Postcards

So I totally bought postcards, and had every intention of sending them. But I couldn't for the life of me find a post office in Spain, also do to the time of year (summer is one giant never ending holiday/party) I'm very certain it wouldn't have been open anyways. So I do apologize, but some of you will get postcards postmarked from the U.S. and some of you I'm just going to give them to you in person when I see you. So, again, sorry, but if you want to get anything done in Spain, don't go during the summer.

The Hole of Science... AKA Sanctuary

 

Welcome to the Hole of Science. It is our own small one by one meter square where we practice archaeology as a science. We had to fight to get it. But we got it, and now we fight over who gets to dig in it. 

 This is a clean and finished Hole of Science. Normally you would dig two sterle layers (two layers with no artifacts), and we did still find a single pot sherd in the last one we dug. But we don't have time to finish. So we note that we didn't reach the bottom, in case anyone is interested in digging further here, and packed up what we found. What the Spanish will do with our little square, I can't say.

 Here's my turn in the hole.

And look, we're learning.

Before and After

This is the hearth feature from zone two. It is just in the process of being excavated, its divided because half of what comes out of there goes to the Americans and the other half to the Spanish. Note where the rocks are, what size they are, and the overall look of this feature.

I know you've seen this one in a previous post, but here it is again. This is the large pit feature from zone two. Again note where the rocks are, and where they aren't, the size of the rocks, and the area immediately around it. 

Okay, now what is this? Well its very round, and those rocks are very tightly packed. That seems odd, could they really sit buried like that for all that time, and nothing once came along and disturbed them?

Of course not. That's because even with excavation still going on at the site, this feature is being rebuilt. Not just rebuilt, but remade, better, rounder, more hearth-like.


And this too. Was it raining rocks? How odd that this looks absolutely nothing like what was uncovered. We don't even know what it is, besides a big, ancient, pit. But we'll make it better.

So what's going on here? Well the Spanish are rebuilding features for the museum. This in and of itself is not a problem. We have reconstructions, and restorations, and preservation that affect features and artifacts. Look at the Parthenon, it is being reconstructed. But when you look at it its easy for even someone who doesn't study Greek temples to pick out which pieces are original, and which are added. It is important when you restore and reconstruct that it is made blatantly, if it was a snake it would bite you, clear, which pieces are added. You can do this with paint, or material, but you do it. You do it, because you might be wrong.

According to the American instructors, they've never actually seen this on a site. Where features are being rebuilt around you as you excavate. And its not just that they are being rebuilt... The site has not yet been fully excavated, we're not done with it (well, we are now), so there's no way to get a good full picture now that these are not intact. We aren't totally sure that the hearth is a hearth, and there are only guesses to the big pit, one being as good as the next. And now they're gone.

The other issue is that there is no attempt being made at accuracy. These two real features have been changed into something else, and you would only know if you were really familiar with the archaeology of this area or had been there. So any average tourist visiting the museum, or out for a walk in the area will never know the difference...

Wired Again

So, due to lack of the interweb in Espana posts have been few and far between, even though lots has happened that I would love to tell you about.

But now that I have been rewired I will be updating and putting up all the posts I hand wrote (seriously) in the next few weeks.

If you have any questions, or anything you'd like to here more about let me know. Other wise back to whatever the hell I want.

Castles

When I was little I wanted to live in a castle. I wanted to be a princess, and be whisked away by prince charming. Blah, blah, blah...

Now that I'm older, if I had to live in the past, this would not be my chosen time period. People have a romantic ideal of the castles of the past, especially medieval ones, and they tend not to see past that. Not the incredible amount of filth that people lived in on a daily basis, the lack of indoor plumbing. Seriously, the Roman's had indoor plumbing, what happened?

Well the technology was lost with the fall of the Roman empire. And castles had, for lack of a better word, outhouses. Except that they could be inside (gross), but same idea, or a chamber pot (also gross). The middle ages were seriously dirty, leading to disease, the most notorious of which was the black plague. People dumped their chamber pots directly into the street. This lead to the practice of men walking on the left of women. It was polite for the man to take the hit and spare the woman.

Don't get me wrong, castles are amazing and fascinating structures. But they grew out of a time of great strife. Where huge divisions between rich and poor caused a need for protection against both you neighbors, and your own people. Nothing like Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty, but places where Henry the 8th sentenced his wives to death.

