Life in the field

Photos from the life in the field at Tell Aushariye.

The Danish expedition lives in a rented house (center left) in the modern village of Aushariye some 700 m from the site.

At the beginning of the season excavation trenches are laid out with a total station. The whole site is divided into 10 x 10 m squares in a grid with letters along the X-axis and numbers along the Y-axis. A particular square can e.g. be designated P/20.

The daily excavation begins just after sunrise. Local workers do most of the actual digging under supervision by the archaeologists, who also document the work, take notes, fill in labels, do sketches etc.

The exposed ruins are measured and drawn by the architect of the expedition.

The thousands of ceramic sherds foud in the excavation are brought back to the base camp, where they are washed and sorted. Occasionally they can be put together and form partly or completely reconstructed vessels, but usually they are remains of vessels broken and discarded in antiquity, and the sherds scattered in fills, perhaps in many places in the mound. The most important pieces are registered and drawn.

The short time in the field must be used to the full, but does leave rare occasions for leisure!