Bastille Day and Beautiful Bèze

As usual, things have been pretty busy with the excavation and all, and I have yet to say anything about France!

The flights were good, and the rendezvous point with my student even worked out (I brought another American student to the excavation with me this year – it’s nice having another one of us around)! We took the train down to Montbard where one of my excavation friends picked us up; it’s always nice to see a friendly face upon arrival!

The past few years I have been in Dijon for Bastille Day (it is like the American Fourth of July), and this was my first time experiencing the holiday in Châtillon. I could not have asked for a better introduction to France for my student. There were crowds of people of all ages that evening, many holding brightly-colored paper lanterns. There was a procession of people around the city holding open torches (very Frankenstein-esque) accompanied by music, and they stopped at the football/soccer field where the mayor gave some speeches. Upon completion, new music began as did the fireworks. We had a front row view of it all and the show lasted for about twenty minutes or so. The fireworks were really impressive for a place I consider to be a small town, and I laughed at how French they were – really coordinated and artistic explosions, the music, setting a proper mood… I commented to one of my other friends that in America, we do not care if it is artistic; we just like to see shiny things blowing up.

We had our first week of work, then the weekend. I suggested to some friends we could visit Mireabeau-sur-Beze, because it had a really interesting late La Tene – early Roman period sanctuary that I had read about and it was listed in one of the local travel journals. Well, the site now sits under a collection of houses (it was a rescue excavation), and there was no museum, just a display of objects housed in the tourism office. Bust.

No photos of the cave, but the water exits.

Luckily, we had another plan, and that was to visit 

Bèze,a village we passed on our way to Mireabeau. This was a really beautiful medieval town with some really charming old architecture. It also boasted Grottes de Bèze, a fantastic cave you could tour, which we did. I always like cave tours, but this one was particularly unique because within the cave is a source or spring where water bubbles up as it travels out to the river nearby. For this reason, part of the tour is walking on foot, but the other part is in a non-motorized boat to limit pollution. The guides pull the boat along by grabbing ropes which are anchored into the cave ceiling. The water inside was beautiful and crystal clear. I was really surprised that no prehistoric activity took place here because it was rather magical (there is a lot of cave art from the Paleolithic period found in many of the caves in France).

After the tour, we walked around for a while just enjoying the beautiful architecture and had some ice cream and a coffee next to city hall. We found another beautiful spot with a family of swans floating around in the little pond. Sometimes certain parts of France just seem too perfect and charming to be real. 

Baby swan stretching his wings.

The excavations are going well. Last week there was an article about our excavations in the Dijon paper. The best part is there was a photo of my student hard at work, and I was mentioned by name for my dissertation research. And the best of the best part was I went to buy a copy for me and my student, and the guy at the shop realized I was one of the excavators (we are really dirty most of the time). He asked if I was one of the Germans, and after he learned I was American, he got so excited because he knew I was mentioned in the article; he even told some of the other people on the excavations later how exciting it was to have an American there! Local celebrity? Not quite, but I felt pretty awesome regardless. Time to rest up for week number three! 

Of Cities and Mountains (Part 3): Dmanisi, Georgia

Reed has been participating in research at Dmanisi going on four years now. I wanted to see the place I have heard so much about. 

View of the region from the site of Dmanisi with plateaus and river valleys.

Unfortunately, Reed’s friend who usually drives was not available, so we had only one option: the bus. I have been on such buses in Turkey; this was a new experience for Reed though. Considering the last of the open seats were in the back row and that our heads were almost touching the ceiling, it was not too bad.

The road leading up to the dig house snakes through the town and Reed gave me a tour as we walked along. At the dig house, I was finally about to put faces to so many of the names I have heard about and enjoyed meeting everyone. The remainder of the evening was spent drinking around a hookah (I forgot the Georgian word for water pipe).

The remains of the Medieval fortress from the inside.

The next morning, I rode in the back of the truck with the excavators to complete my rite of passage. Luckily, since we were just visiting for the day, we did not have to get dirty and excavate; instead, I had the full tour compliments of my experienced tour guide of a boyfriend. The site rests on top of a large plateau which used to be next to a lake. The view from the edge is spectacular! I saw all of the different areas of the excavations that I had previously only known by name. It is incredible to see Medieval ruins and excavations just above early Paleolithic finds (apparently nearly everything in between has been washed away over the past million years or so).

Part of the old church. 

I did not snap any photos of the excavation (and to the untrained eye, you would not see much other than dirt – some things were even tricky for me to spot and the camera does not help matters). The Medieval fortress, however, had some nice ruins and a charming church nearby which had elaborate carvings in wood and stone dating between the 12^th and 14^th century. Medieval Dmanisi is particularly interesting because it was part of a major crossroads along the Silk Road, and there exists evidence for Christians, Muslims, and others who all lived in this area at one time or another.

A Muslim burial from the Medieval Period. 

