A-mace-ing

Today I went to the finds hut to ask if they needed any assistance before I even headed out to dig. The person in charge said I was a god-send and better than the angel Gabriel to her and her assistant because they were in such need of help. Apparently the small finds registry that I worked on yesterday was three days worth of finds, behind! So all day I organized and recorded small finds. It was long, but i enjoyed watching the blank spaces fill as misplaced finds surfaced and were entered. It is very organized and I like it.
I was relieved at the beginning of the day when I learned that there was at least a day's worth of work for me with the small finds, but as the day wore on and I saw all of the finds pass by, I wanted to be out finding some. That's alright though. For my class credit I need to be proficient in the finds hut, and so I would need to work there for a while anyway. I consoled myself by saying there was lots of back-breaking digging to do and I would certainly have to do much more before the next two weeks are up.
This evening we had a lecture given by one of the archaeologists who arrived on site today.His name is Mark Edmonds and he is an expert in stone tools, which is ironic because shortly after he started excavating, he found one of the nicest stone tools that has come from the Ness so far. It is a mace head and very neat. There is more about it on today's site blog.
Anyway, the lecture was fascinating. It was about how stone tools were made and why. Mark believes that they were not only for practical use, but for status symbols and showing off one's skill to make them. Apparently much of the stone used for ax heads of Neolithic Britan came from the most difficult places to reach, such as the very top of mountains and cliffs. There were many other more convenient places to get the same stone, but they chose to risk many dangers instead.
After the lecture I went to  pub with three of the other Willamette students and one of the workers on site who is from London. We played pool and some electric quiz version of battle ship. We had a good time. Unfortunately our new friend is leaving after tomorrow's excavations so we won't have more time to socialize.
Since I went out, it is later than I would usually be writing, so I need to get to sleep.