As a team, we are making decent progress in terms of artifact processing. Out of 22 boxes collected, 20 are washed, counted, and packed for export. We typically collect 2 boxes of artifacts for each day we’re in the field, and are able to wash 3 per day in the lab. To save time and cut down on waste, we pack artifacts in the same Maji Africa boxes that we buy bottled water in. After spending the next 2 days at the site, we should be able to catch up on all our boxes during our next bout of washing. We may be a little burned out, but we are still efficient as ever! It seems as though processing the first Stone Age levels has done wonders for our morale. If nothing else, washing lithics is much more pleasant than washing iron slag. I think it`s safe to say that these past 2 days of work have been a great success. Given that the next few levels we will excavate are probably going to be the most significant (at least in terms of my research question), I just hope we can keep up the momentum. Good thing we can get Red Bull in Iringa.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Day 49
Today I spent 7 hours washing artifacts and 2 hours updating my photo log. On the days we wash and sort artifacts, I photograph the remains I’ve identified as part of my field inventory. This has resulted in a stupidly large number of photos to keep track of. I had 231 site and lab photos to input since I last updated my spreadsheet on July 27th, and that’s only from one camera. I figure it’s better to be trigger happy now than curse myself for forgetting something when I’m writing up in a few months. Furthermore, the bones I’m working with are exceptionally fragile and fragmentary and there is no guarantee that they will reach Canada in the same condition we shipped them. We plan to spend a little extra to give them a VIP trip back home, but it`s necessary to take some extra precautions. You would think that artifacts would be a bit more durable after surviving in the ground for thousands of years, but that’s just the way the cookie (or rib fragment) crumbles.
As a team, we are making decent progress in terms of artifact processing. Out of 22 boxes collected, 20 are washed, counted, and packed for export. We typically collect 2 boxes of artifacts for each day we’re in the field, and are able to wash 3 per day in the lab. To save time and cut down on waste, we pack artifacts in the same Maji Africa boxes that we buy bottled water in. After spending the next 2 days at the site, we should be able to catch up on all our boxes during our next bout of washing. We may be a little burned out, but we are still efficient as ever! It seems as though processing the first Stone Age levels has done wonders for our morale. If nothing else, washing lithics is much more pleasant than washing iron slag. I think it`s safe to say that these past 2 days of work have been a great success. Given that the next few levels we will excavate are probably going to be the most significant (at least in terms of my research question), I just hope we can keep up the momentum. Good thing we can get Red Bull in Iringa.
As a team, we are making decent progress in terms of artifact processing. Out of 22 boxes collected, 20 are washed, counted, and packed for export. We typically collect 2 boxes of artifacts for each day we’re in the field, and are able to wash 3 per day in the lab. To save time and cut down on waste, we pack artifacts in the same Maji Africa boxes that we buy bottled water in. After spending the next 2 days at the site, we should be able to catch up on all our boxes during our next bout of washing. We may be a little burned out, but we are still efficient as ever! It seems as though processing the first Stone Age levels has done wonders for our morale. If nothing else, washing lithics is much more pleasant than washing iron slag. I think it`s safe to say that these past 2 days of work have been a great success. Given that the next few levels we will excavate are probably going to be the most significant (at least in terms of my research question), I just hope we can keep up the momentum. Good thing we can get Red Bull in Iringa.
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