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.