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METHODS AND AIMS
IN
ARCHAEOLOGY

Fig. 1. Chain of boys clearing the Osireion at Abydos.

41 feet deep.

METHODS & AIMS
IN
ARCHAEOLOGY

BY

W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE
HON. D.C.L., LL.D., LIT.D., PH.D. : F.R.S. ; HON. F.S.A. (SCOT.) :

Member of the Imperial German Archaeological Institute;
Member of the Society of Northern Antiquaries;
Member of the Roman Society of Anthropology;
Edwards Professor of Egyptology, University College, London.

WITH 66 ILLUSTRATIONS

London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1904

All rights reserved

TO MY FRIENDS

• F. LL. GRIFFITH,
• E. A. GARDNER,
• F. J. BLISS,
• H. CARTER,
• B. P. GRENFELL,
• J. E. QUIBELL,
• J. DUNCAN,
• H. F. PETRIE,
• N. DE O. DAVIES,
• A. C. MACE,
• D. RANDALL-MACIVER,
• B. ORME,
• A. E. WEIGALL,
• M. A. MURRAY,
• L. ECKENSTEIN,
• H. STANNUS,
• C. T. CURRELLY,
• E. R. AYRTON,

WHO HAVE JOINED IN VARIOUS PORTIONS OF THE WORK HERE DESCRIBED, 1884–1903.

PREFACE

Archaeology is the latest born of the sciences. It has but scarcely struggled into freedom, out of the swaddling clothes of dilettante speculations. It is still attracted by pretty things, rather than by real knowledge. It has to find shelter with the Fine Arts or with History, and not a single home has yet been provided for its real growth.

All other sciences deal with the things around us; with subjects which may, or may not, affect us. Even medical sciences are concerned with the mechanical structure of the body, rather than with the nature and abilities of the mind. But the science which enquires into all the products and works of our own species, which shows what man has been doing in all ages and under all conditions, which reveals his mind, his thoughts, his tastes, his feelings,—such a science touches us more closely than any other.

By this science, of which History forms a part, we trace the nature of man, age after age,—his capacities, his abilities; we learn where he succeeds, where he fails, and what his possibilities may be.

From another point of view the subject should be considered; it gives a more truly “liberal education” than any other subject, as at present taught. A complete archaeological training would require a full knowledge of history and art, a fair use of languages, and a working familiarity with many sciences. The one-sided growth of modern training, which produces a B.A. who knows nothing of natural science, or else a B.Sc. who knows nothing of human nature, is assuredly not the ideal for a reasonable man. Archaeology,—the knowledge of how man has acquired his present position and powers—is one of the widest studies, best fitted to open the mind, and to produce that type of wide interests and toleration which is the highest result of education.

Though this volume is a book of reference for those engaged in actual work, yet it will also serve to give the public a view of the way in which this work is done, the mode in which results are obtained, the ends which are pursued, and the important questions which must be considered. We have nothing here to do with the details of the facts discovered; but deal only with the methods and aims, which have been slowly learned in a quarter of a century. Yet every year there are fresh methods to add, and more clear views of the aims; and far more might easily have been said about each of the subjects here discussed.

If in this outline there is much more reference to Egypt than to other countries, it is for the reason that most of my own work has lain there; and there is the more need to deal with that land, as more exploration is going on there than elsewhere.

I have to thank my friends for six of the photographs here used.

W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE.

University College, London.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 2. Going up the desert, Abydos.

Fig. 3. Going up the desert, Abydos.

CHAPTER I
THE EXCAVATOR

Purpose.

In few kinds of work are the results so directly dependent on the personality of the worker as they are in excavating. The old saying that a man finds what he looks for in a subject, is too true; or if he has not enough insight to ensure finding what he looks for, it is at least sadly true that he does not find anything that he does not look for. Whether it be inscriptions, carvings, papyri, or mummies that excavators have been seeking, they have seldom preserved or cared for anything but their own limited object.

Of late years the notion of digging merely for profitable spoil, or to yield a new excitement to the jaded, has spread unpleasantly—at least in Egypt. A concession to dig is sought much like a grant of a monastery at the Dissolution: the man who has influence or push, a title or a trade connection, claims to try his luck at the spoils of the land. Gold digging has at least no moral responsibility, beyond the ruin of the speculator; but spoiling the past has an acute moral wrong in it, which those who do it may be charitably supposed to be too ignorant or unintelligent to see or realise.

And some systematic outline of archaeological methods and aims is needed, not only for those whose moral sense is so untrained that they may ruin a site, and say “I have done no wrong”; but it may even profit those who take up the name of archaeology when they mean solely art, or inscriptions, or some single branch of the subject. The most familiar teaching entitled archaeological is that of Classical Archaeology, which in the ways of most teachers means Greek sculpture and vase paintings. In spite of all the professorships and schools of that subject, we are still so profoundly ignorant of the archaeology of Greece and Italy that there is scarcely a single class of common objects of which any one knows the history and transformations. Certainly we know far less of the archaeology of classical lands than we do of that of Egypt.

Character.

If, then, the character of the excavator thus determines his results, our first step is to consider that character, and to give some outline of the aptitudes and acquirements—the wit and the cunning, as our forefathers well distinguished them—which are wanted in order to avoid doing more harm than good.

Firstly in every subject there is the essential division between those who work to live, and those who live to work—the commercial, and the scientific or artistic aim;—those who merely do what will best provide them a living, and those whose work is their honour and the end of their being. These two halves of mankind are by no means to be found ready labelled by their professions. The R.A. who drops his aspirations because portraits pay best, the scientific scholar who patents every invention he can, are of the true commercial spirit, and verily they have their reward. Rather let us honour the professed dealer who will sooner sell a group to a museum than make a larger profit by playing to the wealthy dilettante and scattering things. Let us be quit, in archaeology at least, of the brandy-and-soda young man who manipulates his “expenses,” of the adventurous speculator, of those who think that a title or a long purse glorifies any vanity or selfishness.

Without the ideal of solid continuous work, certain, accurate, and permanent,—archaeology is as futile as any other pursuit. Money alone will not do the work; brains are the first requisite. A hundred pounds intelligently spent will do more good and far less harm than ten thousand squandered in doing damage. Mere money gives no moral right to upset things according to the whim of one person. Even scholarship is by no means all that is wanted; the engineering training of mind and senses which Prof. Perry advocates will really fit an archaeologist better for excavating than book-work can alone. Best of all is the combination of the scholar and the engineer, the man of languages and the man of physics and mathematics, when such can be found. So much for the wit, and now of the cunning that is wanted.

Experience.

The most needful of all acquisitions is archaeological experience. Without knowing well all the objects that are usually met with in an ancient civilisation, there is no possible insight or understanding, the meaning of what is met with cannot be grasped, and the most curious mistakes are made. A cloud is “very like a whale,” the pre-Christian cross is found everywhere, an arrow-straightener is called a ceremonial staff, an oil-press becomes a sacred trilithon, half a jackal is called a locust, and lathe chucks become “coal money.” Of course the needed experience has to be gradually built up, and those who first explore a civilisation must work through many mistakes. When I first came to Egypt Dr. Birch begged me to pack and send to him a box of pottery fragments from each great town, on the chance that from the known history of the sites some guess could be made as to the age of the objects; so complete was the ignorance of the archaeology a quarter of a century ago. But when such knowledge has been once accumulated, it is the first duty of any excavator to make himself well acquainted with it before he attempts to discover more. At present the archaeological experience that should be acquired before doing any responsible work in any country ought to cover the history of the pottery century by century, the history of beads, of tools and weapons, of the styles of art, of the styles of inscriptions, of the burial furniture, and of the many small objects which are now well known and dated, better in Egypt than perhaps in any other country.

Next to this is needed a good knowledge of the history. Not only every dynasty, but every king of whom anything is known, should be familiar. The general course of the civilisation, the foreign influences which affected the country, and the conditions at different periods, should be clearly in mind. Without such ideas the value and meaning of discoveries cannot be grasped, and important clues and fresh knowledge may be passed by.

Organization.

Organization, both of the plan of work, and of the labourers, is very necessary. Scheming how to extract all that is possible from a given site, how to make use of all the conditions, how to avoid difficulties; and training labourers, keeping them all firmly in hand, making them all friends without allowing familiarity, getting their full confidence and their goodwill;—these requirements certainly rank high in an excavator’s outfit.

Acquirements.

The power of conserving material and information; of observing all that can be gleaned; of noticing trifling details which may imply a great deal else; of acquiring and building up a mental picture; of fitting everything into place, and not losing or missing any possible clues;—all this is the soul of the work, and without it excavating is mere dumb plodding.

Of more external subjects, such as may be deputed to other helpers, drawing is mainly wanted; more in mechanical exactitude of facsimile-copying than in freehand or purely artistic work. Surveying and practical mathematics, with plan drawing, are almost always involved in dealing with any site. Photography is incessantly in use, both during the course of the working and for preparing publications. The outlines of chemistry and physics and a good knowledge of materials are necessary to avoid blunders in handling objects and in describing them. The ancient language of a country, all important as it is in the study of remains, is yet in its critical aspects not so essential during field-work. But the excavator should at least be able to take the sense of all written material which he finds; and in Egypt that should include hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic, Greek, and Coptic writing. The spoken language of the country should be fluently acquired for simple purposes, so as to be able to direct workmen, make bargains, and follow what is going on. To be dependent on a cook, a dragoman, or a donkey boy, is very unsafe, and prevents that close study of the workmen which is needed for making the best use of them. And a general eye to the safety and condition of everything, both of work, antiquities, and stores, is incessantly wanted if a camp is to be successful and prosperous.

Many of these requirements can well be undertaken by different people; in fact, not a single living person combines all of the requisite qualities for complete archaeological work. But all of these requirements must be fulfilled by different members in a party, if they are to command success as well as deserve it. In all points, imagination and insight, the sense of all the possibilities of a case, is to be the medium of thought both in theoretical and in practical affairs.

Camp life, Abydos.

Fig. 4. Tent in desert.

Camp life, Abydos.

Fig. 5. Huts at temple.

Demands of the work.

