Day 55

It has been a hectic couple of days, to say the least. Towards the end of the day on Monday, Pastory called me over to look at what appeared to be human bone fragments lying against a large slab of rock in his unit. Although they weren’t immediately identifiable, they had the exact same coloration and concretions as the remains I worked on in 2006 from this site. We had to excavate some of the surrounding quadrants in order to investigate at that depth, so we devoted the entire team to that task the very next morning. By about 11 am yesterday, we were ready to start taking excavating the area around the suspected remains. Within the hour, we had a crushed human skull. By the afternoon, we had a shoulder and an upper arm which we found beneath a large triangular rock. We photographed, mapped and measured the remains in situ, but ultimately had to take them out before we left the site at the end the day. Given the problems we’ve been having with visitors while we’re away, we couldn’t risk leaving the remains exposed. Furthermore, because we had such a large group of Maasai spectators while we were removing the bones, we asked Thomas and Suleiman to camp out for another night at the site. By then, it was clear that we had uncovered a burial and there was more to be found. This morning, after we were greeted by our rather cold and sleepy workers, we set about exposing the rest of the body. By lunch time today, I had exposed parts of the jaw, teeth, neck, vertebral column, ribs, and the other arm and shoulder. We were also able to identify the boundary of the 2006 test pit, which essential cut the body in half. When I analyzed the remains 2 years ago, I noted that we were missing much of the upper body and the skull. However, I didn’t imagine that we would literally find the other half of the same individual 4 years after the original excavation. Not only have we managed to reunite a body that has been separated on different continents, but I can now justify all the funding I’ve received for this project. I came to Tanzania in pursuit of additional human remains from this rock shelter, and that is what I have. It’s nice when life works out so neatly.

We managed to recover most of the burial feature over 2 days, although we will still have to excavate and screen the sediment from underneath the skeleton. Working on this feature has really taken a lot out of entire team. Finding a burial on our 4th last day of excavation was a welcome surprise, but it hasn’t come cheap. I think I could sleep for a week if given the chance. Although I’m happy with the way this field season has gone, I don’t think it will really sink in until I’m back home and processing everything in the lab. And we still have 2 weeks and a lot of sleep deprivation to go before that point.