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No Shovel at All – A Day in Pictures

By Mathias Probst on July 5, 2012 in Archaeological Prospection, Education, Expeditions, Museum Archaeology, Prehistory

Today many people know that archaeologist around the world usually don’t work in pits with a shovel in their hand every day. What many people yet don’t know is that there are days in the professional life of an archaeologist in which he holds not even a single find in his hands and in which he doesn’t think of finds and reconstructing past lifeways at all.

I’ve graduated from the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz with a degree in Prehistory. Currently I’m working at the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Center and Museum for Human Behavioral Evolution. This amazing institute is the place where I spent my Day of Archaeology 2012 without a shovel or even a single find.

In the morning I administrated MONREPOS’ social networking accounts (twitter, facebook, Google+) and informed myself about new posts of people the institute follows. I also tweeted about our own activities, organizing several excavations for the summer.

One of these field projects is the Lower Danube Survey for Paleolithic Sites. Together with collaborating institutes we will be conducting excavations at a newly discovered Lower Paleolithic site in Romania called Dealul Guran. As we are still looking for participants to join this year’s campaign I designed an information flyer and aupdated the project’s website.

Since I will be working in the field myself I had to book a flight from Frankfurt to Bucharest and back.

Just like in other professions, archaeologists have their spleens too. This time my fellow graduate students and I agreed in the need of buying special trowels for the above mentioned fieldwork in Romania. So we gathered around a computer and purchased some equipment that deemed us to be indispensable for a successful summer.

Being a post-graduate I frequently think about a topic to focus on next. On the Day of Archaeology I therefore met with one of my supervisors in our institute’s lounge to chat about possible projects.

Last but not least, let me clarify my point: I do dig pits at times.

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Drawing Cave Art in Kentucky

By Laracuente on July 5, 2012 in Expeditions, Historical Archaeology, Prehistory, Survey

“Awe” would be the word that sums up my experiences on the Day of Archaeology. I spent the weekend working in a cave documenting prehistoric rock art; a project that completely ripped me out of my archaeological comfort zone putting me back into the position of archaeological newbie with a lot to learn.

I spent the project under the care of Brandon Ritchison, an archaeologist who recently graduated with a Bachelor Degree from the University of Kentucky and is on the way to a graduate program in the fall. He was building on research he completed for his Undergrad Thesis and intends to present it at the Southeastern Archaeology Conference this year (so you can get all the details about the research project there, I will not share them in this post for a variety of reasons). I owed Brandon some labor in return for his help on my dissertation field work earlier in the year and I had been in caves numerous times during middle and high school field trips to Mammoth Cave National Park. What I didn’t realize was that this was a “wild cave”… about as far away from Mammoth Cave’s manicured paths, modern lighting, and massive open spaces as you could get.

Packing for this excursion was much different than other projects. We weren’t excavating, just taking photos, drawing, and marking things on a map. My field pack consisted of lots of food and water (it was 106 degrees outside) and light sources (I think I had 7 lights of various sizes), LOTS of replacement batteries, and a long sleeve shirt. Brandon provided a helmet with lantern.

Me geared up and ready to go. I wore a long sleeve shirt in the cave.

The road the lead to the cave was blocked by fallen trees and we had to hike about an hour and a half through the hundred degree weather to the cave entrance. Arriving at the entrance is where I realized that this weekend would be spent outside of my comfort zone.

Instead of a wide cavernous opening (see the Mammoth Cave Website link above for an image of the opening I was expecting) there was a solid rock wall with an opening about .75 meter high at the base of it. I hadn’t asked Brandon about the dimensions of the cave because, honestly, up until that point I hadn’t thought of it. I wasn’t sure if I was afraid of small spaces because, honestly, up until that point I never had to crawl into something so small.

A few things got me through that initial trepidation:

A map showing that the cave opened up after about 14 feet (5 meters) of crawling
curiosity about my own psychological limitations
there was a really cool breeze coming out of the cave… 60 something degrees is a lot better than 106 degrees
knowing that I had already Tweeted about doing this for Day of Archaeology and wanting to post something more fun than stopping at the entrance of a cool cave and turning around.

