Petra 1929
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3 April 1929

2/10/2018

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[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. 
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21 April 1929

12/9/2018

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[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.
Picture
Flooding in Wadi Musa, near El Biyara, 1929. Copyright UCL Institute of Archaeology.
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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