Dozens of Palestinian and foreign workers continue to complete work on discovering more graves dating back to the Roman era in one of the cemeteries that were recently discovered in the northern Gaza Strip.
Using simple tools, the work crew excavates the graves that are discovered, in order to highlight some of the delicate objects found in the structures to conduct some examinations on them.
Antiquities restoration and maintenance technician Fadl Al-Otl said, “The Roman cemetery is an archaeological site, and it was discovered by chance when the Egyptian city was being built. Excavations and excavations were carried out, and then by chance some graves were found during the bulldozing.”
Al-Atal added, “We were summoned as a relocation team specialized in this field by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and we made some probes for this place, and then the extension of the cemetery was discovered.”
He added, "We are now in the Roman cemetery, and the number of graves in it is 130, and the area of the cemetery is 2,700 square metres," noting that for the second year we have been working in this cemetery.
He explained, "As a transition team affiliated with the International First Relief Foundation, affiliated with the British Council, the Culture Support Fund, we work as a full, integrated team of 35 people with French experts under the supervision of the French expert and supervisor of the place and archaeological excavation, and we are present in this cemetery that dates back to the first century BC until the second century BC." after birth.
He pointed out, “The team consists of a photographic survey and we target graduates of the Palestine and Islamic University of history, archeology, and architecture, as we work with simple tools that are almost medical,” adding that according to the archaeological site, it is excavated according to the geology of the land in which it is located, so if there is a lot of sand in it, it is a factor of erosion. Or it was previously discovered and there is not much dust on it, so it can be excavated using a brush, trowels, broom, and simple tools.”
Fadl Al-Otal said, "One of the difficulties we faced during our work was the lack of support and continuity in work, noting that Gaza is an ancient city and contains many antiquities."
In turn, Iman Al-Amsi, an antiquities excavator with International Relief “Transition”, said that for the past 8 months I have been working on excavating graves in the Roman cemetery, where in the beginning I work on uncovering the grave, which goes through three stages.
Al-Amsi explained the three stages that the grave goes through, including the cleaning stage, the stage of lifting the stones, and the stage of revealing the skeleton, adding that when uncovering it, we use some simple tools to preserve the skeleton, which are two small rulers, a brush, and some tools that resemble dentist tools, explaining that there are Some tiny things in the structure that must be highlighted so that they can be photographed and taken by a specialist and conducted examinations on them.
She pointed out that during excavations it is possible to find some artifacts such as glass and pottery, which are transported to the laboratory for examination.
Iman Al-Amsi mentioned some of the difficulties she faced while working, as she, as a girl working in excavation, was unable to lift stones, so she sought help from the team present with her to lift them
Source: Maan News Agency