I'll be visiting a castle to day, pictures to follow.
-Cheers

Cognative Archaeology

At 2am here in Spain the summer triangle is directly overhead. We spoke briefly about ancient people navigating by the stars, but this devolved into an argument about what ancient people actually knew.

This is always subjective, and I tend to err on the side of people are essentially the same regardless of the time period. What someone actually knows is entirely dependent on the person. So what then are you left with? Well, common sense helps. When we look at the stars we see almost the same thing they did. We want the same things too: food, shelter, to belong. Which is why the past speaks to us. If we didn't have things in common with these ancient people the past would not hold the fascination for us that it does. People have not changed, only the things that we surround ourselves with.

The Man Purse

Do you remember that Progressive commercial where the couple is shopping for auto insurance? And the progressive lady gives them quotes so they don't have to shop around? She says, "And you don't have to hold her purse anymore," to the husband.

His wife replies with, "It's a European shoulder bag." And the husband has that awkward look on his face that says, he's only wearing it because she bought if for him, and if he could he'd burn it.

Well, when I saw it I thought, yeah that's funny. And then I got to Europe and realized that its totally true. More men than not carry a European shoulder bag, or man purse, or murse for short (not to be confused with male nurse). This is also not to be confused with a tote bag, or messenger bag. No these are purses worn by men, and sold in the guys section separate from women's purses.

So guys, look out. Your souvenir present is a man purse... Sorry, European shoulder bag.

Another One Bites the Dust

As of yesterday four out of ten Americans from the dig have had to visit Spanish hospitals. At this point we're blaming it on both the living conditions and the food. Before I got here I was worried this would turn into a food blog, only speckled with archaeology. No such worries anymore. Not after having eaten some weird rice dish, covered in what resembled ketchup, with odd cocktail weenies. Or the copious amount of french fries (I swear I will never again eat french fries), and absolutely no vegetables in sight, its no wonder we're all ill. I'm gonna have to be a vegetarian for the next month just so I can recover, from the stuff the Campamento de Juvinal Espinera calls food.

Time Change

Still archaeology, but we've moved from late bronze age, early iron age to the Neolithic. I had the chance to do some geophysical surveying at another nearby site. A favor to another local archaeologist, and the chance to see something cool.

 

This is a Dolmon. It is a neolithic burial site. These large rocks would have been covered with a large mound of dirt. The inside appears to have been painted red and black, and the body would have been buried in a pit dug within. This is apparently the largest in Galacia. Almost all of them have been looted. During a rough economic time people thought the Moors buried their treasure here. Totally untrue, but the mere hint of treasure always leads to looting. The soil here is also really bad a preserving bodies. From what I understand this one has not been excavated, and there is the possibility of another, still buried one, nearby. So we've been called in to survey and see if we can find it.

The entrance. They believe that these stones go down much further.

 View of the inside.

And here we are doing our surveying with the gradiometer. You can read all about it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophysical_survey_%28archaeology%29
Thank you wikipedia, because I would not have been able to do it well. I've only had half a days worth of experience with the gradiometer.

And Now Some Actual Archaeology

About time, right?
Today was a very productive day for the Americans at zone 4. We've been working in our own little section, opposite of where the supposed "structure" and "post holes" are. Interestingly enough we're finding lots of things, so we don't have to make finds up *cough cough*. Though we all made some awesome finds, you rock in zone 4 guys, here are two of mine that I'm especially proud of.

 A pot sherd. Normally this wouldn't be any more spectacular than any other pot sherd, but if you look closely you'll see its decorated. This  has been rare on the sites, making this piece awesome, and our little section even more interesting.

 The same piece.

 Here is another one I found. Its not decorated, but what makes it cool is that if you look at the side view you see the top is wider. This is a lip sherd making up the top, or rim, of the pot.

Today was certainly a better day. We all made finds, and are practicing archaeology the way we want, as science. We're even sifting the dirt, thanks to Issac, who brought his own small sifter (because the Spanish apparently don't have any).

Digging in the Rain

If you couldn't tell by the title, its raining.

Now depending on the type of dig you are on will depend on whether or not you will be digging. If its CRM and you have a deadline, you can dig in all sorts of weather. If its academic, maybe not so much. Rain can hurt a dig. It makes it hard to see different strata levels. You don't notice the change in the soil (because its all mud). Basically its generally harder, and things are more easily lost when adding rain to the mix. This isn't always the case, of course, every dig is different, but its pretty normal.