In the externals of the work an excavator should be always his own best workman. If he be the strongest on the place, so much the better; but at all events he should be the most able in all matters of skill and ability. Where anything is found it should be the hands of the master that clear it from the soil; the pick and the knife should be in his hands every day, and his readiness should be shown by the shortness of his finger-nails and the toughness of his skin. After a week of work in the soil, feeling for delicate things in a way that no tools can do, the skin almost wears through, and the nails break down. But a week or two more at it, and the excavator grows his gloves, and is in a fit state for business, with the skin well thickened, and ready to finger through tons of grit and sand. Nothing can be a substitute for finger-work in extracting objects, and clearing ground delicately; and one might as well try to play the violin in a pair of gloves as profess to excavate with clean fingers and a pretty skin. It need hardly be said that clothing must correspond to the work; and there must never be a thought about clothes when one kneels in wet mud, scrapes through narrow passages, or sits waist deep in dust. To attempt serious work in pretty suits, shiny leggings, or starched collars, would be like mountaineering in evening dress, or remind one of the old prints of cricketers batting in chimney-pot hats. The man who cannot enjoy his work without regard to appearances, who will not strip and go into the water, or slither on slimy mud through unknown passages, had better not profess to excavate. Alongside of his men he must live, in work hours and out; every workman should come to him at all times for help and advice. His courtyard must be the pay office and the court of appeal for every one; and continual attention should be freely given to the many little troubles of those who are to be kept properly in hand. To suppose that work can be controlled from a distant hotel, where the master lives in state and luxury completely out of touch with his men, is a fallacy, like playing at farming or at stockbroking: it may be amusing, but it is not business. And whatever is not businesslike in archaeology is a waste of the scanty material which should be left for those who know how to use it. An excavator must make up his mind to do his work thoroughly and truly, or else to leave it alone for others who will take the trouble which it deserves and requires.

Temple ruins.

Fig. 6. El Hibeh.

Temple ruins.

Fig. 7. Tanis, with obelisks.

CHAPTER II
DISCRIMINATION

The observing of resemblances and differences, and the memory of physical appearances required for this, are absolute requisites for carrying on the duties of excavating. Here we deal with the appearances in a land of sun-dried brickwork, where the accumulations are great, as in Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia. In a rocky land, such as Greece, there is not the same sheltering mud, and the appearances are therefore very different.

Temples.

The nature of a site can be guessed pretty closely from its aspect. A wide open space with mounds around it is almost certainly a temple site; and if there are stone chips strewn over it, no doubt remains as to its nature (Figs. [6], [7]). The temples being of stone from the XIIth Dynasty onwards, they were ruined by the removal of the material in each age of disruption; but the houses of the towns, being always of mud brick, continually crumbled and decayed, and so filled up the ground with rubbish. In Egypt mud-brick towns accumulate at about 20 inches in a century; or in the rainy Syrian climate at about 50 inches. Herodotus describes walking on the roofs of the houses and seeing down into the temple precincts; and in every great site in Egypt, such as Tanis, Buto, Bubastis, Memphis, or Koptos, the plain of temple ruins had the house mounds far above it on all sides. The temples were ruined both for building-stone and for lime-burning. It is rare to get any portions of a limestone building left; sandstone is often found, and all the great temples which remain are of sandstone; granite generally has lasted, except where it has been split up in Roman times for millstones. The search for limestone has led to whole buildings being upset in order to extract the limestone foundations. The basalt pavement of Khufu, the granite pylon of Crocodilopolis, and probably the granite temple of Iseum, have been overthrown thus. Especially in the Delta, where no limestone hills are accessible, this destructive search for lime has been unrelenting in all ages; and it is seldom that ancient limestone is now met with. Hence all that can generally be seen of a temple site is a plain of dust with a few tumbled blocks of granite, the exposed tops of which are entirely weathered as rounded masses. Five or ten feet down there may be a rich harvest of carvings and inscriptions.

Fig. 8. Mounds of fort, Defeneh.

Fig. 9. Sarcophagi at Zuweleyn.

Towns.

A town site is always recognised ([Fig. 8]) by its mounds of crumbling mud brick, strewn with potsherds if in Upper Egypt, or with burnt red bricks on the later mounds of the Delta. Whenever a native begins to describe a site in Lower Egypt, one inquires if there is red brick, and if so there is no need to listen further. Generally it is possible to date the latest age of a town by the potsherds lying on the surface; and to allow a rate of growth of 20 inches a century down to the visible level; if that gives a long period we may further carry down the certainly artificial level by 4 inches in a century for the Nile deposits when in the cultivated ground. For instance, there are mounds in the Delta about 40 feet high, ending about 500 A.D.; this gives about 40 feet of rise, equal to about 2400 years, or say 2000 B.C., for the age at the present ground level. But the visible base was about 5 feet lower at 500 A.D.; and the human deposit rising at 20 inches a century has been overlaid at the rate of 4 inches a century by the Nile deposit. Hence the age may be reckoned by a depth of 45 feet accumulated at 16 inches a century before 500 A.D. or about 2900 B.C. No exact conclusion could be based on this; but it is a valuable clue to the age to which the yet unseen foundation of a town may most likely belong. Town mounds and ruins of buildings have generally symmetrical forms, weathered away uniformly on all sides. But around towns are often heaps of rubbish thrown out, the best-known example of this being the immense heaps behind Cairo; and such accumulations usually show their nature by the two slopes, the gradual walk-up slope, and the steep thrown-down slope.

Cemeteries.

The cemetery sites on the desert have always been more or less plundered anciently. A prehistoric site may have no external trace, as the blown sand may cover it so evenly that there is no suspicion of anything lying beneath. But on a gravel surface there are generally some indications left of the hollows of the graves, and scraps of broken pottery left about by the plunderers ([Fig. 9]). The historic cemeteries are generally easier to see, as they are in rising ground, and the holes of the tomb pits show on the surface. The difficulty is not to find the site of a cemetery, but to find a grave in it which still contains anything. As a rule, any tomb pit which appears still undisturbed has been left either because it belongs to an unfinished tomb with nothing in it, or because the tomb has already been reached from elsewhere. At Medum an untouched walling up of a chamber had been left, because the plunderers had tunnelled under the mass of the tomb and broken through the floor of the chamber. At Dendereh the floor of the chamber was entire, with the lid of the sarcophagus sunk in it, yet untouched; it had been left so because the plunderers had mined through from the outside under the floor to the sarcophagus, and broken through the side of it without touching the chamber. Some untouched tombs were left because the burials in them were known to be so poor that they were not worth opening. All this points to the plundering being mostly done during the lifetime of those who saw the burial. Usually only one tomb in ten contains anything noticeable; and it is only one in a hundred that repays the digging of the other ninety-nine.

Indications.

In general, on looking over a site every indication must be observed. Sometimes there may be a slight difference in vegetation, showing the positions of walls or of pits. In colder climates differences are shown by the melting of hoar frost or snow; as in the square of S. Domenico at Bologna, where some large patches—probably of ashes—show through the cobble paving during a thaw. A shower of rain will show much in drying; and, after a rare storm in Egypt, there are two or three precious hours when the buried walls show clearly on the ground, and should be hurriedly scored down before the hot sun removes the traces. A driving wind will bare the ground so that the harder walls show through the sand; or even a crowd of people passing will tramp into the softer filling and show the constructions. At sunrise or sunset ground should be carefully looked over to pick out the variations of level and slope, which will often show then, though quite invisible in full light. Prehistoric camp sites are noticed by the difference of tone of the ground in walking over them; the ashes holding so much air that the reverberation to the foot-step is quite different from that on ordinary desert. The appearance of the surface of disturbed desert differs much from the undisturbed: there may be slight hollows filled with sand, which are the traces of deep pits; there may be pebbles from deep beds thrown up, or fragments of limestone; or—best of all—chips of worked stone or of hard rocks may tell the tale of a building whose ruins lie beneath. The mastabas of the XIIth Dynasty at Dahshur left scarcely any surface trace, as the stone walls had been removed, and the gravel filling had spread out and denuded down to a level surface. The great wall of the camp at Daphnae 40 feet thick, had been ploughed by denudation until it was even lower than the desert on either side of it, and the lines of it were only visible by the absence of potsherds upon the site of the wall.

Mid, Late, Ist, IIIrd, VIth, XIIth, XVIIIth Dyn.
Prehistoric.

Fig. 10.—Development of copper and bronze adzes. 1:6.

Productions.

Besides the discrimination of sites there is a vast subject in the discrimination of objects and of styles. The first requisite acquirement of a digger—his archaeological experience—consists in discriminating and distinguishing the differences between products of various dates. An Egyptian copper adze ([Fig. 10]) of the ages of middle prehistoric, late prehistoric, early dynastic, IIIrd, VIth, XIIth, or XVIIIth Dynasties can be told at a glance, and we only need more dated examples to be able to separate them still more finely. A cutting-out knife ([Fig. 11]), a pair of tweezers, a comb, can be dated almost as certainly. But it is when we can look not only to differences of form, but also to variations of colour and texture, that we have the widest scope for discrimination. The great variety of beads in each country, the hundreds of details of form, materials, and colour in Egypt alone, give them an importance archaeologically above most other things. In the prehistoric age there are a dozen materials, and many different forms, not one of which can be confounded with later products. In the Old Kingdom new and distinctive styles are met with, and a profusion of small amulets on necklaces. In the XIth and XIIth Dynasties magnificent beads of amethyst, green felspar, and carnelian outshine those of every other age. In the XVIIIth Dynasty the immense variety of glass and glazed beads defy enumeration, and yet are sharply characteristic of different reigns of that age. The later times of degradation also produce new and distinctive forms and colours; and when we reach the Roman period a flood of glass work imitates the fashionable beryl, amethyst, rock crystal, and other stones, with the mimicry of a forger.

Fig. 11.—Development of cutting-out knives. XIIth–XIXth Dynasties. A-A and B-B cutting edges.

Fig. 12.—One typical form of pottery of each period.

Pottery.

Pottery is, however, the greatest resource of the archaeologist. For variety of form and texture, for decoration, for rapid change, for its quick fall into oblivion, and for its incomparable abundance, it is in every respect the most important material for study ([Fig. 12]), and it constitutes the essential alphabet of archaeology in every land. Think for a moment how few people know the appearance of a common jug a century old, how the crocks of Georgian times have all vanished, and new forms are made. Even of decorated china not one piece in a thousand in England is before the last century, and not one in a million is three centuries old; so rapidly does breakable ware perish, and become unknown. This not only prevents its being handed on from earlier times, as ornaments or weapons may descend, but it prevents the copying of older forms, and gives a free scope to rapid variation. No doubt some standard forms may continue to be made, because they are so simple, and so adapted to common wants, that the same causes continue to produce them. But it is only the simplest and least characteristic types which thus continue; the more detailed and specialised the form, the more rapidly it changes, and gives way to new styles. In the prehistoric age of Egypt alone there are about a thousand different forms of pottery; and when the historic times shall be as fully recorded, probably two or three times as many will demand notice. In Italy and Greece there is apparently as great a variety, though—apart from painted vases—it is very far from being fully placed on paper. And when we come to know the archaeology of other lands, their pottery will doubtless prove as varied and distinctive in its styles. It is then in a thorough knowledge of pottery that any sound archaeology must be based; and there is no wider or more important field for discrimination. With the brief view of Palestinian pottery gained in a few weeks, on one site at Tell Hesy (Lachish), I found it possible to ride over mounds of ruins and see the age of them without even dismounting.

Style.

