14th
Last day of the week
Thursday again and the last working day of the week. We’ve continued investigating some of the high mud-brick walls, though some of the chunks of what look like mud-brick are deceptive. In some cases what has survived is a wall with fill beside it which contains some fallen or displaced bricks, but isn’t actually part of an articulated wall itself. It is just what was left when people stopped work, digging away the mud bricks to use as fertiliser on the fields.
Brick wall embedded in fill on both sides.
Although the site has many low mounds which (on the surface at least) appear to contain mainly burned bricks, there are no extant red brick walls standing on the site, though there are a few chunks of burned brickwork on the surface.
Mounds which seem to be made up mainly of burned bricks, left behind after the mud-brick was removed.
A chunk of burned brickwork on the surface of the tell.
It got very hot and still on site today so we were glad to get back to our hotel only to discover the electricity was off in our room so the fridge (which we have found to be very useful!) had defrosted and the air-conditioning wouldn’t work. We reported it at reception and by the time we returned from lunch and a visit to the bank in the centre of the town, everything was working again.
Our hotel in Kafr es-Sheikh.
