We had our first day on site today and it’s pretty much
exactly as I remember it. The block yard is going to be a bigger project than I
had imagined, but I think Jonathan and I will slowly start to figure it out.
All of the blocks are currently sitting where we want the mastabas to go, so we
need to move them all out of the way. As long as they’re being moved, we want
to start separating them into piles, so we have colored flags that we’re going
to tag each one so our workers know what pile they should move them to.
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| Jon and me, discussing the block yard. |
It was a short day today since no real digging or anything
was going on. We got all the boxes with equipment out of our storage area and
Tasha, Lindsey, and Aaron started pulling boxes of pottery out of the temple pylon.
It’s pretty hot here (90*F/32*C in the house currently), so we didn’t want to
over-do it on the first day. Normally, we’ll work until 2pm, with some of us
staying to finish up drawings and epigraphy until 4. Now that we’re back at the
house, we’ll eat lunch and Jonathan and I will probably start figuring out some
more logistics. I know I promised that I would tell you more about the house,
but I want to get some pictures first. Just know that I took a hot shower today
and could stand the whole time AND I had my choice of bathrooms, since there
are 2! I know! Living the life of luxury all up in here. The mosque is
literally right out our bedroom window, so that hour of prayer in the morning
is a bit, um, difficult to sleep through.
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| The offending mosque. |
I’m sure some of you are wondering about my favorite part of
the excavation: the kitties. Patches (the calico momma cat who loved food and
didn’t mind being picked up) found us almost as soon as we arrived and demanded
chin scratches and food. She’s about ½ the size that she was last year, mainly
because there are no tourists any more feeding her throughout the day. As for
Afrit and Kiri, we saw no sign of them today. We’re hopeful that they will show
up later in the week. We had a late morning, so they might have gone in search
of shade by the time we showed up. If not, I’m sure the litter of puppies that
decided to make their home in our work area will make up for it... Or the
ducks, goats, donkey, chickens, and horse that live next door (and bray all
night)... Or the dove that has her nest in the bathroom window and watches you
while you shower... sigh I’m way too into animals for how many little
guys exist around here. Dan, you might be getting that puppy you want!
By the way, there were 2 posts yesterday- I know they posted
at about the same time. I should add one person to yesterday’s team list:
Aaron! Aaron is joining us from Australia where he’s a grad student who just
finished up his MA. He’s come to help Tasha with the pottery drawing since I’ll
be working on block yard things most days. He’s super nice and brought us an
entire cooler full of Australian chocolate and Pims liquor. I think he can stay
:)
Internet is still via USB stick, but I think I should be
able to post daily, so stay tuned.
