| Entry: | Peter Boyer 20th April 1999
Its a few days since my last diary entry, though on site I have not made a massive amount of progress since then. Friday and Sunday were spent finishing off the removal and sampling of the upper courses of the wall, F66 at the east end of Space 117. Lowering the wall has been primarily to stop any further collapse, however the cracks which resulted in the initial collapse appear to extend further down and there is a strong likelihood that sections at either end of the wall may still fall down. This is particularly unfortunate as the northern section contains the area of wall painting mentioned previously. This now has a number of filled flour sacks propped up against it to prevent it falling, and hopefully the conservator will still be able to do something with the artwork when he arrives at the weekend.
I have also had to remove a small part of the northern wall at the eastern end which was also in danger of iminent collapse. The reps have suggested the backfilling of the space to prevent any further collapse, though this will only delay the inevitable, and when the space is next re-opened the first job will undoubtedly be some type of rescue of this wall.
Archaeologically, I have now removed most of the platform, F288 in the noth-east corner of Space 117. This consisted of a number of make-up and plaster layers, in addition to those removed in 1998, and a central core consisting of a mixed deposit of re-used mudbricks and mortar and other silty clay materials. There was no obvious coursing structure, the elements merely being placed to form a roughly rectangular block which was then plastered all over, unlike the platform F292 in the north-west corner of the same space which seems to have been delimited by a course of mudbricks to the east and south. Platform F288 appears to have overlain a surface consisting of a number of irregular hard clay lumps, similar to that further west in the same space. There also appears to be a north-south orientated wall underlying the platform wich may be the same feature as that observed under the platform in the south-east corner of the space. It seems likely that this wall may relate to an earlier building and therefore not contemporary with activity in Space 117. As for the platform, it is clear that like the other such features in this space, there are no underlying burials. Platforms in this space must therefore have been utilized by the living, possible as beds, though they appear a little small for this purpose. At present a small block of the platform has been left in situ to support the sacks preventing F66 collapsing. Tomorrow I shall clean the wall underlying the platform in order to gauge its full extent.
It appears that a small part of my last diary entry upset a section of the specialist fraternity. I was merely expressing my view on a phenomenon that seems to happen every year on this project. Furthermore, we were all told on site today about the fears being expressed by some specialists, of divisions becoming apparent. I think with a project of this nature, some differences of opinion will become apparent and will become more marked during the short season when there are more people with wider viewpoints on a number of matters. However, I think the fears being expressed at present are not really likely to be fully realized, in fact the consensus among the site staff was that apart from the small disagreement during the earlier meeting, there had been no real awareness of any divisions between "us" and "them". I think that we are all aware that there will be from time to time, differences of opinion between different people according to the functions they perform, however both site staff and specialists who have worked on the project in previous years have become used to this and no really unsurmountable problems have persisted. Once everyone has slipped fully into their routine, such perceived problems will be diminished, and after all it is in the best interests of everyone working here for six months for things to run as smoothly as possible. Here endeth the lecture from the pulpit!Entered By: Peter Boyer |
