On friday the bus to take us to Gabii was 20 minutes late so we spent a nice morning standing in Piazza Ipolito Nievo waiting around. Once it finally did come and we made it to Gabii, Darius, Albert and Dr. Pollini were there to meet us and spend the day on the site with us. It was nice to see them because now that we're no digging on their site our group feels a little orphaned.
The AIRC videotapes a lot of the goings on with their programs (Albert is a videographer as well as an archaeologist and Darius is a celebrity archaeologist) so they spent the day on tours of the excavation areas doing interviews with the site directors, and trenchmasters. (as well as visiting us and seeing how we were doing)
As for the archaeological part of today, I spent the first part of the day defining the floor preparation which I had started on thursday. The area of floor was larger than expected and kept popping up in some places and disapearing in others. I was working with a partner to trowel the area and try and determine the edges of the remaining floor prep in order to know where it was safe to pick-axe ithout destroying any features,
The floor preparation is part of a larger Stratographic Unit (SU) which several people were working in. We were all working to rempve the same layer so as the day went on there was less room for us (you can't stand in an excavated area which you've already cleaned until it is documented or you'll make more work for yourself in having to brush down your footprints and any loose dirt youve kicked up. Once there were too many people working in a small space Jamie moved me to a new Stratographic Unit so nobody murdered anyone else with their pickaxe.
The Stratographic Unit I was reassigned to was the once which Sheira and I had cleaned after the rain a couple days ago. Andrea the trench assistant was given AJ and I to help her bring it down to the next level and see what was going on in the Area. We began pickaxeing and I revealed what is perhaps a floor - the dirt is very compact and clayey, almost rock like but it has mane made inclusions like tile and pottery. AJ's side of the SU popped out yet another wall - the SU is bounded by 2 walls, one robbing trench wall and contains the remains of 4 other walls most of wich are in contrasting orientations. weird.
I had a fun afternoon with Andrea and AJ, we had good chats and laughed a lot. Andrea coached AJ and I on a perfect shovel toss. I think I'm getit it down. The goal is to jerk the shovel in the right way so that the shovelfull of dirt keeps the contours of the shovel (you can see the indent of the handle in the dirt while it's in the air.) It's not only faster to shovel when you can toss the dirt into the wheelbarrow from a couple feet away without spilling, but then you also don't hit the person who is sifting the dirt in the wheelbarrow by trying to tip the shovelfull into the barrow.
The final part of the afternoon revealed the continuation of another wall we had seen part of previously. Andrea then asked us to scrape down and sweep up the SU so that she and Jamie could try and determine what the heck was going on with all the walls and flooring in the area. Perhaps Jamie's monday pep talk and area review will provide us with some iluminating theories or explanations.
After work on friday a bunch of people from the program decided to go out for drinks in the piazza which several of our appartments are near (the one where il Tulipo, Claudio's pizza place is) While getting ready to go out who do I get a call from but Grayson! He had driven into Rome with Jason (the Poggio Civitate dig assistant director) on a whim (decided 30 minutes before leaving) and wanted to see what I was up to. We made plans to meet up after he and Jason found a place to stay (good planning) and found some food.
The place our goup met for drinks is right next to il Tulipo. it's kind of an odd place - Beer Pong table outside, ladies night (2 for 1) every night from 8-12 and a very pregnant bartender (weird image) she is super sweet and makes good drinks though. We had a fun and tipsy night (some people more tipsy then others.... italian drinks are expensive and strong.)
