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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.