[By Agnes Conway]
A. C. The day, being a Friday, was a holiday from the dig. Dr Canaan began his work on local place names, which he is deriving from the local Bedouins, especially the Bdûl, and took one with him to the Deir. He also began a collection of local flora to get the local names. Dr Nielsen and A.E.C. went up the Wady Turkamaniya to a hill at Idhra’ al Hisha which commands a superb view of the whole city area of Petra and the great mountain circle. The circle at the top of the hill is outlined with enormous stones and was thought by them to be the northern fort of Petra (First discovery of Megalithic circle). They visited the Turkamaniya Tomb and the sanctuary visited yesterday, which turns out to be Dalman’s Ma’aisera Sanctuary No 4. They compared Dalman’s plan on the spot, and considered some of it a romance. Mr Horsfield and A.E.C. went in the afternoon over part of the same ground and decided to dig out the 2 sarcophagi in the vault of the Turkamaniya tomb. Mr Horsfield noticed 2 stone coffins at the bottom of the Turkamaniya Wady, opposite the Tomb, under 10 ft of deposit, which may be very early and unrifled. (Xtian) The stone circle at the top of the hill, unhewn and very small for a fort, he thought might turn out to be the enclosure wall of a very early sanctuary, as a worn away rock inside might conceivably be an early alter and is on the most dominating site in Petra. A.E.C. decided to take telephoto plates of the views in every direction to make a panorama of the Petra basin. They walked down to the Wady Mataba where a wall of large stones built on no foundations canalized the Wady – they followed up lengths of wall as far as the Nymphaeum, all of which represent important problems as the fortification of Petra. Dr Nielsen continued his work on the Sanctuaries on El Habis. 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, 29 March: 14-15. [By George Horsfield and Agnes Conway]
G. Horsfield Went to Ma’an with Arif hassar for money in company with Mahmud Charish. Brought back £200 which I obtained after waiting 3 hours. The digging went on with 25 men without interruption and supervised by Ali Burar. A.E.C. and Dr. Nielsen went to Al Najr to find Kennedy’s High Place. Approaching it from the back side they could see nothing towards the top that looked worked; but as Difollah shouted down that it was good, AEC was hauled up. The top, which is about 57 yds in length, at first seemed to her a quarry mass only – but gradually it appeared to unfold itself as an altar mass with a gap left in the back wall orientated to the W. At one end is a small niche with a horned altar; at the other a larger niche. It divides itself roughly into 3 terraces, on the middle of which are 4 blocks, beneath what might be a tier of seats on the N edge. On the lower terrace close to the E. precipice, is what might be an altar. A very little pottery of uncertain date is strewn about. Seen from the ground in the E. side is a small projecting platform, upon which there appears to be a similar altar, which must again be investigated from the top. Should it be a High Place a fine view could be had of the sacrifices from the wide open space below which leads up gradually to a tomb area. Dr. Nielsen was unable to climb to the top. A.E.C. thinks the massif may originally have been a High Place, which was afterwards quarried away to build the city, any staircase approaches being then cut off. Marks of quarry working seem to be clearly visible in the projecting portion on the S., and there are small carvings high up which might be mason’s marks. In the afternoon A.E.C. walked on the Ma’aisera ridge above the Camp, spotting from above a large built wall inside a cave or tomb, and then going to Kennedy’s fig. 149 to look up the suggestions in his Memorandum. Dr. Canaan did two big rounds finding place names and collected stories as usual from the Bedu. Reference: Horsfield, G. [and Conway, A.] 1929 (transcribed by A. Thornton). Petra Exploration Fund Diary. "Business Papers to be Kept", Horsfield Collection Box 8, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 1 April: 18-20. [by Agnes Conway] A. C. No dig today as it poured with rain and Mr. Horsfield sorted pots, and A.E.C. welcomed the chance of reading. At lunch-time there was a shout of water in the Wadi Musa, and the whole camp rushed to see it pouring into the Siyagh. It was, however, coming from the Metaha and not from the Sik at that time; so Mr H. and A.E.C. went to examine the large buildings under El Hubta. The enormous façade next but one N. of the Tomb of the Urn has only 2 small but perfectly squared or tooled rooms, one of which seemed to ring hollow in the middle of the floor and may be worth clearing out. The next two at right angles to each other, have no facades and may be houses. The Corinthian Tomb has capitals almost Byzantine, combined with triglyphs and dentals of yellow stone painted with stripes of black. It was impossible to tell whether the inserted stone of the low arches on the left was plastered or not. Inside the Palace Tomb the arrangement of 4 bases for sarcophagi 1, on a high shelf in a niche, was odd and unique in Petra. The colour of this ceiling and the neighbouring one on the left was superb in the greyish light; a fantastic palette of blood red, orange, pink, grey, pale mauve, and silver, set off by great black splotches from the Bedouin fires. As soon as the sun shone the colour paled. This English day of thunderclouds, and snatches of deep blue sky brought out all the colour of the rocks and intensified the green. A blinding hail storm was difficult to battle against on the way home. We jumped the Wady Musa and got to camp a few minutes before the Deir Wady became a raging torrent, cutting off the 2 sides of the camp from each other, and threatening the tents, around which trenches had to be dug at once. Before supper the stream was dry again. __ [Footnote] 1. The same seen later near right [? In pencil] of Tomb of Urn 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 April: 48-49. |
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