To start off my work on Wednesday, I worked with the Mrs. Dr. Schuler to help recover (as in cover again, not regain) the mosaic floors that were in the church. They had worked all last week to uncover them for the surveyors who did all their scanning stuff earlier this week. To properly protect the floor, we first dumped sand over the places with the actual mosaic, leveled off the rest of the floor with a dirt/sand mixture, and put a layer of dirt on that. We got one room done before it got too hot to work. After breakfast, I was able to go back down the cistern, with my camera this time!
Here's the rope ladder to get into the hole:
A view upwards:
And here's one of the walls that has been plastered:
After going down the cistern, I just helped around the site. I made several trips to the forum, taking felt that had once covered the mosaics. It was around then that in the one square that people were still digging, they made an awesome find: the floor. But this is not just any floor; it is a tiled floor with black and white diamond pattern, like a 50s diner. It is a tremendous find for this group that had been digging in that square for about three weeks, and just now hit the floor. It's one of the nicest floor we've found on site as well. It's pretty great. I also helped to cover a cistern, so that no one falls into it. That's kind of important...
With the last days upon us, there is a lot to do to prepare the site for a two year hiatus. Covering the mosaics is essential to keeping them intact. Tourists like to come and take souvenirs... like pieces of a mosaic floor. So we had to cover them. We'll have to do the same with the floor that was just uncovered, but that'll wait until tomorrow.
So we're really winding down here. What we do today and tomorrow will really be crucial to preserving the site for at least the next couple of years. We have all but one square finished, so we should be able to finish all that we need to.
Here's the rope ladder to get into the hole:
A view upwards:
And here's one of the walls that has been plastered:
After going down the cistern, I just helped around the site. I made several trips to the forum, taking felt that had once covered the mosaics. It was around then that in the one square that people were still digging, they made an awesome find: the floor. But this is not just any floor; it is a tiled floor with black and white diamond pattern, like a 50s diner. It is a tremendous find for this group that had been digging in that square for about three weeks, and just now hit the floor. It's one of the nicest floor we've found on site as well. It's pretty great. I also helped to cover a cistern, so that no one falls into it. That's kind of important...
With the last days upon us, there is a lot to do to prepare the site for a two year hiatus. Covering the mosaics is essential to keeping them intact. Tourists like to come and take souvenirs... like pieces of a mosaic floor. So we had to cover them. We'll have to do the same with the floor that was just uncovered, but that'll wait until tomorrow.
So we're really winding down here. What we do today and tomorrow will really be crucial to preserving the site for at least the next couple of years. We have all but one square finished, so we should be able to finish all that we need to.
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