| Daressy
notes the alternative name for this mound as Kom Barhim, which is how it
appears on the SoE 1:100,000 (1916) map. He recorded that most of the mound
had been levelled as early as 1912, leaving just one small mound 4m high
and 200m in diameter, occupied by modern graves. A few Coptic sherds were
reported.
Kom el-Ashiri was visited by an EES survey of 2005 led by J. Rowland. The village covers an area of 200 feddans, including the fields. In the viilage of Barhim, just SW of Ashiri at 30 27 48N 30 53 34E, two ancient limestone column-drums were noted by the survey. Formerly, each year when the fields were ploughed pottery sherds came to the surface. The land, however, has been raised since the building of the Aswan High Dam, to prevent flooding from a nearby canal, so the sherds are buried under added topsoil and no longer appear. In the past there were two mounds, one where the houses are now, another where the tombs are, where pottery bowls and plates have been found, in addition to small statues of stone. The observed pottery was Late Antique in date. |
Photograph by J. Rowland
in July 2005: modern cemetery on mound
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