Day 57

Yesterday was the start of Ramadan, which two of our colleagues are observing. Although the days here aren’t quite as long as they are back in Edmonton, I’m still impressed by their dedication. Archaeological field work is already a taxing endeavour, but doing so without eating while the sun is up is pretty amazing. It’s also been interesting to spend this time in a largely-Islamic country. Life really does go on as per usual, despite the fasting. It makes me wonder how many comforts we really need in the field.

Today was likely our second last day of excavation before we start our final tasks of drawing a stratigraphic profile, backfilling, and reporting to local offices. This morning I excavated the 10 cm under where we found the skeleton to look for additional fragments and associated artifacts. Just to be careful, I only used plastic tools and paintbrushes so it went painfully slow. I can’t say I was disappointed when we didn’t find much bone underneath the feature and could resume excavation like normal. I was also pretty thrilled to finally step out of that trench. There is't a lot of room left towards the bottom, so I’ve spent the last 3 days in the field contorting my body around large rocks as not to stand in the grid. Although it was very rewarding to excavate human remains, it occasionally required feats of acrobatics. I’m not exactly known for my grace so it was a bit of challenge at times. Our final objective at the rock shelter is to find the bedrock and establish the bottom of the archaeological sequence. Due to time constraints and rock interference, we will only be able to excavate one of the units to the bottom, and even that will be a race against time. However, this final goal is pretty significant. I think by this point, we’re all wondering what lies underneath the Later Stone Age. Given the field season that we’ve had so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s something none of us predicted. In fact, at this point I’ll only be surprised if it turns out to be Narnia. We have been in the field too long to expect normal outcomes. Wish us luck on the big reveal!