Beside the discrimination of broad physical differences there is the more subtle observation of style. This cannot be discussed, or even shown to exist, without a very wide collection of examples; yet in a trained observer a long series of experience should result in an unexpressed—almost intangible and incommunicable—sense of the style of each country and each age, such that a piece of work can at once be referred to its proper place, though not a single exact comparison can be quoted for it. Special motives, outlines, curves, tastes, belong to various sources so certainly and characteristically that they show their origin at a glance. A good example of this is seen in the bronzes of Minusinsk in Central Asia; this site is almost equidistant from the North Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the China Sea, and the style seems to recall by its details almost equally the taste of Northmen, Persians, and Chinese. A good practice for such discrimination is the analysis of common ornament around us: a rug or a wall pattern may be analysed into its sources—here a bit from Assyria, there from Egypt, here from Japan, there from Norway, all hashed together by the modern designer. And until the common and obviously distinctive patterns of each country can be named at sight, and separated into their various sources, the observer cannot hope to gain that far more essential sense of the national taste of each people, and the sympathetic feeling of the relationship of any form or curve that may chance to be seen,—that conviction of the family and source of each object, which is the illumination of an archaeologist, the guide to fresh suggestions and researches, the mental framework which holds all memories in place.

Visual Memory.

But beside this sublimated use of the permanent memory and discrimination, there is another very crude and transient discrimination which is also needed in actual work. A visual memory of the site and excavations should be constantly in mind; the master should be able to go over the whole site, and every man at work on it, entirely from memory; he should be able to realise at once, on seeing the place next day, exactly how every one of fifty different holes looked the day before; and know at once where the work stood, and what has been done since, so as to measure it up without depending on any statements by the workmen. If a boy comes with a message that Ibrahim or Mutwali needs direction, the master should be able to visualise the place, inquire what has been done, and how each part now stands, and then give sufficient temporary direction entirely from memory of the site, and memory of what he expected to do, or to prove, or to find, from that particular hole. The extent of this visual memory is never realised until one meets with some who are so unlucky as not to possess such an apparatus, and who are therefore unable to know what has been done, and have to begin each day’s work as if they were strangers to the place. Of all inherent mental qualifications there is perhaps none more essential to a digger than this permanent picture of a site in the mind. And the transient memory from day to day should include the appearance of every hole on all sides, the meaning of it and the purpose for which it is being dug.

CHAPTER III
THE LABOURERS

Quality.

In starting an excavation one of the first considerations is the supply of labourers, and the selection of them. In some places it is difficult to persuade any one to work at first; either from distrust, or from being unaccustomed to regular employment. At Naukratis only a few men could be persuaded to try the work in the first week or two; but so soon as the villagers found that genuine gold coin was to be had, they swarmed up, and some five hundred demanded to be taken. The Egyptian is good at steady work, but the Syrian is very different, and it took some weeks at Tell Hesy to educate men into continuous regular digging. They would jump out of their holes every few minutes, and squat on the edge for a talk with the next man; and only a steady weeding out of about a third of them every week, gradually brought up the best of them into tolerable efficiency. In Greece such difficulties are even greater, and rational regular hard work cannot be reckoned upon, as in Egypt.

Fig. 13. Workers at Tanis.

Fig. 14. Workers at Tanis.

The best age for diggers is about 15 to 20 years. After that many turn stupid, and only a small proportion are worth having between 20 and 40. After 40 very few are of any use, though some robust men will continue to about 50. The Egyptian ages early; and men of 45 would be supposed to be 65 in England. The boys are of use for carrying from about 10 years old; and they generally look mere boys till over 20. The ornamental man with a good beard is quite useless and lazy; and the best workers are the scraggy under-sized youths, with wizened wiry faces, though sometimes a well-favoured lad with pleasing face will turn out very good ([Fig. 13]). In choosing boys the broad face and square chin are necessary tokens of stamina; and the narrow feminine faces are seldom worth much.

Beside the mere physical strength of the fellow, the face has to be studied for the character. The only safe guide in selecting workers is the expression; and no influence of recommendations or connections should weigh in the least against the judgment of the appearance. The qualities to be considered are, first, the honesty, shown mostly by the eyes, and by a frank and open bearing; next, the sense and ability; and lastly, the sturdiness, and freedom from nervous weakness and hysterical tendency to squabble.

Education.

When once selected, the education of the workers begins. Often some oafs who will not understand any directions, and have no sense to work unless encouraged by watching, may yet be brought up in a few months to be good workers if associated with a skilful man. And almost every boy and man will greatly improve by steady work and control. The effect of selection and training is astonishingly seen on comparing some old hands, who have had five or ten years at the business, side by side with new lads. There is as much difference between their capacities as there is between the fellah and an educated Englishman. A gang of well-trained men need hardly any direction, especially in cemetery work; and their observations and knowledge should always be listened to, and will often determine matters. The freshman from England is their inferior in everything except in recording; and at least a season’s experience is needed before any one can afford to disregard the judgment of a well-trained digger. The better class of these workers are one’s personal friends, and are regarded much as old servants are in a good household. Their feelings and self-respect must be thought of, as among our own equals, and they will not put up with any rudeness or contempt. A man with landed property and cattle, and an ancestry of a couple of centuries, can afford to look down on most Englishmen who would bully him. Such workers are of course entirely above going into the usual Government or French work, where the lash is used; and their good service and skill is only given for friendly treatment.

Control.

Yet there is a danger in letting control slip away. It is always needful to be firm, and to insist on obedience to orders; and constant keeping in hand is required, not only for the rank and file but even for the best men. An Egyptian cannot withstand temptations if often repeated; and the fault of a collapse of character, which befalls even the best, is mainly due to not keeping sufficient hold and influence, and not taking sufficient trouble to ensure control. The first rule in managing the better class of men is not to let any man get a habit or prerogative of doing any kind of work for oneself: never let the same man repeatedly go for purchases, or for money, or carry things, or walk with the master, or explain phrases, or boss anybody or anything. All such services should be carefully spread over several men; and if there be two parties—as from opposite sides of the Nile—always keep them well balanced in your consideration. Each will then keep a sharp lookout on the opposition.

Beside men and boys, girls ([Fig. 15]) will work very well in the Delta and in Syria, though not in Upper Egypt. They do well at carrying; and as they never ask for pick work they are, when well grown, worth more than the boys. Not only will they come from the village day by day, but they will also camp out with their fathers and brothers in camps at a distance from home. No difficulty or unpleasantness has arisen in such mixed camps in my work.

Substitutions.

A frequent trouble is from substitution of workers. The fact of being chosen is worth something; and the worker will try to sell his place to a substitute, and then get in again soon after on the plea of being an old hand. So long as a substitute comes only for a day or so, he may be tolerated. But if there arises a frequent plea of “So-and-So is ill to-day, and wants me to work for him,” it is needful to stamp on it by refusing all substitutes, and replying, “If he is ill, I will take him back when he is better.” One common cause is that they wish to push in younger and younger boys ([Fig. 16]), so that the fellow who was 14 or 16 at first, dwindles imperceptibly until he can hardly carry a basket. An opposite cause is that only boys are taken on in some places because the men cannot be trusted; and then the supreme object of the villains of the place is to get in as substitutes for boys, so that they may learn what is found and where to plunder at night. Most usually when a substitute is refused the original boy turns up as well as ever. I have known the village guards come and call a lad out on a trumped-up charge, with a friend of the guard following close by, quite ready just to work for the accused.

Overseers.

Turning now to the organization, there are two great choices to be made, with or without Overseers, and by Day pay or Piecework. Each system may be best under particular conditions, and the suitability of each we will note first, before entering on detail.

Overseers are almost always employed. They remove much of the friction; they profess to drive the men on, and be responsible for their regular working; and they seem indispensable parts of the business. The less a master knows of the men and of their language the more essential an overseer seems to be.

Fig. 15. Girls and boys in the work.

Fig. 16. Girls and boys in the work.

Yet all this usefulness is the best reason for avoiding them. The more friction they save, the less the master knows of his men, and the less influence he has. The more they profess to drive the men, the more hollow the fraud is, until the overseer merely serves to give notice when the master is coming. The more indispensable they seem, the less desirable is it to have so to trust a native. And the less a master knows of the men and the language, the more dangerous it is to have some one always acting in everything that goes on. Moreover, there is nothing so demoralising to a native as wandering about, without hard work, stick in hand, to bully men who are quite as good as himself. Even good men soon lose their character in such conditions, and it is needful to have some definite allotted manual work for even a leading man.

The results of having overseers, or reises, are instructive. In one case the reis took a third of all the money given as rewards for things, threatening to get any man dismissed who would not give this up to him. In another case the overseers levied a sixth of all the wages from the men, making ten times their own pay by this extortion. Mariette’s overseers used to go to a village with a Government order for so many men, and demand the best men they could venture on claiming. These bought themselves off, each at a few shillings a month, and lower men were taken, until most of the villagers were paying heavy tribute. Reises will also bargain with a shopkeeper to put on a third on the price of all goods supplied, and compel any messenger sent shopping to go to that shop. In another case a museum reis was seen bowing down to the ground and kissing the hand of the principal antika-dealer of the place; doubtless for good consideration received. In short, the dangers, losses, and troubles that come from reises are so great that it is far better to do without them.

Direct system.

The system which works best is to have a careful distribution of the best men; and, in fact, work with two or three dozen reises, all of whom do pick-work themselves. Each well-trained man can have half-a-dozen new hands placed near him, and he can be ordered to see that they follow instructions. By such a wide distribution of the authority it does not deteriorate the men, as there are too many rivals; and being each paid for actual digging, they do not spoil with idleness. Thus every man is directly under the master, all instructions are given at first hand, and every one is in close touch, and not fenced off by intermediate intriguers. Doubtless, two or three men will come to the front by their ability and character; but though full use should be made of them, yet they should always be kept nominally on the same terms and work as every one else. Their reward consists in being given all the more promising places, where things are likely to be found, so that they may reap much more profit than others.

In some different conditions of work overseers may be a necessary evil. In Greece the large distances of sites from each other in the Aegean and political conditions are a bar to employing a regular gang of men, although the Egyptian will readily travel three or four hundred miles to his season’s work, as far as Constantinople from Athens, and is quite ready to do his work in spite of the scowls of a bad neighbourhood. Fresh workers are engaged at each place in Greece, and for their needful training overseers are considered necessary. Also at present, owing to the continual shifting of European superintendence by changes of students, and less frequent changes of Directors, permanent overseers who will carry on the traditions of the modes of working are requisite. But it is questionable whether these needs would not be more safely met by carrying about ten or a dozen picked workmen, who would train local hands, and at the same time work themselves. The Greek does not seem nearly as capable of continuous hard work as is the Egyptian, and moves much less earth in the day, and that at about double the wages, while he is said to entirely refuse piecework. But this difficulty would be reduced if a small picked body of hard workers, stimulated by good piece pay, were used as a nucleus to set the tone of steady work at each place. The Greek needs educating to regular work, which is foreign to his nature.

