Today looked like it was going to be rainy and awful. This morning as we were all waiting for our van driver (who is one of the real archaeologists on site) to arrive and drive us in to the site, the sky was dark and there was pretty good rain. It looked like the weather was going to be awful, but the weather here changes 180 degrees in about ten minutes. This evening we came into the Hostel from the store and the sky was completely clear and sunny, then ten minutes later the fog was so thick we could see to the other side of the street, but not much farther. (The fog is really neat here and since we're right next to the small ferry terminal, we get to hear the fog horns.)
When we got to site this morning, the rain had already stopped and while the sun was not out, it was light. It was cool and slightly breezy, which is perfect for the manual labor jobs that the majority of the grunts (including me) get to do. I checked in the finds hut to see if I was urgently needed but today the two professionals in charge of the finds hut were trying to consolidate the finds, and really needed to do it themselves. They were still very appreciative of the work I did yesterday. If I was a labrador, I would have been wagging my tail when I left their hut and headed for the trench.
I worked with the same supervisor that I called evil a few days ago. He's growing on me quickly. Maybe he had jet-lag or something that first day, because he has improved every day since. He is still not especially patient though, and so we were using Maddocks and shovels for a good part of the day. He can afford to be less careful in his area of supervision because what we think is there, is late Neolithic rubble covering parts of walls and paving of early Neolithic construction. There isn't much pottery or anything else there, except for burnt bones and now and then a clay deposit.
When we reached the paving with the maddocks, we cleaned up our loose soil (our "loose") and continued with more delicate tools, mainly trowels, but occasionally brushes for clearing up the rocks, or rather "stones". (I have never heard a person here use the word "rock". Even when the American kids ask, "Is this something or just a rock?" the response is usually "Oh, yeh, it's just a stoon.")
Around late morning, my supervisor called me over and asked me for help using the GPS which he has no idea how to use. I learned that most of the supervisors don't know how to use it, because it is expensive (17,000 Pounds or about 26,000 dollars) and because most of them have more important things to do that take small finds locations. Back when they were grunts, they used different systems.
I learned how to do a survey line with the GPS machine today, because when I didn't know how to help my supervisor do that, we called over the tech-savvy one (who is also our van driver and probably about 35 years old) and he taught us how, or more taught me how and then I taught my supervisor.
While I was doing his survey line, people saw that I had the machine up and working, and because I had gone all over site doing it a few days ago, they all knew that I could take their small-finds points. They get pretty anxious to have those points put in because people need that done before they can continue digging underneath where the finds were.
Knowing how to work the GPS surveying machine has caused about half of the workers on site to know my name, and easily most of the supervisors who want points taken from their designated areas. They all seem to think that whoever acts the most urgent will get his or her points done first. I just walk around the different structures in a circle, doing all that i find. When the lunch break happened, I put down the GPS and found a trowel again so people would stop bugging me, but I was soon called away from the dirt again.
A guy came with a laser surveying machine today and kind of taught the Willamette kids how to work it. It was absolutely amazing technology. It seemed like something from a sci-fi film. It shoots out lasers to a targeted area, for instance 180 degrees in front of it, and measures the distance from the base machine to millions of points around it that might be formed by rocks or dirt, or people. He called this a "point cloud". Using those measurements, it creates a picture of the site and can tell all of the spacial relationships between different obects. It was really neat. That machine cost 45,000 pounds. We asked about both of those machines today because we were all curious. It made me nervous to carry around the GPS machine, knowing that it was so expensive.
I got to dig some more after that, then I was needed to work with another of the former Willamette students who actually graduated a year ago. She is working on a large project with pottery from structure 12. She taught me how to wrap bits of pottery so that they can be preserved for years and used at a later date, then we packaged them and recorded exactly what was in each box.
It was a long day, and has been a long two weeks for that matter, but I haven't found a job here that I don't like. Hopefully I won't.
Aug 3, 2012
Aug 2, 2012
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.
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.
Aug 1, 2012
Addition...
In the finds hut as I orgnized items, I was encouraged to take out and view any that I wanted to, as long as I made sure they went back in the propper bag. Today our excavation blog (orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar) mentions two halves of a smll stone chisel and a small flint ax head. I got to work with both of these finds, (technically all three because the two sides of the stone chisel are clssified as different small finds) as well as several pieces of groove-wear pottery, (pottery with intentional grooves put into the surface for decoration and design,) and a small ball of fired clay that may have been a game piece or a something else unknown to us. I also worked with more pieces of flint chips, a flint scraping tool, several worked stones, and a plethora of less unique items like crumbling or undecorated pottery, daub, and cramp.