Grayson called me as we were finishing up ladies night and I met him and Jason at a bar called Freni et Frizioni for Mojitos and new scavi gossip. It made me really miss last year's group and kind of wish that I had decided to be staff at Scavi this year. I actually might use a couple days I scheduled at the end of my euro trip to go visit Vescovado since they finish digging after my program is already over. According to Grayson the Albergo di Murlo is poppin' this year because Gianluca has taken it over from Sinora. Grappa shots for everyone!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Thursday began with our usual pep talk and assignments from Jamie. I am really grateful that Jamie, Andrew and Andrea are really good teachers. They're patient and good, good at motivating us and always giving us encouragements as well as commendations on good work. It really makes the experience of paying to do manual labor in 40 degree weather rewarding. (I kn ow that other students from our group aren't having a good experience and I know that some of that hinges on their trench supervisors so I'm happy to really like mine
First I was assigned to pick-axe an area of the trench where it looked like a wall was supposed to be in the trench extension. (area C has many walls, most of which are confusion inducing, from various periods and with various orientations) after the first pick pass I found nothing but the second one revealed a tufo block at which point I started trowelling. some hours of scraping and stabbing later I had a nice little defined wall segment which disappeared into the baulk wall.
My second task for the day was working on defining the edges of the floor preparation which we had revealed yesterday when cleaning the surface of the trench extension.
before I had a chance to do anything it was time for site tours which were done on Thursday instead of Friday this week because Area B was finding cool things and they were ready to take them up.
So back to my floor defining; at first I didn't quite know what I was looking for as I was given a sort of vague description of "when you start hitting the red" which is sort of worrisome because I don't want to screw something up and dig through the layer I'm looking for. After some questioning and helpful hints from Andrew (like trowel from known to unknown by following the contours of the surface you're trying to define with the flat edge of your trowel) and some deonstrations from Jamie I managed to make a large part of the floor visible by the end of the afternoon.
After work we met Parin at the tram stop and made plans to have dinner with a big group. We went to a nice little place in Trastevere by one of the girls' apartment and ordered a ridiculous amount of food, salads, calamari, pizza, pasta, delicious!
after supper we went for drinks at a bar across the street. the drinks were cheap (by Rome standards) but they also tasted horrible. The Margaritas we had tasted like tequila and salt water or as Shannon described it - "the Mediterranean ocean in a glass"
drinks and supper over, it was midnight and we had to wake up in 6 hours so it was a 2 block walk home and to bed with us.
First I was assigned to pick-axe an area of the trench where it looked like a wall was supposed to be in the trench extension. (area C has many walls, most of which are confusion inducing, from various periods and with various orientations) after the first pick pass I found nothing but the second one revealed a tufo block at which point I started trowelling. some hours of scraping and stabbing later I had a nice little defined wall segment which disappeared into the baulk wall.
My second task for the day was working on defining the edges of the floor preparation which we had revealed yesterday when cleaning the surface of the trench extension.
before I had a chance to do anything it was time for site tours which were done on Thursday instead of Friday this week because Area B was finding cool things and they were ready to take them up.
So back to my floor defining; at first I didn't quite know what I was looking for as I was given a sort of vague description of "when you start hitting the red" which is sort of worrisome because I don't want to screw something up and dig through the layer I'm looking for. After some questioning and helpful hints from Andrew (like trowel from known to unknown by following the contours of the surface you're trying to define with the flat edge of your trowel) and some deonstrations from Jamie I managed to make a large part of the floor visible by the end of the afternoon.
After work we met Parin at the tram stop and made plans to have dinner with a big group. We went to a nice little place in Trastevere by one of the girls' apartment and ordered a ridiculous amount of food, salads, calamari, pizza, pasta, delicious!
after supper we went for drinks at a bar across the street. the drinks were cheap (by Rome standards) but they also tasted horrible. The Margaritas we had tasted like tequila and salt water or as Shannon described it - "the Mediterranean ocean in a glass"
drinks and supper over, it was midnight and we had to wake up in 6 hours so it was a 2 block walk home and to bed with us.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
clean dirt and early nights
Today I was glad to be back in the trench.
Jamie started the day by explaining the work assignments like he usually does, but today was a little different because of yesterday's rain. We worked in the area of the trench which had been excavated by the mechanical digger it was all muddy and messy because of the rain which cause us to have to alter excavation techniques.
