Oh Lordy, so this is how it is. Actually, it wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting. The customary call to prayer had me awake at 3.30 anyway. Plus I had the good sense (on Dr Bob's advice) to have EVERYTHING ready the night before, so really getting out of bed was the only real hurdle. B'fast was the usual pita bread, boiled egg, soft cheese, and nutella affair, and everyone was relatively perky - well not everyone - poor Olivia was not quite compus mentus, to the point where I simply do not have the heart to post my other photo which includes here looking at her most tragic zombie saddest. She's seen the photo, I'm sure she'll thank me. Try this one instead - Hannah's coping quite well, Court is actually quite awake despite what you see here (I'm not quite as gracious with Court), I'm just being an idiot. Hardly unusual...
So after b'fast, the usual ritual - get your stuff together - grab your bag of hand picks, trowels, gloves, and other assorted tools, get hold of a bucket, get a goofer*, and get your butt on the bus - it leaves at 5am, with or without you. And I'm told you definitely don't want to walk to the site.
Now, Dear Reader, being confronted with a site like this at 5.15 in the morning is a wonderful experience. The light is perfect, everything is calm, and you can almost here the whispers of the ghosts still inhabit the place. We still had a while before our local hired help arrived, so we quickly got to work assessing our plan for the day.
Luke, Aaron, Jennifer and Hannah have been assigned to work on squares 121, 122, 131, and 132 - herein called the cross balk. The idea for today will be for them to work on digging down across the East-West axis of the balk, Luke and Aaron continuing with 131/132 and Jennifer and Hannah working on 121/122.
The aim today would be to dig down as far as possible, the ultimate aim being to dispose of this balk altogether. Naturally, being the competetive kids that they are, it becomes a boys vs girls thing as to who can get down the furthest. Remember, it's not a race guys, there still may be gold in them there hills, so slowly, slowly...
The main grunt work was going to be at my end. And yes, Dear Reader, this is indeed what I'm faced with. Our aim will be to clear away as much of this as possible, working our way back toward the south perimeter.
No earth movers, no machinery, just a bunch of crazy Jordanians supervised by myself and Dr Bob, hauling soil away to one section of the site, whilst carting the rocks in shoddy wheelbarrows up a hill and either across the "road" (the smaller ones), or up against the fence at the top of the hill (the big, ultra heavy ones).
But first we were await the arrival of our local crew. The first one who turned up was Hajii. His real name is probably Mohammed or Ahmed, or something like that, but to us he's Hajji. The word Hajji refers to someone who has undertaken the Haj, one of the five pillars of Islam which requires Muslims to undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. Hajji is also the word for 'Old Man', but in these parts calling someone 'Old Man' is a sign of endearment - the old are indeed venerated and respected. Dr Bob's first task was attempting to erect a shady canopy for us all during our breaks. Hajji immediately gets to work helping us. I doubt that he is actually Bedouin, but Dr Bob's attitude was that he probably knows a thing or two about putting up tents, so don't try to tell him how to do what he already knows.
Before they can get the canopy erected though, our crew arrives - 12 in all. Now I suspected that Dr Bob, since he's been coming here for years, would probably know a little Arabic, but thankfully his skills in conversant Arabic were excellent, and he introduced each of us to the crew, and got the crew to say their names, which I tried to subtly write down, accompanied by a short description (blue cap, wearing green, etc).
With that out of the way, and the canopy finally erected, we got to work. First task was to get a start on moving those humungous stones, mainly limestone, but big, cumbersome, and heavy. It wasn't too long before our start was proving to be pretty impressive.
Dr Bob unearthed another cistern, this one a lot narrower than the one Luke was going down. In order to preserve it, Dr Bob thought it best to keep it covered with a limestone ..., until we'd managed to clear away the rest of the rocks and debris.
Meanwhile Jennifer was experiencing success, finding her first bit of pottery. Now the first bit of pottery you find is always a thrill, and we ensured that she could milk the moment for as long as she could. Because it is a sad fact, dear reader, that the thrill of that first bit of pottery found on a Monday becomes very ho-hum by Friday, unless its a Ming Vase found perfectly intact - the likelihood of finding such here in Jordan is pretty much nil, and as you would expect, that would open up more questions than answers, and perhaps lead to much confusion amongst archaeologists for years to come...
Work continues at Square 95. As we start to expose more of the Western column, concerns begin to be raised regarding its angle and the risk of it toppling and shattering (or worse still, shattering someone or something underneath). Dr Bob at first felt this the perfect opportunity to give us his impression of Samson, but then sanity prevailed, and soon the limestone covering the cistern was joined by a pile of little friends assisting in keeping the pillar relatively secure and in place. whilst we dug around it. Eventually it is going to have to fall, but when that time comes we want it to be under controlled conditions.
9.30 hits, and its time for second breakfast. The cooks have very kindly put together for each of us a little care parcel - pita break, a boiled egg, a soft cheese triangle, piece of fruit, a cucumber, and a tomato. Just your typical Jordanian b'fast. It's amazing how much of an appetite you can work up in 4 hours or so. We hang back and have b'fast with Hajji, who shares with us some of his bread, whilst Dr Bob holds court with the rest of the troops. After break we assess the situation at the cross balk, to find the girls raging ahead.
About an hour or so after break, we unearth in Square 95 an intact bottom portion of a column, situated directly in the middle between the north and south column. Unearthed beside it is what Dr Bob has dubbed a chancellery screen made of mudstone.
By the looks of it some damage had been sustained during the earthquake, having been broken off from the base under it. On its "face" (pointing downward) is what looks like a crusader type cross, but it will take further excavation to determine its style and from what period it originates.
In addition, we managed to hit the surface of the floor as well. Nothing fancy, but we nevertheless want to keep a small covering of dirt on it in order to preserve and protect it from wear and tear, falling rocks, scraping wheelbarrows, etc.
So all in all, not bad for a first day in the trenches. And the girls were still raging ahead in their excavation of their section of the balk. The boys put it down to being more careful. Naturally.
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