In England about as much work may be done per man as in Egypt, but at about five or six times the cost. Hence the number employed is not so large, twenty or thirty being a large gang, instead of 150 or 200 as in Egypt. As they can follow directions tolerably, an overseer or foreman is not needed, the best of the workers usually taking the lead.

Day pay.

The question between Day pay and Piece pay is an open one. In cases where minute valuables may be scattered anywhere in the soil, day pay is needful to prevent undue hurry. Or where the work is very irregular, and time needs to be spent on moving stones, or heavy extras, day pay must be given. But where the work is uniform, and the objects expected are large or in known positions, then piecework is far more suitable. Though measuring up the cubic metres of work done may take perhaps a quarter of the master’s time, yet that is better than having to give the whole time to spurring on the dawdling pace of day workers.

When working by the day it is needful to give the signals for beginning and stopping work, and to insist on regular and continuous digging. It is impossible to be known to be away, as then no work will go on effectively. An air of vigilant surprises has to be kept up. A sunk approach to the work behind higher ground is essential; and, if possible, an access to a commanding view without being seen going to and fro. A telescope is very useful to watch if distant work is regular. At Tanis the girls in a big pit were kept by the men walking up and tipping baskets at the top; but the telescope showed that the baskets were all the time empty. The immediate dismissal of fourteen people was the result. A telescope will also show if a boy is put up to watch for the master’s coming. Various approaches should be arranged from different directions, and the course of work so planned that no men can give notice to others. In this way a pleasing group of musicians and dancers may be found in the excavations, where picks and baskets are lying idle; and the arrangement is closed by requesting the boys to dance on their own resources, and the transfer of your pay to other pockets. The need of thus acting as mainspring, without which the work goes on at an official pace, is wearing and time-wasting; and it leaves no chance of doing writing, drawing, etc., during work hours.

Piecework.

Working by the piece saves all this trouble, and if the men are well trained, and the work is simple, it goes on automatically and takes the smallest possible amount of attention. In detached small sites men may even be left unvisited for two or three days, merely reporting each evening how far they have worked. In one case some lads were left to work at a great sarcophagus for weeks unwatched, and came some miles to report progress, and say when further attention was wanted. The pay for that was given by contract, to cut and lift a stone lid under water, for so many pounds.

In piecework it is always best to keep a record of how long each piece has taken, as the time is one element in pricing the work done.[1] The ground varies in hardness, the depth of throwing up continually changes, or the presence of large stones hinders the work; therefore any exact value by a hard and fast rule is impossible. Each piece of work done has to be judged, taking the most likely scale of payment, and then tempering the result by the amount of time occupied. The general rate of pay in Egypt is ½ piastre a cubic metre for loose surface sand, ⅔ for shallow work in harder earth, ¾ for work as deep as a man, and 1 piastre for deep pits. At this scale a poor worker will barely earn day pay and a fine worker will make from 1½ to 2 times day pay. The day pay in Upper Egypt is 2½ to 3 piastres (6d. to 7d.) a man, and 1½ to 2 (3½d. to 5d.) for a boy, of fit and proper quality.

[1] A useful notation is to use the letter of the week day, with an hour-spot by it; thus .F is 7 A.M. Friday, M· is 2 P.M. Monday, Ẇ is noon, Wednesday, and this spotted letter is noted in the accounts, for the time of beginning any piece of work.

To take a practical case. A hole is, say, 2½ metres wide, 3½ long and 2 deep, say 18 cubic metres. The rate will be at ¾, making 13½ piastres or 2s. 9d. Large stones met with, or pillars or buttresses of earth left to support objects in situ, are counted as work done, as the trouble and inconvenience of leaving them in the hole is quite equal to the removal of so much earth. If the pit above-named had taken a four-gang (two men and two boys) less than a day, it might be cut to 12 piastres or 2s. 6d.; or if much over a day, it might be raised to 16 or 3s. 3d.; reckoning that a rate much quicker or slower than the regular rate, shows that the ground or conditions were better or worse than usual. It is needful to measure with distinct and visible care, as the men are very watchful to see that they get fair measurement; and their confidence should be gained by taking trouble to be fair and punctilious in every detail, though never taking notice of any wheedling or attempt to influence the account.

Day and Piecework.

Where the earth has to be moved to any distance beyond a few yards, then more carriers are needed than one to each digger. The happiest combination then is to go on paying exactly the same rate by the metre, as if the men were working a plain pit, but to supply them with as many boys paid by the day as may be needful to shift the earth away ([Fig. 17]). Sometimes two men and two boys will have six more boys to run off the earth to fifty yards away. Any common village boys will do for this gang, and they may be enlisted by the hundred, and distributed over the work. But it is needful to allot these “locals” (as they are called) specifically to known men, so that each pick-man can answer for the time and the doings of each of his own boys. Thus there is no smudge of irresponsibility; but each boy belongs to a man, who has for his own interest to get the work out of him.

Clearing the temple, Abydos.

Fig. 17. Lines of carriers.

Clearing the temple, Abydos.

Fig. 18. Heaps around area.

The local boys should all give the names of their villages on enlistment, and be kept in lists according to villages, so as to group them for payment in gold. In case of any serious theft or trouble due to boys from one village, all the rest from that village can be dismissed as a warning. To keep them up to time in arriving, it is best to dismiss for the day the two or three who come latest, if they are not well up to time. This soon enforces regularity. Any attempt to leave before the sunset signal, is met by dismissing altogether any boy who leaves too soon. It is best not to allow any substitution on the plea of illness, as if that is once allowed, it soon becomes a loophole for all the selected boys to gradually sell their places to less desirable fellows. A favourite plan of the piecework men is to turn all their own basket-boys into pick-boys, and then want more locals to carry the stuff. Of course this has to be met by deducting from the rate of pay, as the regular rates are for cutting and throwing, and not for cutting alone. The proportion of pay if the boys are set to do pick-work, on a gang of two men and two boys, goes as follows:—

Then if in a normal four-gang, A, one boy takes a pick they become as in B, and only have 11/15 of the piece pay, as the master has to supply the other two baskets for the normal gang of equal numbers of picks and baskets. Similarly if both boys take picks, as in C, the pay is of course ⅗ of what it would normally be; the other ⅖ being spent in supplying locals. The one absolute rule, however, is that if there are enough old trained hands to do the cutting, no local shall be allowed to do pick-work, as his intelligence, knowledge, and honesty are not to be trusted without training. The combination of piece pay for cutting and day pay for carrying is a happy one; as the piecework keeps the men moving, and they stir up the boys on day pay ([Fig. 19]).

In European countries this use of boys is scarcely possible owing to the national education. In Greece as in England the boys are required to go to school, and their holidays there are not at a time suitable for excavating, while in England the holidays are occupied by the harvest. Hence all work has to be done by men, at a higher rate of pay; and so mechanical aids to moving earth would be more profitable than they are in Egypt.

Fig. 19. Filling and carrying, at Abydos.

Fig. 20. Filling and carrying, at Abydos.

It may be mentioned that the workers are always expected to provide their own picks and baskets in Egypt; while ropes, crowbars, and other tools only occasionally wanted are found by the master. If the daily tools were also provided, they would soon be spoiled, and need constant attention; it is bad enough to have to check and take care of ropes and special tools. The baskets brought up need to be looked at for size, especially those of local boys. When choosing boys, a fair size of basket should be insisted on as a condition of employment; and if small or broken baskets are brought up afterwards, the boy should be turned off, in order to bring a proper basket next day.

Rewards.

The two objects of excavations are (1) to obtain plans and topographical information, and (2) to obtain portable antiquities. For the purpose of securing antiquities it is necessary to guard against the ignorance, the carelessness, and the dishonesty of the men employed. The best way to protect the interests of the work is to give rewards for all the things that are found, commonly called “the bakhshish system.” If only half-a-dozen men are employed, and the master will take care to see that they never touch the work except while he is watching them, it may be practicable to do without bakhshish. But in the ordinary course of having one or two hundred men and boys at work over a large area, it is essential to pay partly by results, at least in the East; in Greece, owing to the large claims of the Government, this is scarcely practicable.

The actual amount given should be as much as a travelling dealer would pay to the peasant, were he buying the object. For small and very saleable things a high rate should be given; for larger blocks, difficult to move, a lesser rate; and for larger things of some hundredweights a nominal present may be given without any relation to the market value. On the whole the bakhshish is usually 5 to 10 per cent of the wages; and as it is only about 1s. in the pound on the European values it is well worth while to secure better work by giving it. Moreover, it is not by any means overlooked in the estimate of the worth of the work, but—like the prizes of gold digging—it is more than discounted in the prospects which induce desirable men to come. The tenth of a chance of getting ten pounds is more attractive than the certainty of getting one pound in wages; so the extra payments secure willing workers, even better than the same amount spread in regular pay.

It is by no means only as a safeguard to honesty. The observation of things, and the care required to avoid breakages, are two very necessary habits for good workmen. Many a small thing would be overlooked and lost if it were no benefit to the finder. And digging carefully so as to avoid breakages, makes a great difference to the returns obtained. When giving bakhshish on a broken thing, it is well to say how much more would have been given had it been perfect. And if fragments are missing, a large deduction should be made, and the balance promised if the pieces can be found. A fine flint knife, anciently broken, was produced with several chips missing; I gave 4s. for it, but offered 16s. more for the chips, which induced the men to sit down and turn over twenty tons of earth by hand, fingering every grain; nearly every scrap was found, the men got the whole 20s., and I got the whole of the largest flint knife known. In another case I kept a lad sifting earth for three weeks, to find a minute head which he had lost. Nothing can ensure care better than paying for it; while any bad carelessness or disobedience to orders is met by degrading a man to unprofitable work or dismissing him. The principle that the holder gets the bakhshish must even be extended to cases where one man has taken things from another man’s hole; the man who has lost the things is merely told that he should have taken better care of his work.

Accounts.

The account keeping is a serious matter, especially when the men are working far from home, as then they wish to be paid irregularly. There is first the account of earnings, by day or by piecework; second, the account of bakhshish; third, the banking account of how much each man has due to him, or, if he has just drawn gold, perhaps a small balance against him; and fourth, the advances for market and for drawing to send home. The simplest way of paying is Schliemann’s, giving a day’s pay to every man every night; but it requires great quantities of change and a long time of delay to the workers and the master. Weekly payments are better, on the night before market day or on market morning. The account is read through to a man, his assent obtained to it; he is asked if he wants to draw gold, and if not, the total is booked to him, added to his previous balance. Then for marketing, it is best to join the men in groups of six or eight together, and give the chief man of each group a sovereign to divide as they want it. After market he states how much each has had, and it is deducted from the balance of each man, while any unspent cash is returned.

Thus the amounts which should balance in weekly accounts are, for instance:—

This, of course, being the paymaster account, as apart from the accounts in chief, and from which the accounts in chief are made up by the head of a party.

