I promised to keep you updated, so here's what I'm currently working on. We don't yet have a database set up for the blocks (there's a meeting to create it next week), but I've made do with a wonderful invention called Google Docs. If you have not used it for a group project, I highly recommend it! For us, I set up what is essentially a Powerpoint presentation, with each slide containing a different block:
To set up this database, I had to go through 5 years of photos, finding the best photo of each block from each year, then comparing it to the other years, seeing if the block still exists throughout time, or if something might have happened to it. Of course, the photographers each year had their own numbering system, so I had to re-number and organize everything completely anew. It wasn't too hard, but man I wish I had a computer screen that was bigger than 15"!
Now that all the photos have been organized and put into our makeshift Google database, I'm slowly going through each block and filling in the information we want, some of which you can see in the photo. Unfortunately, none of the blocks have full texts, so it's a lot of sentences that could go multiple ways. Imagine if English didn't use spaces and you got a sentence like this: [...]hthe[...]. Is it "that he", "what he", "[...]h the"? There's just no context to tell. And the fact that some of the photos aren't very clear doesn't help.
Once I've gotten all the information I can from the blocks and my co-worker Jonathan (who is currently studying for SIX comps, which is why I'm doing most of the work for now) has double checked my work, we'll start trying to figure out how we want to put these on mastabas (the order, not the method- apparently, we get a crane! If you remember how excited I was about the hand ax, you get an idea of how excited I am about power tools!)*. We're thinking that even the most meticulous planning on that part is just going to be shot to hell once we get to Egypt, though. We have no idea how many of these blocks will still exist once we get there, or how many new ones might show up! Plus, the previous photographers (myself included) were more interested in documenting the blocks with inscriptions or at least images, so there could be a ton of blocks that we didn't know have been there all along. We only get 4ish weeks to work on this, so we need to have a solid plan, but that could be quite difficult.
Anyway, that's what's happening at the moment.
*Can someone please explain to me how I went all last season and did not show you guys the picture of me with the hand ax? Probably because I look like a dude, but there really needs to be documentation of the fact that 1) I got to us the coolest tool in archaeology and 2) I hurt neither myself nor anyone else in the process:
P.S. If you don't get the title, it's reference to a real video game intro with a really bad Japanese-to-English translation. You can find it here.
P.P.S. No permits yet, but the plan is to arrive in very early October. The countdown on the side is approximate.
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| Sorry, for publication reasons you can't have one of the inscribed blocks, but here's one with Kiri on it! |
Now that all the photos have been organized and put into our makeshift Google database, I'm slowly going through each block and filling in the information we want, some of which you can see in the photo. Unfortunately, none of the blocks have full texts, so it's a lot of sentences that could go multiple ways. Imagine if English didn't use spaces and you got a sentence like this: [...]hthe[...]. Is it "that he", "what he", "[...]h the"? There's just no context to tell. And the fact that some of the photos aren't very clear doesn't help.
Once I've gotten all the information I can from the blocks and my co-worker Jonathan (who is currently studying for SIX comps, which is why I'm doing most of the work for now) has double checked my work, we'll start trying to figure out how we want to put these on mastabas (the order, not the method- apparently, we get a crane! If you remember how excited I was about the hand ax, you get an idea of how excited I am about power tools!)*. We're thinking that even the most meticulous planning on that part is just going to be shot to hell once we get to Egypt, though. We have no idea how many of these blocks will still exist once we get there, or how many new ones might show up! Plus, the previous photographers (myself included) were more interested in documenting the blocks with inscriptions or at least images, so there could be a ton of blocks that we didn't know have been there all along. We only get 4ish weeks to work on this, so we need to have a solid plan, but that could be quite difficult.
Anyway, that's what's happening at the moment.
*Can someone please explain to me how I went all last season and did not show you guys the picture of me with the hand ax? Probably because I look like a dude, but there really needs to be documentation of the fact that 1) I got to us the coolest tool in archaeology and 2) I hurt neither myself nor anyone else in the process:
P.S. If you don't get the title, it's reference to a real video game intro with a really bad Japanese-to-English translation. You can find it here.
P.P.S. No permits yet, but the plan is to arrive in very early October. The countdown on the side is approximate.
