Stalled

Things around here feel a bit stalled but it is all part of the process. Most of the excavators have begun to panic knowing that there is less than two weeks of excavation remaining and there is still a lot of work to do. These foundation trenches have slowed us down just simply because there are so many to do and every trench is just riddled with complicated archaeology. At the end of last season, we found the largest house we've ever found and this year we were supposed to remove it but it turns out to be a bit more pesky than expected. 4-5 people are working in it every day and they are still just removing layers of floors. They haven't even gotten to the platforms yet (that is where all the burials are) and once they get those areas open, there is bound to be multiple burials. The working day has been extended from 3 until 5pm just to allow for two extra hours of digging time but the team is growing increasingly weary. And the weather is not helping. Last week it was bastardly hot, with temperatures over 43 (33 in the shade at 11:30 am) and this week it turned cold with gusty winds. The wind has not stopped blowing for three solid days. Excavation and strong winds are a very bad combination. I went on site just for an hour and my face was blasted with fine dirt and I could barely see, nevermind try to work. The wind has been blowing all through the night as well and for those of us in tents, it has been a small nightmare. One person's tent was completely shredded by the wind and others have taken quite a battering. Some people are getting smacked in the face by the side of their tents being blown in while they are trying to sleep, nevermind the constant noise that keeps you awake at all hours. So, the long working hours, the amount of work, and not sleeping well at night has been a recipe for a very cranky team. Yesterday was a particularly bad day so it was a good excuse for a terrace party. One of my students turned 20 yesterday (awe, they're so young!) so she threw herself a little party and I think the rest of us were up for it, too. About 30 of us gathered up on the roof and danced to keep warm. Helen broke out a bottle of whisky and it was all downhill from there. At one point, I was sitting on a mattress and the next minute, Mike gripped one end of the mattress and dragged me at speed all over the terrace. I somehow managed to rip the leg of my trousers, probably one of the many occasions where I found myself falling over. In the end, it was the stress release that everyone needed and today people are feeling much more chipper, albeit slightly hungover.

Bear and the watermellon

I haven't said much about my work because I've spent a good deal of time trying to avoid it. I've reached the point in my research where things start to fall apart. No one's PhD ever turns out the way it was originally outlined and mine has finally reached that stage. Just about everything I have written in the past 12 months has to be completely revised, restructured and rethought. I had some key walls misnumbered, which finally explains why some things didn't quite make sense. But the penny really dropped when I was giving Chris (our on-site geologist) a tour of the site and showing him where I had collected some of the samples we had been looking at in thin section and with the Scanning Electron Microscope. After having completed the bulk of my compositional analysis during the year, I noticed that some of the statements that I had been making were wrong. Once I started looking more closely, things began to fall apart. And so did I. My records have big holes in them and I finally began to understand the ramifications of being numerically inclined, with a staunch opposition towards qualitative data. Basically, words confuse me so I tend to ignore them in favor of numbers, which I can organize in nice, neat little charts and everything makes sense. Unfortunately, archaeology doesn't work like that and now I'm confused. So I spent a good part of Saturday asleep in my tent because every time I'd open a book, my eyes would close. I still don't have a solution to these issues but with the aid of a few more late morning naps, I should sort it all out before I leave.

dust devils

Mike and Freya