[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. 
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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.  
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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.  
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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 and George Horsfield]

A.E.C. took Mr. Horsfield to see Al Najr, and he pronounced the whole place to be a quarry, probably temp [sic] Hadrian to build the Hadrianic city.  The horned altar and niche would just have been put up by the quarrymen to amuse themselves.  All the surrounding cult places, recommended by Kennedy for examination, are quarries as well, and to have fixed this definitely will save us all a great deal of time. We walked through Al Nasara, also full of old quarries which looked like cult objects, to the suburb on the N.W. face. Here Mr. Horsfield agreed that the tricliniums, niches, rooms etc all included by Dalman in his account of the 6 sanctuaries under El Hubta, are houses.  One room is particularly fine and considered by him to be the earliest specimen of a typical Arab house.
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G. Horsfield Spent the morning with Miss Conway visiting Northern area, in which I dashed all her hopes, as the alleged Higher Places are all quarries and the crude symbols the products of the leisure of quarrymen, visited some of the rock cut chambers on the S side, many of which seem to have been houses.  The facade without a door, in front of which is a wall, seems to have been a Nymphaeum.

Spent the afternoon on the dig – a wall has appeared on the W. side which seems early. Pottery same as before and scarce but the house debris, bones, pottery and ashes are in evidence.  The work is going better and with more of a swing, as the men are broken to organized labour – 26 men employed – taking on 10 more tomorrow.
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In the afternoon A.E.C. investigated the caves around El Habis which all seem to be houses of different dates.  One has remains of a very fine black plastering on the walls and ceiling.

Reference: [By Conway, A.] and Horsfield, G. 1929 (transcribed by A. Thornton). Petra Exploration Fund Diary. "Business Papers to be Kept", Horsfield Collection Box 8, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 2 April: 20-21. 

[By George Horsfield, Agnes Conway and Tawfiq Canaan]
G. H.
Spent two hrs. with Dr. Nielsen and Miss Conway in N.W. side of El Habis examining the High Place approaches, also the underlying quarry with its tombs.  Spent the rest of the morning at the dig and completed my survey of the South Wall which runs from El Habis to the Castellum in the middle, and is the highest point of the South side of the city, then to the side of Zubb Atuf on the E.  In the afternoon cleaned up the high place on El Habis in part; found nothing but sane [sic] and sheep droppings covered with thin grass to a depth of 30 centimetres.  Visited the dig and saw the exposed side of the wall which has appeared in it and its junction with the S wall; its outer face, in the fragment exposed, is the same as the wall which limits the Town on the Wadi Farasa.  The wall in the dig projects beyond its face and is broken away, which seems to suggest that there was a Tower or at any rate a change in plane of the wall.  The pottery is the same and scarce.  At the side of the wall inside are the remains of another, crudely built of small shapeless stones, without a foundation, about a meter high.  Three Nabataean coins turned up of the common sort with crossed cornucopias which I have often seen and sometimes bought.  

I have decided to go to a deeper level and shall proceed to cut off another meter from the front.

A.E.C. spent most of the day making a prismatic compass plan of the circle of old unhewn stones surrounding the rock which she found on March 28th.  

J. [sic] B. Canaan: Before noon went through the siq to Wadi-el-Muslin, followed its course and the course of its tributaries up to Wadi-el-Mataha. Made a plan of the Siq, el-Mataha and the surroundings.

Reference: Horsfield, G., [Conway, A.] and Canaan, T. 1929 (transcribed by A Thornton). Petra Exploration Fund Diary. "Business Papers to be Kept", Horsfield Collection Box 8, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 3 April: 21-22. 

[by George Horsfield and possibly Agnes Conway)
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G.H. Worked on 3rd level and finished clearing of second. 
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From this came three fragments of figurines etc., camel’s head and horse’s body with trappings and the upper part of a female figure. Cleared up the washing water supply in the morning and finished clearing of high place, el Habis, and cleaned out the tomb chamber on lower level – found nothing.  The whole area has been quarried at the high place and part of the basin fronting “altar” cut away.  

The proper name of rubbish heap “el Aziz” is “katoote” meaning “that which slides down” from “Kalta” to slide.  

Some of the other things bought at Amman arrived.  Examined the West side of El Habis for fortifications. 
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A.E.C. took notes of the caves and foundations of the buildings, some of them built with large unhewn stones, leading up to the Megalithic circle from the South, on the chance that they may prove to be in some way connected. She finished planning the rock inside the circle.  Explored the caves and houses at the opening of the Siyagh on the N side, finding that to be a house area with remains of good plaster work and stucco and two pieces of worked white limestone.  One of the houses seems to be built in three stories; but the red sandstone has lost its surface to such an extent that it is no good studying houses in that area.

