- Saturday: Picking Out Plants
Dr. René Cappers and Dr. Willeke Wendrich, project leaders
The fieldwork now follows a steady rhythm. Leaving the house at 5:30 to start work at the first light of day, the members of each of the four teams, coming from towns of Egypt as far apart as el-Alamein and Aswan, have gotten to know each other quite well. Most of the work this Monday concentrated on excavating and recording the topsoil and other deposits or units visible at the surface.
In the afternoon, the co-director of the project, Dr. René Cappers from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG), gave an introduction to the botanical archive and botanical sampling methods. Since the main subject of the project is ancient agriculture, archaeobotany is of even greater importance to the work in Medinet Watfa than it is for many other projects. The ancient remains are located down-wind from the modern fields, where harvesting and threshing is a regular activity. Large amounts of organic debris are blown in from the modern fields and thus it is a major concern to keep the ancient samples uncontaminated by this modern material. By taking entire units as a sample as soon as they appear, the soil can be sifted at the laboratory, rather than the site itself, so contamination is kept to a minimum.
- Sunday: Archaeobotanists in Action
The extremely hot weather did not stop the four trench teams from continuing their hard work. In the evening René Cappers gave a second lecture on the recording, analysis and interpretation of the botanical material. In his work he makes extensive use of ethnoarchaeological parallels and examples, from different areas of the world, including Egypt, Turkey and the Netherlands.
- Monday: Comparing Karanis
The weather continued to be unseasonally hot. This day an excursion was made to the ancient site of Karanis (Kom Aushim), on the east side of the Fayum, while Medinet Watfa is located on the far west side of the depression (map). Purpose of the visit was to compare the settlement excavated by the University of Michigan from 1924-1935 with what we find in Medinet Watfa. After a general introduction to the site and its excavation history, the group studied the building methods and house lay-outs. Apart from that, attention was given to the grain processing tools found in the different parts of the site.
- Tuesday: Opening Trench 5
This day a new trench was opened. Trench MW02 05 was a 1 x 1 m square test trench excavated by Afifi Rahim Afifi and Louise Hitchcock, with the objective to test the stratigraphy and preservation in the dump area to the south of the site.
In the evening, Dr. Bahay el-Issawi gave the first of two lectures on geology. On Tuesday the subject was the geology of Egypt. In an eclectic presentation, Dr. Issawi concentrated on the water provision of Egypt, by tracing the early rivers until the present Nile.
- Wednesday: Keeping Track of Everything
Most teams spent quite a lot of time filling in different unit sheets, to record structures, deposits or cuts. As a result, excavation was progressing slowly, but the objective of the field school is not to quickly excavate a site, but to integrate field practice with thorough recording of all features. The weather changed and the cool breeze was welcomed by everybody. The second lecture on geology by Dr. Issawi focussed on the Fayum basin.
- Thursday: Touring the Trenches
Field work showed gradual progress. During the trench tour at the end of the fieldwork day, one person from each team gave an overview of the work of the past week.
Trench 1 showed two major mudbrick walls, enclosing what seems to be an industrial area with a heavily plastered basin and a millstone.
Trench 2 boosts limestone ashlars, which were partly dislocated, but a bright white plaster layer still shows their original position.
Trench 3 has several mudbrick walls built of silt and marl bricks. A remarkable feature is a dark mud plaster that covers part of the wall, but is of the same consistency as the mortar and seems to have dissolved and oozed into the sand.
Trench 4 appears to have four distinct quadrants, divided by mudbrick walls, all showing a top layer of fine yellow wind-blown sand.
On Thursday there was no afternoon lecture, since almost everybody left the camp to go home for a long weekend. The 5th of October was a day off, in exchange for the national holiday on the 6th of October. The minibuses that collected everybody from the camp were over-filled.