Because we not only were working in a newly opened area of the trench bu the entire area was covered in sedimentary deposits that the runnels of water left behind yesterday (Gabii is on a slope), we had to clean the entire surface of the excavation area to define our first Stratagraphic Unit.
we focused first on taking off a few centimetres of dirt with pick-axes and trowels (it was so messy and squishy) we also had to re-define features which had been previously "clean" and now were covered in mud.
The team was divided into three groups all working towards each other (towards the center) in separate parts of the extended trench area. the soil was really muddy which was good for determining stratigraphy from the color but it also made for muddy work.
Jamie explained to us how he worked with the mechanical digger to excavate he extension. like any excavation they removed small layers with the machine and the archaeologists stood in the trench with shovels and trowels to see if any features became visible. First walls showed up so the digger continued on that level to expose others, in places where nothing was revealed, the digger went deeper so we were left with an uneven surface with some features exposed.
So today we worked from the exposed walls to the area where the "atrium" is supposed to be. we are exposing walls which seem to be anomalous, but may belong to different phases of the structure we are excavating.
we managed to meet our lunch time goal (working from 8-12:30) of meeting in the center of the atrium. So after lunch we began to even out the trench to define our SU. I was working with Andrea, one of the trench assistants and another student Sheira. We were working towards a level of reddish dirt which was exposed in one corner of the trench that had been excavated lower then the rest by the mechanical digger. We used trowels and had picks until we began to see a change between the darker earth and the red color. By this time the wet mud had been dried out by the sun so not only was it harder to distinguish the color but it was also more difficult to trowel because it had been baked hard. By the time it was 3 and time to leave, we had mostly finished defining our part of the trench.
It was another early night for me, I worked on planning the last two weeks of my european adventure and promptly fell asleep at 9pm.
Jamie started the day by explaining the work assignments like he usually does, but today was a little different because of yesterday's rain. We worked in the area of the trench which had been excavated by the mechanical digger it was all muddy and messy because of the rain which cause us to have to alter excavation techniques.
Because we not only were working in a newly opened area of the trench bu the entire area was covered in sedimentary deposits that the runnels of water left behind yesterday (Gabii is on a slope), we had to clean the entire surface of the excavation area to define our first Stratagraphic Unit.
we focused first on taking off a few centimetres of dirt with pick-axes and trowels (it was so messy and squishy) we also had to re-define features which had been previously "clean" and now were covered in mud.
The team was divided into three groups all working towards each other (towards the center) in separate parts of the extended trench area. the soil was really muddy which was good for determining stratigraphy from the color but it also made for muddy work.
Jamie explained to us how he worked with the mechanical digger to excavate he extension. like any excavation they removed small layers with the machine and the archaeologists stood in the trench with shovels and trowels to see if any features became visible. First walls showed up so the digger continued on that level to expose others, in places where nothing was revealed, the digger went deeper so we were left with an uneven surface with some features exposed.
So today we worked from the exposed walls to the area where the "atrium" is supposed to be. we are exposing walls which seem to be anomalous, but may belong to different phases of the structure we are excavating.
we managed to meet our lunch time goal (working from 8-12:30) of meeting in the center of the atrium. So after lunch we began to even out the trench to define our SU. I was working with Andrea, one of the trench assistants and another student Sheira. We were working towards a level of reddish dirt which was exposed in one corner of the trench that had been excavated lower then the rest by the mechanical digger. We used trowels and had picks until we began to see a change between the darker earth and the red color. By this time the wet mud had been dried out by the sun so not only was it harder to distinguish the color but it was also more difficult to trowel because it had been baked hard. By the time it was 3 and time to leave, we had mostly finished defining our part of the trench.
It was another early night for me, I worked on planning the last two weeks of my european adventure and promptly fell asleep at 9pm.
tweezers and torrential rain
I was assigned to the environmental lab today. Usually this involves sifting and floating soil samples but today it wasn't sunny and rain was threatening. This means that I was relegated to sifting through plates full of dirt with a pair of tweezers to look for bone, charcoal, pottery, seeds, glass etc.
