Dispatch from the Field: Greetings from Somers Clarke House

In the ancient Egyptian calendar, we would be approaching the final month of the year: the fourth month of the season of Shomu (Harvest/Dry Season). The Egyptians divided their year into twelve months, each with an even thirty days, and then added five days at the end of the year that were part of the elaborate celebrations of the New Year (in honor of last year’s Egyptian New Year, I wrote a short blog post that you can read here).

Because the ancient Egyptians did not have leap years, their calendar slipped a day every four years—and because of the demands of my schedule with the archaeological work (and fun excursions on Friday, our day off), you will notice that my dispatches also slip by a few days (or you can pretend that the telegraph needs repair).

I am writing again from Somers Clarke House. Somers Clarke (1841-1926) was a British architect and devotee of the Arts and Crafts movement who worked on many ecclesiastical projects. He also spent decades studying ancient Egyptian and Coptic architecture and building methods. Since 1890, his first season in Egypt, Clarke had an association with the archaeological site of Elkab. He contributed architectural studies to important Egyptological publications, such as Wall Drawings and Monuments of El Kab, The Temple of Amenhetep with J.J. Tylor (1898), and authored several books, including Christian Antiquities in the Nile Valley, A Contribution Towards the Study of the Ancient Churches (Oxford, 1912). A posthumously published book co-authored with Reginald Engelbach, Ancient Egyptian Masonry, the Building Craft (London, 1930) remains an oft-consulted volume.

In 1906, Somers Clarke designed a residence for himself in Egypt, choosing a picturesque rock outcrop next to the Nile near the villages of Nasrab and Mahamid, within sight of the ancient city walls of Elkab. Local specialists in traditional mud-brick construction techniques built the house, and their descendants continue their craft—lending their unparalleled skills to the restoration project that we have been working on this season. In the image above (taken by Egyptologist Jean Capart in late 1945), the man on the right is Abd el-Baghi (from Luxor) and on the left is Badri, son of Sheikh Ibrahim. (The photo is published in a beautiful book called Sura: Egypt through a Belgian Lens). Badri’s son, Harbi Ibrahim, continues the family tradition as caretaker of the house.

Clarke lived in the house for two decades, only decamping in the hottest months to Heliopolis (a suburb of Cairo). He died at the house on August 31, 1926 and is buried in a small chamber at the southeast corner of the terrace. In the late 1930s, the house passed to the Belgian archaeological mission at Elkab, directed by Egyptologist Jean Capart. Somers Clarke House is still a dig house today, both for the Elkab project of the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels and the Elkab Desert Survey Project, a joint Yale University and Royal Museums expedition.

In 2009, the beautiful front porch of Somers Clarke House collapsed. Fortunately, the main part of the house was not damaged, but the loss of the porch diminished the structure’s original majesty. With funds from the William K. and Marilyn M. Simpson Egyptology Endowment at Yale University, we were able to embark on a major conservation project to restore the original porch. Now, we are excited to report that the construction work is nearly complete, and Somers Clark House has been restored to its former glory.

From start to finish, all construction work was completed by local craftsmen and architects, from Mahamid—descendants of the original builders of Somers Clarke House, who preserve the knowledge of traditional building techniques. The leaders of the team are Gabr Ismail Taha, Ali Gabr Ali Hassan, and Fahmy Gad Taha Ahmed (you will meet them soon). Throughout Egypt, the mud-brick builders from Mahamid are famous. To ensure that the reconstruction followed the original structure precisely, Alberto Urcia, digital archaeologist at Yale University, created 3D models, plans, and sections (I’m excited to share these in another dispatch).

But the first step in the process was to make over 20,000 mud-bricks. This might seem a daunting task, but it’s about five days of work for two experienced men. Mud, straw, and water is mixed together and then placed in a wooden mold. The bricks then dry in the sun—no additional firing or modification is needed.

Mud-brick architecture is a fascinating topic, not the least because the ancient Egyptian word for “mud-brick” is the origin of adobe. But before I share more about what Gabr, Ali, Fahmy and his team did with those tens of thousands of bricks, my next dispatch will take you to piles of rocks in the desert.