20 April 1929

[by George Horsfield and probably Agnes Conway]
G. H. 

Transferred the digging to Ma’aisera to two caves, which were silted up nearly to the top.  No. 1. which was about 30 [? In pencil] m. higher than the other, up the Hill showed a broken doorway and part of the roof.  It was full of stones and earth and measured 2 m. x 2.75 m. and 2.50 m. high.  Digging in front brought to light the floor of a chamber (?) the side and front walls of which had disappeared[.]  The floor was deeply chased and against the outside wall of the inner chamber parallel to it, ran a double chase, with a wall of 15 centimetres between. The chases ran on the floor at right angles, roughly dividing it into squares, but unequally and irregularly.  It looked as though it was in process of being quarried.  Very little pottery.  Top Byzantine and the rest of the same type; say 2nd and 3rdcenturies, with a glazed base of a vase.  In the inner chamber inside at the floor level on the right, were found two small vases of plain red ware, one a sort of juglet with a handle and the other a small vase with a swollen out body rising from a ring base. There were no signs of a burial and the primary use of the cave (?) was left undecided.  On the right above the roof and 50 cents. away from the inner wall was a cutting that looked like a shaft grave.  When cleared, it was 65 cents. deep and contained nothing but earth and stones.  No. 2. is larger and consists of an outer and an inner chamber, with a recess, and is situated about 3 m. above the Wadi bed.  The inner chamber has a roof which has partly fallen in; the blocks lay on the surface and were half buried.  The entrance has worked blocks of stone placed to form jambs; and part of a moulded architrave, very rough and worn, was found nearby.  Outside, at 75 cents. below surface, are remains of a kitchen midden, the surface of which only has so far been touched.  The pottery is fragmentary and Byzantine on the surface, mixed with sandy earth and stones.  The inner room is filled with earth and stones and has produced no pottery so far.  
 
No. 3. lies on left of No. 2. and has only just been attacked.  It shows a recess with a roof, part of which has fallen in and blocks the entrance.  So far nothing but a little Byzantine pottery has been found on and below (50 cents.) the surface.
 
The ledge above, which is wide and continuously sloping upwards, has fragments of pottery scattered over its surface, some of which is ribbed, some plain.  Whether these caves – or grottoes – are domestic or funerary is at present not apparent. 
 
A.E.C. followed the right bank of the Ma’aisera el Gharbiyah to the end of the town.  The upper levels appear to have been covered with houses, some of which were later turned into tombs.  The whole area is now considered by Mr. Horsfield to be the earliest part of Petra; possibly the unwalled city of Strabo’s time.  She went to the Siyagh with Dr. Nielsen in the afternoon, and was struck by the immense number of houses, up to 4 stories, on each side of what must have been a real town street.  Houses are now appearing quite common!  She went to a high level on the N. side where cisterns and quarries have made what Dalman considers a sanctuary, but incomprehensible at the moment.  

Reference: Horsfield, G. [and probably Conway, A.] 1929 (transcribed by A. Thornton). Petra Exploration Fund Diary. "Business Papers to be Kept", Horsfield Collection Box 8, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 20 April: 45-48.