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Sunday, January 4, 2015

Cutting down the halfa grass and camel thorn.

Marina drawing small finds. We have returned to the Mut precinct this winter following our season in the summer. The first task (and continuing task) is to cut down the halfa grass and camel thorn that grows thick and covers the ground and the trenches. In summer it was tiringly hot day after day, but we were happy to accomplish quite a lot. Now it is unusually cold for Egypt (as it is in the Middle East generally), and you see our crew wrapped up as they begin work on pottery analysis and drawing. You see Marina drawing small finds and Luke Jenusaitis, Allie McCoskey, and Meredith Fraser busy with the ceramics.
Working with the ceramics.

New student instruction.
Learning to use the level. As usual new members of the team learn to use the ancient level that has done survey duty here for nearly forty full years. It is cumbersome to handle, but it is still accurate and reliable, so Phil Montgomery (KAS ‘15) and Meg Swaney (new graduate student) are being taught by Field Director Violaine Chauvet.
Learning to use the level.

The burial site.

Just a quick hint here. This trench, excavated in 2012, contains a partially removed flexed adult burial on the pedestal in the foreground. The remainder of the burial is in the baulk that you see running left to right (north/south). We have begun to excavate the baulk down to the level of the burial mound as we await the arrival of the bioarchaeologists tomorrow. Our primary archaeological goal is the removal of the burials found in 2012. We conducted two seasons in 2014 for that purpose, but we still have work to do.


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