|
Saturday: final day of
excavation Trench 01: The major activity today revolved around the final removal of the dog skeleton in the southern portion of the trench, east of the major north-south wall 0010. The skeleton was removed intact and carefully transported back to camp. In the mid-northern area a complete ceramic oil lamp was found with clear decoration on the body; the shape of the lamp is similar to that found in Trench 02 earlier in the season, only with more decoration and in a better state of preservation.  As we examined the staircase leading down to the lowest level of Trench 01, we noticed another mud-step to the west of this stairway, apparently acting as a doorway between the stairwell and the basin room.  After cleaning around these new units we appear to have found the floor in many areas: In the area north of the three basins C, D, and E, as well as under these bins and north of the stairs. Sunday: cleaning for photography At the end of each season a
major task are the final drawings and photographs. Elevations, baulks
and final plans are drawn to scale 1:20. All features of he trenches
should be clearly articulated, brushed clean, so that no dust
clouds the photographic image. Monday: more cleaning After cleaning the walls of Trench 01, it was noticed that a thick layer of mud covered all of the walls, and except in a few areas individual mudbricks were not visible. The walls were cleaned in an attempt to better reveal brick placement in preparation for the final trench photographs. Trench 02: The
majority of Monday
was spent finishing the profile in the northwest section of the trench. We had a better view of the deposition
layers from this section, partly because the day was overcast. Shadow
helped greatly to visualize the different layers (earlier in the month
the sun made it
hard to
see the color differences in the soil). We
also spent a great deal of the morning cleaning the
trench in
preparation for final photographs of all visible units.
In general, both trenches were
making preparations for the end of the field season.
All final measurements of the walls were taken, the
last of the soil samples were collected for analysis back at camp, all
top plans, section drawings and elevations had to be finished and the
final bottom elevations for all units
were taken. It
seems we have reached the floor level in
much of Trench 01. In a future season we need to probe below the floors
to see if there are still earlier traces of occupation. Trench 02,
still needs a substantial amount of work, to clarify the intensive use
that was made of this industrial area. End of Season
 Final photograph of
Trench 02 looking north
On Tuesday the team arrived at
the site even earlier than normal, before the sun rose, so that we
could set up to take photographs at the earliest light. To photograph
an entire trench requires shading a large area, which is impossible to
do when the sun is high in the sky. Taking photographs in the sun would
cause large differences between light and shadowed areas and would
obscure the details.Structure charts were filled in for both trenches and on Wednesday all drawings were finished for the walls in Trench 01. After elevations were completed, director Wendrich took the final photos of the site and of the group standing near the trenches they had worked so diligently on this season. We backfilled the trenches on Thursday, and returned to camp to finish processing the initial data. The Egyptian team members were awarded their diplomas for successful completion of the Fayum 2005 field school.  We feel we made great progress this season and have begun defining the use of this portion of the site. From what has been found in Trench 02, it is clear that this was part of the industrial area of Hamra and it will be interesting to see just how extensive the industrial zone of the site is. Our work in the field proved that kilns do exist where the magnetic map shows strong anomalies…as these anomalies are fairly extensive in the southwest of the site, could it be that this area of el-Qarah el-Hamra was an industrial neighborhood separate from populated areas? We hope that future excavations will also help round out the structure located in Trench 01. Is this a storage facility of some kind, or do the large number of basins and evidence of burning suggest a ritual function for this structure? Is so, as one inspector believes, then why is it located so close to an area of firing and metalworking? What are the relationships between these two trenches, and for that matter this area of the site in relation to Hamra as a whole? We are confident that future seasons will give us some of these answers. |
|||||||||