This is what we found:
And that is basically what I did all day. There was a thunderstorm for much of the morning but since we moved the lab inside we continued working while the students who were excavating today just sat around.
This is how Catherine felt about it:
I actually kind of enjoy lab work because that is what real archaeology is. Digging up things is all fine and good, but without analysis there there isn't a lot of concrete information about the past people learned. or at least the lab work illuminates much more detail about what is being excavated.
the things that we pulled out of the dirt samples today will be analyzed to determine ancient environments, diets and the like.
Because the rain turned the trenches into swimming pools and and pushed a lot of dirt on top of the areas that we worked in yesterday the context of the top layers is ruined. parts of the team went back this afternoon to bail out the cuts which had filled with water. Because not excavation could be done in wet soil, the majority of students were given jobs cleaning pottery for the afternoon.
Monotony continued until 3:30 at which point we were allowed to go to our air-conditioned bus for the 40 minute nap/ride home.
Catherine and I spent the evening at Parin, Julian and Sam's again, they made delicious soup for everyone and we spend several hours sharing riddles. wholesome.
This is what we found:
And that is basically what I did all day. There was a thunderstorm for much of the morning but since we moved the lab inside we continued working while the students who were excavating today just sat around.
This is how Catherine felt about it:
I actually kind of enjoy lab work because that is what real archaeology is. Digging up things is all fine and good, but without analysis there there isn't a lot of concrete information about the past people learned. or at least the lab work illuminates much more detail about what is being excavated.
the things that we pulled out of the dirt samples today will be analyzed to determine ancient environments, diets and the like.
Because the rain turned the trenches into swimming pools and and pushed a lot of dirt on top of the areas that we worked in yesterday the context of the top layers is ruined. parts of the team went back this afternoon to bail out the cuts which had filled with water. Because not excavation could be done in wet soil, the majority of students were given jobs cleaning pottery for the afternoon.
Monotony continued until 3:30 at which point we were allowed to go to our air-conditioned bus for the 40 minute nap/ride home.
Catherine and I spent the evening at Parin, Julian and Sam's again, they made delicious soup for everyone and we spend several hours sharing riddles. wholesome.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
diggin' it and sifting through it
Monday was another day where the mechanical excavator was in the south end of Area C. It was excavating an area which was far away from the previous baulk wall so the team was able to work in the areas which had been off limits on friday.
Delphine and I were guided through the task of filling out our first SU Sheets by Andrew the Area C Trench Assistant. We were given two walls (or rather wall foundations) of a room that needed documentation before removal. We cleaned the dirt around the walls (archaeologists are perpetually cleaning dirt) because when photos are taken of the walls the surface of them has to be clean of footprints and tools and the outlines need to be sharp, not dirt covered) Next we filled out the standardized Gabii Specific sheets and then had to describe and sketch the features as we saw fit. (I really enjoyed the sketching part, and Jamie said I was good at it too)
After sketching people on the topography team came down to take points of the walls with the totals station (Gabii is pretty high tech and they don't use paper records, the digitize everything which means no plum bob and line level!!) Then a girl (whose name I can't remember) came to take photos of the walls for making a 3-D photo model of the structures. There isn't always as much care taken in documentation of structures but these walls were large ashlar foundations and part of the main structure of Area C so it was necessary to make absolutely certain of their appearance and location before removing them for investigation of earlier phases of the structure.
After finishing the SU sheets we were put to work excavating the floor of what Jamie presumes to be the atrium of the house. The edges of the room are paved in coccio pesto flooring but most of the paving in the center of the room is missing. what caused the paving to be removed is what Jamie hopes to discover through digging. He told us that we may find roofing tiles from the collapse of the ceiling or perhaps an impluvium as is common to 2nd century BC houses and would give further evidence to the room's status as an atrium.
