| Entry: | Sunday 1st of July 2007 - Day Six
Started work again with Alex on (14217). It is an extremely complicated unit and today I spent most of the morning rmoving pretty sterile soil that was mostly eroded material moving down the hill side. No spectacular finds to report, unfortunately. Two mudbrick structures were on either side of the erosive material as well as what appears to be midden fill, leading myself and Alex to speculate the structures could well be houses with rubbish dumped between them, similar to the sort of thing found on the East mound.
Before lunch I switched with Katie K to unit (14238) with Maxime, which had human bones (some even apparently articulated!) just below the surface. Vertebrae, ribs, a few teeth and some bones of the hands/feet appeared. They are pretty mixed up, not in fabulous condition and we are uncertain as to when they most likely date. More interestingly, they seem to be associated with ceramics more closely than other graves - there was some speculation about grave goods as we worked to expose the bones for scrutiny. It was very nice to have the opportunity to work on them and I feel I have learnt a lot about grave excavation today; not least the correct tools and ways of using them to best effect from Frank.
Yesterday I worked in the human bones lab after writing my diary entry which was extremely interesting. All the specialists have stressed the importance of experience in recognising remains quickly and efficiently so I am really pleased to have the chance to gain some! I am really thinking now about looking into osteo-archaeology as a potential area of further study after finishing my degree.. Amongst other things! This is the trouble with a dig like this, with so much exposure to so many experts in so many fields; the possibilities for further archaeological education seem endless!
The international composition of the teams at Catal has really bought home the need for me to learn another language. I have always been somewhat ashamed of the fact that essentially I can only speak English and now I am really beginning to appreciate how limiting this could be. Perhaps a language crash-course at the local college when I go home is in order, at least to bring my very limited French back up to the level it was when I left school.
I feel I have been rather slow and dim today - my head is still very stuffed up and I don't think sinus medicine is good for quick thinking. I am really hopeful tomorrow this cold will be on the way out. I guess it is rather like "freshers flu" = all these archaeeologists from all over the world suddenly bought togther, and living in relatively close proxmity to one another can't help. To add to it all, I managed to crick my neck last night.
Thoughts for today - irritation at my ill health! I HATE being ill and the thought of losing a day if I don't shake off my cold soon is quite painful. Also a little bit of worry for people back home - vague news of terrorist attacks on London and Glasgow as well as wide-spread flooding across my county are somewhat perturbing! I feel a little lost without constant access to the bbc news page that I am accustomed to checking on my laptop back at Uni or the 10 o'clock news on the TV. This is probably a bit sad, but I feel so out of the loop and I don't like it. I must remind myself that people coped for years before the internet was invented without knowing what was going on all the time! Actually, going almost internet cold turkey is probably a good thing - I am beginning to realise what an addiction to email checking etc I have developed!Entered By: KH |