So with an advanced apology of possibly freaking out, I followed the rest of the team crawling into the ground and then it was instantly dark. I mean REALLY dark, to the point where I really couldn’t tell if my eyes were open or shut. Flicking on the lights illuminated a ceiling covered with cave crickets, there was a salamander, and a few bats.

Cave Crickets covered the ceiling in most areas

The map showed that the cave was about 700 ft (200 meters) deep and had multiple passages. The first section that we were standing in was large enough to put a four lane highway in, the ceiling varied from a few stories high to a few feet.

The cave was wet and about half of the walls had been covered in flow stone which had been destroyed by early Kentuckians who mined it and carved the crystalline rock into knick-knacks. The floor was covered with sharp stones from this mining and there were a few traces left of their activity.

There was a variety of cave art. Much of it was historic graffiti consisting of names and dates of different visitors to the cave. These were either etched into the walls and ceiling or “candle marked” with the soot from torches, candles, or lanterns.

In certain areas there were prehistoric petroglyphs (art that is incised into the rock). Surprisingly, the only way that most of this art was really visible is when your headlight is off and the wall is indirectly illuminated at an oblique angle. This made collections of zigzag lines and concentric squares stand out in relief. Sometimes it was so faint, I wondered if most of the cave’s visitors even realized that it was there.

The corner of some concentric squares only visible when the light is at an angle.

Lighting made the art very difficult to photograph and draw, but I opted to spend the day drawing a concentration of art several meters long that covered the ceiling. The other option was to belay across a very deep pit and squeeze through a rock tube that was about the diameter of my shoulder width for about 10 meters before reaching the final cavern.

This was the easy part

Being my first time in a wild cave I decided not to push my luck and I would tackle that challenge when I return on a future expedition. After spending about 8 hours in the cave we crawled back out of the cave.

Water on the cave ceiling where I spent most of the day

While the project was fun, the archaeology was interesting, and I was already making a list of caving gear I wanted to buy, but I had never been so glad to see the hot summer sun.

Light at the cave entrance as we were leaving.

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Digging in the Lebanon

By Pippa Pearce on July 3, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Excavation, Expeditions

My name is Pippa Pearce and I am a British Museum conservator on a dig in the Lebanon run jointly by the BM and Lebanese archaeologists. I have been taking pictures all day to record Archaeology day here but my internet connection is dodgy. I will try and upload them when I can.

The site is Sidon in modern day Saida. The dig director is Claude Doumet Serhal and the on site representative from the British Museum is Sarah Collins. The dig has funding from a number of interested institutions & individuals, many of them based in the Lebanon.

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A Day of Archaeologists

By Andy Dufton on June 29, 2012 in Archaeological Prospection, DayOfArch2012, Expeditions, Survey

Much of archaeology, especially in academia, comes down to how you spend your summer vacation. After finishing up the first year of a PhD at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University, this summer I’ve been making the project circuit in Italy and Jordan, the latter as part of the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project.

Today was the day off for the team, and met with a slow start after a late night of football and dancing under the stars on the roof of the dig house (aka Club Sayhoun). Day off or no day off, five of us were up early and ready for a six hour hike to Jebel Harun, the grave of Aaron (Arabic: Harun), brother of Moses. And what a hike it was- you can all check out Allison’s post detailing just why visiting the tomb has been a pilgrimage for almost two thousand years. To add to her sparkling narrative would hardly do it justice, so instead I’m going to focus on the archaeologists with whom I spent the day hiking to the top of the known Petra world.

The hiking team (from left to right): Sarah Craft, Andrew Moore, Linda Gosner, and Allison Mickel

Crafty just finished up the fourth year of her PhD at the Joukowsky Institute. She researches pilgrimage sites in central Turkey, so was mixing business and ‘pleasure’ in hiking up what seemed like 10000m in 30+ degree desert sun. She’s also been a great friend in my first year at Brown in showing me both the school and the city, and will be sorely missed this coming year as she lives in Istanbul with a fellowship at the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations.

