What is it in the human psyche that prompts us, when presented with the opportunity to learn a new language, to learn the cusswords first?
We have a rather international dig crew, composed of Canadians, at least one American, one Saudi, a Danish textile specialist, and a group of Austrians. One of my fellow Canadians asked his Austrian co-excavator how to curse out the very large rocks in German; this has spread, and now folks on the tell chat in English, give dig directions in mixed English and Arabic, and swear in German.
The amount of potsherds we find and the number that come home are vastly disparate. We spend our days with our eyes full of sand and our trowels in the earth, collecting fragments of pottery in carefully marked pails. We bring them back, scrub them meticulously with toothbrushes and nailbrushes, scrape them with scalpels and sharpened spoons, and lay them out in baskets to dry. Of the 80 or more that might be in a pail, sometimes a mere handful of them are kept, usually diagnostics (rims, bases, painted pieces, ceramic tech) and pieces that mend with them. The rest are driven back to the site and tossed heartlessly onto the discard pile, reduced once again to trash.
Today’s photos:
Sunrise from the tell
Fedoriarty at the dig site. The wall behind me is part of what was likely a shrine room, where travellers could make offerings to their deities on the way through. That, then, is holy ground I’m standing on.
One of the Austrians has a hat almost identical to mine. Much of his dig clothing is very similar as well, down to the red bandana. Before the dig is over, there will be a picture taken of him and I standing together. If he’s okay with it, I’ll share it here.
This weekend, we’re going out into the deep desert to see the desert castles. There will be pictures. There will also be sweat. Fortunately, one is easier to post than the other.
I'm wondering more why so much is retunred and discarded of the fragmetns found? Can you tell me why this is?
ReplyDeleteDarn it.. You forgot to stop here on your flight over and pick up the 10ft whip to tie to your hip. At least you remembered to take the Monkey Idol incase you need a counter weight right?? Wait nope it's on my book shelf.. What will you ever do.. Leaving all the important gear behind like this..
There are too many potsherds found that have no friends. If we brought back everything we found, just on the hopes that we'd find its other bits eventually, we'd run out of room in the lab in a season.
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