​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, 4 April: 22-23. 

[By George Horsfield and probably Agnes Conway]

​G. H. No work to-day, spent the morning on Ez Zantour making notes, the afternoon on S. end of El Habis visiting the By-Zantine [sic] fort and examining the site lying below – which I discover has at some time been tilled, the evidence being the piles of stones forming rough walls enclosing fields – very much as is found on other sites in T.J.  This has happened after the desertion of the site.

A.E.C. went to Dalman’s El Habis Sanctuary No. 1 with Dr. Nielsen, and both agreed that it was nothing but a quarry.  It is certainly far earlier than Al Najar, as the markings have worn away; It was perhaps Nabataean and furnished the stone for the old houses on El Habis and possibly the Castle, which Mr. Horsfield thinks at every period must have been the main citadel of Petra – the present ruins he thinks Byzantine or pre-Byzantine.  A.E.C. went on to the theatre district to examine the house and tombs, and found tombs of every internal arrangement mixed up together and what seemed like a magnificent house and cistern underground in the middle of them.  The sandstone is so weathered that the late types of facades look extremely primitive.  In the afternoon she went to the tomb area above the Circassian camp again, and feels it to be far earlier than the Theatre district, even in the sections that face E. and are not weathered.  She went to the head of the Wady where the 2 Ma’aiseras meet and thinks that very early caves and tombs may be silted up there.

Reference: Horsfield, G. 1929 [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, 5 April: 23-24. 

[by George Horsfield and possibly Agnes Conway]
​G. H. 
The dig proceeded slowly and has advanced into the debris about 2 metres beyond the W. side wall – at a depth of 4 ½ metres from the summit, 3.50 m below the top of wall.  Pottery has come out more freely and the limit of the finer pottery is passing. To-day 4 baskets fairly full appeared consisting of large round handles and fragments of wine jars, cooking pots and a few fragments of terra sigillata, which I think are of the beginning of the 1st century AD.  I have decided to stop the work here for a day or two and have arranged to divide the working party in order to dig into the two mounds lying between Ez Zantour and Zubb Abuf [sic] – so as to have some comparative material.  These mounds are very puzzling as they seem early 2nd and 3rd century and would suggest that this part of the city was abandoned at this period and used as a dump for household debris. I began to examine the North area of the city between the Wadi Ma’aisera and Hubda – beyond Wadi Musa.  It is extremely difficult to form an opinion of its extent in an early period towards the North.  There is the appearance of a defensive wall inside the inhabited area which continues to the Wadi Ma’aisera then turns South following its left bank and is lost in the ruins of what appears to be a Hadrianic building with columns and a court to the S.  I could not find the point where it crossed the Wadi.  

In front of this at about 15 metres N. is another wall of slight construction, which appears as a heap of stones which does not seem to go anywhere. At the end are the foundations of a large building standing out from the wall to the N. which looks as if it were the base of a Tower – or it may be only the foundation of a lost building – it is built of red standstone, I think the ordinary paving stone, which is seen in many places, lying about in disorder on the ground and others outlining graves which are orientated roughly E. and W.  

The area examined is well covered with ruins which appear to be classical in character – with columns, drums and bases –of well-built material like the Kasr-el Bint.  They seem to have suffered changes and alterations.  There are signs of rough terracing to walls which suggest that this part also has been cultivated at some later date.  I noted that some of the fields seem to have been irrigated on the S side, the water probably having been brought from the site before the complete breakdown of the canalisation system.  

A.E.C. spent some time at the dig with Mr Horsfield, and went on to the Farasa West valley.  There she saw what looked like unrifled tombs near the ceiling of the Greco-Roman Tomb Br.[unnow] 257.  She was puzzled by the water arrangements in connection with Br.[unnow] 228, and the water-channel in what ought to be a cistern next door.  The interiors of some of these tombs need photographing as types, particularly the pilaster panelling of Br.[unnow] 228 and 253. The closed glen leading to 228 with the block at the end and the cisterns above is a most attractive enceinte and full of greenery; and the swanky grave courtyard of 257 is charming. The white shaft grave area on the way to it with stibadia etc seems queer and old by comparison.  An attempted study of the facades is not leading to much at present, and the interiors are proving more interesting.

Spent the afternoon trying to find the way up Jebel en Numer, and walked a long way up the Wadi Umm Ratam and back by the Thughra.  In an isolated spot near the Umm Ratam was one rock cut grave in a wonderful position – otherwise the walk was free of all monuments! 
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Found one doubtful flint implement. (Mousterian).

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, 7 April: 26-29. 