I just met Andrew this year at Petra, where he’s working for the first time after finishing his MA at the University of Colorado Boulder. In the last week I’ve already discovered he has a wicked sense of humour and, after today, I also know the man is a beast when it comes to an intense hike. I’m sure there must be some goat blood in his family tree somewhere.

Linda is another Brown student, so I’ve had the chance to get to know her pretty well in the last year. Aside from a shared love of dance (NB- she can actually dance, and I cannot), and a mutual hope for a Spain win against Italy on Sunday, we’ve also spent the last year in classes and brushing up on Latin to varying degrees of success. If I wanted to embarrass us both, I’d post the video of us re-enacting the opening scenes of the Lion King on the mountain today. I think this time discretion is the better part of valor.

Allison is another person I’ve had the good fortune to meet this season at Petra, and has just finished up her first year of a PhD at Stanford. We’ve already had some great chats about communicating archaeology to the public. I don’t know how she made it up the mountain after a serious bout of sickness yesterday, but after some strategic shady stops, a lot of water, and even more stairs we emerged victorious to greet the others and have some lunch.

Exhausted. A pilgrimage really is all about the journey.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of the discussion of archaeology focusses on the archaeology itself- on the site, the materials, the landscape, the archive, the publication. But at least to me, the personal interactions on days like today leave a more lasting impression. Meeting and developing friendships with these people- the archaeologists, my peers- is the thing that is ultimately the most rewarding aspect of a career in archaeology. I’m looking forward to similar days of archaeological pilgrimage, both in the rest of my season with BUPAP and in the future.

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Living a Day of Archaeology by Hiking to Jebel Harun

By Allison Mickel on June 29, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Expeditions

This is Jebel Harun:

It’s the supposed site where Aaron (Harun in Arabic) died during the Israelite’s Exodus from Egypt. It’s the location of his tomb, and a mosque was built on the site in the 14^th century. You can see the gleaming white dome of the mosque from many points in the area around Petra, where I’m working this season with the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project (BUPAP).

Two years ago, I was working on a different project in the region, the Bir Madhkur Project, with Dr. Andrew M. Smith II (George Washington University). Bir Madhkur is about 10 km northeast of Petra, and we talked many times about hiking to Jebel Harun. But I never did.

So now, two years later, our dig house is walking distance from Petra’s city center—from which Jebel Harun is about a 6 hour round trip hike. It is the perfect opportunity to accomplish things unaccomplished, to navigate more of this rocky landscape that always yields new discoveries and experiences: new tombs and shrines and beytels carved into the sandstone, more welcoming Bedouins urging you to take tea with them. Today was our day off at BUPAP, and we planned all week to hike to Jebel Harun.

But then yesterday, I was hit with just another reality of the archaeological lifestyle: the tendency to get suddenly and violently ill. It was graphic. My body rejected even the smallest offerings of pita and water with astonishing force while I feverishly dreamt about mutant Bedouin dogs and riding a tractor to site.

And then, as quickly as I felt so sick, I felt much better. I really, really wanted to hike to Jebel Harun.

I admit it. I was holding back before. This is Jebel Harun:

The hike was extremely difficult; not, as the Lonely Planet suggests, for the reasonably fit at all—more for those who have goat-blood coursing through their veins. There were several times I was scoping the terrain for a safe helicopter landing. But ultimately, having lunch on top of Aaron’s tomb, being able to see Petra’s monastery from a perspective so few people get to see, looking around at that vast desert landscape and recognizing the tremendous capability of the various groups throughout history who have made it home—all of these things made every single dehydrated step entirely worthwhile.

And for me, this experience is entirely, fundamentally, archaeological. So much of what we do involves preliminary assessment of resources, identifying sites, performing minimally invasive research like GPR and pedestrian survey—simply finding out what’s there. Like my first archaeological project in Jordan, archaeologists spend a lot of time gathering the data necessary to make the case that intensive excavation—or conservation—should proceed. We work extremely hard—and rightfully so—to justify our work since, as we so often repeat like a mantra, it integrally involves the destruction of cultural and historical resources. We have the capability to determine, with a fair amount of certainty, whether we should excavate, whether this is the opportune moment to move forward, whether the benefits of digging in outweigh the costs. And in the case of Jebel Harun—despite all the factors indicating this was not the opportune moment—the benefits most definitely outweighed the costs.