Part way through excavation (pick axeing, shovelling, sifting and wheelbarrowing) Delphine and I were given transparencies which were made with the points from the totals station. we had to "characterize" them. The transparencies were just the main outline of the walls (basically rectangles) so we had to make them look like the walls by drawing in the outlines of the individual blocks. Andrew told us that these will then be re-digitized and made into the map of Gabii so that when someone searched the database for that part of the structure the images we drew will be what they see (pretty cool!)
The transparencies were the final step of documentation so the rest of the day was spent in excavation of the floor with some other members of the Area C team. We found lots of pottery shards, pieces of bone and some charcoal. Also, a block which was part of a previous wall foundation, showing that there was a different floor plan to the building in an earlier phase.
After getting home from the dig I immediately made supper (even before showering) because I was so hungry. I didn't actually have any groceries so I ended up making pasta and veggies with a sauce made out of marscapone cheese garlic and black pepper.
Once I had eaten and showered I went out to actually get groceries. In this grocery trip I picked up bathroom cleaner and sponges and cleaned the bathroom when I got home - 5 girls covered in dirt every day makes for a nasty tiny bathroom. Now it smells lemony fresh (are you proud mom?)
solid evening.
Monday, July 4, 2011
catacombs and sunday dinner
This sunday was great day, I spent the morning at the Porta Portese market again. I found some pants to dig in for 3 euro (The Gabii projects requires all members to wear long pants to dig in which I clearly don't own and didn't bring) I also found a cute chunky metal necklace, two pairs of leather shorts a brown and a black for 7 euro each and a beaded 80s dress for 10 euro. Not a bad haul.
After I got home from the market I had planned to shower and eat lunch and be lazy but I called Catherine jut to se what she was up to. She was going to the catacombs with a few people - so plans to shower were nixed and I was off to the catatcombs - horrifying concept of miles of honeycombing dark tunnels but also amazingly cool from a ancient history point of view!
It took some doing to actually find the catacombs since our planning was minimal, but with some help from bus station maps and Catherine's iPhone we managed to make it. We paid 8 euro for a tour in English and then waited around in the courtyard for it to start. Once the tour did start we were first taken into the underground church (only with high windows above ground to provide light) which marked the beginning of the catacombs.
Next we were taken down into the tunnels. There were thousands and thousands of tombs there and rooms and long dark passageways every where you looked - scary! the tour was short but awesome. The guide ended with a tomb which is thought to have belonged either to a wealthy noble or perhaps a Christian martyr. It dates to the 4th century AD and it has beautifully colored frescoes decorating it. St. Peter and Paul flank the tomb and under the arch above it Jesus and the 12 apostles are painted.
After the easier return trip from the catacombs Catherine and I went to the grocery store to get supplies for the meal we planned to cook in return for the meals that had been cooked for us. We decided on making chicken parmesan and a lemon arugala salad with pesto gnocci and bruschetta. After shopping we went back to Parin, Julian, Sam and Grant's apartment to cook there since 8 people probably wouldn't fin IN our appartment let alone around our miniscule table.
It took us 3 hours start to finish to make the meal but everything was absolutely delicious if I do say so myself. Crispy breaded chicken with 10$ worth of fresh grated parmesan cheese, bruschetta with garlic, minced onion and fresh basil. Danika and Shannon brought over a garbonza bean and spinach salad to go with everything. It was lovely. Not something to do every day what with the extensive preparation and the cost to cook for 8 people, but I enjoyed doing something nice.
After I got home from the market I had planned to shower and eat lunch and be lazy but I called Catherine jut to se what she was up to. She was going to the catacombs with a few people - so plans to shower were nixed and I was off to the catatcombs - horrifying concept of miles of honeycombing dark tunnels but also amazingly cool from a ancient history point of view!
It took some doing to actually find the catacombs since our planning was minimal, but with some help from bus station maps and Catherine's iPhone we managed to make it. We paid 8 euro for a tour in English and then waited around in the courtyard for it to start. Once the tour did start we were first taken into the underground church (only with high windows above ground to provide light) which marked the beginning of the catacombs.
