4th
Saturday 2nd April 2011
We returned to work this morning after two very interesting and well spent days at the SCA/EES Delta Survey Workshop at the British Council in Cairo (see http://deltasurvey.tumblr.com). I travelled back up from Cairo on the 6am train - and was welcomed at Quesna by my colleagues and our policeman. We then had some tea before our inspector came to meet us at 7.30am and then headed out to Kom Usim. The workers joined us again and we chose a suitable spot for a burrima - which this time was on the western edge of the kom (mound) and became a very fruitful spot.
The drill core team at our latest burrima hole
We had reached a depth of 4.3m by the end of the day and a small number of diagnostic sherds had also emerged - which will be very useful for dating the material. Unlike on Wednesday, the drill core did not get stuck in the ground, not even once! In fact it went so smoothly that when it was nearly time to leave at 1.45pm, I still had 7 trays of sediment in front of me from which to sort the ceramics and other finds, and of which to make a brief description! It all got done and we were away in the car by 2.10pm, albeit a little tired after the early start, but a continuous stream of nice, sweet, smokey tea helped somewhat!
This evening our ceramicist, Ashraf el-Senussi arrived in time to join us for dinner - it was great to welcome him back!
