Eat Dirt.
so an archeology dig is hard. haha
well i didnt think it would be easy, and i'm so glad i'm doing this--i'm doing this for the experience--however, i'm also glad that i'm not an archeologist. :) but i'm currently learning what a locus is, that you have a specific square you're supposed to dig, how to create a probe, which phase of the site we are wanting to excavate, what a 'shabob' is, what goes in specific buckets, when to have a pottery reading and how to register pottery, what a 'goofa' is, and what a bulk is, how to correctly use a trowel and how to take pictures and elevations.... oooh man.
ok so, let's get to the nitty gritty stuff (baha. pun intended.)
our dig site is pretty interesting. as said previously, it's a city from the Early Bronze Age (3500-2000 BC) but i'm not sure how well known the site is internationally or even in Jordan. but it's pretty important to history and it's cool. we've found alot--on this particular dig 2010, we've found tons of pottery and lots of bones (i think all animals bones thusfar). someone the other day found what they call a taboon. it's a big piece of pottery in the ground or wall that they used for an oven and would cook things in there. someone also found a pretty neat tea pot that was whole and not in pieces. that was a huge deal. very rare to have pottery in one piece. someone also found some actual beads--little tiny, very pretty things. we've found a tower, but the man who went thru this area and originally found the excavation site in the 1860s said that there are more towers (in his descriptions of the site). but we have yet to find more towers... but anyway, we are finding alot of really interesting stuff that i'm sure will go to museums eventually, most of the pottery is being taken back to the States to be professionally recontstructed. and the archeologists will give presentations about our excavation when it's over as well.
as for what i've specifically been working on, i've been on the outer edges and i've been finding fortifications. you see, our site was built in phases. as different people or different generations came along in this Early Bronze Age era, they would either rebuild or build on top of things or build new walls. so we call the most recent buildings (circa 2000 BC) Phase A. then the older phases are Phase B and C and D, etc etc. so archeology is not only digging up old stuff, but it's figuring out why those people built what they did, and when they built it and how they built it--what phase is it in?--and it's a great giant puzzle, a maze of relationships. kinda fun to figure out!
anyway, i'm working with fortifications that were from Phase A and B. in this first probe i'll show you a before picture:
then an after picture:
i did all that! but i had to do it carefully...you may not be able to tell from this picture, but there's 2 walls here. and they intersect, or rather one wall is abutts the other. the 'horizontal' wall is the outer wall of the city. it's about 1.5 meters wide. normally, they have an inner wall then a mud brick wall then an outer wall--in that order, to the outside. in my probe however, i just discovered how big the outer wall was (which we didnt really know before) and then i found the intersecting wall and then i found only a part of the mud brick wall. we're not entirely sure how it all fits together quite yet...
in another probe i did, i was seeing how far down a specific Phase B wall went--then i landed on a mud brick layer and i've uncovered a great place for some excellent research and presentation photograph opportunities.
throughout this, i've found only a little pottery and bones--probably about 7-8 pieces of pottery and 5-6 bones. not as many of these things show up on the outer fortifications. but i did find a super cool bone that is really an 'object'--the bone was strategically carved and we're not sure what they used the bone for, but they did something to it for some reason...
anyway, that's about all i have to tell thusfar with the actual dig. as mentioned, it's hot (tho it's a dry hot; i think i'd be 100 times hotter in Houston or Oklahoma City than in Jordan) and dirty and hard but i'm enjoying it! i'll be able to look back on this and see what i was apart of!
another interesting this is how different our values are from, say, the government here in Jordan. in between excavation years, they government didn't tell anyone but they just put in telephone poles that run through our dig site. rumor has it that they also want to run a road through our dig site. you see, there is a farmer's field right behind us and the road canNOT go thru that farmers field--it's way too important. so naturally, the road has to go through an Early Bronze Age city. of course ir does. guess we'll see what happens with that...
if you didn't know, i've been currently stuck in a phase where i have the tendency to say "eat dirt" to people. well, it's usually in the context of sports--instead of saying crude things to the other team, i like to more-or-less-light-heartedly say "eat dirt" to them. but even outside of sports, you never know when i might pull that phrase out of my pocket...
well i feel even more entitled to say this now, because i eat dirt every day.
