19th
Life on the edge!
Thursday 18th August 2011
A little more mist this morning, and a lot more heat! If we thought that yesterday was hot, we were mistaken! A real scorcher today, with plenty of SF50 sun cream and hats applied, we spent the whole day in the field continuing with the geophysical survey. Today we focussed on further work along the northern edge of the gezira, Kris having already surveyed the area directly to the east, west and south of the mastaba tomb towards the sacred falcon galleries. We worked towards the west and south west of the mastaba tomb, before moving over the east side, which we will complete on Saturday before Kris has to return to England with the equipment. Thankfully Kris will come to conduct a few more days work in late September - which is great news - both for us and for the fieldschool students, who will be able to work with him for a couple of days!
Up in the workroom, Ashraf focussed on drawing of beads and also faience, glass and stone vessel rims this morning. He has already completed the drawing of the majority of the vessel-type coffins and will return to join us around 25th September, when he will complete the drawings of the tray type coffins. In the meantime, we hope to have an Egyptian conservator working with us from the beginning of the fieldschool, which will mean that we should be able to complete reconstruction and consolidation of the remainder of the fragmentary coffins before Ashraf returns, so everything will then be complete! In addition, our physical anthropologist, who will also be acting as the site photographer this year, will make new photographs of the coffins, all ready for publication!
Kris takes a breather before the next line with the cart!
