New friends
AlUla, 1st April. March has been a month full of beautiful news for us. Our team completed the cataloging of all the tombs at the Hegra site and met with a group of young conservators from the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU). We will be following them for a training period. The cultural exchange and the opportunity to teach the method that characterizes the long tradition of Italian school are fundamental aspects of the project we have developed with RCU.
Where Eagles Dare
In the past few weeks of on-site work, thanks to the use of a lifting platform, we have finally approached even the highest surfaces of the tomb facades, in a joint activity with those carried out by the Geogrà team. We have thus been able to assess the criticality of some situations, mostly related to unstable fragments of sandstone, and observe closely the finishing plasters, mostly found on the cornices of the entablatures. This will allow us to carry out a systematic study comparing the plasters of different tombs, with particular attention to the presence of polychromy.
Environmental Monitoring
Paola Denuntiis, a researcher at CNR-ISAC and responsible, within our project, for environmental monitoring, after careful analysis shared with colleague Loris Branzanti, has indicated to RCU the most significant areas in which to position temperature and humidity sensors inside some tombs in different necropolises, also based on what we have detected during months of on-site study. The data collected by the sensors are sent to the Darca Connect platform developed by Eltek and accessible for real-time analysis.
Furthermore, a weather station has been positioned in the ancient residential area – located in the center of the archaeological site – which will record other parameters, such as the amount of precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation. In the future, probes measuring humidity inside the stone and a GoPRO to monitor water seepage on the cliffs will also be installed.
A campaign of thermographies has been carried out on about twenty tombs to evaluate temperature variations on the surfaces at different times of the day. We recorded a temperature variation of up to 20°C: ranging from a minimum of 7°C to about 30°C, at least for this season preceding the scorching Saudi summer.
Art in the Desert
As every month, even in March, we dedicated part of our free time to discovering the cultural attractions offered by the county of AlUla. We were captivated by the charm of the Maraya Hall. In Arabic, “maraya” means “mirror” or “reflection“. Indeed, it is a building made with mirrors on all sides, celebrating the role of crossroads of cultures and traditions that the city of AlUla has always played. Another beautiful excursion was to Desert X: this is the third edition of the Land art exhibition in the desert near AlUla, featuring installations of contemporary art by fifteen artists.
March is the month of Ramadan, and for us, it has been very interesting to observe how Muslims live during this period when, for example, the opening hours of shops and meal consumption change. In particular, after 6 in the evening, they set up long tables on the streets to share the meal after many hours of fasting. And life resumes, only to stop again at dawn.