It is necessary to take trouble to gain the confidence of the men; they must be convinced of the master’s good faith and precision. Whenever there is reasonable doubt on a point, they must always be given the benefit of it; and plenty of patience is needed to hear their complaints, and to understand what is the real state of an objection. Some men are so puzzle-headed that they cannot remember their account clearly; and if so, it is best to make them name some friend with whom all their accounts are settled. If any man wants to go far back in accounts—and sometimes they will raise a question of four or five weeks before—then it is well to have a friend as witness, who will see that it is right, and close the matter, silencing any puzzled grumbling. Egyptians will often dispute accounts against their own interest, and remind the payer of amounts which they have received that may have been overlooked. But it is needful to show care and interest about the smallest amounts, so as to maintain a sense of exactness and precision with the men.

Some masters avoid going over accounts by giving each man a card, and entering his account on it in figures; but as the man cannot check it without asking a reader, this hardly meets the case. Another form of accounts is, however, understood and desired by the men, in the form of a tally which every one can check, and from which they can automatically balance accounts at once. A piece of sheet zinc is ruled in columns ([Fig. 21]), each of 20 squares for the 20 piastres in each dollar; and every fifth column is lined heavier, as marking a pound. All amounts earned are marked by spots in the columns, and amounts paid are scored through. Thus in this example the earnings were 12, 2, 5, 9, 30, and 15 piastres; the drawings were 17, 14, 11, 4, 2, 1½, 6½ piastres; and the balance still due between the last score and the last spot is 17 piastres, which any man can count for himself. Such a tally will hold five pounds of accounts, or ten if ruled on both sides.

Native ways.

It hardly needs saying that a small amount of doctoring is continually wanted. Damages to hands and limbs in moving heavy stones, bruises and strains, sore eyes, malarial fever, rheumatic headaches, indigestion, swellings and gatherings, old sores, and many other small ailments are of daily occurrence. A stock of medicines, and some care in applying them, are necessary in any excavations. But it is necessary to refuse to give medicine to any one outside of the workmen: first, because a gratis doctor would never have time to do other work; second, on account of infection; and third, because patients are an excuse for spies.

Fig. 21.—Account-card for native wages. Each square, one piastre. Each column, one dollar. A spot at each amount due. A line through the squares paid up.

Having now noticed the men who are required, something may be said of those who are not required. The dealer and the spy are a constant plague. No man must be allowed to loaf about the work, or to lie watching it from a look-out point. And any troublesome men are best dealt with by taking shoes or head-shawl from them, and offering to send the clothes to the man’s sheikh to be returned to him. To get them he must give his name, and the name of his sheikh; and that no man will do, as he can then be dropped on by the police in future. Not a single loafer will ever give his name and sheikh, and so they are well kept at bay by confiscating clothing or tools. Once I took the donkey of a troublesome man, who had fled from me; and gave it up to his sheikh, who came to intercede next day. Doubtless it had to be redeemed by some blackmail to the sheikh, and the needful lesson was taught. Dealers are incessantly trying to get at the men, daily at wells or as tobacco-sellers, and weekly in the market; and so any unexplained persons who are seen about should be moved on and kept at a distance.

It is supposed by some that there is a solidarity in the family of an Egyptian, which ensures that a man’s relatives know about his actions, and are aware if he goes wrong. But various events have shown that a man’s own relatives may be quite in the dark about his doings, and that a chance outsider may see, know, and tell things about a man which are secret from his relatives living with him. Hence the guarantee of a relative is worth practically nothing, and every man must be taken on his own merits. It must always be remembered that excavation is for the sake of archaeology, and is not undertaken in the interest of the workman. Hence any doubt about a man’s character is sufficient reason for not employing him. There is neither reason nor use in making accusations, which after all it might be impossible to prove. But an unostentatious weeding out of men during the fluctuations of the work is the best means of avoiding those who seem less likely to be trustworthy.

A reason for not taking any man’s recommendations is that the introduction to the work is sure to be paid for; and if Ibrahim begs you to employ Aly, and succeeds, Aly will have to give him a lump sum or a share of the wages. Advice for a man should therefore never be taken; though advice against a man may be disinterested and useful.

Fig. 22. Carrier boys throwing on mounds. Abydos.

Fig. 23. Town-site turned over, showing outer wall. Kahun.

CHAPTER IV
THE ARRANGEMENT OF WORK

Clearances.

A large site, such as that of a temple or a town, may be attacked in several ways. The most cursory method is by trial pits in various spots; pits which, if they hit anything of importance, are likely to injure it, and certain to destroy its connection with other things. French explorers have a love for faire quelques sondages, a proceeding which often ruins a site for systematic work, and which never shows the meaning of the positions or the nature of the plan. If it is quite uncertain whether there be remains in the ground, the best examination is by parallel trenches, as such give a good view of the soil, while the stuff can be turned back and the trench filled behind if not wanted. In case of tracing a building, trenches cut along the lines of the walls are a good beginning; and then if more is wanted, the plan is clear and the rooms can be emptied with foresight.

Fig. 24. Cutting down from the top edge of the work.

A favourite method with the older explorers was to clear out a whole area ([Fig. 18]) and throw the stuff all round the site. This may be needful in case of superimposed buildings, which must be studied one by one, as only two or three periods can be planned at once, and the upper have to be removed before the lower can be cleared. But such a method is a clumsy waste in dealing with a simple group of buildings. The great difficulty of it is to know where to place the stuff removed, so as not to block future work. Before beginning any large excavation, the amount to be shifted should be gauged, and the position of the stuff settled beforehand. The great clearance on the side of the Medum pyramid, to expose the temple, was planned out with the position and size of each waste heap in the mind’s eye, and the system of paths by which the stuff could be shifted with least fatigue. It is needful to continually adjust the moving, so as to avoid lifting the stuff more than really needed; and any long run down of material, either towards the digger or away from the thrower, should be prevented, as it all has to be lifted again in some shape. Working at the foot of a long run of stuff is entirely wrong; such ground should be shifted in successive levels, each level being discharged without needing to raise the earth up again. Excavations at the Sphinx were carried on by the Government with two men filling baskets with sand, which ran down 20 feet from the surface to the bottom of a pit; and the baskets were then carried up by a long train of children very slowly climbing up out of the pit on a sand slope at the angle of running sand. Thus nearly the whole labour was wasted by not filling the baskets at the surface and carrying them directly away. Whenever a large pit is needed it should be begun of full size, and lowered equally all over, so that nothing runs down during the work.

Cemetery work

Fig. 25. Mounds, at Yehudiyeh.

Cemetery work

Fig. 26. Sarcophagi, Abydos.

For moving earth to a distance there is no way so simple and adaptable as a line of carrier boys ([Fig. 22]). Over flat ground this is the best way up to distances of 50 or 100 yards; for longer discharges it may be better to lay down a light railway and use trucks. The line of boys is the only practicable way if the stuff has to be carried up a slope to discharge, or taken over irregular paths out of the work, as is often the case. The railway needs much time for rearranging different points of collection and discharge; and must be in duplicate, or else the work will be at a stand-still during rearrangement. A boy will carry 20 to 30 lbs. in a load, about 20 journeys an hour for 100 yards discharge, thus moving about 2 tons a day. So the cost is about a piastre a cubic metre for shifting 100 yards.

Turning over.

But far the more economical and rapid work is that of turning over whenever practicable. If a site has not been often rebuilt upon, the way is to start by a long clearance at one edge; and then a line of men steadily cut from one side of the trench and throw back on the other ([Fig. 24]), so that the trench moves across the whole site, and every pound of earth is turned over. Each man needs a frontage of between 4 and 6 metres in width; and the trench, if open along, should have a clear bottom of at least 2 metres, from back to front of the work. More usually it is worked in compartments, each man clearing about 4 metres square, and throwing into his previous hole; each hole is then gauged when empty and the pay assessed. If a town is cleared ([Fig. 23]), then it is done chamber by chamber, each being emptied over the wall into the previous chamber. The corners of the chambers can just be left visible for making a plan afterwards. A great advantage of this way is that the ground is finally left covered, so there is no great waste heap, and the walls are all covered over again to save them from future destruction.

Raising earth.

Where a deep hollow has to be cleared out it is a wasteful plan to let the boys walk out with the basket of earth, as they have to raise the body, which is about four times the weight of their load. So soon as the rise is as steep as one in four, it is best to form a fixed chain of boys ([Fig. 27]), each standing in a permanent place, and handing the baskets up from one to another. About 5 feet apart horizontally is as far as is useful; or in case of steep work (as out of pits) the vertical lift may be 3 or 4 feet ([Fig. 1]). A sufficient number of collectors at the bottom and throwers at the top are of course needed to keep the chain in full work ([Fig. 28]). A well-proportioned gang should not have any accumulations along it, and must be quietly watched from time to time to see that all parts work equally. If the baskets of earth lag at any point and accumulate, the boys before the point must be thinned, and those beyond it increased. A favourite plan of the boys is to let a basket lie unshifted and then stand upon it, as a full basket of earth gives a pleasant footing, and there is one less to keep moving. In this way most of the baskets can be quietly suppressed and yet every one remains as busy as they can be with the short stock of baskets that remain. All such misuse of baskets must be stopped at once; but old burst baskets may be used thus with advantage.

Chains of workers.

Fig. 27. At tomb of Usertesen II.

Chains of workers.

Fig. 28. At tomb of King Den.

This system of lifting is also used in a surprising way for vertical tomb pits. An Egyptian man will stand all day with his feet on opposite sides of a pit in foot-holes, and stoop down to take a full basket from a man below at the level of his feet; then raise himself, and lift the basket up at arms’ length above his head, thus lifting it 6 or 7 feet. Three men will thus empty out a pit to 20 feet deep; but such men are usually old tomb-robbers, and must be employed with circumspection. More usually ropes are used, one tied to each handle of a basket, and pulled up by a pair of men. The earth is best left in the carrying basket, which is laid in the roped basket at the bottom, and taken out of it at the surface. If the pit is rotten and wide at the top, the basket has to be swung across the top two or three times, until on letting the ropes loose it flies out 10 or 20 feet to the side of the pit, where it is caught by the emptying boy. Clever rope-men will let a basket fly so as to catch on the top of the dump heap and turn over, so that it only needs clearing loose to let it go back again. The ropes need careful watching; the men love to tie knots in them, to grip by, whereby they wear through at the knots and drop to pieces; also the ropes are dragged on the edge of the pit, so as to serve as a friction-clutch when changing hands, thus wearing the rope out in two days instead of two months; the sides of the pit should be looked at to see if there is any sawing by the rope, and if so, the men must be stopped. They also cut off pieces if the ropes are long; and it is best to have all ropes in standard lengths of 8 metres, these when doubled thrice over down to 1 metre length are quickly tested for length, and then hanked in the middle to put by. Lastly, if not regularly delivered into store every night, the ropes are not returned when a pit is finished; and then they vanish, and a fresh pair is asked for when the next pit goes deep.

