A Day in the Life

Hello all,

I’m back with a new post.  I’ve been thinking of a number of things to talk about on the blog, but today I’ve decided to write a blog called “A Day in the Life.”  This is essentially about what our day to day life is like here at Abydos so here it goes.  (For those of you who are wondering all times are of course local, Egypt is 7 hours ahead of New York, 9 ahead of Denver.)

5:00-5:30 AM: Somewhere around 5am the call to pray is played in the nearby village.  This comes from every mosque, and there are probably dozens in town.  This works as a pretty effective wake up call.  I then head to the bath room, brush my teeth, get dressed etc. 

5:45-6:00 AM: People usually gather in the suffra (living/dining room) and drink coffee, tea and eat the variety of snack foods available to us, often mumbling good mornings to those around us. 

6:00 AM: Matt Adams (our director) yells “CART!” indicating that the cart has arrived.  The entire team goes to the lab where we gather our supplies for the day and load them onto the cart. 

6:00-6:20 AM: It’s back to the suffra for more coffee and getting ready to head out to the field. 

6:20 AM: Matt calls “Yallah-bina” and those of us who work in the field gather and head on out.  It’s a swift climb up the large dune directly to the north of the dig house before arriving at the dig site.  When we arrive the Reis and the Quftis (the managers of our local workforce) are standing in a line.  We work our way down the line shaking hands with each person and saying good morning. 

6:30ish:  Matt and Michelle (the deputy director) walk the site with the Reis (the director of the Egyptian workers) and inspect it for any “activity” that might have occurred during the night.  Once the inspection is done it’s time to get to work.  Normally for me the first step is to set up my measuring tapes at the edge of the unit, many any corrections to my map and then plan my attack for the day (I’ll describe exactly how we do archaeology at Abydos in a future blog).  Then we start digging.  Normally in the next hour or so cups of Egyptian tea are brought for the Reis, Quftis and the American team members.  For those of you who have never experienced it, Egyptian tea is very sweet and very hot and is not made with a tea bag, meaning that the bottom is always a dense mix of tea and tea leaves.  This always hits the spot though.  The dig site also offers an amazing place to watch the sunrise.  

Sunrise

9:00 AM: The Reis blows a whistle and all the Egyptian workers drop what they’re doing and run to the plastic bags they have stashed all over the site, it’s time for breakfast.  For us that means that we make our way to the hema, a small hut made out of plant stalks. 

The Hema

We sit on a woven mat on the floor to eat.  Singeb, one of our house staff rides out every morning on his donkey with a cooler full of food.  We sit around in the hema and eat our breakfast, drink our coffee and tea and talk. 

Breakfast

9:30: The Reis blows the whistle again and it’s back to work. Before heading back to work the donkey gets a treat, a handful of sugar. 

Singeb on Moussa, the new Donkey

11:00 AM: The Reis blows his whistle again and it’s time for the water break.  This gives me a chance to catch up on work or take a look at my work area without it being full of workers and to figure out the different stratigraphic areas at work in the unit.  The break only lasts about 20 minutes.

Water Break for the Egyptians

1:00 PM: Generally around 1 I begin finishing whatever it is I’ve been working on today and have my Egyptian team sweep the unit.  This is all in preparation for closing photographs. 

  

Greg Takes Closing Photos

1:15 PM: Greg, our team photographer, comes around with a giant ladder and takes closing photographs of each unit.  We do this every day as a way of documenting the work done during the day. 

The cart loaded with our supplies ready to go back to the house

 

During this time we load the cart back up with all our supplies and anything we found during the day.  Once all the units have been photographed (around 1:30 or so) we head back to the house.  Usually I grab a beer once I’m in the door and sit in the suffra to relax, or check my email.

Team Members Enjoy their Afternoon Free Time

1:45 PM: Matt once again shouts “CART!” and the entire team files into the courtyard to unload the donkey cart which has arrived and carrying it into the lab. 

2:00 PM: Singeb rings a bell and everyone rushes back into the suffra for lunch. 

The Suffra (the dinning room side)

2:45-4:30: After lunch we have free time, which you can use however you want.  Some people read, some work on their computers, some sleep, some sit in the courtyard and talk, others take showers.  I tend to do any one of these depending on my mood (or to be frank, how tired I am).  Today I’m writing a blog, right now in fact!

The Suffra (Living Room Side)

4:30-6:30: Lab hours.  During these two hours we work in the lab.  For excavators such as myself there are a number of tasks to accomplish.  I have to make sure all my artifacts are correctly tagged and send them to the right place.  If I have any objects that were sent to conservation I stop by and see how they are doing.  I then update my dig journal for the day and calculate the elevations I took throughout the day.  The last duty of the day is to draw a basic map for my day plan for tomorrow.  Every day I have to keep a precise plan of my excavation area in 1/100 scale (meters).  It’s best to draw a basic plan (just the architectural features, etc.) the night before, that way you have the template ready to go. 

Lab Hours

7:00: At 7 Singeb rings the dinner bell and we all file into the suffra once again for dinner.   Afterwards we have the evening free.  Many evenings I return to the lab to complete my work for the day, sometimes I read, call family on skype, take a shower.  Some nights we show a movie in one of the back storerooms using a digital projector.  Depending on how tired I am I normally fall asleep between 9 and 11 most nights (yeah I know that’s early but did you read what time I wake up in the morning!) and prepare for another day of the same schedule

We do this every day except Fridays, which are our days off.  On Fridays we either get to relax or have some activity or trip planned.  Last Friday a bunch of us went to the Seti I temple nearby for a few hours and I caught up on some work.  And that’s pretty much it, my amazing crazy and busy day.