While cleaning and removing some mudbricks, one of our teams found one incorporated into a wall that had dog footprints embedded in it.



Apparently this particular mudbrick was situated in such a way that the dog prints would have been on the inside of the room, and had been plastered over. The team happened to take a sample of the room's plaster from this brick, and had it peel away from the prints.

This kind of find really brings the past closer. It's like finding fingerprints on pieces of pottery or an ancient personal letter. We still have a couple days of digging yet, so stay tuned for the best find: it ALWAYS comes on the last day.

The weather has been most pleasant the last few days. Willeke has been in the Netherlands because of a previous part-time teaching commitment there, but the project has been running well without her, proving that she has done a good job setting it up.

I have been very distracted by an incident that happened last Thursday in Giza. We had dinner at a fish restaurant. At the end of the meal I dropped a few bits of fish to a mom cat and her three kittens who had been wandering from table to table during the evening. When trying to drop a bit more, my hand got too low and one of the kittens bit my finger while taking the fish. The bite drew blood.

Rabies is the concern, of course. The chances for it seem very small, given the circumstances, but should treatement steps be taken just in case? It's distracting to the point of detracting from the experience here.