I’m certainly not implying that excavation is a perfect analogy to hiking up a mountain. But as with excavation, there are some things that you can only learn by moving forward and doing. I can tell you, for example, that the journey to the mosque at Jebel Harun is meant to be a pilgrimage. But no amount of descriptions of the loose rocks on steep inclines, no number of photographs of bleached goat skulls along the path can capture what that really means.

Like I said, my day today was fundamentally archaeological. Even on a day off, living on an archaeological project, you breathe and eat and drink and sometimes upchuck archaeology. But then you hike it, and it’s immediately clear why you dig it.

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A Lego Colosseum and Other Stories

By Craig Barker on June 29, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Expeditions, Museum Archaeology, Roman

I am a Classical Archaeologist at the University of Sydney in Australia, and work as the Manager of Education and Public Programs at the Nicholson Museum, Australia’s largest collection of Old World archaeological material. So my ‘Day of Archaeology 2012′ is spent like most others – trying to balance between museum education and archaeological research on the project I am working: excavations of a Hellenistic-Roman period theatre site in Paphos in Cyprus.

Continue Reading →

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A Day in an Archaeological Tool Kit

By Terry Brock on June 29, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Excavation, Expeditions, Historical Archaeology, Survey

My day of archaeology is relatively mundane: I spend most of it working on my dissertation, a look into the transition from slavery to freedom on a 19th century plantation in Southern Maryland. While I love my work, I often get the urge to be in the field, particularly with the weather as wonderful as it has been this week. So, I thought I’d take out my archaeology bag and show you around.

The archaeology bag is more than just a bag with your trowels in it: in many ways it is a reflection of what kind of archaeologist you are. I’m one of those guys who likes to have a tool for everything. I am a gadget man, and I’m always on the lookout for a new tool that could help me be a more effective archaeologist, or to be more helpful in the field.

My bag is a Mountain Hardware Splitter. I particularly like this bag because it is comfortable and rugged, and can hold a great deal of equipment. It was originally designed for mountain climbers to hold their ropes. It has some nifty features on it. My particular favorite is a system of loops at the top of the inside: I use them to attach carabiners to, and then hang equipment from the carabiners. This way, the equipment doesn’t bunch up at the bottom of the pack. Instead, it hangs, evenly distributed, throughout the entire pack. Not only does this mean things are easy to get to, but it also means that the weight is distributed throughout my entire back, making it easier to carry.

Some of my favorite tools include my trowels, which I received during my field school. Some tools I love for their practicality, such as the duct tape or the WD-40 to keep my tools from rusting, or some of the surprises (sham-wows work). Others still tend to be a bit more personal: if you click on the images below, you’ll notice that quite a lot of my tool bag is devoted to reducing perspiration (I have a very efficient personal cooling system). Towels, hats, sweat bands, hydration packs…I even carry a bag of salt with my lunch to replenish what I lose.

The tools you carry are also going to reflect where you excavate. I used to dig in Michigan, so foot and hand warmers have become a mainstay in my pack, as have an extra pair of gloves. Now that I’m in Virginia, hydration is the most important part of my kit. In addition to the hydration pack, I typically have two or three water bottles at the ready. A mosquito net has been advantageous in both states.

Safety is also a crucial component of the archaeology bag. Mine includes a tiny first aid kit, sunscreen, a hat, gloves for screening (nails and glass can cut), a reflective vest for roadside or hunting ground survey, and a hard hat (or at least, it did…then my dog chewed it up). Archaeology is a physical activity, and you never know when one of these items might be needed.

