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| Archaeologist Dayan |
06:10 Day begins
slightly later than usual, failure to rise at first light makes coffee and
bagel consumption hurried. Morning preparations are still completed with
adequate times prior to briefing.
07:20 Briefed on the
days activities, teams assignments remain the same as day two of excavation
commences. We are informed of the loss of one crew member over the night, this
serves as a sobering reminder of the transient nature of life, and the need to
adapt quickly to changes of circumstance & fortune in the field. One team
must continue handicapped through the day’s excavation, though the situation
may be rectified through changes of personal over the rest of the week.
07:40 We depart to
site, still no success at leaving during the scheduled departure time (07:30)
but this is an improvement from the previous mornings.
08:20 Arrival at
site. Weather conditions appear satisfactory, although the cool temperature and
lack of sun is probably only a brief respite from the tiringly hot weather we
have become accustomed too.
09:40 Weather
persists. It provides a comfortable working environment, although the fog banks
cast an ominous feeling across the site.
10:00 Work continues
in the same fashion as the day before, nothing of note though the rigor of this
sort of slow progressing digging takes a greater toll on my mental energy than
significantly longer days of survey ever managed too.
10:16 Nate was
deprived of coffee during the morning preparations, after an exchange is
negotiated between Fernando and Nate to relieve caffeine withdrawals a lively
discussion occurs over the merits of different leaves, and their respective
preparations to produce the best tea. The origin of Arnold Palmer’s celebrity
is questioned.
10:30 While creating
context records we go over again the use of Munsell colour charts.
10:42 Team adjacent
to ours discovers a single horseshoe, as well as a cow bone of presumably
historic origin. This seems to possibly confirm records indicating site being a
barn/animal storage facility. This said, the lack of documents mentioning the
barn subsequent to 1870 makes me uneasy.
10:54 Although
discerning the separation of contexts within our unit is a difficult task, we
begin to prepare specific buckets for excavated soil; 001-Rock , 002-Sand ,
003-Overburden , 004-Granite(or DC[Decomposing Granite]) respectively.
11:06 I loathe the
word ‘problematic’ more than any other in the English language.
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| Dayan excavating a historic feature |
11:28 Bucket
separation proves to be troublesome, but we progress fast through the control
unit and then into the rest of our 2x2m quad. I ponder the use of quad when the
overall measured area is not square or divided into four sections. There is a
high chance missing something obvious, but the terminology will continue to
irritate me until it is made clear.
11:46 Dark weather
continues.
11:52 Four bulbous, glowing,
reptilian eggs are recovered from North
West corner of Barn/Feature 1 area. Eggs are quickly
collected and taken off site into one of the many unmarked sheds located on the
Dana Adobe property. Inquiry regarding the eggs is quickly diverted, and I feel
it is best to stop asking questions. I wonder if ulterior motives for the
site’s excavation exist, although it is tempting to investigate the storage
shed perhaps some doors are best left unopened.
12:14 Work is paused
for lunch break.
12:22 During lunch
break I hear mention of a peculiar putty circulating the other teams. Though
the origin of this particular putty is undetermined, it has apparently been
known to prevent the many manias which can afflict those exposed to sun for an
extended period when smeared. Aside from practical uses of sun protection, the
putty gained infamy when employed by the brujeria-practitioner guerillas of the
Shining Path, who apparently gained a sickening blue glow and unrivaled power
after application in the final days of sieging Lima, or so I am told.
13:00 Work resumes,
it remains not very physically taxing but mentally much more difficult than
survey work. Still it feels like I’m getting alright at this much quicker than
I would have expected prior to field school.
13:58 My energy and
will to continue has returned. I am reminded and inspired by Helmkamp “He who
walks alone always walks uphill, but beneath his feet are the broken bones of
flawed men.”
14:24 We are given a
brief overview of Harris matrices by Gilbert. I notice the first name of this
Harris character changes between group he instructs, which makes me wonder what
the man’s real name was. It is great to have geological(or perhaps he did
something else? I’m not sure) protocol named after you, but I could easily
mistake this Harris for the one of line fame. His matrices make sense though,
and even with horror stories of giant matrices I think I could complete them
with relative ease, or so I hope.
14:47 The skies fill
with birds of ill omen,
-- remaining log entries damaged and unreadable --
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