Yesterday I didn't mention that the guy I was digging next to uncovered a really neat large stone, about the size of a bread box, that had a concave scoop carefully chipped into the middle of it. It was very neat to see. Since the entire rock it isn't fully exposed yet, it is not tagged as a small finds yet. I hope that when they do give it a small finds number that they put a picture of it up on the website.
One more thing--there is a picture on the excavation blog that was taken today and shows me in the background surveying with my GPS. The picture is next to the "View from the Trenches" and I'm the one standing up in the back, dressed all in green, holding up a pole with a dish on the top.
Yesterday I didn't mention that the guy I was digging next to uncovered a really neat large stone, about the size of a bread box, that had a concave scoop carefully chipped into the middle of it. It was very neat to see. Since the entire rock it isn't fully exposed yet, it is not tagged as a small finds yet. I hope that when they do give it a small finds number that they put a picture of it up on the website.
One more thing--there is a picture on the excavation blog that was taken today and shows me in the background surveying with my GPS. The picture is next to the "View from the Trenches" and I'm the one standing up in the back, dressed all in green, holding up a pole with a dish on the top.
Surveying and Finds Hut
It was supposed to be pouring rain today. It was quite windy and sprinkled on and off. It was unpleasant but I wasn't digging today. They started me right off on the GPS surveying the finds. There were so many today that I didn't have a minute to breathe. I went around and around the entire trench doing all of the tags, and by the time I had made it around, there were more finds to do.
After lunch they asked for a volunteer to help in the finds hut and I offered to assist. I was tired of the surveying and the weather so being in the finds hut was great. My job was to take boxes full of unorganized small finds and put them in numerical order based on the number of the find, written on the bag. I did that for the first half of the afternoon and I enjoyed it very much. Organizing is fun for me, but my next job was even better.
After the sorting, I entered all of the finds in the log book.
The wind outside of the trailer was so loud that it sounded like I was in a blizzard, but outside of the small window was the fresh-water loch and it had white-caps on it. The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow, which means I'll be too hot. Oh well. :) I'm still enjoying the work.
After lunch they asked for a volunteer to help in the finds hut and I offered to assist. I was tired of the surveying and the weather so being in the finds hut was great. My job was to take boxes full of unorganized small finds and put them in numerical order based on the number of the find, written on the bag. I did that for the first half of the afternoon and I enjoyed it very much. Organizing is fun for me, but my next job was even better.
After the sorting, I entered all of the finds in the log book.
The wind outside of the trailer was so loud that it sounded like I was in a blizzard, but outside of the small window was the fresh-water loch and it had white-caps on it. The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow, which means I'll be too hot. Oh well. :) I'm still enjoying the work.
Jul 31, 2012
Bluegrass in Orkney...
As I suspected, my back was pretty sore today, but I could move still, so I went and worked hard as usual. I was working with the same supervisor today but he seemed to be a little more relaxed about the whole process. My task today was to dig down into what we assume to be a circular wall, that is about 2 yards in diameter. It is probably a later addition to the site, built sometime in the late Neolithic period, and the craftmanship of the wall is much less exact that that of the earlier structures. At some point in time, the small area I was working was filled in with rubble as the people probably deconstructed it to use the stones for a new purpose.
My supervisor told me how I didn't need to be so delicate because the only thing I was likely to find there was rubble, so he took his trowel and really tore into it. I did my best to do the same when he was gone, and I guess I succeeded somewhat because he actually came by later and gave me a compliment. In that area I found several small pieces of broken pottery, lots of burnt animal bone, and rubble. He was right that there was nothing incredibly valuable.
After lunch I was taught how to survey with a GPS thing on a stick. My job was to go around to all of the areas that were actively being excavated, survey exactly where each tag from small finds was located, and then remove the tag. Somehow the surveying machine connects to a sattelite to pinpoint the area within 2cm. Often the surveying on site is done in a less technological way, when two people are needed in two seperate places on site, to compare distances and measure with a laser. The sattelite GPS thing was very interesting.
That was my job for the rest of the day. About two hours before quitting time, a man sat down on one of our rubble heaps, hooked up an acoustic guitar to a mobile amplifier, and started singing and playing blue-grass. That was a very odd combination of music and scenery. They just didn't go together, but he was quite good and no one seemed to mind him. Later I found out that he is a friend of the site director, Nick and that he is from Salem, Oregon like the kids from my school. I also learned that Nick's favorite music is apparently blue-grass. That is not at all what I would have guessed.
