In order to prepare for this project, I have been reading a lot of background material. It's been quite some time since my college days, and even then I did not specialize in Egyptian archaeology. I'll list reading materials in a separate page along with some comments about them.

Besides reading, I've been researching health precautions and buying items to take on the trip.

As far as health is concerned, recommended shots cover Hepatitis A in general, which I've had, and tetanus because of working with archaeological material. I've also had that, so no problem. That leaves malaria as the biggest concern, however, because it can be debilitating and even deadly. Thankfully my health insurance covers prescription drugs for malaria, but more on their limitations in a moment.

Initially my doctor wanted to prescribe Lariam, however some simple searches on the Internet turned up a lot of scary information about its significant potential long-term nuerological side-effects (and class-action lawsuits as a result). Lariam offers the benefit of low dosage: only one pill a week. But in my opinion, the risks outweigh the benefits.

That being the case, I have decided to go with Malarone. Now, all anti-malarial drugs may have normal side-effects (and none are 100% certain to work), but it does require a daily pill while in the area, plus a week after and a couple days before. It seems to be the best of the alternatives in terms of dosage.

Because the project lasts for some six weeks and the health insurance company will allow issuance of only 30-days' prescription at one time, there is a problem with obtaining enough pills to cover the duration. Luckily we found this out early enough that I will be able to get a second batch of pills before leaving the country rather than trying to ship them over or pay for the extra ones out-of-pocket.

Malaria is not a big problem in Egypt because it's so dry there, of course -- except in the Faiyum. In addition to the pills, I've purchased a mosquito net for my sleeping cot in a tent, and also some Deet and Permethrin to spray on the netting and clothes and exposed skin.

One other preparation that seems necessary has been the purchase of new prescription sunglasses, because my old ones had a reflective coating that got all scratched up, making it seem like there was always fog everywhere I went.

I did look into learning some Arabic before leaving on the trip, and even bought a book about it, but without a formal class and with such a different alphabet, script and sound, I found it just too difficult to pursue at this time. I did learn that Arabic is read from right to left.