Crazy American Girl Asks for Irish Car Bomb

Today was a relaxing day. We went to the beach and stopped by a nearby Irish pub with wifi. We were all craving wifi and a beer. So we settled in and it didn't take long for our waiter to realize that we were American. He speaks a good bit of English, and after we'd all ordered and gotten our drinks came back to talk to us. Through broken English told us that this "crazy American girl" had been here the other night asking for a strange drink concoction consisting of guinness and baileys and something else, but he didn't really understand what she wanted.

We immediately knew who he was talking about. Boiro is a small town, we are the only Americans here. There is also only one girl who is out every night, and was out last night. None other than our very own "dig princess" now named by the bar "crazy American girl". So we helped our new friend make an irish car bomb, and in true Spanish fashion he drank it, because the bartenders here are allowed to drink.

He found it awful, and we all shared a good laugh. He finished maybe half of it and said, "If I vomit I'll avenge you!" I think he meant he'll get revenge.

This is Home

Or tent city as we call it. Sometimes it has electricity, so everyone's gotten really good at charging things at random places. We're pretty much three to a tent, and this is a summer camp, so the background noise here is pretty much children screaming.

When a Rock isn't Just a Rock

Back in the moat, we've been having a lot of trouble with some big rocks. This is made worse by the fact that the Spanish archaeologists want us to work faster. Some background on this site, the American archaeologists are guests here, so we do things the way the Spanish want them done. Regardless of how we believe they should be done. For this site in particular they are hoping to incorporate it into a museum, not so much for research as for display to the public. So there is pressure to find things and get as much of the area excavated as possible. When moving fast, there will of course be sacrifices when it comes to context, and there is no better example for this than what happened in the moat on Friday.

We're working quickly at the moat to try and get deeper, they apparently have a goal in mind, and based on what they found in a nearby trench they are hoping to find a structure. So we are moving as fast as we can, layer by layer, going back and forth across the trench. It was odd that in one spot we were coming across some very large rocks. These were of course preventing us from going deeper, and as that was the goal, these rocks were removed. Now I don't want to give too much away, but we're in the Iron Age right now, and structures are made of rock. But we're also in the moat section of the dig, and the moat is just what you think it is, minus the crocodiles. So finding a structure here would be odd. So no one thinks anything of these rocks, and out they go (normally if the rocks are this big and in a particular place you would leave them and dig around them until you were positive they weren't part of anything).

As we go deeper though, you can see the pattern of the rocks along the sides of the trench and they begin to suggest a wall. The Spanish are thrilled and start focusing on the rocks. My teammate and I have a bad feeling. Because all of those rocks we removed from the bottom of the trench are right in line with these rocks. We point this out to the Spanish trench head, and it hits him too.

Archaeology by nature is destructive. In excavating a site you are destroying it. An example would be a hearth we are excavating in a nearby trench. There are rocks on the inside too, we draw them to remember that they are there, and then we remove them, so that part of the hearth is for lack of a better word destroyed so that we can find things underneath. Context is preserved by the archaeological drawing. We have to go deeper to find what's there and to get a better understanding.

Now these rocks in the moat might not be anything, but it looks like it might be something. The breakneck speed of which they are having us excavate at may have caused something important to be over looked and damaged. You can't put those rocks back, their context has been lost. There is nothing to be done but more forward and hope that it doesn't happen again.

Modern Trash, Ancient Treasure

I really wish I was able to keep up with this blog thing. It seemed like a really good idea at the time. But at least in this part of Spain wifi, or wee-fee as they call it, is fairly hard to come by, not impossible, like getting a cup of coffee to go (that doesn't exist here), but its a real challenge.

But at least for this post I've something more interesting to report than manual labor, pot sherds, and dig princess complaints. While working down in the moat, which is about seven feet deep now, I found the first piece of Roman glass.

If you look at the picture I look fairly unhappy about this. That's because I then proceeded to throw it away, thinking it to be nothing more than modern trash (we find broken wine bottles constantly). Luckily the trench head ran screaming after it, and it was recovered.

So there you go. First major find of the dig is by me, and at the same time almost wasn't because of me. I chalk it up to too much Spanish cough syrup. That stuff makes your head floatey.