Finally, there’s lunch. It’s important to make sure that you eat an adequate lunch each day, as well as a few snacks throughout. I purchased a lunch bag from Mountainsmith (“The Sixer”) that can adequately hold enough food, snacks, and water, to keep me fueled for the day. It easily attaches to my pack via carabiners if necessary, or I can throw it over my shoulder with the strap. I always freeze one of my water bottles to serve as an ice pack. This saves me some room, and I have ice cold water to drink at lunch time. I also love my Mr. Bento: this contraption will keep food hot or cold for up to eight hours. There’s nothing like pulling out warm soup at lunch time when you’re excavating in frigid temps. The best part about the “Sixer”? It holds exactly six beers for post-excavation relaxing.

Feel free to browse the photos below for a glimpse into my bag of archaeological goodies. You’ll probably recognize most of them: we archaeologists are wonderful at the reuse of everyday objects. Click on an image and it will take you to my Flickr set, where I have added notes to the image describing the tools, what they are, and how I use them!

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Archaeology down South: between Buenos Aires and Patagonia

By María José Figuerero on June 29, 2012 in Archaeological Prospection, Community Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Environmental Archaeology, Excavation, Expeditions, Survey

Right now it’s winter here in Argentina and we are nearing the end of the first term at the Universidad de Buenos Aires where I teach a year long course in Research Design. Facing me is a pile of my student’s projects to finish correcting by Monday, our last class before the winter break. It is often frustrating but, then again, immensely satisfying when our students finally develop the knack and learn how to put together a solid research proposal. What I most enjoy are the original ideas they bring each year, and being able to keep up with new subjects or research in regions I have little time for otherwise. I enjoy teaching and tutoring.

My time in Buenos Aires is mostly dedicated to carrying out analyses and writing about our research in the archaeology of Originary Peoples in Southern Patagonia. The research year for me “begins” in April after our return from the field and I have to begin to download, classify and label all our digital information (photos, GPS data) as well as digitize our field notes. A lot of this goes into Dropbox so all our team can easily access our database. All this last week I have been going over our field notes trying to inventory and choose more samples to date the archaeological deposits. We also have to plan for time writing up our research as well as preparing for two conference presentations programmed for October. All of a sudden the year seems already too short. Continue Reading →

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A Day in the Life of Tuzusai

By tuzusai2012 on June 29, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Environmental Archaeology, Excavation, Expeditions, Iron Age

Tuzusai is an Iron Age site in southeastern Kazakhstan that dates from 400 BC to AD 100. Our 2012 field season began in early June. Now one month into our excavations with local workers, we have discovered a house platform and its associated living surface. In the two weeks a series of smashed storage vessels, jars and cooking vessels have been uncovered on the mud brick platform. This is the first intact mud brick dwelling on the upper levels found, since large portions of the site have been destroyed by ploughing and re-surfacing, some which took place during the 1960s with the construction of the Big Almatinsky Canal. Twelve burial kurgans (Iron Age burial mounds) were destroyed.

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Archaeology at the End of the Date Line – Vicarious Video from Nukunonu, Tokelau

By Jesse Stephen on September 1, 2011 in Archaeological Prospection, Community Archaeology, Conservation, Day of Archaeology, DayofArch2011, Education, Excavation, Expeditions, Film Making, Osteology, Prehistory, Science, Survey

Just west of here other countries are a day ahead. But here on Nukunonu atoll, we’re still living it up as Friday, the 29^th of July 2011 .

Banter over date lines aside, the Day of Archaeology has come at a good time for us. Lots going on, and lots to report. Too much, really. We’re a diverse group of folks who have come together for the Tokelau Science Education and Research Project.

We’re interested in learning more about the prehistory of the three atolls that are to be found in this expanse of the Pacific Ocean, from the moment the very first human being landed on these coral-covered shores right through to the present day and the approximately 400 folks who continue to live beautiful lives here.

Of course archaeology is best experienced firsthand, but when that’s an impossibility the next best thing just might come from cameras. With that in mind, the team here (including both “outside” and “inside” members) has contributed a number of interviews and so I’ve cobbled together a short piece for your viewing, one that will hopefully get you just a bit closer to Tokelau and to everything we’re seeing and experiencing out here…

Cheers to all the other contributors and the organizers of Day of Archaeology, and all the best from Tokelau!

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