has worked for projects in Egypt and Sudan. At Wadi el-Hudi she works as a field archaeologist and surveyor and is interested in the sites’ architecture and ancient methods of amethyst mining.

In 2024 a small team of Wadi el-Hudi specialists spent 6 weeks working in the Aswan magazine to analyze stelae and inscr...
18/05/2026

In 2024 a small team of Wadi el-Hudi specialists spent 6 weeks working in the Aswan magazine to analyze stelae and inscriptions, groundstone tools, small finds, faunal remains, and Middle Kingdom and Greco-Roman pottery. We squeezed ourselves and all of the objects that we were studying into one room at the magazine to escape the heat as we worked!

Welcome to our "Meet the Team" series, where we'll introduce our team members! Dr. Kate Liszka is the Director of the Wa...
13/05/2026

Welcome to our "Meet the Team" series, where we'll introduce our team members! Dr. Kate Liszka is the Director of the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition. She's also the Benson and Pamela Harer Fellow in Egyptology and Professor of History at California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB). She received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and enjoys studying questions of labor, administration, identity, and Egyptian-Nubian interactions in the ancient world. Listen to what she's working on when not in the field!

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