[By George Horsfield and possibly Agnes Conway]
G. H. 
Dug at B. v C. to east of Ez Zantour.  The pottery similar to that from a 1st cent [? In pencil] at lower level.  This part of the city must have been abandoned at this period. And lies S. of Dalman’s Byzantine wall.
Spent the morning with Miss C. in El Farasa E. and El Farasa W. exploring tombs.
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Dug out three tombs that Miss C discovered in Farasa W., moved much filth from two niches – tombs unexcavated – the other had been excavated but yielded nothing but mutton bones and sheep manure.  In Farasa W. saw other niches high up in right hand tombs which may contain something – all accessible ones have been visited by local Arabs.  
 
Saw interesting cistern found by Mahmud on top of Garden Tomb with a vaulted chamber beyond.  Hall of fluted columns visited; corrected plan and made notes in Weygand.  The horizontal slit on front looks as though it were intended to spring vault from.  Saw new type of Tomb; a low chamber with small square door high up in the wall; one on other side of Wady, - half of which has been cut away – exposing section. Have discovered meaning of the horizontal slits in walls – they are to spring arches from; then the interval is covered with slabs to form roof.  
 
At dig in the afternoon – worked quite well – Ali and Arif at one each; spent rest of afternoon in finding N Wall – in which I was successful – but it is very different to Dalman.  Cook complains of being roasted – must put shelter over kitchen.  A.E.C. went to the Edomite High Place in afternoon and took 3 panorama photographs with the ½ plate camera.  

Reference: Horsfield, G. [and possibly Conway, A.] 1929 (transcribed by A. Thornton). Petra Exploration Fund Diary. "Business Papers to be Kept", Horsfield Collection Box 8, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 8 April: 28-30. 

[by George Horsfield and Agnes Conway]
G. H.  Changed digging back to Katooti [see 4 April entry] – spent morning writing up Hadrianic North part of city wall.  Afternoon on dig which I don’t in the least understand.  Pottery all [? In pencil]

A.E.C. photographed in the morning in El Farasa W. & El Farasa E. and found an enormous cistern near the mouth of Wady en Mer.  She took the interiors of 2 tombs with sarcophagi under the ceiling with the half-plate camera in afternoon, in El Farasa W.

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, 9 April: 30. ​

[By George Horsfield]
G. H.
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Went to El Barid in 1 ½ hours and explored the site and surroundings. The site has Hadrianic monuments and innumerable cisterns and contrivances for catching and holding water. To the west is a stair in a nick in the rock which is almost blocked at the top; beyond it descends into the Wadi which falls to the West.  Higher up east is another which falls S.W., so this is the head of the Water shed. To the East outside are many Bedouin graves outlined with stones and 2 built ones – one of which was roughly roofed in – with a small low door to W.  This area has apparently been built on – all the rocks surrounding contain cisterns – some of large size. There are extensive quarries and the stone seems of good quality and similar to that used in the 2nd century Petra buildings. To the North is a wider wadi which has the remains of walls extending the whole width one behind the other – on North side is a building and another in the NW Angle: the second court or serai is approached from the E. side and a wall cuts off a passage about 5 m. wide towards the cliff.  Probably a caravanserai for camels and pack mules for bringing stones to Petra.

At 11.15 Drifullah brought news of an accident to one of the workmen who had his leg broken at the thigh by a fall of earth.  He sat under the working face at the breakfast interval, and a short time before the whistle blew a heavy fall buried him and another man - who escaped injury.  Dr Canaan returned; found the man in the police tent at Cooks Camp and set the leg. On my instruction he offered to send the man to Amman to Hospital; it was repeated several times, but he preferred to stay in the village.  It is a simple fracture of the thigh.  Dr Canaan improvised a stretcher – and the man was carried to his house.  The digging continued, the pottery same as before with one inscribed jar handle. The lower depth is being attacked – so the depth is now six metres.

Reference: Horsfield, G. 1929 (transcribed by A. Thornton). Petra Exploration Fund Diary. "Business Papers to be Kept", Horsfield Collection Box 8, UCL Institute of Archaeology, 10 April: 30-31. ​

The High Commissioner arrived and is staying with Cooks.  [Austen] Harrison write to say he was unable to come and visit us.
 
A.E.C. spent the morning on the nearer El Ma’aisera ridge looking at Kennedy’s Memorandum queries in connection with the great tomb, Fives court etc.  She could find no sign of a sanctuary, but think the whole lay-out may be an elaborate example of the type of enceinte described on the Turkomanya tomb.  A new type of tomb turned up, and two unfinished very early tombs, as well as more cisterns.  A complete investigation of the ridge might be done and would be interesting if there is time for anything intensive.  She took 5 panorama telephoto views from the Edomite circle in the afternoon glow.

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, 11 April: 31-32.