We first met the lovely Justin Hughes at The Hive, Worcester’s library and history centre when we staged Offal Tales to mark the building’s opening in 2012. An archaeologist and teacher, Justin is one of the most fantastic, enthusiastic, and inspirational people we know, and has been a great supporter of Vamos ever since. Last year, Justin was a vital part of VYPT’s Heritage Lottery funded project, The Projectionist, and taught the young people techniques of oral history taking. This autumn, our very own Indiana Jones has headed out to Egypt to take part in excavation work (and to wear a slightly different kind of mask to filter the dust in very hot and dry conditions!). He sent back this blog to keep us in touch with his experiences out in the dusty deserts. Watch out for the snakes, Justin!

Justin writes:

Ever since I saw the Tutankhamen exhibition at the British Museum 44 years ago (!) I’ve wanted the opportunity to work in Egypt and to see some of the famous sites I am now doing just that and, although some may say that the post pharonic period is not as stunning, the pictures say otherwise…

I have a precious day off tomorrow from a six day week: we leave for work at 5.15am, drive for 20 minutes, then there’s a boat trip for 10 minutes, climb up a granite quarry for 10 minutes, then start work on the Nubian fortress. The site is known as Hisn El Bab and is a huge fortress of stone walls where evidence of settlement by Nubians is being recovered - it was occupied at least by the sixth century and there are signs of settlement here until the eleventh century, so lots of research questions - and probably more as a result of digging holes - albeit quite cleverly! The working day finishes at 1pm. I’m taking a trip tomorrow to the Abu Simbel temples near the Sudanese boarder, and here in Aswan till the 17th, then onto to Luxor where I stay in a hotel for a week and then five days in Cairo.  I’ll be able to tell you much more about the experience and the archaeology when I get back and have time to interpret all the findings, but for the meantime it's an amazing experience!

Justin