Arabic Diary, Vol.2, p.144

Diary Transcription:

Diary Translation: begin page 144
Saturday, January 17, 1925 (continued)

Here is the amount of debris moved on the railways, given in carloads:
IV V
41 64 carloads until 8:00 am
99 155 carloads from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm
102 165 carloads from 1:00 pm to the end of the day
242 384 total

As for the rest of the workmen, they were working to the east of the chapels. They were dumping the debris on the dump area of the Government [excavation]. They were not using the railways.

Today, we received a telegram from Reis Mahmud informing us that he will return next Monday morning.

Sunday, January 18, 1925

The workforce was 156 workmen. Work was progressing on (1) Street [G] 7300; (2) Street [G] 7400; (3) shaft 7112 A; (4) Mastaba 7215; (5) shaft 7430 X; (6) shaft 7432 A; (7) Mastaba 7433; and (8) shaft 7510 B.

(1) [Street G] 7300

Work was progressing on this street, in the area in front of Mastaba 7310. They were removing the Roman debris. Under this debris, there is layer of original debris consisting of stone blocks from the core of the mastaba, sand, limestone chips and rubble. They uncovered a column base to the north of the sided column. To the north of the new column, there is an entrance of a chapel. They found in the original debris:
8 limestone fragments, inscribed
1 fragment of an alabaster statue
1 copper arrowhead
1 faience eye-shaped amulet
1 crown fragment of a faience figurine of a deity
We were dumping the debris of this street on the dump of the Government [excavation].

(2) [Street G] 7400

Work was progressing on this street, in the area in front of Mastaba 7430. They were removing original debris consisting of sand, rubble and stone blocks.
They were also working behind the southwestern corner of Mastaba 7510. They were removing debris of limestone chips and rubble. They were exposing the lower courses of the walls of the mastaba in order to find out whether they are cased or not. We reached foundation courses and found that the walls were cased, but the casing stones had been stripped off. It seems that the casing stones were of high quality, and thus were entirely taken away by the Romans.
They found in the debris of the Romans:
1 faience figurine of a deity, with the head of a ram
4 faience eye-shaped amulets
2 neck fragments of faience jugs

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