Nubia

Garstang conducted an experimental excavation of a number of sites in Nubia in 1906, during his longer excavation of Esna in Egypt (1904-1906). His base during his preliminary survey was the third-century BCE Greco-Roman Temple of Dakka, dedicated to the Egyptian god Thoth.

Garstang’s team discovered largely intact stone-lined burial chambers covered with large slabs of stones, and containing grave goods which suggested that the burials belonged to the New Kingdom. They also discovered many examples of pottery on the sandy ridge below the burials.

Garstang never fully published his excavations but the sites were examined by archaeologists carrying out surveys to document sites which would be lost due to the heightening of the Aswan Dam, built in 1902 and heightened between 1907-1912 and 1929-1933. The building of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s was to cover the sites entirely. As part of a UNESCO rescue campaign, the Temple of Dakka was transported to its new home at Wadi es-Sebua.