conglomerate post! (I always type up my blog/journal entries on the bus to and from work but I only get a chance (am not too lazy) to edit and post them every few days, so here's a bunch)
I thought Wednesday was going to be a terrible day, it was supposed to be the hottest day yet and I still had to work in the same SU as Tuesday. But because of the predicted heat we were scheduled a tour of the University of Rome's neighboring dig site in the afternoon, so we had a mid-morning break and a late lunch.
The day began similarly to yesterday's monotony with Sam and I trowelling in tandem finding nothing but confusing stratigraphy (apparently normal in Gabii) but partway through the morning Andrea suggested to Jamie that we switch to pick-axes and use them to shave off a few centimeters from the area which would be faster and less horrible. (thank you Andrea!!) Jamie was fine with the idea so I finally got to switch from my trowel (I have a blister from Tuesday). Sam and I finished our little part of the SU and then move to another part of it. as the day progressed other SUs were closed in the other parts of Area C and more students were moved to ours. There were 5 of us plus Andrea at the end of the day.
We managed to scrape back to a new level of the whole area where we found varied surfaces of different colors, textures and inclusions. and we made some progress on finding the limiting wall of the upper eastern side of the house. There is no actual wall but there is evidence of the fact that it existed - that being the fact that a red gravelly surface ends around where the wall would be expected to be ( in line with the wall foundations found in the southern end of the house). as well there are a lot of rocks not really in a shape suggesting a wall, but a large quantity of large rocks (maybe a wall collapse)
At 1pm we cleaned up and put everything away before our late lunch and got ready for our tour.
The building we went to see was ridiculously cool (for a classics major) but not published yet so I'm not supposed to talk about it, we weren't even allowed to take pictures of it (it will be in textbooks in the future for sure)
Thursday I was in finds for the second time in a week. I do enoy my days in finds washing pottery and learning about what is actually done with the pot sherds that we recover from the trenches but I am sad to miss what is going on in area C.
This time I washed a huge casetta filled with what Area B had found on wednesday. They've been finding a lot of material in a ditch filled with vessels, may of them were intact and lots tat were broken still preserve full profiles. (which is pretty much as good as an entire vessel in terms of typologies)
After finishing up the casetta after lunch, some people were given the job of labelling finds with catalogue numbers while Alison, Laura and I were shown how the girls who work in finds date the diferent SUs. The pottery and tiles in the casetta are sorted into types and then those groups are sorted into groups of handles, rims and walls for pottery and edge pieces and non edge pieces for tile. the quantity of each group is noted on a particular form which is given to each SU. The diagnostic pieces (handles and rims) of the pottery are kept separate and can be used for dating later. The known approximate date ranged for all the types of pottery found in an SU is noted along with the quantity of sherds found which helps narrow the date. Later, the better pieces, (full profiles, decorated pieces etc.) will be referenced against publications to narrow down the time range for the particular SU.
Since the last Harry Potter movie had come out the day before, a bunch of us decided we would go see it in one of the english theatres in town. We left the house after showers and supper to get tickets in advance. We had to gwt a tram then a bus (a really crowded long bus ride). The show was at 10:15 (we couldn't make the 7:15 in time) sp we got snacks and hung around waiting for the movie to start. The theatre was filled with american students (not surprising) and it had assigned seating when you bought your tickets (we had really good seats anyway) It was really surprising too that there were no previews or ads before the film started. it went from lights on blank screen to dark room and Dumbledore's tomb on screen immediately.
It was a really good movie and the whole audience reacted to everything that went on, cheering and clapping and laughing at all the appropriate moments. It was abnormal but Harry Potter fan appropriate. The only problem was that the movie ended at 1:30am so not only did we have to get a cab home but we also had 4 hours before we had to get up and go dig! no bueno but worth it for the fun evening.
So, on 4 hours of sleep I was back in Jamie's trench. I started the day with WIll definining yet another of area C's floor surfaces under Andrew's helpful supervision. The floor surface was different than the other that I had spent days on. The previous had been a 'floor perparation' with crushed tile and tufo used to prepare the ground to lay a floor on. Today's surface was compacted dirt with tufo inclusions and so probably a beaten earth floor.
It was actually a nice change from looking for a new layer since I actually knew what I was looking for and could feel the change with my trowel and follow it (most of the time). After Will and I finished finding the edges of the remaining floor and thereby closing the SU, Andrew set us to work hunting for walls.
There were some rocks adjacent to the floor we had been working on and Andrew believed they made up a wall. Jamie, unconvinced asked him to further define the rocks and look for more. A few hours' work revealed that it was indeed a wall (of course it was in area C) which had at least one cut stone entrance.
Partway through our wall cleaning, Jamie called all of area C over to come look at the hearth feature he and Evan had been working on. On Tuesday when it had first been discovered (next to me while I was working in a barren area) it was just a burnt patch of red earth but in taking samples and cleaning it was discovered that underneath the red square of dirt broken pottery and tile had been laid out as a heating surface. Anna, the dig director came over to talk to us about it. She discussed how the pottery would make heat last longer in the area and how since there was no evidence of fire being lit in the area this would have been a place to pour coals which had already been made. The red dirt had had a piece of tile on it which could have been used as a cooking surface.
Since we excavate stratigraphically it was necessary to decide whether the hearth was later or earlier than the house. in order to do this we have to remove the floor of the 2nd century to see the layers which are in association with the hearth. If the hearth is later (unlikely) then this will be excavating unstratigraphically. But it is more likely that the hearth is earlier than the house in which case removing the floor to learn this will be in correct sequence of excavation anyway.
After lunch Will and I continued defining walls and cleaning since some time early next week there will be an aerial photograph taken of the site and all the walls need to be nicely visible.'
Friday evening was pretty low key, we went to a bar behind our apartment and had drinks with everyone. Then my roommates went for a walk along the Tiber and ended the night with Kebab. yum.
ok so that's caught up to Friday at least. I'm working on the weekend excitement blog now.
<3
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