Now of course I had promised myself that I wouldn't tell anyone that it would be my birthday today. However on two occassions last night night I got the age question, once from Mohammad, our newish security guard (top bloke - used to work for the UN in Sudan).
I was sitting with him and Ibrahim and Raad in the playground after dinner ( and yes, I know that sounds funny, but what else am I supposed to call it?), and he in his very good English asks me how old I am.
"Funny you should ask that," I answer facetiously, "I'm actually 42 tomorrow."
He immediately translates for Ibrahim and Raad, and Mohammad tells me we must have a party.
"No No, no one's supposed to know," I say, annoyed that I let that one slip.
"Nonsense," he says "Birthdays are important. We must have a party."
Later, on the roof with David, Cheryl, and Pete, I also get the age question from Pete.
"Funny you should ask that," I answer facetiously, "I'm actually 42 tomorrow."
So naturally news like that spreads like wildfire, and despite having intended to keep it secret, it was nice to get a resounding Happy Birthday at lunch today, after walking in from my customary post dig shower.
But that's later, in the meantime, you'll have seen my handsome 42 year old self portrait after getting off the bus, and here's my favourite scene that I pass everyday on my way from the bus drop off point to Area E.
Not a lot was happening today at my end, mainly just powering forward on Square 95. We'd been making slow but steady progress from the day before, particularly with the exposing of the bases of the chancellery screen and chancellery post. Today we'd be plowing forward into the mound, attempting to get rid of as many stones and dirt as possible. Since the section holding the chancellery base and post was surrounded by a not so stable mound (seen here above around the middle column), we thought it best to keep the base and post covered, until we'd found away to remove the surrounding fill without causing another landslide.
The chancellery screen itself had been removed and placed out of harms way. Looking a little worse for wear, we'd left it leaning against the opposite wall facing the mound, the missing pieces left in a plastic bag "hidden" behind it.
There was also the added problem with the fact that the column to my right (pictured here to the left) was leaning rather ominously forward, held in place by rocks and dirt, and we didn't want this collapsing without a suitable amount of dirt to break its fall, or worse yet, fall on someone unexpectedly. These things, as I'm sure you can imagine, are unbelieveably heavy, and could easily kill someone (or at the very least maim them permanently) if they happened to be unlucky enough to be present when the thing chooses to topple.
So whilst I would be supervising the grunt work in Square 95, Dr Bob, along with Jennifer and Hannah, would be setting up squares in other areas of the site, whilst Luke and Aaron would be continuing with work on the cross balk, the aim being to get down to the bottom of 121/122 and 131/132, before supervising work on getting rid of the middle balk that divides the two.
Not a hell of a lot found today, except the usual pottery fragments, glass shards, and the like. Felt more lie working on a construction site than a dig. Occasionally you get scenes like this though, which get you pretty excited. What lurks within those little openings?
The tomb of some long dead martyr. A cache of lost manuscripts that would set the Discovery channel ablaze. Or simply that elusive inscription that Dr Bob wants so badly. No such luck. Generally its just more dirt, or worse still some creepy crawly that'll be ready to sting the hand of any intruder who would be so rude as to try to evict it. This is prime territory for scorpions, beetles, centipedes, and the like, though the last thing one would expect to be jumping out of the dirt would be my new best friend here.
But we plow on, as you can see. Occasionally we require the assistance of Fazel, whom I've dubbed the machine, to break a few rocks, either with a pick (depending on how soft the rock is, or a sledge hammer (depending on how hard). He'll generally sit around for most of the day, interrupted by short spurts of actually working, but when he does work, he probably does the work of three guys in as short a space of time as you can imagine.
Now how can I comment on the work pracftices of the locals without appearing rude? Lets just say they that have a somewhat "different" work ethic to we whiteys in the west. They're not lazy, as such, more, shall we say, selective in when they get round to going for it in the trenches. There tends to be a lot of standing round watching oe or two of their own do the work, but it tends to end up being a tag team affair, some unknown signal oblivious to us will go off, and before you know it the two or three working will exit, and replaced by a new set of faces. Its definitely a work to live rather than live to work attitude, and can often be frustrating for those of us raised with a strong protestant work ethic. But we somehow get through it, and there are moments when they're fun to be around.
Meanwhile at the cross balk, Aaron, Luke, and their crew have hot rock bottom, literally. Hard to tell what this area is, but by the looks of it its most likely an earlier era bath complex or pool of some kind. We'll know more once the middle balk is removed, which is the next task for the guys. Dr Bob sets up some "labels" showing which section for which square, just as a record for the photographers, before work commences on the middle balk.
My crew blaze on forward. By mid morning we receive a visit from the Dept of Antiquities guys, adn from on now on we'll generally get a visit from them, in which case Dr Bob will drop everything he's doing and excort them around the site, explaining what's what and the work is progressing.
By 12 o'clock we're done for another day. Back to the compound, fill our buckets of pottery shards full of water, which later will be cleaned in preparation for pottery reading the next day. Shower (if you have time), lunch, laundry (if you can be bothered - I can be bothered, I love laundry), then do what ever needs doing (reading, writing reports, papers), though for me I was in desparate need of a nap. Oh yes, the crew sings Happy Birthday to me at lunch - I thank them with a victory lap around the table and a kiss for each of them. Dr David at the ast minute turns his head so that my lips land on his - a bit too enthusiastic for my liking, but he's Spanish, so all is forgiven...
Waking from an afternoon nap can be an interesting one. Depending on the heat of the day, often you'll wake with your pillow showing a rather large wet patch (and I mean large, we're talking hread size) from the sweat of your neck. At least I hope its the sweat from my neck, and not me drooling during my slumber. Oh God, please no!!!
4 o'clock - pottery reading, surveying the previous days finds, mostly"rubbish" although we'll occassionally get a piece that gets Dr Susan all excited, although to these eyes (and often Dr Bob's) its a "face only a mother can love" kinda thing.
After dinner, which included some cake and ice cream for desert in celebration of yours truly, its free time till bed. A few people have gone out to dinner at one of the locals' homes, so I settle down on the porch to hit the ol' iPad with bluetooth keyboard. Rania and her sister Ayr from over the road pop over to say Hi.
After taking a shot of them with Alyssa, Rania grabs my camera and takes various shots, including this one of Liz with Ayr (she's quite good, isn't she? Even gets a half decent, though admittedly off axis, one of birthday boy here).
I hope the blog entries aren't coming in too slow for you all. Sadly I don't get a lot of time to write, even though I always seem to be on this thing when I get a spare minute. WIFI here can be a bit patchy as well, so up loading entries to the Net (especially when they're photo heavy) can be pretty time consuming. Plus the fact that I didn't come here just to spend all my time writing about coming here (or writing about writing about coming here). One needs time to socialise, both with your colleagues and the locals as well. Khaled has invited our team over to his place on Friday for tea, coffee, Pepsi, and of course several hits on the ol' Hooka pipe. Never a dull moment in these parts...
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