The fifth season of the North Kharga Oasis Survey, which was the last of Phase I, was primarily a study season. The work focused on completing the drawing and recording of the ceramic corpus, the photography of the small finds, completing the archaeobotanical analysis, and checking the maps and measurements that had been made in earlier seasons.
Ceramic processing during the 2005 season was devoted to recording and analysis of the pottery outstanding from previous seasons, in addition to sampling and recording the corpus from the sites of Muhammad Tuleib and Settlement C (A. Gascoigne and L. Warden).
Due to recent destruction of areas of the site of Umm el-Dabadib by looters, a quantity of pottery, including many intact forms, was brought to the surface. This was collected by S. Ikram and C. Rossi during a visit to the site in November 2004. In particular, a large group of vessels, many complete, were retrieved from the wreckage of what was probably a single tomb in cemetery F. Although the nature of their excavation almost certainly resulted in the destruction of the larger forms, the importance of this group as a discrete assemblage, deposited at the same time in a single tomb, is clear. In total, 32 pots were drawn, of which 28 were largely complete, and a further 13, of which 12 were largely complete, were paralleled from the existing catalogue.
A total of eleven archaeobotanical samples from Umm el-Dabadib were analysed this season by A. Clapham and M. al-Dorrie. It appears that two different cropping regimes were carried out in antiquity and in modern times. In the original occupation of the site the major crops were free-threshing wheat (most likely bread wheat) and 6-row hulled barley. Other crops grown included cotton, lentils, grapes, dates and olives. This suggests that there was only one growing season exploited in the past, whilst in more recent times there appears to have been two growing seasons.
Drawings were made of relevant buildings in the oasis that might be used for comparative purposes by NKOS. The majority of these were churches. During the course of this, two new temples were identified, both dating to the Roman Period. They were situated at the site of Mustafa Kashef.