Another favourite misuse of ropes is to lash them round blocks of stone which have to be dragged, and thus cut the rope into scraps by wearing on the ground. Ropes can generally be put round the sides of a stone, and kept in place by some old scraps passing beneath.

Tracing walls.

One of the most careful kinds of work, to which only good men can be trained, is that of tracing out unbaked brick walls buried in rubbish. The surrounding earth is derived from the crumbling and washing down of the earthen wall, and therefore it is indistinguishable from the average of the bricks themselves. Hence, if the bricks are uniform in colour, and the mud mortar is like them, the building and its débris are all alike. The best way to examine brickwork is by scraping a face of the wall, and then peeling it quite clean with a dinner-knife; such a clean smooth surface seen in shadow will show whatever can possibly be made out of the differences of colour and texture. Vertical joints are worth far more than horizontal, as often fallen bricks may lie as if built together. If possible the joints should be observed by differences of colour, and the bricks measured for comparison with others; as the sizes vary from 7 inches to 2 feet in length, and but seldom range over half an inch in any one building period, the size will go a long way in showing a connection of age. If the bricks cannot be distinguished even after leaving the face to dry for some days, the earth should be searched by pecking with a trowel or knife to see if there is dirt in it: only in late times are pottery chips found usually in bricks, and charcoal scraps are very rare, hence pottery and charcoal almost prove the earth to be mere wash and rubbish. The clearing back of dirty earth to a vertical face of clean clay is a satisfactory evidence of a wall. But sometimes the filling is so clean that there is no difference between it and the wall. Then the relative hardness will often serve to distinguish one from the other; and this is a main means of discrimination by the workmen, who will often tell a wall entirely by the touch under the pick. Failing all these tests, and the strata of dirt beds, the film of stucco on the wall face will sometimes show up, but may leave a doubt as to which side is the wall. In the last resource the stuff should be searched with a magnifier to see the hollows left by decomposed straw dust: in kneaded brick these hollows lie in every direction; in blown dust and wash they lie nearly all horizontal. It is often needful to spend half-an-hour testing and tracing out the line of a wall, fixing the face and the top and base of it; and such work may give the only evidence of a temple or important building.

CHAPTER V
RECORDING IN THE FIELD

Need of record.

After finding things the first consideration is to record and preserve all the information about them. The most ignorant dealer or plunderer may be a very successful digger, but he will not care for the value of a record. Recording is the absolute dividing line between plundering and scientific work, between a dealer and a scholar. The most blue-blooded dilettante collector who digs to possess fine things, but records no facts about them, is below the level of the dealer who will publish an illustrated priced catalogue, and state what was found together, and the details of the discovery. The unpardonable crime in archaeology is destroying evidence which can never be recovered; and every discovery does destroy evidence unless it is intelligently recorded. Our museums are ghastly charnel-houses of murdered evidence; the dry bones of objects are there, bare of all the facts of grouping, locality, and dating which would give them historical life and value. And it is only the self-evident facts of age that we already know, which can be observed in such a useless condition. So ignorant are curators that they will even divide up a tomb-group of objects, which are the keys to knowledge, and foolishly scatter them up and down the galleries merely as second-rate specimens of what is already there, without any date or history. This is actually the case in the three largest national museums. It is therefore imperative not only to record, but also to publish, the facts observed; so that when in future the elements of scientific management may come to be understood, a fit curator may succeed in reuniting the long-severed information, as is being to some extent happily done at Dublin.

In recording, the first difficulty is to know what to record. To state every fact about everything found would be useless, as no one could wade through the mass of statements. It would be like a detective who would photograph and measure every man on London Bridge to search for a criminal: the complication would entirely defeat the object. It is absolutely necessary to know how much is already known before setting about recording more. In some periods, such as the XVIIIth Dynasty, so much is ascertained that it is seldom that new facts can be brought to light; and only fine or unusual discoveries are worth full publication. On the other hand, in such an age as the early dynasties our only resource lies in complete records of the levels or collocations of hundreds of pots, whole or broken; and most important historical conclusions may hang on a single potsherd.

Value of record.

It is plain therefore that the accuracy and certainty of the record is necessary. At the moment that a fact is before the eye,—a fact which may never be seen again, and perhaps never paralleled,—it is needful for the observer to make certain of all the details, to verify every point which is of fresh value, and to record all that is new with certainty and exactitude. Statements with a query, or a doubt about them, are worth nothing in themselves, and can only serve to add to the range of similar facts that may be safely recorded from elsewhere. Everything seen should be mentally grasped, and its meaning and bearings comprehended at the moment of discovery, so clearly that a definitive statement can be made, which shall be as certain and as absolute as anything can be which depends on human senses. The observer should at least feel no possible doubts or qualms about his recorded facts; and what uncertainties there are should only be those which lie beyond his perceptions. It is well to work slowly over all the petty details of an important discovery, perhaps for half an hour, while considering all the facts and their meaning, before finally and irrevocably removing the main evidences of position. All this needs practice, and a full knowledge of what is important and what is trivial.

Resulting view.

And not only should such a record be made at the time, but the record should be presented finally in an intelligible form. To empty the contents of note-books on a reader’s head is not publishing. A mass of statements which have no point, and do not appear to lead to any conclusion or generalisation, cannot be regarded as an efficient publication. The meaning of each fact should be made apparent, and the relative importance of the details should be kept in view, so as to present the conclusions as a picture, in which each touch is in its proper place, and where each point adds to the whole without being disproportionately treated. Thus the final result is a statement much like what might have been written by a contemporary of the times in question; proved and enforced at each point by the various facts discovered.

In many cases our materials are not enough to give such a picture; and then, either the blanks must be noted and the limits of uncertainty stated, or else, at the worst, the facts must be grouped, and their results stated, leaving the question with two or more solutions open to future settlement.

Thus the final result to be aimed at is a picture full of detail and accuracy; and, where material is insufficient, with the limits of doubt clearly laid down, so that fresh material can at once be incorporated, and its value seen and grasped, so soon as it may be discovered.

Marking.

A very needful part of the recording is the marking of the objects with their source. Generally each part of a site is distinguished by a letter, and each group of objects found in that part by a number; thus a cemetery may be E, another adjoining it on different ground F, yet another G, a temple site T, and so on, sometimes using up the whole alphabet on a varied district. Then E 17, F 8, G 65, will be different tombs in those cemeteries, as denoted in the note-book and on the objects. Every bone of a skeleton should be marked, and always on one fixed position for each bone. It is best to trust to writing the reference with China ink on the base or back of most objects; for pottery and coarse things Brunswick black thinned with turpentine is best; for dark stones scratching the number is safest, and also for wet pottery at the time it is found. Jewellers’ tag-labels with strings are useful for small objects. It is very unsafe to trust labelling only to the wrapping papers, which may be all thrown away; separate labels should be wrapped with the things if they cannot be marked otherwise.

Nature of notes.

The nature of the notes must vary with each kind of material and each period; but we may here give some examples of the nature of such records.

Town Plan.—Survey of every wall of each house; thickness of each wall (easily neglected); reveals of doorways; doorsills if of stone; sizes of bricks; levels of top and base of each wall if any rebuilt or superimposed; contents of each chamber, note if on floor or in filling; objects buried in floors; special note of position of exactly dated objects; copies of any frescoes or decoration.

Tomb.—Position relative to other tombs. Size of pit, direction, depth. Position of chamber. Filling intact, or estimate of time that it has stood open anciently by the weathering of the sides. Objects found loose in filling. Chamber plan. Primary or secondary burial. Position of body, head direction, face direction, attitude of body and limbs. Position of beads and small objects on body. Note if beads follow any pattern or order; record order of as long groups of beads as possible for rethreading; wrappings, amount and nature. Coffin or cartonnage; inscription and figures, if any, often need copying or photographing before removal, as they may fall to pieces. Skull and jaw to be removed for measurement; or, if in rarer periods, whole skeleton to be preserved. Position and nature of all offerings and objects placed in the tomb. Copies of any inscriptions or paintings on the walls of the tomb.

To such outlines of the usual character of records are added any special details which are but rarely found; but the above will serve to remind an excavator of what must always be looked for.

Planning.

In making a plan of any large area, such as a town, it is best to start with a rough key-plan divided into a few dozen squares, each row of squares lettered, each column of squares numbered, so that every square is designated, as B 5, etc. ([Fig. 32]). Then the detailed plan of each square is to be made on one opening of a note-book of squared paper, the openings running A 1, A 2, A 3; B 1, B 2, B 3, etc. Thus any connection from one page to another can be found at once by looking for the next letter or number: the whole plan is in the pocket, and can be added to, chamber by chamber, as the clearing progresses. It need hardly be said that every plan or detail should be drawn north upwards in the note-book. Main lines are of course to be connected together by long lines of measurement.

As a general principle it is best to measure positions of as many points as possible along one single line of measurement, rather than take many piecemeal short distances and add them together. Thus ([Fig. 29]) a series of walls should be stated as, 66, 76, 201, 220, 257, 269, 330, 353, 434, 446 inches, rather than as lengths of 66, 10, 25, 19, 37, 12, 61, 23, 81, and 12 inches; for the total is more accurate when measured all in one, the positions are plotted quicker, and the comparison with any symmetric lengths of the building are easier made on the spot, so as to detect errors.

Fig. 29.—Example of a plan measured entirely from two bounding lines.

In the direct measurement of groups of walls, etc., it is the quicker and more accurate method to adopt two outside sighting lines, say one along the north, the other along the east, of the ground, marked out by high walls or large stones always visible, and then measure every point out to the two sighting lines at right angles. Spaces of over 100 feet across can be divided into separate groups.

The general use of instruments cannot be entered upon here. But amongst the means of work the divided rod is indispensable, and it is all that is wanted for most small buildings that are met with. The tape is the most practical for distances of 10 to 50 feet; and the steel tape for accurate measuring of base lines, or long distances. The box-sextant is for very broken ground, and isolated details, or if working alone; and the theodolite for accurate work anywhere between the accuracy of, say, 1 inch on 500 feet and the refinement of a ¼ of an inch on a mile. The plane table may be convenient for approximate plans, and is simple and rapid to use. The prismatic compass is of use for the directions of single blocks or fragments of wall, and is handy for rough topography (generally with paced distances), or for underground passages.

In considering the accuracy required, if dimensions in figures are to be given, then minute measurement is wanted, somewhat more accurate than the original workmanship. But where only a plan is to be produced, it is seldom practicable to show more accuracy than 1/100th inch on a book page 10 inches high, or 1/1000th of the whole, and therefore it is of no use to measure closer than 1 inch on a space of 200 feet or so across.

Plotting.

It need hardly be said that the barbarous irregular fractions, such as ⅜ of an inch to a foot or to a mile, should never be used for plotting. Simple decimal scales should alone be used, and generally 1/100th is the most suitable and easy for all plans of ordinary buildings, towns, etc.; this is further reduced by photolithography to whatever scale will best fit the size of publication.