Next we were taken down into the tunnels. There were thousands and thousands of tombs there and rooms and long dark passageways every where you looked - scary! the tour was short but awesome. The guide ended with a tomb which is thought to have belonged either to a wealthy noble or perhaps a Christian martyr. It dates to the 4th century AD and it has beautifully colored frescoes decorating it. St. Peter and Paul flank the tomb and under the arch above it Jesus and the 12 apostles are painted.
After the easier return trip from the catacombs Catherine and I went to the grocery store to get supplies for the meal we planned to cook in return for the meals that had been cooked for us. We decided on making chicken parmesan and a lemon arugala salad with pesto gnocci and bruschetta. After shopping we went back to Parin, Julian, Sam and Grant's apartment to cook there since 8 people probably wouldn't fin IN our appartment let alone around our miniscule table.
It took us 3 hours start to finish to make the meal but everything was absolutely delicious if I do say so myself. Crispy breaded chicken with 10$ worth of fresh grated parmesan cheese, bruschetta with garlic, minced onion and fresh basil. Danika and Shannon brought over a garbonza bean and spinach salad to go with everything. It was lovely. Not something to do every day what with the extensive preparation and the cost to cook for 8 people, but I enjoyed doing something nice.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
shopping, hangouts and lord of the rings
last night was a late night hanging out with a big group in the Campo de Fiori so I slept in nice and late today (nice change from a 6am wakeup).
Catherine and I went shopping in the afternoon and wandered the stores on via del Corso. We spent ages in Zara and got some super cute clothes! Then we met up with Parin, Sam and Julian for gelato at the Trevi Fountain. Yoghurt is my new favorite gelato flavor it's soooo delicious! After gelato Catherine went home but I continued shopping I perused all the Ottica shops I came across looking for a new pair of Italian frames (Italian people have the best glasses) and I found a few pairs but nothing so good that I had to splurge on them but there are a million more glasses stores to see - eyewear seems to be a very big part of Italian fashion.
I walked home from shopping and got home at 9 at which point Catherine called me to go out for dinner with Parin and Julian. We ate at a nice little restaurant by the pantheon and then met up with a big group at a hookah bar. They had the craziest drinks there, the menu had about 200 choices. I got a hot coffee drink with cocao liqueur, some other kind of liquor and whipped cream (so delicious) drinks also came with cookies (the best). The bar itself was so nice, all decorated in Persian carpets and low round leather cushions. some had gold embossing (you would have loved them mom) it was a nice relaxing night with most of the group.
We decided to go back to Parin, Julian and Sam's appartment where Danika and Shannon met us later and we put on Lord of the Rings. A perfect end to a chill Saturday!
Catherine and I went shopping in the afternoon and wandered the stores on via del Corso. We spent ages in Zara and got some super cute clothes! Then we met up with Parin, Sam and Julian for gelato at the Trevi Fountain. Yoghurt is my new favorite gelato flavor it's soooo delicious! After gelato Catherine went home but I continued shopping I perused all the Ottica shops I came across looking for a new pair of Italian frames (Italian people have the best glasses) and I found a few pairs but nothing so good that I had to splurge on them but there are a million more glasses stores to see - eyewear seems to be a very big part of Italian fashion.
I walked home from shopping and got home at 9 at which point Catherine called me to go out for dinner with Parin and Julian. We ate at a nice little restaurant by the pantheon and then met up with a big group at a hookah bar. They had the craziest drinks there, the menu had about 200 choices. I got a hot coffee drink with cocao liqueur, some other kind of liquor and whipped cream (so delicious) drinks also came with cookies (the best). The bar itself was so nice, all decorated in Persian carpets and low round leather cushions. some had gold embossing (you would have loved them mom) it was a nice relaxing night with most of the group.
We decided to go back to Parin, Julian and Sam's appartment where Danika and Shannon met us later and we put on Lord of the Rings. A perfect end to a chill Saturday!
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