Abydos
al-Araba al-Madfuna,
Sohag,
Egypt
Fourth-generation archaeological foreman, Hany Fawzy Ali, inside the underground corridor leading to a series of tomb chambers for mummified ibises (Threskiornis æthiopicus) and other sacred animals dating to the third century BCE, during excavation at the archaeological site of Abydos in 2024. Hany is an archaeological technician from the town of Quft (near Luxor) in the South of Egypt, where he descends from a long line of family practitioners known as Quftis who have passed down their knowledge and skills through fieldwork in Egypt and the Sudan, since 1895. Quftis like Hany are experts in excavation methods for the documentation of ancient funerary and settlement contexts, site stratigraphy, and the identification and preservation of archaeological materials. Hany has excavated at sites throughout Egypt for more than twenty years and traces his archaeological practice back to his great-grandfather, Berberi Mahmud, a first-generation Qufti who worked with British archaeologist Flinders Petrie. Photo by Wendy Doyon for Abydos Archaeology, https://abydos.org.
