2nd
Back at the site!
Saturday 1st October 2011
The mornings and evenings are certainly starting to cool down as we head into autumn! We returned to the site this morning following a short break towards the end of last week. The students, as usual, joined us in the afternoon at the university, but the morning was spent in the excavation of one of three burials currently open in Trench 9, that had been drawn, measured, photographed - and levels taken - during the end of last week. The students did much of the drawing and their skills are being quickly honed! The burials are very fragmentary and therefore a solution of paraloid (a consolidant) was used in the field in order to strengthen the bones.
In the afternoon it was the turn of the ceramicists to talk to the students - and Mandy and Ashraf discussed elements of ceramics’ analysis from the origins of different clays, to the temper found within the clay, to how to draw a pot (from a sherd) and what to include - Ashraf repeated the key elements of the talk again in Arabic - a task that we all share in! It certainly improves all of our language skills in various directions! Mr Yasser, our conservator, also presented a talk highlighting some key issues of conservation in the field as well as showing the results of his work at a Roman site in Beheira province, including the collection and reconstruction of a mosaic!
This week will see a slightly different approach to previous weeks as we take the field school on the road for two days! We will head to Kom Usim later in the week so that the students can gain some experience in drill coring and the using of the simple theodolite - as well as field walking and ceramic observation! We also plan to visit a working pottery! In the meantime, the students continue their ceramic tuition for a further two days - this time looking at the material collected on the ground survey this summer - we will wait for the results most eagerly!
Students and teachers on Saturday afternoon at the University!