Fig. 30.—Method of plotting a three-point survey, n, w, s, the three fixed points. A the point to be found. B, C, centres of struck circles.

Though the ordinary methods of survey need not be stated here, the box-sextant is so seldom seen that some account should be given of its use. The objection to its use on short distances, that parallax between the direct and reflected ray causes errors, can be avoided by overlapping the images about ¾ inch, the usual amount of the parallax. The main use of the sextant is for three-point survey. Over broken ground where many isolated points have to be fixed, within a few inches on a few hundred feet, there is no method so quick and useful as the nautical three-point method, when improved by rigid plotting. At any three points which shall be visible from the whole of the ground, and within its general plane, three signals are placed, best lettered by the quarter of the horizon nearest to each, say n, s, w. The three points must be so placed that the one circle passing through them all shall not pass through points needed in the survey; otherwise they may be in any position, though best as a triangle of about equal sides. The three angles and one side are to be measured, thus defining the whole triangle. Then at any point to be fixed, A, the two angles between n to s and w to s are measured with the sextant, and these suffice to fix the position. For plotting ([Fig. 30]), lay down the triangle of the three fixed points, say to scale 1/100th (the triangle with shaded corners n, s, w), and the perpendiculars to each side of it; this is most accurately done by a large protractor with vernier, setting out the radii and perpendiculars of the triangle from its centre. Then tabulate the half of each base × cotan. angles observed on that base, e.g.

Here the log. half base n to s is ·27314; this added to log. cotan. of angle subtended by n-s from station 1 is log. ·43223, giving a value 2·705 inches. From station 1 the angle s-w was observed; and from stations 2 and 3 the angle w-n was observed. All this calculation can be rapidly done in this form, placing the sheet upon the log. book, with the written log. half base next below the printed log. cotan. angle, and writing down the sum of the two against the number of the station. Then on the plan, plot these (½ base × cotan.) on the perpendiculars of their respective bases as at B and C, marking the station number to each. Then with compasses sweep an arc from one centre B, with radius Bs equal to the distance from the centre to its two points of the triangle. The same from the other centre C that has the same number of station. The intersection of the arcs is the point A of that station on the plan.

Of course the prolonged perpendiculars (broken lines) are used as often as the direct perpendiculars; the aspect of the angle from the station, whether n-s or s-n showing on which half of the perpendicular we should lay off the centre. For angles over 90° the complement of the angle should be used in calculation, the centre then laid off on the wrong half of the perpendicular, and the arc swept across the right half. This mode of plotting gives the fullest accuracy, such as is never possible with the use of station-pointers, or trial and error devices which are used in nautical survey. A field of 40 stations can be easily calculated in an hour, and plotted in a couple of hours more. If it is needful to work any point with pure calculation instead of plotting, it can be accurately done by the principle that the line joining the two centres of arcs, B and C, forms with their common point s an equal and opposite triangle to that which they form with the survey point A. It will be seen on looking at the diagram that w-s, the angle by which B is plotted, is equal to the angle w-s from A; and similarly the angle of the half base n-s from C, is equal to n-s from A. Hence the points n, s, w subtend from A, the observed angles, and A is the point from which they must have been observed.

For levelling, the handiest instrument is a short rigid pendulum, with mirror attached, to hang truly vertical. The reflection of the eye back to itself is then a truly horizontal line, and can be sighted on to any distance. The pendulum is best made about 5 inches long, with tetrahedral net of suspension thread, to avoid twisting, passing through two eyes on the mirror and two eyes on the holder, and a covering tube to shield it from wind. With this, readings can easily be taken to an inch on 100 feet, and this is sufficient accuracy for most archaeological work.

CHAPTER VI
COPYING

Paper squeezes.

A very needful branch of recording is the taking impressions of inscriptions and flat reliefs. The usual method is by wet squeezing of paper, which may be made up of any thickness, from a true mould to a slight surface impression. If a mould is wanted for future casting, a tough rag paper without much size should be used; but good newspaper will do. The tougher the paper is when wet, the better. The stone must be thoroughly cleaned and soaked. The paper is cut to the size, and, if less than the stone, in two or more sheets. A sheet is then put in a basin of water, rolled about to soak, and then gathered into a ball and rolled between the hands to break the grain, just short of pulping the surface; next shaken out like a wet handkerchief, and then laid on the stone with enough slack to go into all the hollows. It is then gently beaten with a spoke-brush until it is pushed into the hollows ([Fig. 33]). If they are deep it is needful to use strips of paper soaked and pulped, and laid by finger in the hollows, so as to nearly fill them. Finally, a severe beating is given to the whole, as violent as can be done without tearing the paper. The paper should be pulped on the stone, and driven into every crack and porosity; using a second, and even a third, sheet to bind it together. The pulp in the hollows should be kneaded in with the sharp edge of the brush-back, using the whole weight of the body to force it home. About 50 square feet of such work is as much as can be done in a day. The precautions are: avoid bubbles of water or air below the paper, beat quite straight without dragging, and see that there is no creeping of the paper or shifting on the stone. When quite dry and hard the cast may be carefully peeled off. After heating and waxing, plaster casts may be taken from it, with a slight oiling between each using.

A slighter working is enough on shallow inscriptions; but such squeezes generally need to be taken off while wet, and allowed to dry alone, or else the paper drags flat out of the hollows when contracting in drying. This is specially the case on polished granite, where there is no grip on the surface.

Surface impressions of incised carving may be taken with a single sheet of paper beaten just enough to catch the edges of the cutting; and such make excellent bases for inking over to produce a facsimile drawing ([Fig. 31]). The impression is so much better on the inner side, that the inking is done on that, and the figures are thus reversed in the plate.

Fig. 31.—Copy made by inking a paper squeeze, 1:8. A part of the Israel stele, with the name Israel in the last line but one.

Fig. 32.—System of numbering sheets of connected drawings.

Dry squeezes.

But on all coloured work, and many kinds of tender stones, wet squeezing is a crime, as it destroys the original. Fatuous tourists and brazen students have wrecked innumerable monuments by wet squeezing, and it is now necessarily prohibited in Egypt unless special permission is obtained to do some object which cannot be injured by it. Another system, that of dry squeezing, I therefore introduced when doing the Medum tombs. A sheet of thin paper is held over the stone, and it is pressed over each edge of the cutting so as to leave a bend in the surface. Then, laid on a drawing-board, with an oblique lighting, the bends are all drawn on with pencil, checking by comparison with the stone. Sometimes it is best to draw by lamplight, and check with the stone afterwards. The drawing should always begin at the bottom right hand, so as not to press out the impression by the hand; and the sheets must not be rolled before being pencilled. For small lines, a piece of indiarubber should be used to press the paper into the hollows. For the outlines of reliefs the thumb nail must be used. This system is quicker and more accurate than any reduced-scale hand drawing. Over large wall surfaces the sheets should be placed in regular rows, lettered A, B, C ([Fig. 32]), and each sheet numbered in the row, so that A 3, B 3, C 3, come one below the other. The register of positions is kept by marking a minute cross with pencil on the wall, so that the corners of four sheets will fall between the four arms of the cross. Thus each fresh sheet is placed exactly to fit the sheets which have preceded it, in the row and in the column. Any large blanks or injuries should have their corresponding sheets duly lettered (even if nothing is on them), and put with the drawings, so that there shall be no hitch in placing them all in one great sheet afterwards. It may be convenient to join up the sheets, and then redivide the drawings at suitable spaces between the subjects for convenience of packing. To join the sheets they must be laid together in position, a slight cut then made with a knife to mark two sheets across the joint; then turned back-up, adjusted by the cut, and a strip of adhesive paper put on the joint, dabbed down and not rubbed along. Thus large sculptured walls can be copied sheet by sheet, joined up, inked in, and then photolithographed for plates. It is needful to remember that the Postal Union will take rolls up to 60 centimetres length and 21 cm. diameter, as ordinary parcels up to 5 kilograms; or 75 cm. length if not over 10 cm. diameter and 2 kilograms of weight, by book post, open at ends.

Casting.

Fig. 33. Paper squeeze. XII Dyn. Goddess Nekheb.

Casting.

Fig. 34. Plaster cast from paper. Philistine. XX Dyn.

Casting.

Beside the direct material for publishing in plates, it is often desirable to take casts and impressions, both for future reference and also as a step toward a photograph ([Fig. 34]). The making of paper impressions or squeezes has already been noted. Casting with plaster of Paris is the principal mode of reproduction, and is such a detailed business in itself that only a few notes can be given here, such as might possibly be wanted in field work. The fine work for museum purposes is outside of our aim here. The main point in handling wet plaster is rapidity; and for that everything must be ready, and the exact plan of work and amount of plaster settled beforehand. A basin should be used with water equal to about two-thirds of the volume of plaster required. Into this shake or sift dry plaster rapidly, until the water is just filled up with it, and no free water left on the top; it is then well proportioned, and should be violently stirred with a large flat spoon or slip of wood and poured out in an even stream, beginning with the middle if a flat mould, and flattening it out to the edges. It is best to have rather too little than too much; as a fresh lot can be mixed, with the hardened pieces of the first lot, to serve for a backing; the first lot being, of course, spread over the whole face to begin with. Strings, or strips of butter-muslin, should be put through the mass, if it is large, so as to prevent it falling to pieces if broken later on. Excellent casts are made with a thin skin of plaster on a backing of muslin put on a frame; but this requires more skill than plain work. About 10 minutes after casting the back should be scraped down level, or planed with a wide-mouthed hand plane, which is a very useful tool in finishing casts. No cast of any large size should be left without even support for some hours after casting, as it will settle out of shape if strained. Small quantities of plaster are best mixed with a pocket knife in the palm of the hand.

Moulds for casting are usually of clay for a large scale, but that is not likely to be used in the field-work. The division of the clay is best done by bedding threads along the face of the object at the lines required, and then pulling them up to cut the clay. The face of the object requires French chalk (steatite powder) on it to prevent cohesion; oiling or greasing spoils the face of the original. For field-work paper moulds are best, and the preparation of these as wet squeezes has been already described. To fit the squeeze for use as a mould, it should be heated and brushed with melted beeswax on the face, without necessarily soaking it through. Any places that are shiny when cold should be warmed and rubbed with cotton wool, so that the face is the true paper cast. Then slightly oil between each plaster casting, or else the warmth of the setting plaster will make the wax stick to it. Several casts can be taken from one paper, if it is carefully handled in peeling it from the plaster each time. Paper impressions of cylinders are best made with blotting-paper, unrolled wet, and left to dry. To remove the cockling of drying, spread a thin coat of stiff paste on card, and press the paper squeeze lightly on it.

