Wednesday ramblings

Pictures from our flight – seating and meals – as well as our first meal and finding rooms at the Training Center.

Digs, or seasons, occur every other year. During off years leaders/academics write up their findings with the goal of publication. The five week dig, shortened from seven weeks historically, produces information of such quantity and variety that archeologists with different areas of interest have plenty to keep them busy between seasons.

This morning the group met for orientation. Everyone introduced themselves and said a bit about why they're on the dig. Audrey pronounced herself the oldest among us with over 30 years experience on different digs, guessing her age...maybe 70. David is the youngest of the group at 13, he's here with his dad. More women than men on the team this year and the field supervisors and chief archeologist lower the average age of leaders compared with past seasons.

At lunch the chief archeologist, Kent Barmlett, asked us, Ken and Rebecca, to work as square supervisors. Times must be tough if they want us.

Better job staying awake today, but this afternoon we all nodded a bit during Kent's session explaining "Earth Locus Sheets". Completing these sheets each day is the main job of a square supervisor, so we hope that we didn't zone out during any crucial bits. If we did, does this jeopardize the validity/success of the whole endeavor? We're not sure if the added responsibility of square supervisor is such a good thing.

Now almost time for supper. Ken is out with a small group using GPS to mark off squares at the site. Each field is divided into squares that must be aligned with positions from the 2008 season. This season our group will work on four fields. I, Rebecca, have been assigned a square in field M, the "newest" field, according to Lizzy Brown, field M supervisor. Lizzy is jazzed that this field, only started last season, is full of unknowns and located right at the top of the tall right between two well-established fields. See pictures of last seasons squares (by loci) click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

How do the already-excavated fields connect? Stay tuned.