DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11610#0174
162 TEN YEARS' DIGGING IN EGYPT
In order to encourage the men to preserve all they
find, and to prevent their being induced to secrete
things of value, they should always be paid as a
present the market price of such things at that place,
and a trifle for any pottery or little scraps that may
be wanted. To do this properly it is needful to know
the local prices pretty closely, so as to ensure getting
everything, and on the other hand not to induce men
to foist things into the work from other places. Wages
are paid by measure wherever possible, as it avoids the
need of keeping the men up to the work, and is happier
for both parties. Some day-work intermixed where
measurement is impossible will often suffice.
It would be thought at first that nothing could be
easier than to know a wall when you see it. Yet both
in Egypt and Palestine the discrimination of mud-brick
walls from the surrounding soil and rubbish in which
they are buried, is one of the most tedious and per-
plexing tasks. To settle what is a wall and what is
washed mud, and to find the limits and clear the face of
the wall, is often a matter of half-an-hour's examination.
The two opposite ways of working are by trenching
sections through the wall, or by clearing the faces of it.
The first is clumsy, but is needful sometimes, espe-
cially if the wall is much like the soil, and the workman
cannot be trusted ; as, if the face is cleared, the whole
outside may be cut away without leaving any trace.
The light on the surface is all-important, as any
shadows or oblique lights mask the differences of the
bricks ; either all in sunshine, or better, all in shade, is
needful to see the bricks. A distant general view will
often show differences of tint in the courses, yellow, red,
In order to encourage the men to preserve all they
find, and to prevent their being induced to secrete
things of value, they should always be paid as a
present the market price of such things at that place,
and a trifle for any pottery or little scraps that may
be wanted. To do this properly it is needful to know
the local prices pretty closely, so as to ensure getting
everything, and on the other hand not to induce men
to foist things into the work from other places. Wages
are paid by measure wherever possible, as it avoids the
need of keeping the men up to the work, and is happier
for both parties. Some day-work intermixed where
measurement is impossible will often suffice.
It would be thought at first that nothing could be
easier than to know a wall when you see it. Yet both
in Egypt and Palestine the discrimination of mud-brick
walls from the surrounding soil and rubbish in which
they are buried, is one of the most tedious and per-
plexing tasks. To settle what is a wall and what is
washed mud, and to find the limits and clear the face of
the wall, is often a matter of half-an-hour's examination.
The two opposite ways of working are by trenching
sections through the wall, or by clearing the faces of it.
The first is clumsy, but is needful sometimes, espe-
cially if the wall is much like the soil, and the workman
cannot be trusted ; as, if the face is cleared, the whole
outside may be cut away without leaving any trace.
The light on the surface is all-important, as any
shadows or oblique lights mask the differences of the
bricks ; either all in sunshine, or better, all in shade, is
needful to see the bricks. A distant general view will
often show differences of tint in the courses, yellow, red,