Our dig is certainly, "special", with air quotes. We got there in the morning, it was raining, so we hung around base waiting to see if the rain let up. It didn't, and we returned to the camp for lunch. When we returned it wasn't quite raining, more of a light mist. Still, because it had been raining for most of the day, and everything was wet and muddy no one guessed we'd be sent out. Which, of course, tells you that we were.

Now for the Americans at zone 4, our instructor/head is Issac. He is a PHD candidate at ASU and his background is in geology, so he brings a lot of the science aspect of archaeology with him. Something the Spanish don't really seem to understand (they looked at us like we were crazy when using measuring tape and a level). Because of this Issac has been pretty frustrated from the get go. There is literally a clash going on here between archaeology practiced as a science, and archaeology practiced as history. So when it started raining again, and the Spanish told us to get down in the mud and clean the walls up (called cleaning the profile), Issac told us not to get wet and muddy, and gave us something else to do (no less helpful mind you, still something that needed to be done, but allowed us to be dry).

I would not call it a fight. I would call it a disagreement. We are living in tents, we hand wash our clothes, if we get wet and muddy we will not dry. And keep in mind that on the American side, most everyone is here for field school. They have paid for this, and we're supposed to be learning, not just labor. So Issac and the two Spanish heads talked for a long time while the rest of us put our heads down and dug (in silly yellow ponchos).

I feel bad, because the two American instructors were mislead. The Spanish seem to have little intention of this ever being a field school. Now I did not pay like the other students, I came because I needed more dig experience. We are certainly digging, but there is so much more that goes into a good excavation. But like Issac said, this may be a terrible excavation by science's standards (and she is such a harsh and demanding mistress), but this is a huge learning opportunity. We are all seeing first hand why the techniques we learn are so vital. We will never forget this dig.

I also want to say that Issac is one of the most awesome people I know. He stood up for us, and has has made sure that we are learning despite everything that has been going on.

Now for some some pictures of silly yellow ponchos.

Why Post Holes are a Dumb Part of the Archaeological Record

Okay, not really. Depending on where you are, it might be the majority of what you find. But they can be really hard to find, and if not done right, you can't really say definitively that something is a post hole. But we're all frustrated, so right now post holes are dumb.

Take a look at the pictures, read the captions and figure out what you're looking at. Because at zone 4 there are two competing ideas attempting to explain what is going on here, and they are drastically different. So decide what you see, and why you think that's what you see, and then I'll tell you what I see, and what the people of the other idea see.

 A portion of zone 4. The large tarp is covering the site of the previous excavation, from a few years ago.

 Closer view of the previous excavation site. It was protected with the landscaping cloth before being re-buried.

One of the walls. Note the large stones and roots coming out of the ground and walls.

The notes from the previous excavation state that those holes you see are post holes, and that there was possibly the remnants of a structure found. From those notes the Spanish decided to expand upon the previous excavation site and the zone is much larger than what you see in the pictures. Now we know almost next to nothing about the previous excavation, and they are not playing nice, so we're not going to get their notes. The problem this leaves us with is that without proper documentation we've no idea if these holes in the ground are post holes, or just holes. There is a very specific way you excavate a post hole, and test for differences in the soil, and all this is documented because archaeology is a destructive process and once you excavate that hole its gone. So this leaves us with maybe they are real, maybe they aren't, we can't really know at this point.

So we are excavating the surrounding area, and have hit what appears to be a layer of rocks. On one side the rocks are quite large, and the rocks moving away from the large rocks get smaller. The Spanish believe that this is a structure, and while brushing down this area to get a better look, they see a slight indent in the ground. So they trowel it out a big, and suddenly its a post hole. We believe that we just watched them dig a hole there. We argue, no agreement is reached, and the post hole is forgotten in favor of uncovering the large rocks they believe to be part of a structure. This leads to yet another problem, because these large rocks look suspiciously like the exposed bedrock you can see on the nearby beach. The smaller rocks are made of the same material, and to us appear to be erosion from that bedrock.

So there we have it. One side believes that what we are finding is man made. The other side believes it is natural. The techniques being practiced by the Spanish here aren't helping either. Digging out a what you think is a post hole is one of the last steps you would do. Now, its not our site, so it doesn't really matter what we think, but we are finding suspiciously few artifacts on this side of the zone. The far side, however, is holding much better prospects.

