Yesterday I worked in the finds hut laying out small finds that have been sweating away in their bags for several days. It doesn't matter as much with the stone items, but the pottery gets pretty mushy when it is wet, and mushier when it is in a bag. On this site, excavators are supposed to puncture many holes in the small finds bags before actually leaving the find in there. Some poke two holes in the top of the bag and think it is adequate. They are wrong. Nonetheless, the woman I was working with spent the entire day working on these finds, and just when it was time to leave, we finished the last few bags, so that EVERYTHING found before yesterday was taken care of, or at least on to drying in preparation for the next steps. It felt good.
Today my sick professor and I discussed my planed project, and decided to make a few changes. I'm actually very pleased with the change of course, as the new version sounds more interesting to me anyway. Instead of trying to locate the source of pigment, which would be nearly impossible to do in the remaining two days, I am going to take stones from the spoil heap and use them to experiment with pigment both made from them, and painted on to them. I will be making my own pigment and testing different ways to apply it, such as simply scratching it directly into the surface of rocks, or using various binding agents to paint it onto the stone surfaces. Finally, I will be using the XRF to determine its effectiveness in analyzing pigment samples that are still attached to the stone on which they were originally painted.
After discussing the changes, we went to a beach to the south of Stromness where we searched for possible samples of Galena for me to use when we get back to the States. We knew this area is rich with it because not only do geological maps show likely areas for it, but they also used to mine for it there. We located old drill holes, but we didn't find any definitive galena. This isn't especially surprising because we didn't have our geological map with us, and we didn't have much time. The plan now is to return to that beach tomorrow during low tide, and break up some rocks.
We did have some time to go through the spoil heap and we found several useful stones with which I can experiment later.
The second half of my day was spent learning to use the XRF, and then using it to test various surfaces of a round, worked stone. The stone is from structure 12 and about the size of a small toaster. It is the shape of a slightly squished egg, with a slightly scratched, concave surface on the top. The concave, worked surface has a slightly orange stain on it and we were attempting to determine if it could have been used in the production or preparation of pigment. Unfortunately, we didn't discover anything exciting--The XRF revealed that the areas with the orange stain have a higher iron content than the rest of the rock, which is basically pure silica (quartz). This wasn't surprising, nor was it particularly enlightening, BUT I learned to use the XRF and that was my main goal for the afternoon, so it was a success as far as I'm concerned.
Also, I can laugh today without coughing and that made me extremely happy. When you are sick for so long, you learn to appreciate the little things in life.
Aug 13, 2013
Aug 11, 2013
Catch-up
Hello all. I didn't fall in the bay or anything, I've been very sick, so I haven't had anything good to say, but Thursday and Friday I made it back to site.
I did flotation for part of Thursday and dry sorting for the rest of the time. I've never done dry sorting before, but I liked it. Samples of soil are taken from every context, then the samples go to flotation. There they are washed and all of the floating materials like charcoal or seeds are collected. The silt is washed out of the remaining sample which then consists of anything from gravel to fist-sized rocks, chunks of pottery, flint, non-floating charcoal, bone, and anything else that was in the soil but too large to fit through the sieve. That stuff gets dried, then divided by a series of more sieves. Dry sorting is taking the varying sizes of gravel and dividing it into different materials, such as bone, charcoal, etc. Regular gravel is thrown out and the other materials are sent to specialists.Dry sorting is slow and dusty work, but I like to see the archaeologically relevant things organized and the regular rocks removed. It is satisfying.
Friday I worked in the finds hut with another of the Willamette students. We organized finds according to their small find numbers, entered them in the registry, and laid them out to dry.
Yesterday was the Kirkwall county show. Many of the Willamette students went to the fair, but I explored Kirkwall further. I didn't have the energy to do much more than that.
Today everyone seems to be recovering from yesterday, myself included. This week is now my only chance to collect the samples I will need for my project, and my professor is now sick with a sinus infection. This trip has just not gone as planned... but at least I got my watch back. :) It will all work out. I just get to play Catch-Up.
I did flotation for part of Thursday and dry sorting for the rest of the time. I've never done dry sorting before, but I liked it. Samples of soil are taken from every context, then the samples go to flotation. There they are washed and all of the floating materials like charcoal or seeds are collected. The silt is washed out of the remaining sample which then consists of anything from gravel to fist-sized rocks, chunks of pottery, flint, non-floating charcoal, bone, and anything else that was in the soil but too large to fit through the sieve. That stuff gets dried, then divided by a series of more sieves. Dry sorting is taking the varying sizes of gravel and dividing it into different materials, such as bone, charcoal, etc. Regular gravel is thrown out and the other materials are sent to specialists.Dry sorting is slow and dusty work, but I like to see the archaeologically relevant things organized and the regular rocks removed. It is satisfying.
Friday I worked in the finds hut with another of the Willamette students. We organized finds according to their small find numbers, entered them in the registry, and laid them out to dry.
