Excavation & survey

Although Amarna is a ‘one-period’ site, the main areas of occupation often have a surprisingly complicated stratigraphy, representing both changes of use during the Amarna Period and the processes – the collapse of walls, the accumulation of sand, the digging of holes by animals and humans, etc – that transformed the ancient city into the archaeological site that we see today. When excavated, the site also produces an abundance of finds. Much of it is relatively commonplace, but since one aim of archaeology is to seek patterns in all kinds of evidence, it is necessary to make as careful and complete a record as possible. The decision to excavate is not therefore taken lightly.

Further information on recent and ongoing survey and excavation projects is provided below. Publications stemming from these projects, and early fieldwork, can be found in the ‘Excavation and survey’ section of our Publication list.

Excavations at Amarna utilise single-context recording. Most excavations have used a 5×5 m baulk-free grid for horizontal control, cleared fully to created an open-area excavation zone, although trenches or ungridded open-area excavation has been employed where deemed more suitable (e.g. Stone Village, 2005–9; House of Nakht, 2025).

Each excavation project has been assigned a ‘grid number’, listed below. These have been retained even when a 5x5m grid hasn’t been employed, to keep track of the excavation sites. These grids are independent of the overall 200-metre grid system created for Amarna by the Borchardt DOG expedition, which remains useful as the basis for numbering individual houses. The local excavation grids are not aligned with this overall grid or to compass points, but are guided by local topography.