10 August 2006
This week has been long and packed after the rains of last weekend, and before the rains of today, which interrupted the visits of hundreds of tourists but gave foundation employees a well-deserved rest.
On the Pyramid of the Sun, site 5 received much of the attention, after the interesting finds of pottery and organic material last week. In section C of this site, surface layer was removed to the underlying layer of brecca composite, over an area of 2.2 meters. At site 18, section B, there was more digging and sieving of sediment. At sites 14 and 16, the surface layer is now completely removed and the work of excavating continued without any major alterations.
On the Pyramid of the Moon, the work of unearthing the bottom of the pyramid continued, with some probes starting to yield testable samples. The exploratory sites B1 and B2 continued to be expanded and, in B2, samples of burned material were taken from a depth of 1.5 m. In B4 and B5, the stone plates unearthed last week were cleaned. At excavation site no. 4, the planned expansion of one meter into the hill was completed.
The visits of this week were highlighted by that of the High Representative of BiH, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, and a group of his friends and colleagues on August 8. The visit and foundation president Semir Osmanagic’s presentation were very successful, and Mr. Schwarz-Schilling was outspoken in his support of the project. Vispak, a sponsor of the foundation, afterwards catered a generous reception for the guests from the Office of the High Representative.
Also on Tuesday, Alexander Cartwright and Jonathan Rider, English students of archaeology, began their three-week stint at the pyramids. Cartwright is a second year student of archaeology and anthropology at Oxford University, and Rider graduated from Nottingham University and will begin his graduate program in archaeology at Oxford this year… Semir Osmanagic conducted a press conference publicizing the exploratory sites on the plateau at the top of the Pyramid of the Moon, previously described on this site… The firm F&F of Jelah donated printed brochures for the foundation, to be distributed to visitors of the pyramids.
On Wednesday, August 9, nineteen volunteers from Luxembourg arrived at the pyramids and took a short tour, started working on the Pyramid of the Moon. The skills of these determined volunteers were unfortunately unutilized on the second day of their visit, which they spent sitting under canvas tents on the Pyramid of the Moon, waiting for the sky to clear.