My supervisor told me how I didn't need to be so delicate because the only thing I was likely to find there was rubble, so he took his trowel and really tore into it. I did my best to do the same when he was gone, and I guess I succeeded somewhat because he actually came by later and gave me a compliment. In that area I found several small pieces of broken pottery, lots of burnt animal bone, and rubble. He was right that there was nothing incredibly valuable.
After lunch I was taught how to survey with a GPS thing on a stick. My job was to go around to all of the areas that were actively being excavated, survey exactly where each tag from small finds was located, and then remove the tag. Somehow the surveying machine connects to a sattelite to pinpoint the area within 2cm. Often the surveying on site is done in a less technological way, when two people are needed in two seperate places on site, to compare distances and measure with a laser. The sattelite GPS thing was very interesting.
That was my job for the rest of the day. About two hours before quitting time, a man sat down on one of our rubble heaps, hooked up an acoustic guitar to a mobile amplifier, and started singing and playing blue-grass. That was a very odd combination of music and scenery. They just didn't go together, but he was quite good and no one seemed to mind him. Later I found out that he is a friend of the site director, Nick and that he is from Salem, Oregon like the kids from my school. I also learned that Nick's favorite music is apparently blue-grass. That is not at all what I would have guessed.
Jul 30, 2012
Week 2 and the Evil Supervisor
The weekend was fun. Since most of you are probably more interested in the dig, I'll be brief about it. Saturday I slept in until about 10 in the morning and it felt so good! After that I went on a walk with one of my friends, and we explored Stromness, or at least one street of it, (which is really a fairly large percentage in this case.)
We bought a few souvenirs for family and friends at home, and we ate out for the first time since being here. We had a very nice day. When we got back to the hostel around 3, I fought with my "international phone" which is neither successful at being international, or a phone since it won't receive calls. I also tried to find out about church, and how to get there. I found the last name of the man I needed to contact for that information, but when I looked in the phone book, there were six different numbers for that name. I started at the top of the list. Luckily that was his brother, so eventually things worked out there.
Sunday, as you might have assumed, I went to church. They do not have a building for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here, so they meet in a small room, down an alley. There were 5 other people there besides myself and four of them were on the program. Their hymns were acompanied by a CD player, and I was younger than all of them by at least 25 years. All of that was really neat and I had a great time. I don't think I will be able to go this Sunday because we may be taking a field trip, but I do not know where we are going yet.
On to the dig today... Now that I have been moved to structure 14, I have a new supervisor. I was working right next to a student who goes to the Orkney college here, who has been on 2 dig this sumer already and working on this one since the season started. He moved much faster than me, and the supervisor always complimented him on how well he was doing and how level and clean his surface was, then the supervisor would tell me that I was going too slowly and that it was expedient that we work quicky here (as if the stones hadn't been fine for the last 5 thousand years). Anyway, he said I should be clearing a square meter in about 10 minutes which is completely impossible! My professor said to me that he must have been joking, but he wasn't.
After that, I worked extremely fast and hard, trying to move along. I'm now excavating on what may be a wall, or stone paving. The supervisor is excited about that and I think that's why he is rushing us. Anyway, my back is extremely sore this evening and I truly hope that I can move in the morning. I'm literally concerned that I might not be able to. I hurt my back earlier this spring and was bed-ridden for several days. Now would be a bad time for that.
I didn't find much besides a few pieces of pottery and a lot of stones today. Today made me question my plan to be an archaeologist but I'll get over it.
Hoping that tomorrow will be a better day! Goodnight.
We bought a few souvenirs for family and friends at home, and we ate out for the first time since being here. We had a very nice day. When we got back to the hostel around 3, I fought with my "international phone" which is neither successful at being international, or a phone since it won't receive calls. I also tried to find out about church, and how to get there. I found the last name of the man I needed to contact for that information, but when I looked in the phone book, there were six different numbers for that name. I started at the top of the list. Luckily that was his brother, so eventually things worked out there.
Sunday, as you might have assumed, I went to church. They do not have a building for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here, so they meet in a small room, down an alley. There were 5 other people there besides myself and four of them were on the program. Their hymns were acompanied by a CD player, and I was younger than all of them by at least 25 years. All of that was really neat and I had a great time. I don't think I will be able to go this Sunday because we may be taking a field trip, but I do not know where we are going yet.
On to the dig today... Now that I have been moved to structure 14, I have a new supervisor. I was working right next to a student who goes to the Orkney college here, who has been on 2 dig this sumer already and working on this one since the season started. He moved much faster than me, and the supervisor always complimented him on how well he was doing and how level and clean his surface was, then the supervisor would tell me that I was going too slowly and that it was expedient that we work quicky here (as if the stones hadn't been fine for the last 5 thousand years). Anyway, he said I should be clearing a square meter in about 10 minutes which is completely impossible! My professor said to me that he must have been joking, but he wasn't.