Handwashing Your Laundry is Lame

You probably already knew this, or could have guessed. But I'm thoroughly convinced that even though I'm washing clothes regularly, none of them are actually getting clean. Maybe they are getting less dirty, but they are not clean. And the hand washing is wreaking havoc on my clothes. Anything that I want to bring back is no longer getting worn, so I don't have to wash it. And the things that are getting washed are getting destroyed, which just adds to the lameness, because they're still not clean.

This on top of the showers that give you 10 to 13 seconds of water with each button push, that may or may not have a tolerable water temperature, makes me feel about the same as my clothes. I'm just less dirty, but I never really feel clean. First thing when I get back to the states is a REAL shower!

Contentions on Site

We're halfway done with the dig now, with less than two weeks to go. Last week some of us spent time working on a hearth feature, we did an archaeological drawing, and excavated the inside. After which we were moved and now we're all back at zone 4, where we originally started the dig.

Now in zone 2 where the hearth is, the Spanish are busy rebuilding it. Now normally when you restore something you make it abundantly clear which pieces are not original. Such as a pot, you would use a different color of paint so that everyone could tell what was original and what was part of the restoration. It is important because we can never know for certain what something looked like, we make educated guesses, that are highly accurate, and preserve the integrity of the artifact or feature.

Sadly this is not the case with the hearth, it is being rebuilt with local stones, and does not at all resemble the state in which we found the hearth. Is is accurate? Doubtful. So why are they doing it? Well they hope that these sites will be part of a future museum, and it appears to us that their accuracy is not what's important. Having something to show the tourists seems to be what matters most. So the furious pace in which we've been digging, and the rebuilding of the hearth make total sense to use.

Our American head at zone 4 is slightly disappointed in this. He said, had he known some things about this dig before hand, they probably wouldn't have chosen to do the field school here. Still its not the worse field school ever, for the students who are here. There are far worse out there where the purpose is nothing but to get money and labor out of the students and there is no learning anywhere. At least here the American heads are trying their hardest to make sure we know the differences between the way we practice archaeology and the way the Spanish are practicing it here. There are many ways to dig, and different people approach it in different ways, and archaeology is practiced in different ways depending on the culture. But there are standards to be followed, especially when digging for science.

 This is one of the features in zone 2. Not the hearth, we're not sure what it is, and the ideas change daily. I do have no doubt it will suffer the same fate as zone 2, and it will be reconstructed to fit the popular idea. In other words, we may never know what it is.

 View from zone 2.

 More zone 2. The hearth is in the upper left, near the group of people. Notice that its fairly small (its not anymore).

Another view of the larger pit area.

How to tell if You're not the dig Favorite

So this is both a dig as well as a field school for ASU. I am in the position of being the only American who is neither an instructor or a student, as all the others are. I'm more like the Spanish who are digging with us, here for the experience, because I need more field work to put on my CV. What has been very interesting is to watch the dynamics that have been going on and developing as we work. Already there is a small group who has managed to wrangle the best site (zone 2). This means they have the least amount of manual labor, and they are actually finding things.

There are three sites here, and the majority of us are switched between them. There has already been some contention because those of us who started out at zone 4, spent quite a bit of time clearing the area before they decided to bring in a backhoe. Now, all of us are moving around except for the lucky few at zone 2, who get to stay where they are. A few of the instructors have been arguing back and forth about the fairness of this, and the larger issue of, are the field school students actually learning anything.

I have yet to figure out why the students at zone 2 haven't been moved around like the rest of us. We've all worked at every site by now. I'm also bored and haven't been finding anything so this has been the topic of conversation for the day. Things are tense on the dig to say the least. We're half way done right now, and everybody seems to be on edge.

So here's how to tell if your not a dig favorite:
1)You're dirtier than everyone else. Thus more manual labor, and less careful excavating which indicates the possibility of finding something.
2)You work very quickly, and they want you to work faster. There's probably nothing interesting in the area you're digging and they are unconcerned with you damaging anything.
3)You are moved when you find something.
4)You are moved to do more manual labor elsewhere.
5)Your site is not the one anyone cares to visit. Such as the newspaper, the news, interested tourists, the people running the dig, etc, etc.
And finally:
6)You're not learning anything, you're just digging.