Today we hit a very important cultural layer: the garbage level. About a month before we left, my supervisor and I submitted an article introducing this site to an archaeological journal. Unfortunately, our paper was declined for publication because our results were too preliminary. One of the major problems our peer reviewers had was that we didn’t know the exact location of the test pit that was excavated in 2002. This is the same test unit that may have yielded a bag of teeth and other goodies currently stored in Dar es Salaam that I have been trying to view for the past 2 months. Naturally, it’s of great interest to us to see if the remains found in 2002 are part of the same individuals found in 2006, and whether the context of the latter excavation had been disturbed. Our excavation trench encompasses the suspected locations of both these previous test pits to try and resolve some of these issues. Today we found some pretty conclusive evidence: a layer of Maji Africa water bottles with the expiration date of April 2002. The researchers probably lined the bottom of their unit with them so they would remember where they stopped digging. This is a pretty common practice when plastic or tarps aren’t available. Our team has been known to drop loonies into the bottom of test pits to mark the spot. Anyway, I sincerely hope this satisfies our reviewers. At least one research goal can be crossed off the list. Best of all, while all this was happening, Pam found another wrist bone on the opposite side of the trench. This rock shelter is slowly giving up its secrets. Let’s just hope we can piece together enough clues in 18 days, after which time we leave Iringa for good.
In other news, today Katie saw a banner stating that August 1-8 is "Bring Christ Back to Iringa" week. That explains the jogging and singing that we saw yesterday. However, I think it speaks volumes that I first considered it normal Iringa behaviour. Tanzanians are an enthusiastic bunch.
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Hey Ebeth. I've been following your blog for about a week or so now (love it, by the way) but I haven't been posting comments. I have a question, though. I'm not sure how things are done in Africa, so I'm sorry if this is a dumb question. But why have you and your team had trouble locating the test pits from previous years? Did something happen to the datum? If you've already blogged about it and don't feel like repeating yourself, would you mind pointing me to the proper blog entry? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHey! The datum issue is a bit complicated. The 2006 pit was dug before they knew the rock shelter had already been test excavated in 2002 by a Tanzanian team, so there was no contact between them. Also, the 2002 research was never published, and we only recently acquired a copy of the permit report. Neither excavation used a datum, but rather measured from surface because the sediment is so soft. Also, neither team set up a site datum because they thought it was the first time test excavating. So we knew approximately where both units were but had to excavate to be sure.
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