26th
Back on the road!
Monday 22nd August 2011
Today marked the return to the ground survey and the first of three ‘site’ visits this week. We began with the site furthest away from our base, as we headed to Kom Usim in Ashmun. The journey is quite long and slow as we wind through a number of villages along our way, with stretches of dual carriageway every so often! Upon our arrival we almost immediately met one of the men who had worked with us on the drill core (burrima) back in March/April this year, and no sooner had we telephoned the land owner than he appeared - together with other friendly and familiar faces from our visit this last spring.
The aim of today’s visit was to investigate any unplanted areas for signs of archaeological evidence (usually ceramic sherds). Although a high percentage of the fields that fall within the area of the former kom (the kom being largely flattened today for purposes of agriculture) were planted with sweet corn, there were a number of fields empty of any crops. The sweet corn is most commonly found barbecued on stalls in the villages or by the roadside.
We were able to investigate 4 areas during our visit, all close to the track which runs from the farm buildings to the centre of the former kom and all recently ploughed, with sherds having been brought to the surface. The date of the ceramics will be confirmed by our ceramicist, Ashraf, in the coming weeks and it will be very interesting to consider how the dates relate to previously observed material and the ceramic sherds that were collected from the cores drilled during the spring. The weather was very much fresher than in previous days, largely helped by the good breezes and also tree cover on and around Kom Usim!
The view from the track over one of the fields investigated during the visit