Context

What I mean when I say context is this:

   * The location of an artifact or feature in relationship to other artifacts and features.

Or

   * How the position of stuff relates to the position of other stuff within the site.

So I found this pot next to this hearth, and this hearth is next to a stone table, and that says something about that pot. So that pot would mean something different if I found it in a grave, or in a storage area. A good example is the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon. On the Parthenon they have an entirely different meaning than they do sitting in an exhibit hall in the British Museum. In the British Museum they could be any Greek statue from the Classical era, but at the Parthenon their context becomes clear. But we know these artifacts contexts. There are hundreds more artifacts that show up at museums and no one knows where they came from, or they don't say. These artifacts essentially have no history, we can never know what they mean because we do not know where they were found or what they were found with. These things are essential to understanding an artifact. Was it found in a temple? Religious artifact. Was it found in a home? Domestic use. If its from a grave, its a grave good, an offering for the dead. Where an object is found is just as important as what it is, in fact knowing that can help you determine what that artifact might be. If this pot was found in a rock quarry clearly its not fine china. Context, context, context.

I Have a Thermometer in my Armpit

I'd love to tell you that I'm doing something interesting and archaeology related. But after spending my entire three day weekend sick, I'm doing neither. As of today, Tuesday, for those of you in different time zones, I've been sick for ten days. So this entire day was spent to see the doctor. Which was way harder that it should have been.
The first hospital we went to should have been fine, but I didn't have my insurance info on me (they never sent me any). So we went back to the museum on the dig site to use the internet. Turns out I bought something like insurance, but not enough like it that I'm covered here in Spain. I'm not sure what I actually bought. So I decided to pay anyways, because I feel like hell, and back to the doctor we go. Well the staff at the museum recommends a different clinic to me, so we go there. After wandering the streets we get some directions but that clinic doesn't open till four, and its twoish now. So back to the other hospital. But the other hospital tells us that the clinic would be a much cheaper option, and while they can certainly see me its going to be much more expensive.
So back to camp we go, just in time for the coffee after lunch (there's coffee after every meal here). Then back to the dig, and back to the clinic, now open. Turns out the older gentleman we asked directions from is also the xray tech. So having already talked with us, I'm immediately ushered in for an xray. I even get to keep it. At this point, I went to Spain, and got an xray.
It would have been far worse if not for one of the instructors being from this region of Spain. When I was alone conversation deteriorated into simple gestures, and then they just did things for me if it was simple enough. Which is how I ended up with a thermometer in my armpit. I can't remember ever having my temperature taken this way, and its been a long time since I've seen a mercury thermometer.
The good news is I have a severe cold, possibly bronchitis because of the cough and am taking antibiotics, some hard core cough medicine, and something else that I mix into water that tastes like rotten salt. All in all the doctor visit, the xray, and all the meds cost me 63.00 euros. I was expecting worse.
Hope to update you all soon on something more interesting than my illness. And remember email is the best way to get a hold of me, but I might not answer for a day or two.
-Cheers

What Not to do in a Foreign Country

Don't get sick.

It's really bad.

Especially when in a foreign country, and on an archaeological dig.


I thought it was just a cold, but after five days it still hasn't gone away, and if I'm not better by Tuesday I have to go to the hospital. The crew has placed their bets on bronchitis, I'm still hoping for just a cold and that it will go away. Either way, my body can't seem to tolerate the Spanish cold medicine. It makes you both high and sicker at the same time. What I wouldn't give for some dayquil right now.


Back to archaeology though, today I found a mass of pot sherds stuck in the remnants of an old wall. They really weren't anything special, but they are the first thing I've found. Keep in mind everyone that pottery is the most prolific artifact found on a dig. Its like the tupperware of yesterday, you used it to store absolutely everything. Its easily replaceable if broken, and everyone from the very poor to the very rich used it. Thus its absolutely everywhere. Today we'd call it littering.


Heading into the weekend now. Its a huge festival in the city of Santiago de Compastella right now and most of the dig crew are going. I'm gonna bow out of this one in the hopes of getting better. Pictures to come, I'll be a bit better, and cleared headed once I'm not ill. But right now my head's a little foggy.


Cheers!