STUDENT DAYNOTES AMHEIDA 2008

Name: Adam Prins Supervisor(s): Paoula Davoli and Monika Hellström Date: 1/26/08

□ Excavation □ Small Finds □ Topography □ Photography X Ceramics

└►Area: Room(s): X Data entry

What I have done:

Paoula took the students on a tour of Amheida as it was being set up. She oriented us to the various areas that are currently under excavation and the areas that were excavated in the past. We visited the features that had been found and excavated during previous seasons (e.g. the Pyramid), as well as some unexcavated features, such as the canal surrounding the Pyramid and the skeletal remains on the surface nearby. She briefly showed us the Villa and described in detail the supposed temenos wall that might have surrounded the temple.

After returning from the field at around 11:30 am, Monika supervised the students in sorting a great deal of pottery from the excavations at Ain el-Gedida. We finished at around 5:30 pm as the sun was beginning to set.

Following our work with pottery, Jennifer Thum and I were given a short tutorial by Fabrizio Pavia and Eugene Ball on the workings of AutoCAD software for our work digitizing the daily plans of the Amheida excavations. Jennifer and I were chosen to do this work because of our aptitude for technology-related tasks.

What I have learned:

Paoula's tour of the site not only gave me an idea of the layout of the ancient city of Amheida, but it also gave me a sense of what the mission hopes to accomplish this season.

Working with ceramics helped me develop amateur skills at determining the differences between the various ceramic fabrics (although a difficulty will be noted below).

Learning the AutoCAD software will be an essential skill for me in the future and for my work on other excavations, as well as extremely valuable for the documentation of this season's findings at Amheida. Having an in depth understanding of the architectural makeup of individual rooms in houses within the greater picture of the city, will allow me to look into the inner-workings of domestic life as well as the inner finds of the temple complex. This will tie together the entire site because I will be manually entering each and every brick, wall, and find.

Problems I have found:

While sorting pottery, I found it very difficult—with my current level of training—to distinguish between the P37 fabric and the A fabrics. I constantly had to ask Andrea Myers (one of the ceramicists) which was which. Further training and practice will most certainly help with this disparity.