21 March 1929

[by Agnes Conway]
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After calling on the Governor of Ma’an [Khalaf Bey Atell] and Mr Strange, (Intelligence Officer to the Air Force) Mr Horsfield went to Ain Musa with one ton truck of luggage; met his 6 men who had ridden over from Jerash and sent them down to Petra to start preparing the Camp.  He came back to Ma’an for the night.  

A photograph taken by Ditlef Nielsen of Agnes Conway at the Hammam. Copyright UCL Institute of Archaeology.

Dr Nielsen and A.E.C. I [sic] spent the morning following out the aqueducts that stretch to the East of Ma’an – From the Hammam, (a large reservoir, not far from Ma'an el Samijjie, once fed from the spring at El Basta on the Roman road to Odrubuh,) the aqueduct runs East to Unum el Trab where are the ruins of a khan – Hellenistic and Byzantine pottery were found in each. In the afternoon we explored Ma’an el Kabirah and Ma’an el Samijje, looking down the wells, and along the walls by the Wady, for S. Arabian inscriptions of the period of the Minaeans or Sabaeans; who are known from inscriptions found in the South, to have had a colony in the North, at Ma’an el Musrijje, the present alternative name of Ma’an el Kabirah.  Roman stones may have been reused in the foundations of the Serai, but no sign of anything earlier was seen.  The wells are very deep and built of large stones. 

Reference: Conway, A. 1929 (transcribed by A. Thornton). Petra Exploration Fund Diary. "Business Papers to be Kept", Horsfield Collection Box 8, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 21 March: 1. ​​