| Entry: | "Maybe it’s an afro pick!" joked Arne, as he made the combing motions with our newest beauty of an x-find. It never gets old, this midden (sieving the midden, though, is a completely different story.) Our midden seems to be giving us little daily gifts, almost like an advent calendar; maybe to appease us, probably to ensure that we don’t self-mutilate from the monotony of it all. On the 22nd of July we got an especially nice gift from the archaeology lords. Sankei, that lucky Masai warrior that he is, found both two consecutive treasures that day, within half an hour of one another. The find was a beautifully crafted bone tool with 3 or 4 holes that seem to form a diamond shape; truth be told it sort of looks like a broken fork. And as the Disney-brainwashed child that I still am, I couldn’t help but think of The Little Mermaid. The seagull, whose name I just can’t recall, assured Ariel that the fork she held was actually a thingamabob and was used to comb hair. What does this have to do with archaeology you ask? (Probably along with the question of why you're even reading this journal entry?!)
Well like the seagull and Arne, the need to make such assumptions or approximations regarding finds is something I have discovered during my short 3 weeks here. In our society, the fear of being wrong seems to inhibit many of the choices and decisions we make. We’re indoctrinated to look for compelling evidence before voicing our own thoughts. Sometimes this is good (like during a criminal trial) but sometimes it obstructs creative thoughts and hypotheses from being voiced. More than once, I’ve seen people itching to say what they really think, but are circular in their discussion for fear of being corrected or chided for being naïve in their speculations. Fear is the best censor. But what would we do if we were not afraid?! (Another interesting thought for another journal entry!)
Maybe I am projecting because this is one of my own insecurities. But working with Arne, Maciej and Sankei proves interesting because we are constantly confronted with things none of us have seen before (damn walls...) and group speculation becomes a necessity. Besides, understanding the past isn’t about being right or wrong, (because really what can we be absolutely sure of?) It is about trying to piece together an idea of the past so that we can connect to a time that is long gone. For example, we’ve found a lot of abbreviated humanoids in our midden. I think about 7 or 8 so far. Sankei, who is full of interesting ideas and isn’t self-conscious about voicing them, thinks this seems quite ritual, as they’re almost all broken in the same places. I kind of think they’re part of a Neolithic board game , like chess pieces. Maybe this game involved breaking the pieces if one lost or was a very active, aggressive game, thus eventually resulting in broken game bits. Maybe the fork-comb is really a tool for weaving or maybe it is used to ward away evil spirits, like a neolithic version of the evil eye. Who knows? But just the action of voicing an idea is a step in the correct direction, no matter how incorrect your idea is.
How many hypotheses does it make to get to the knowledge-filled centre of true understanding? The world may never know... |