Guttapercha moulds are best if many copies are required. To get a sharp impression in this tough material a preliminary mould should be made, of the right shape, but not sharp on the face. This should be thoroughly cooled in water for an hour or more, and then a small quantity of guttapercha from boiling water should be laid in the hard mould and the object pressed in very rapidly and with maximum pressure. Thus the hot material is forced firmly against every part and takes a brilliant impression. Such moulds are used for electrotyping as well as for plaster work. To produce a smooth face to a lump of hot guttapercha, it should be pulled outwards from the middle to all sides by thumbs and fingers, so as to produce a fresh torn face over the whole upper surface.

Sealing-wax is one of the handiest materials, and is used professionally for all the coin reproductions that are published. Only the best wax is of any use for impressions. It should never be allowed to burn or blaze, nor even to boil, but should be gently heated until a large mass will fall quite readily. The object should be wetted moderately just before impressing. So soon as the wax is tough the object should be lifted slightly to make certain that it has not stuck, and then pressed down again till cold. If it has stuck it must be pulled away at once, and the wax picked off while tough. Sealing-wax casts must be oiled before plaster is put to them; and oil does not soften or deteriorate sealing-wax if left on for years. Beeswax, or, better, the mixture called “dentist’s wax,” makes good impressions, and may be used for moulds.

Tin-foil is most useful for rapid impressions, especially from a fragile or delicate object. The thinnest should be used, such as is wrapped round chocolate. To preserve the form of tin-foil it may be squeezed into place with a back of beeswax, and so form a facing to a wax mould for casting a plaster positive. Or it may be pressed alone (forcing it on with soft indiarubber or cotton wool), and then floated, back up, on water, while blazing sealing-wax is dropped into it to form a backing. This mode is very handy for coin impressions, which will travel safely in this form and look well. For round objects, such as cylinders, a tin-foil impression should be made, beating the foil in with a soft tooth-brush; then the foil is to be uncoiled by rolling it upon wax so that the curve is removed without flattening the impression; it is then ready for a plaster casting, giving a flat cast of the round cylinder. In all cases thin gold-foil would be far better than tin-foil; and such an impression might even be preferred to the original object by some Oriental officials.

Drawing.

Drawing is still the main resource for illustration, although photographic processes occupy so important a place. Hand-work is essential for plans, it is the more useful method for inscriptions, and it is the more convenient method for most small objects. There is generally some interpretation needed, to show details which could not possibly all be visible in one uniform lighting, as in a photograph; and this can only be done by drawing all that can be seen in varying lights and aspects. Another superiority of outline drawings is that they are far more easily looked over and referred to than a much less distinct photograph. And lastly, they cost a third or a quarter of the amount for publication. The proper scope of photographs is stated in the next section.

As drawing is almost always to be reproduced by photolithography, or by zinc block, it is essential to have it entirely in full black and white without any grey or half tones. Hence the contrast should be kept as strong as possible; and only China ink of full blackness should be used for fine lines. In wide, coarse work, as full-sized inscriptions from walls, a common writing-ink evaporated to denser quality may be used. Ebony stain, which some use, has the disadvantage of spreading badly if it chances to be wetted. A smooth, glazy-faced paper is good for fine lines, and does not rag up under the pen. Cardboard is pleasant to use, but is awkward to send by post; whereas paper drawings roll up safely in a tube.

A cardinal rule in drawing is that the finest line should come out to 1/300 inch when the subject is reduced to the plate size. Thus a drawing to be reduced to ⅓ by photolithography should have its finest lines 1/100 inch thick. This line of 1/300 inch is the finest which is safe not to break up in reproducing; and of course it spreads a little in the printing. For very slight shade lines rather thinner lines may be used, as it is no disadvantage if they should break.

It is very desirable to have similar objects all reduced to the same scale. For pottery ⅙ is a convenient reduction; for stone vases ⅓; for metal tools and small objects ½. The drawings of pottery and stone vases are easiest to do on scales ¼ and ½, as the measured diameters have to be laid off as radii from the axis, needing halving throughout. The further reduction is done when photographing for the lithographs; and it is always best to have such a reduction to ⅔, if not to ½, of the size of the drawing, in order to make it come out more delicate than the hand-work. A very useful system for recording groups of small objects, especially such as are found together, is to lay them out on a sheet (say double the plate size), as arranged for the plate, and then run a pencil round the outlines, and add as much detail as may be needful to explain the objects; thus a pictorial inventory is made quickly, and is far more useful and easier for reference than any written inventory ([Fig. 35]). The pencil should have the wood split off one side of the lead, and be sharpened by cutting to a chisel-edge on the opposite side. Thus the point is vertically under the guiding side; and when held carefully upright, outlines can well be run from surfaces half an inch or even an inch above the paper. The size of the sheet will, of course, depend on the amount of reduction intended. For numbering the figures printed numbers can be gummed on to the drawing.

Fig. 35.—Part of an inventory sheet, recording pieces of ivory carving, 1:3.

For vases, block tints are more satisfactory than outlines. So the drawing can be filled up with a wash of ink. Or if section lines are wanted it is best to draw the section line, and block out the ground outside of the vase, leaving the vase white on a black ground; then have this reversed, black for white, in the photolithographing. The vases may be printed in any colour which is suitable.

Fig. 36. Frame for drawing fragments of vases.

Fig. 37. Weathered grave-stone; unsanded, and sanded.

Restored forms.

The method for drawing a completed form of a vase from fragments is to place the brim and the base (the curves of which can be accurately measured against a series of concentric circles) into their true positions, to a vertical axis; and then, if there is no complete connection, to adjust their height on their axis so that their curvatures (including other pieces which join them) fall into one line. It is easier to do this with the mouth downwards. A frame is made ([Fig. 36]), with a vertical rod sliding up and down over the middle; a card with concentric circles on it is placed on the floor of the frame, and centred under the rod. Taking a piece of a brim, it is rocked to and fro until it touches the card all along the edge, and a leg of wax is stuck on so as to keep it at that angle. It is then slid about till the curve fits between the concentric circles. A piece of base has its curvature measured, by fitting a sheet of celluloid ruled with concentric circles to the curve of it. It is then fixed on the lower end of the vertical rod with some wax, so that the rod is in its axis. Then the rod is slid down in its grooves until the curves of the piece of base and of the piece of brim fall into one line. For drawing the form the radius of the brim and of the base are already measured; the height is taken as it stands in the frame, also the greatest radius at the shoulder, the angle of the side with the base, and sometimes the height from the brim to the curve at several different radii, read off by sliding a graduated square on the concentric circles to touch the curve. After plotting all these dimensions the curve is drawn in by freehand, looking carefully at the fragments in position.

Copying inscriptions.

For hand copying inscriptions of a small size, a good method is to fold over the paper at each line that is done, and draw the signs one by one on to the fresh edge of paper held side by side on the stone; thus there is no strain or loss of time by looking to and fro and finding the place, no chance of omissions, and the facsimile is as accurate as possible. This is especially for copying ink writing and graffiti. When making a reduced copy by hand it is best to have a sheet of card under the paper ruled in squares (of ¼ or up to 2 inches), with thick lines. These show through the paper, and a frame of strings or threads is put over the stone, of a larger size, agreeing to the scale of reduction intended; e.g. for reducing a wall to ⅕, have card ruled in 1 inch squares, and a frame of strings 5 inches apart over the wall. For lines or columns of inscription it does to rule the column lines and only have a long scale on a strip of wood put alongside of the column which is being copied, so as to tally with the lines seen through the paper.

CHAPTER VII
PHOTOGRAPHING

Camera.

Photographs are essential for all objects of artistic interest, and for expressing rounded forms for which elaborate shading would otherwise be needed. Views of the excavations and buildings are also wanted. And it is desirable to publish photographs as well as drawings of very important carvings, in order to guarantee the accuracy of the drawing, which is the more useful edition for most purposes.

Though the ordinary knowledge of photography must be taken for granted here, there are many details and preferences which are special to this kind of work. The bane of practical photography is the rich amateur, who insists on useless luxury of apparatus, and has set a fashion in fittings which is absurdly complex. It is undesirable to have a specially compact camera, as steadiness and convenience in use are sacrificed for lightness and slightness, which are no object in a fixed camp. An old-fashioned bulky camera is better for stationary work. I have long used a tin-plate camera with plain draw-body in two pieces; the benefit when enlarged photographs are needed is found by taking it apart, and inserting a card tube, made up when wanted to any length required for the enlargement. Some very simple, adaptable camera is best, with a large plate-magazine attached to it, so that some dozens can be carried at once. For ordinary views and small-scale objects a simple hand camera is best. A pattern should be adopted which may be the least liable to get out of order in a very dusty and gritty climate; of the simplest mechanism, with a plain thrown-down pattern, to carry a dozen flat films. As to the size of camera, the ¼ plate is by far the most useful, being right for lantern slides and large enough for most objects. Enlargements can be made to double size (or whole plate) quite as good as collotype or net will reproduce them. The time and work of using a whole-plate size are scarcely ever repaid by the results for practical archaeology.

The fashion of wide-angle lenses is useless for everything excepting architecture at close quarters. And for most objects it is very detrimental to have so short a focus, as it distorts and spoils the perspective. It is best to use too long a focus in order to get truer views of objects, at least 6 inches focus for a ¼ plate. There does not seem to be any appreciable gain in the newer patterns of lenses over the older “rapid rectilinear” or “symmetrical”; and the positive disadvantages of some recent lenses are seen in the smaller aperture and lack of light for focussing, and the distortion at extreme edges. The iris diaphragm is a disadvantage, as it brings in another variable, while the time of exposure can be varied to any extent needed. It is best to stick to one small stop, say f/100, and learn exposures entirely on that basis; then in case of poor light a larger stop, as f/25 or f/8, can be used proportionately to shorten the time. Small stops can be made out of a strip of tin plate or blackened card; and the hand camera can be stopped down with a pinhole stop stuck in front of the lens so as to work at almost any nearness and scale with exposures of ½ or 1 minute in full sunshine.

Fig. 38. Throwing sand; drop-shutter view.

Fig. 39. Girls at rest; diagonal mirror view.

The instantaneous shutter is a useless article for all fixed objects. It is far better to work with a small stop which gives plenty of depth of focus, and expose for 2 to 20 seconds, which is long enough for f/100 on slow plates in Egypt. For direct enlargement of objects a stop of f/200 is excellent, and only needs 30 seconds exposure. If a shutter is wanted a simple drop can easily be extemporised ([Fig. 38]) fitting on to the front of the lens, and such will give fine results. A diagonal mirror front can be made out of any decent scrap of looking-glass, without showing any double image ([Fig. 39]).

Rapid films are another fashion better avoided, as for fixed objects there is no great hurry. The slowest films made have never caused any practical inconvenience in my work, and they are far safer to keep and to develop. The skew-back is never needed except for architecture; and in the few cases where it is necessary, the effect can always be as well obtained by taking the plate square, and then copying it skewed in a skew-back camera. The sliding and rising front is about the only complication that is useful in serious work; and if a long focus lens is used a large amount of slide can be obtained; but a camera with a free-swinging lens turning to any angle would be the best form.