A Day in the Life of AcrossBorders Registrars

Object registration for the AcrossBorders Project is performed by Meg Gundlach and Ken Griffin, who return to Sai Island for their second season. Meg Gundlach is a post-doctoral researcher for the AcrossBorders Project while Ken Griffin, a Lecturer in Egyptology at Swansea University, is here as an external expert. This blog post is an account of their daily activities on Sai.

Our day starts with a 6.30am alarm. The last few mornings on Sai have been rather chilly so it’s out of bed and dressed as quickly as possible! Work officially starts at 7.00am, but beforehand we have a small breakfast and a drink, then make our way to the storage magazine. The first task of the day is to register objects that have been left for us by Julia. These are usually objects found during pottery sorting from the previous afternoon, such as re-used pot sherds (lids, scrapers, tokens, gaming pieces, and sometimes figurines). One of the highlights for us this season was a beautifully painted figurine of a horse (SAV1E 2675), dating to the Christian era, of which only the head survives (fig. 1).

fig. 1

fig. 1

Objects are registered in a FileMaker database, which now consists of an impressive 4300 objects. The most common type of object is stone tools, which make up over half the database: pounders, hammers, grindstones, handmills, and whetstones.

Around 8.30am we relocate from the magazine to the office, in order to spend the next two hours undertaking photography. The objects that have been registered in the past 24 hours are photographed first. This season we have also been photographing objects from the 2013 and 2014 excavation season that were not previously done. Today we had two boxes of whetstones, which are perhaps the most frustrating objects to photograph because they are usually friable sandstone, thus continuously leaving grains of sand on the backdrop.

Our main breakfast takes place between 10.30–11.00am, following which we return to the magazine to continue our work. The next two hours are spent sorting photographs. Photos from today (usually around 350 images) are renamed, rotated, cropped, and straightened by Ken. Next, a set of low-resolution thumbnails are produced for each image, which can be inserted into the FileMaker database without making the file-size too large. The images are sorted into folders by Meg, who also inserts the thumbnails into the database and clickable links to high-resolution images of the objects. With our photo duties complete, we undertake any number of tasks outstanding before lunch at 3.00pm. This often includes more object registration, washing of some re-used sherds, and inventorying boxes of objects.

Our lunch break finishes at 4.00pm and it’s back to the magazine for the final two hours of work. With the excavation work completed for the day, we are greeted by new finds! Meg sorts and records the non-registered material, such as bones (both human and animal), charcoal, organic material, shell, and wood. Ken, on the other hand, starts registering of the other objects into the database. This season we had a number of nice objects to register, including a finely produced faience earring (SAV1E 2729), of which only half survives (fig. 2).

fig. 2

fig. 2

We have had several new fragments of New Kingdom Nun-bowls, which were studied last season by Sabine Tschorn, including one that preserves part of the pool in the centre (SAV1W 1544 fig. 3).

fig. 3

fig. 3

Most recently, a model boat (SAV1W 1574) was discovered in the Western part of the town (fig. 4). Crudely modelled in clay, the boat was painted white, and closely resembles the papyrus skiffs commonly depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings.

fig. 4

fig. 4

Over the past week we have been joined in the magazine by our Sudanese inspector, Huda Magzoub, who has volunteered to Munsell the stone tools. For this, we are extremely grateful (fig. 5)!

fig. 5

fig. 5

With work finished, it’s time for a shower and some rest before dinner is served at 8.00pm. Now for some sleep to recharge the batteries for the following day’s work!

Stone Tools at Sai Island

By far, stone tools make up the majority of the small finds we handle each day. Even for a settlement site, both the East and West trenches are unearthing tools in unusually large quantities. Due to both the long history of use and the frequent employment of naturally shaped pebbles, these tools are extremely difficult to date. While they are common within our Eighteenth Dynasty contexts, we must admit that the area around the local medieval church is also littered with identical examples. The use of the natural rock shape can hamper the recognition and identification of these objects, and we were lucky to receive a crash course from Silvia Prell, an expert on macrolithics, who was here at Sai for the beginning of the season.

This year, the most commonly represented types of tool are pounders; heavy pebbles that can be used to grind and mix material against a slab of stone. These can come in multiple shapes and sizes, as well as a variety of materials.

One of the numerous pounders from SAV1 East (SAV1E 1823).

One of the numerous pounders from SAV1 East (SAV1E 1823).

The example shown here (SAV1E 1823) is made from a quartz pebble, which are extremely abundant on the Island. Despite being broken in half, it is clear that the tool was roughly spherical in shape, with percussions marks present along the entire circumference, thus indicating that it was well used.

Hand mills and grindstones, which are used together, are the next most common stone tools from Sai with 175 and 142 pieces already registered this year. Both are usually made from quartzite, although it is also possible for them to be made out of sandstone. Though some complete examples have been found, many are highly fragmentary, such as this hand mill (SAV1W 1189).

Fragmentary hand mill from SAV1 West (SAV1W 1189).

Fragmentary hand mill from SAV1 West (SAV1W 1189).

This season 173 whetstones have been registered into the database. A whetstone, mainly in the form of a piece of sandstone, is a sharpening stone used for knives and other cutting tools. SAV1W 720 is a good example of this in which multiple faces of the stone were utilized, as can be clearly seen by the deep grooves on the surface.

Example of a whetstone from SAV1 West (SAV1W 720).

Example of a whetstone from SAV1 West (SAV1W 720).

In our last blog post we asked our readers for comments and suggestions on a curious fragment of wood. We are grateful for all your suggestions on the identity of this object! This week we have an even stranger object for you to ponder.

Another curious object - this time in stone and from SAV1 West (SAV1W 1184).

Another curious object – this time in stone and from SAV1 West (SAV1W 1184).

SAV1W 1184 is a small natural pebble, irregularly shaped, which seems to have been worked. Small grooves appear to be carved at fairly regular intervals on the stone. Is this really a worked stone or is it simply the work of nature? If worked, what might this object represent and how old is it?