13th
The start of the fieldschool
Sunday 11th September 2011 This morning saw the start of the first fieldschool at Quesna! The team from Shibin arrived on site just after 7am to meet the workers - many of whom we have worked with now since 2007! One worker who had been away for a couple of years has returned following his national service - we were very pleased to have him back on board! The fieldschool students arrived by 8am and we welcomed them and presented them with their excavation bags - which everyone seemed very pleased with! We got straight to work - organised the workers, filled muqtufs (the baskets used to move the sand) with plastic finds’ bags, tape measures, wooden stakes etc and headed to the location for our first trench. This first trench has been placed on the edge of the Ptolemaic-Roman cemetery - using the results of the magnetic survey from 2006 - which have been very useful indeed for our work.
One of the team and a teacher on the fieldschool, Larry Owens, is an osteologist and he is leading the work in this trench and instructing the students as work progresses. The students will therefore be able to gain some experience in the recording, handling and analysis of skeletal remains, which will be very useful in their future work as so many sites in Egypt are cemetery sites. The students are very active - by day one - and are all working in the trench together with the local workers. Seven of our students are inspectors for the SCA and three are students from the local university! We are very happy to welcome them on board!
Pictures will follow when the internet connection is working!