well i didnt think it would be easy, and i'm so glad i'm doing this--i'm doing this for the experience--however, i'm also glad that i'm not an archeologist. :) but i'm currently learning what a locus is, that you have a specific square you're supposed to dig, how to create a probe, which phase of the site we are wanting to excavate, what a 'shabob' is, what goes in specific buckets, when to have a pottery reading and how to register pottery, what a 'goofa' is, and what a bulk is, how to correctly use a trowel and how to take pictures and elevations.... oooh man.
ok so, let's get to the nitty gritty stuff (baha. pun intended.)
our dig site is pretty interesting. as said previously, it's a city from the Early Bronze Age (3500-2000 BC) but i'm not sure how well known the site is internationally or even in Jordan. but it's pretty important to history and it's cool. we've found alot--on this particular dig 2010, we've found tons of pottery and lots of bones (i think all animals bones thusfar). someone the other day found what they call a taboon. it's a big piece of pottery in the ground or wall that they used for an oven and would cook things in there. someone also found a pretty neat tea pot that was whole and not in pieces. that was a huge deal. very rare to have pottery in one piece. someone also found some actual beads--little tiny, very pretty things. we've found a tower, but the man who went thru this area and originally found the excavation site in the 1860s said that there are more towers (in his descriptions of the site). but we have yet to find more towers... but anyway, we are finding alot of really interesting stuff that i'm sure will go to museums eventually, most of the pottery is being taken back to the States to be professionally recontstructed. and the archeologists will give presentations about our excavation when it's over as well.
as for what i've specifically been working on, i've been on the outer edges and i've been finding fortifications. you see, our site was built in phases. as different people or different generations came along in this Early Bronze Age era, they would either rebuild or build on top of things or build new walls. so we call the most recent buildings (circa 2000 BC) Phase A. then the older phases are Phase B and C and D, etc etc. so archeology is not only digging up old stuff, but it's figuring out why those people built what they did, and when they built it and how they built it--what phase is it in?--and it's a great giant puzzle, a maze of relationships. kinda fun to figure out!
anyway, i'm working with fortifications that were from Phase A and B. in this first probe i'll show you a before picture:
then an after picture:
i did all that! but i had to do it carefully...you may not be able to tell from this picture, but there's 2 walls here. and they intersect, or rather one wall is abutts the other. the 'horizontal' wall is the outer wall of the city. it's about 1.5 meters wide. normally, they have an inner wall then a mud brick wall then an outer wall--in that order, to the outside. in my probe however, i just discovered how big the outer wall was (which we didnt really know before) and then i found the intersecting wall and then i found only a part of the mud brick wall. we're not entirely sure how it all fits together quite yet...
in another probe i did, i was seeing how far down a specific Phase B wall went--then i landed on a mud brick layer and i've uncovered a great place for some excellent research and presentation photograph opportunities.
throughout this, i've found only a little pottery and bones--probably about 7-8 pieces of pottery and 5-6 bones. not as many of these things show up on the outer fortifications. but i did find a super cool bone that is really an 'object'--the bone was strategically carved and we're not sure what they used the bone for, but they did something to it for some reason...
anyway, that's about all i have to tell thusfar with the actual dig. as mentioned, it's hot (tho it's a dry hot; i think i'd be 100 times hotter in Houston or Oklahoma City than in Jordan) and dirty and hard but i'm enjoying it! i'll be able to look back on this and see what i was apart of!
another interesting this is how different our values are from, say, the government here in Jordan. in between excavation years, they government didn't tell anyone but they just put in telephone poles that run through our dig site. rumor has it that they also want to run a road through our dig site. you see, there is a farmer's field right behind us and the road canNOT go thru that farmers field--it's way too important. so naturally, the road has to go through an Early Bronze Age city. of course ir does. guess we'll see what happens with that...
if you didn't know, i've been currently stuck in a phase where i have the tendency to say "eat dirt" to people. well, it's usually in the context of sports--instead of saying crude things to the other team, i like to more-or-less-light-heartedly say "eat dirt" to them. but even outside of sports, you never know when i might pull that phrase out of my pocket...
well i feel even more entitled to say this now, because i eat dirt every day.
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