Yesterday was the Kirkwall county show. Many of the Willamette students went to the fair, but I explored Kirkwall further. I didn't have the energy to do much more than that.
Today everyone seems to be recovering from yesterday, myself included. This week is now my only chance to collect the samples I will need for my project, and my professor is now sick with a sinus infection. This trip has just not gone as planned... but at least I got my watch back. :) It will all work out. I just get to play Catch-Up.
Aug 3, 2013
It's Friday, Friday...
Friday started out as a nasty day weather-wise. Luckily, I was in the on-site house doing research for my project for the first half of the day. The other first-year Willamettes and excavators got pretty muddy, but by lunch time the sun had come out and the waterproofs had come off. That was also when I was called to do some troweling in Structure 10. It felt great to be back in the dirt. In my section I worked with a retiree who has worked at the Ness for the past five years and it was fun to learn about her experiences.
The majority of finds we were making are termed "foreign stone" which includes everything from rounded river pebbles, to large chunks of red sandstone that we sometimes see. These are non-structural, but must have been deliberately brought to the site. As one of the site's professional geologists says, these rocks "didn't just float here." If any such stones have been intentionally manipulated, they are classified as "worked stone" instead.
We also found fairly large chunks of cramp, which is a glassy substance somehow formed by burning seaweed, (see last year's entry about cramp on July 26, 2012). It is fairly easy to identify if it is large enough to be noticed. The first indication that it is not a rock is its shape. It is bumpier and less uniform than the rocks, and it sometimes has sharp, glassy points. Additionally, it is much lighter than most of the stone we find on site.
The majority of finds we were making are termed "foreign stone" which includes everything from rounded river pebbles, to large chunks of red sandstone that we sometimes see. These are non-structural, but must have been deliberately brought to the site. As one of the site's professional geologists says, these rocks "didn't just float here." If any such stones have been intentionally manipulated, they are classified as "worked stone" instead.
We also found fairly large chunks of cramp, which is a glassy substance somehow formed by burning seaweed, (see last year's entry about cramp on July 26, 2012). It is fairly easy to identify if it is large enough to be noticed. The first indication that it is not a rock is its shape. It is bumpier and less uniform than the rocks, and it sometimes has sharp, glassy points. Additionally, it is much lighter than most of the stone we find on site.
Aug 1, 2013
Rain, Rain, Go Away
So the bee sting became a little more problematic than I initially thought. I had a big exciting allergic reaction to it that took about 40 hours to fully develop. My arm swelled up to a ridiculous size, and redness started to spread out from the sting until there was a bright red circle all around it with a radius of 2-3 inches. I ended up at the doctors twice for that ailment... I'm really glad they don't charge for doctor visits here.
On a lighter note, my watch arrived! I left it at a hotel in Golspie a few weeks ago. I called the owner to confirm they had it, then checked with him to see if he would mail it to me if I sent him a 5£ note and my address. That all went off without a hitch, and my watch of 9+ years and I were reunited.
So, back to archaeology for those of you who don't have any investment in my personal problems: It was WET and COLD on site today. While we were waiting/hoping for the rain to desist, we went to the Ring of Brodgar. It is every bit as grand and impressive as it was last year. Some of us decided to walk back to site from the Ring, and it was still raining when we got there. We sat around in the rain getting cold. Our site director, Nick Card decided it was time to give up and everyone working in Trench P went home, but the bull-dozer supervisors we have in Trench T kept working, so we minions did too. I was lucky enough to be in the house working on some preliminary plans for my project, but the kids in the trench got good and muddy.
Tonight we got to go to a lecture in Kirkwall about emergency excavations that are currently being done at Swandro on an island to the north of here. It was a really neat lecture. The site was exposed by tidal erosion and is still obviously effected by it. They are trying to preserve and record as much information as possible before the site is lost to the sea, but funding is a problem, as is usual in archaeology.
On a lighter note, my watch arrived! I left it at a hotel in Golspie a few weeks ago. I called the owner to confirm they had it, then checked with him to see if he would mail it to me if I sent him a 5£ note and my address. That all went off without a hitch, and my watch of 9+ years and I were reunited.
So, back to archaeology for those of you who don't have any investment in my personal problems: It was WET and COLD on site today. While we were waiting/hoping for the rain to desist, we went to the Ring of Brodgar. It is every bit as grand and impressive as it was last year. Some of us decided to walk back to site from the Ring, and it was still raining when we got there. We sat around in the rain getting cold. Our site director, Nick Card decided it was time to give up and everyone working in Trench P went home, but the bull-dozer supervisors we have in Trench T kept working, so we minions did too. I was lucky enough to be in the house working on some preliminary plans for my project, but the kids in the trench got good and muddy.
Tonight we got to go to a lecture in Kirkwall about emergency excavations that are currently being done at Swandro on an island to the north of here. It was a really neat lecture. The site was exposed by tidal erosion and is still obviously effected by it. They are trying to preserve and record as much information as possible before the site is lost to the sea, but funding is a problem, as is usual in archaeology.
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