After that, I worked extremely fast and hard, trying to move along. I'm now excavating on what may be a wall, or stone paving. The supervisor is excited about that and I think that's why he is rushing us. Anyway, my back is extremely sore this evening and I truly hope that I can move in the morning. I'm literally concerned that I might not be able to. I hurt my back earlier this spring and was bed-ridden for several days. Now would be a bad time for that.
I didn't find much besides a few pieces of pottery and a lot of stones today. Today made me question my plan to be an archaeologist but I'll get over it.
Hoping that tomorrow will be a better day! Goodnight.
Jul 27, 2012
One Week Down (pics update)
Today I got to excavate the pottery that I discovered yesterday on the edge of the midden. It was in three rather large pieces, and after I had it fully cleaned and as much dirt away from it as possible, I got to lift it.
To lift pieces as large as these (about 4x4'') we work away dirt underneat it so it is on a thinpedistal, then try to cut through the pedistal without any of the pottery cracking or crumbling. Martin said not to worry about it if they cracked, because it would be very difficult to get them up without it, but I did it. He was pleased. (Martin is the site supervisor of the midden. He is the one who gave us the lecture on the Iron age Brochs in Scotland. An AMAZINGLY cool lecture.)
When my pot was free and the ground under it had been leveled and cleaned, I had nothing more to do in the midden so I was moved to work in structure 14 which is newly excavated this year. Last year it was just a bunch of grass. The level of structure 14 is only down about a foot from the surface. Since I was moved, I'm now working with people who are notin my group from Willamette. Most of them are nice, but some of them are a little stand-offish because we are foreign. At least 70-80% of the workers on site are foreign, so they should lighten up, but I understand their feeling. They couldn't do it without outside help, but they wish they could.
Today was the first day that it actively rained on us. It rained fairly hard for a while,, but not enough to "abandon site" as the site director calls it. If the dirt gets muddy, then the previously visible striations in the ground become smeared together and we cannot see how the site has shifted since the Ness was built. The striations are a big part of making sense of what we uncover.
All the others are watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics but I'm tired and would rather sleep than watch them. I can always find the best bits online later. I don't know what I will do tomorrow during the day, but most of us are going to go out to dinner and to a pub tomorrow night. I don't drink, but it would just be wrong to be in Scotland and not go to the pubs. They are social centers more than somewhere to just get alcohol. We can do that at the grocery store.
Also, I have uploaded my pictures on my computer and found out how to upload onto my blog posts, but for some reason they are not actually loading. I suspect it is because the internet is extremely stressed tonight because it is a Friday night.
To lift pieces as large as these (about 4x4'') we work away dirt underneat it so it is on a thinpedistal, then try to cut through the pedistal without any of the pottery cracking or crumbling. Martin said not to worry about it if they cracked, because it would be very difficult to get them up without it, but I did it. He was pleased. (Martin is the site supervisor of the midden. He is the one who gave us the lecture on the Iron age Brochs in Scotland. An AMAZINGLY cool lecture.)
When my pot was free and the ground under it had been leveled and cleaned, I had nothing more to do in the midden so I was moved to work in structure 14 which is newly excavated this year. Last year it was just a bunch of grass. The level of structure 14 is only down about a foot from the surface. Since I was moved, I'm now working with people who are notin my group from Willamette. Most of them are nice, but some of them are a little stand-offish because we are foreign. At least 70-80% of the workers on site are foreign, so they should lighten up, but I understand their feeling. They couldn't do it without outside help, but they wish they could.
Today was the first day that it actively rained on us. It rained fairly hard for a while,, but not enough to "abandon site" as the site director calls it. If the dirt gets muddy, then the previously visible striations in the ground become smeared together and we cannot see how the site has shifted since the Ness was built. The striations are a big part of making sense of what we uncover.
All the others are watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics but I'm tired and would rather sleep than watch them. I can always find the best bits online later. I don't know what I will do tomorrow during the day, but most of us are going to go out to dinner and to a pub tomorrow night. I don't drink, but it would just be wrong to be in Scotland and not go to the pubs. They are social centers more than somewhere to just get alcohol. We can do that at the grocery store.
Also, I have uploaded my pictures on my computer and found out how to upload onto my blog posts, but for some reason they are not actually loading. I suspect it is because the internet is extremely stressed tonight because it is a Friday night.
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