(no subject)
7/1
I have a trench! Or at least it’s finally starting to look like a trench! C and I managed to open yesterday in favor of ignoring some of the lingering swamp pits that the constant thunderstorms have created in the backfill. We’re about 15 cm down, which is actually moving along quite well for archaeology, but we’re mostly trying to kill the topsoil layer as fast as possible since we’ll slow down to a crawl once we hit the habitation stratigraphy. Sounds like we’re working on some cool stuff this year-a new installation for the murlo museum and Tony’s thinking about trying to get up the famous footprint tiles that were left in situ to wait for better technology when they were first found. Our trench is sort of right in the middle of all the main architectural action and it’s v possible that we’ll hit some worked bone/ivory deposits or possibly something to explain the odd drop of bedrock off the E side of the plateau.
Right now though, it’s all pickaxing and dirt sorting, which means either throwing a pick axe or crouching the entire day and my knees and back are starting to get v angry with me-as it is for everyone. We’re all falling apart now-the weird barometric pressure hasn’t helped much. It’s cold-like 60s in the morning and humid foggy, then shoots up about 95 at about 1pm, and then the thunderstorm hits like clockwork at 4pm. Some of the trenches were so flooded today they couldn’t even continue excavating and if it rains tonight, we’re very screwed.
Having left off there for dinner, I just came back in about 4 hours later after one of the most intense thunderstorms I’ve ever seen. A group of us went out and just watched the lightening strike the town and hills. We lost power within the first fifteen minutes or so and the storm went on for an hour or so. It’s still raining two hours later and there’s no doubt our trenches are completely flooded. Since tomorrow’s Palio and we only have a half day, we’re going to go up the hill in the morning to bucket brigade out the flooded trenches. Fun.
I have a trench! Or at least it’s finally starting to look like a trench! C and I managed to open yesterday in favor of ignoring some of the lingering swamp pits that the constant thunderstorms have created in the backfill. We’re about 15 cm down, which is actually moving along quite well for archaeology, but we’re mostly trying to kill the topsoil layer as fast as possible since we’ll slow down to a crawl once we hit the habitation stratigraphy. Sounds like we’re working on some cool stuff this year-a new installation for the murlo museum and Tony’s thinking about trying to get up the famous footprint tiles that were left in situ to wait for better technology when they were first found. Our trench is sort of right in the middle of all the main architectural action and it’s v possible that we’ll hit some worked bone/ivory deposits or possibly something to explain the odd drop of bedrock off the E side of the plateau.
Right now though, it’s all pickaxing and dirt sorting, which means either throwing a pick axe or crouching the entire day and my knees and back are starting to get v angry with me-as it is for everyone. We’re all falling apart now-the weird barometric pressure hasn’t helped much. It’s cold-like 60s in the morning and humid foggy, then shoots up about 95 at about 1pm, and then the thunderstorm hits like clockwork at 4pm. Some of the trenches were so flooded today they couldn’t even continue excavating and if it rains tonight, we’re very screwed.
Having left off there for dinner, I just came back in about 4 hours later after one of the most intense thunderstorms I’ve ever seen. A group of us went out and just watched the lightening strike the town and hills. We lost power within the first fifteen minutes or so and the storm went on for an hour or so. It’s still raining two hours later and there’s no doubt our trenches are completely flooded. Since tomorrow’s Palio and we only have a half day, we’re going to go up the hill in the morning to bucket brigade out the flooded trenches. Fun.