ASP is kicking off its first ever fundraiser to help support our work in South Abydos! As a 501c3 donations are tax deductible. Please consider donating or sharing with a friend.

The Abydos South Project (ASP)@abydossouthproject.bsky.social · 13h ago

This is where we need your help though - as a publicly funded 501c3 nonprofit, we rely on donations from viewers like you to fund our excavations. To facilitate this, we’re also launching a 2026 fundraiser that can be accessed directly on our website (link in bio).

We received a lot of guesses about what connected the three items/sites introduced last week - yes they’re all in Abydos, but that wasn’t the connection! We’re happy to announce that the connecting fascia between these things is that they will all be the focus of our Winter 2026/2027 season!

These three things have something very important in common. Any guesses? Stay tuned for an ASP announcement coming soon!

For this week’s #FridayFind we’re spotlighting this incredible stela fragment found quite early in our first survey season. While visually remarkable, and a fantastic datapoint, it’s also a great piece to use to demonstrate the value of raking light in our work and photography.

🧵 Fire dog is a nickname given to these ceramic vessels due to their visual appearance: almost like a dog with long ears, a snout, and two eyes (our ears are broken). These vessels were likely used to hold and evenly heat other vessels, possibly for cooking.

We’re sorry for neglecting you all on Bluesky! We had some trouble with our account, but are happy to report that it’s back in operation! In honor of this (and our weekly #FridayFind) we bring you this fire dog, recovered from the dump on site: 🧵

1/2 On the occasion of International Day for Monuments and Sites there’s no better place to be than Abydos. From the pyramids of south Abydos, to the Shunet in the north - and everything in between - ASP is honored to be part of the deep historical milieu of this incredible site.

Will you be attending ARCE in Denver this year? If you are, you’ll have the chance to hear Tony Crosby speak on his work at Tetisheri - we highly suggest putting it in your calendar now!

Originally rediscovered in our sampling season in October 2022, this week’s #fridayfind is a remarkable stone statuette found within a fill context near the Ahmose Cemetery. Note the emphasized frontally and verticality, two stylistic characteristics of Egyptian statuary.

🌞 It’s finally warming up for our ASP team members in the US, but nothing beats that warming sunrise over Abydos 🌞

🧵ASP #SundaySpotlight is back with the lovely and brilliant Afaf Wahba! Afaf is a bioarchaeology specialist, meaning she studies skeletal remains to illuminate such incredible detail about people from the past, bringing them to life in distinctive and compelling ways.

Are those the Beatles crossing Abbey Road? Not quite! It’s a procession of gods preserved for all eternity in this striking mud seal. Can you spot any specific gods? Drop your thoughts in the comments 🤗

A belated #fridayfinds post, or, what’s quickly becoming Friday Faience Finds! Today we have fragments of a faience vessel decorated (in part) with a lotus motif. The blue color and lotus imagery combined to create a Nilotic image that drew to mind the fecundity of the Nile and its environs.

The ASP would like to wish a Ramadan Mubarak to all those who celebrate ✨

This week we’re going small again with this beautiful scaraboid bead. Particularly notable (besides its complete nature) is the motif of a recumbent gazelle on a skiff. Did you know that gazelles play a fundamental role in Egyptian religion, and even femininity in some periods? Pretty cool!

On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science ASP would like to celebrate all of the incredible archaeologists, researchers, and scholars, past and present, who are a part of the ASP team. Their work inspires all of us every day, and we know it inspires the next generation as well!

🌞 Our excavators always get such cool action shots, but survey work can be just as photogenic! 🌞

We’re back with our #TeamSpotlight, focused, today, on Ahmed Ragab! Ahmed Ragab is the top of the pyramid for all American archaeology at Abydos! Ahmed is Project Manager for the ASP as well as all active American projects on the ground across Abydos. 1/

We simply cannot resist another small #FridayFind! This week we have a faience bead, reminiscent in shape to a shell, and decorated with an enchanting vignette of a hathoric face with uraei. Similar beads have also been found in the Theban area, providing an interesting comparative corpus!

A #ThursdayThrowback to breaking ground on our October 2022 sampling season. Who could have guessed everything we would find less than a year later! We are itching to get back out soon, so please consider donating to ASP to help make that a reality 🤗

Today’s item comes in the form of an inscribed vessel fragment! Found in the wall of a shaft tomb, we were so hopeful another piece could be lurking nearby (the duck hieroglyph means son - could it say son of Re?! Wishful thinking!), but no luck was had. We still think it’s an incredible piece!

Did you know that Osiris was the primary god of Abydos? Although the site was associated with Khentiamentiu early in history, Osiris eventually overtook the god as the primary deity, first becoming synchronized into Osiris-Khentiamentiu. The jackal god, however, remained an important god at Abydos.

1/4 For our first Team Member Spotlight in the new year we have the beloved Ashraf Zeydan. Ashraf Zeydan is the Reis for ASP, the head of the Egyptian work team, a truly central and critical figure to all our work in Abydos. Ashraf is from Quft and was raised on archaeology!

We’re going teeny tiny for this week’s #FridayFind! The beautiful little scarab bead is made of gorgeous blue faience, which makes her super noticeable, even at her small size. The underside is inscribed…https://www.instagram.com/p/DTlXtdriRMS/?igsh=MTFpZ3draDFyNzVxOA==

We hit 500 followers on Instagram! Join our little celebratory post below, and share with friends 🤗 www.instagram.com/p/DTaOyDfjAX...

Would you believe that BOTH of our co-directors were born on January 9th?! We think that makes ASP extra lucky 😉 join us in wishing Deb Vischak and Ayman Damarany very happy birthdays!

The entrance of the Tetisheri Pyramid perfectly framing the Wadi in the Abydene cliffs 😍 we don’t know about you, but we definitely brought our sense of wonder for Abydos with us into the new year! We cannot wait to be back. www.instagram.com/p/DTOx3rXjGg...

The ASP, and all of Abydos, suffered a terrible loss at the end of the year, as our dear friend and colleague, Qufti Waji Hamid el-Bendary passed away unexpectedly. Below is a eulogy written by our colleague Dr. Mohamed Abuel-Yazid, but from all of us, Waji was a… www.instagram.com/p/DTGA6sVjqy...

The Abydos South Project (ASP) on Instagram‎: "يمكن العثور على اللغة العربية في التعليقات Happy New Year to all! We begin the year on a sad note, but in honor of someone very precious to ASP. The ASP,...

30 likes, 4 comments - abydossouthproject on January 4, 2026‎: "يمكن العثور على اللغة العربية في التعليقات Happy New Year to all! We begin the year on a sad note, but in honor of someone very precious...

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A reminder to our friends who can utilize tax deductions by donating to a 501(c)3 - the 31st is your last chance to make qualifying donations for your tax filing! If you’re able & interested, please consider donating to ASP to support our 2026 work (Abydossouth.org) www.instagram.com/p/DS0a9Xeicw...

In this week of relaxation for many, our #FridayFind reflects the relaxing and cooling qualities of sitting beneath a tree 🌴 This coffins fragment, one of a few reflecting similar motifs, seems to show the upper part of a [palm?] tree … www.instagram.com/p/DSvD1tcj6v...