So! We have now been here a full week, having arrived a week ago last night. Work has continued steadily. Francesca and I have located 8 interesting caves which look like they may have been homes for hermits in the past. For each we have created a rough scale plan, and collected a GPS point as reference. We have also found and located by GPS a lime kiln, a cistern with a weir, and another structure which was either a cistern, a building, or an agricultural terrace. All of these would be worth excavating in future seasons.
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| Recording a cave. We seem to be seeing a trend in that they are all about the same size, and have rough walls that look as though they have been pried out of loose areas of the rock. They don't have the traces of mining (picks or mauls) but also don't look natural. |
Jovanna and Francesca have been working very hard at cleaning pottery found during earlier seasons in work on the buildings or the more adjacent caves; and this has been partly processed by Joelle who is also working on the database of objects for the future museum. Jovanna and Francesca have also been on plant-hunting expeditions to collect for the herbarium we are developing for the museum.
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| A plant being pressed. Typically Jovanna collects one, or half of one, for the ROM and one for the monastery herbarium. |
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| Recoding finds is not one of the most exciting parts of archaeological work! This glass lamp will now be catalogued into the database, which is used to not only record the finds, but will be used for the planned museum. |
Today we had a day off and went to a whole string of other monasteries! One to the Cherubim (our driver’s idea); one to St. Thomas; another to Our Lady (Saidnaya); and the two monasteries at Ma’aloula. I think one of the others will be posting on the experience.
Robert
