The last day of excavation at Camp San Luis started out just like any other day of field school. I woke up to the sounds of tent zippers and birds chirping around 6am. I rolled out of my sleeping bag and off my air mattress (yeah, I use an air mattress and I'm not ashamed of it), tried to avoid the gopher holes under my tent while grabbing my coffee mug and a packet of Starbucks Via, and stumbled over to the cooking area in search of hot water. I'm not a morning person, by any definition, but I choked down some oatmeal and downed my coffee and began to prepare myself for a day of wet screening and breaking camp.
Wet screening can be a lot of fun, especially on a warm, sunny day, like this day was. But this day was different. Everyone was tired from a late night and a long week of digging, and we had a lot of work left to do before we could break camp and return to Santa Cruz. We worked fast to get the last of our material processed, dumping buckets of clay mud that had been soaking overnight onto the "pigs" used to separate the soil clumps from the rocks, bone, and flakes hidden within. We sprayed everything down then set the material out to dry on screens in the sun, and as things dried we filled and organized bags and boxes with the materials so they could be sorted and analyzed eventually in a lab somewhere.
While the work we were doing wasn't much different than any other day of excavation, the mood was changed. Over the previous three weeks of field school, our group became very close. It's pretty amazing how such an eclectic group of people bonded so well over such a short period of time. I like to think, and I don't think I'm alone in this, that we all made lifelong friendships over the course of these three weeks. I know I was glad to be finishing up the last day of work and was really looking forward to some down time, but I was also really sad to be leaving my new "home" and so many great people. While learning how to do archaeology and uncovering artifacts that hadn't been touched by human hands in thousands of years was an amazing experience in itself, what I value most is the people I got to work with. Dusty and all the crew chiefs were always patient and willing to impart whatever knowledge they could, and my fellow students were consistently hard working and positive, pitching in wherever help was needed and hardly ever complaining, even though I'm pretty sure most of us were working in a state of constant exhaustion. I feel so fortunate to have been able to participate in such an esteemed program with such an amazing group of people, and it's an experience I will never forget.
I have one piece of advice for anyone reading this who thinks they might be interested in archaeology and is considering doing field school; do it. It will be hard, you will get dirty, you'll probably get poison oak and find more ticks on your body than you can count, you'll probably end up with multiple blisters on your feet and hands, you will work your ass off and go to bed exhausted every night and wake up sore every morning. But if you're lucky enough to get a spot in this program and fortunate enough to get to work with people even half as cool as the people I have gotten to work with, I promise you will not regret it for an instant. You'll learn how to use a compass to walk a straight line during survey, to map archaeological sites, and lay out a perfect 1x1 or 0.5x1 meter square on the ground. You'll learn how to dig a square hole 60, 80, or 100 centimeters down into the earth to uncover pestles, flakes, bifaces, or formal tools. You'll learn how these things were made, why they were made from certain materials, where those materials came from, what they were used for and all about the people who actually used them. Most of all, you'll learn that you are capable of working harder than you ever thought you could, and you may even surprise yourself by finding a new passion and life direction... you may just become an archaeologist.
Wet screening can be a lot of fun, especially on a warm, sunny day, like this day was. But this day was different. Everyone was tired from a late night and a long week of digging, and we had a lot of work left to do before we could break camp and return to Santa Cruz. We worked fast to get the last of our material processed, dumping buckets of clay mud that had been soaking overnight onto the "pigs" used to separate the soil clumps from the rocks, bone, and flakes hidden within. We sprayed everything down then set the material out to dry on screens in the sun, and as things dried we filled and organized bags and boxes with the materials so they could be sorted and analyzed eventually in a lab somewhere.
While the work we were doing wasn't much different than any other day of excavation, the mood was changed. Over the previous three weeks of field school, our group became very close. It's pretty amazing how such an eclectic group of people bonded so well over such a short period of time. I like to think, and I don't think I'm alone in this, that we all made lifelong friendships over the course of these three weeks. I know I was glad to be finishing up the last day of work and was really looking forward to some down time, but I was also really sad to be leaving my new "home" and so many great people. While learning how to do archaeology and uncovering artifacts that hadn't been touched by human hands in thousands of years was an amazing experience in itself, what I value most is the people I got to work with. Dusty and all the crew chiefs were always patient and willing to impart whatever knowledge they could, and my fellow students were consistently hard working and positive, pitching in wherever help was needed and hardly ever complaining, even though I'm pretty sure most of us were working in a state of constant exhaustion. I feel so fortunate to have been able to participate in such an esteemed program with such an amazing group of people, and it's an experience I will never forget.
I have one piece of advice for anyone reading this who thinks they might be interested in archaeology and is considering doing field school; do it. It will be hard, you will get dirty, you'll probably get poison oak and find more ticks on your body than you can count, you'll probably end up with multiple blisters on your feet and hands, you will work your ass off and go to bed exhausted every night and wake up sore every morning. But if you're lucky enough to get a spot in this program and fortunate enough to get to work with people even half as cool as the people I have gotten to work with, I promise you will not regret it for an instant. You'll learn how to use a compass to walk a straight line during survey, to map archaeological sites, and lay out a perfect 1x1 or 0.5x1 meter square on the ground. You'll learn how to dig a square hole 60, 80, or 100 centimeters down into the earth to uncover pestles, flakes, bifaces, or formal tools. You'll learn how these things were made, why they were made from certain materials, where those materials came from, what they were used for and all about the people who actually used them. Most of all, you'll learn that you are capable of working harder than you ever thought you could, and you may even surprise yourself by finding a new passion and life direction... you may just become an archaeologist.
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