Week of Jan 8-13th
Sorry I haven't been posting. it takes FOREVER to upload pictures and waking up before 6am makes me sleepy after work.
Unfortunately, this week I got sick. My body doesn't know how to deal with the smog, cigarette smoke or dust and I got a nasty bronchial infection. It moved from my chest to my sinuses so I was a sniffling, coughing mess and had to stay away from the site for a few days. Apparently I've started some tradition to pick some sickness up wherever I go. Not so fun. However, relaxing on a rooftop in the warm sun overlooking Luxor Temple was a much needed break. After a few days and lots of horse pill antibiotics, I was back on site.
So what exactly am I doing at Mut Temple?
I can't post my own pictures but you can see official pictures here: http://www.jhu.edu/egypttoday/. This is the website I've followed since middle school and now I'm on it almost 10 years later!
In Egypt, undergraduates are not allowed to supervize their own trenches. Instead, I do the bitch work which I still find fun. Mostly Michael and I hold the levels for people to take measurements of the elevations of certain features or areas in their trenches. The meter stick is huge, wooden and heavy so I try to leave that job for Michael. The other job we get to do is pottery sorting. For each basket of pottery, we sort out the diagnostics from the others: basically the rims, bases, and decorated pieces. It's cool because we get to see all the different types of painted pieces and all the pretty things all at once! Sometimes we find some other artifacts like statuettes, tokens and pretty stones that were put mistakenly put in the baskets. A lot of what I've learned so far has been by observing. I've gotten to know lots of arabic words but almost all of them relate to archaeology and don't help me in real life like slag, agate, bone etc. I've also been lucky to have some of the grad students allow me to do some of their work. I've gotten to draw some of the small finds and help measure and draw bricks. Definitely still a worthwhile trip, for sure.
Sorry I haven't been posting. it takes FOREVER to upload pictures and waking up before 6am makes me sleepy after work.
Unfortunately, this week I got sick. My body doesn't know how to deal with the smog, cigarette smoke or dust and I got a nasty bronchial infection. It moved from my chest to my sinuses so I was a sniffling, coughing mess and had to stay away from the site for a few days. Apparently I've started some tradition to pick some sickness up wherever I go. Not so fun. However, relaxing on a rooftop in the warm sun overlooking Luxor Temple was a much needed break. After a few days and lots of horse pill antibiotics, I was back on site.
Sorting pottery
So what exactly am I doing at Mut Temple?
I can't post my own pictures but you can see official pictures here: http://www.jhu.edu/egypttoday/. This is the website I've followed since middle school and now I'm on it almost 10 years later!
Setting up and checking the level
In Egypt, undergraduates are not allowed to supervize their own trenches. Instead, I do the bitch work which I still find fun. Mostly Michael and I hold the levels for people to take measurements of the elevations of certain features or areas in their trenches. The meter stick is huge, wooden and heavy so I try to leave that job for Michael. The other job we get to do is pottery sorting. For each basket of pottery, we sort out the diagnostics from the others: basically the rims, bases, and decorated pieces. It's cool because we get to see all the different types of painted pieces and all the pretty things all at once! Sometimes we find some other artifacts like statuettes, tokens and pretty stones that were put mistakenly put in the baskets. A lot of what I've learned so far has been by observing. I've gotten to know lots of arabic words but almost all of them relate to archaeology and don't help me in real life like slag, agate, bone etc. I've also been lucky to have some of the grad students allow me to do some of their work. I've gotten to draw some of the small finds and help measure and draw bricks. Definitely still a worthwhile trip, for sure.
Holding the stadia rod
No comments:
Post a Comment