After our exploration around the site, we had a quick lunch, and then went to a special swimming spot down in the valley. The water was cool at first, but was not too bad after moving around a bit and it felt great on such a hot day. There were abundant wildflowers and wild herbs filling the air with a sweet fragrance. One fatality occurred while I was fording the river on my way back to the site: goodbye, dear red flip flops…you were cheap, but you served me well. It was a really perfect and beautiful day.

Hand-carved wooden doors of the church.

 The next morning we hopped a bus back to Tbilisi. Unfortunately, it was not the same type of bus we took out to the site and it ended up adding another hour or so to our drive because it stopped at nearly every corner of all of the surrounding villages. We were quite relieved and grateful though because there was a sign inside that we were trying to read which made it seem as though we’d be on the bus for five hours; we were thankful for the mere three hours instead.

Thus concludes my adventures in Georgia. It was nine days well spent and it was wonderful getting to know a new country and a new people that are so warm to Reed’s heart.

Reed has just started up his blog again and you can read about his experiences at Adventures inGeorgia: The Search for the Persian Leopard. 

Carving of a ram from the Medieval Period.

A Visit to Glauberg

Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to take a trip to a little village called Glauberg. The village today is quite small and really has nothing significant to it as far as I know, but the hill which lies behind was home to an oppidum (a fortified settlement, typically found on a hilltop or defensible location) during the Iron Age. In addition to the settlement, a large rampart and multiple burial mounds were found around the hill too.

To get to the site, The German (whom I will now call John as this is his new nickname from me) and I had to take a train to Frankfurt from Mainz, and then another train from Frankfurt to Glauberg. We were quite lucky with our first trains – one was nearly brand new and still had the fresh scent to it! It took about two hours to get out there and luckily the ride was pleasant and we even saw some deer!

We arrived in the little village which is located at the foot of the large hill. We started working our way through the village and followed a muddy path up the hill, parallel to some freshly turned fields waiting for new crops. It was a bit tricky getting up because, well, my studious bum has been planted in a chair for the past few months, so to say I am out of shape is an understatement to say the least, but also we have had so much rain and snow in Germany this spring that everything is a bit muddy and soft in general. We made it to the top nonetheless and had to spend about five minutes cleaning the mud off of our shoes before entering the museum.

Sometimes referred to as the Mickey Mouse statue

Visiting the museum first seemed to be the best option because the weather was questionable and it sprinkled a bit while we climbed the hill. The museum, opened in the late 2000s, was not very large, but it holds most of the finds recovered from the excavations, including the famous princely burial in one of the mounds. This find was rather famous in the world of European archaeology. Statues and sculptures are typically rare prior to the Roman Period, so to find this incredible, life-size sculpture associated with one of these wealthy burials was an exceptional find to say the least. It is believed that sculptures like these were found on top of the burial mounds and served as a form of grave marker.

In addition to the sculpture, many marvelous objects were found in the burial mound of the prince. These objects are also exceptional, well, the whole situation is exceptional, because the objects found in the grave are also found on the sculpture itself. This very close connection between the sculpture, the objects, and the burial, allow archaeologists to argue that the sculpture depicts the man found in the grave with these items. This is not something that happens very often in the world of European archaeology.

See? See? Too cool! A matching sword and a shield were also discovered.

I should also mention that these mounds are not simply small little bumps in the landscape that just cover the body. Some of these are several meters high, and tens of meters wide (the princess burial at Vix where I excavate is estimated to be at least forty meters wide!). This is the princely burial of Glauberg.

The sun decided to come out the moment I snapped this photo and I could not be more grateful! As the weather turned around, we decided it was a good time to see the archaeological park which had visible ruins from the Iron Age to the Medieval Period that have been excavated from the early 20^th century to the more recent times. The Iron Age ramparts were a highlight as well as many ruins of medieval houses and castle structures. It took about an hour or so to walk around the area, and while there may have been more to see, the sun seemed to want to retire for the night and I did not want to walk down the hill in the dark.

Nothing really remarkable happened on the way back, other than these two fat cats sitting in a window wanting to get in.

These fat cats make Mea look really thin...and less grouchy.

On the train ride from Frankfurt to Mainz I was blessed with the opportunity to listen to some German skaterpunk teens rap in English for a bit and then switch to raping about how awesome Frankfurt was in German. I use blessed sarcastically here. I survived and had a Schlappeseppel when I got back. Boy will I miss that beer.

Today was my last day in Mainz and I am actually finishing this post on the bus headed for Dijon. New country, new work, and new adventures await! Until we meet again, Germany!

Being An Archaeologist Isn’t Always Glamorous: Part Deux

From the research that brought you Being An Archeologist Isn’t Always Glamorous…  comes the thrilling sequel Being An Archaeologist Isn’t Always Glamorous: Part Deux! The location, Mainz. The cast, tripled! The weather, unpredictable. The commute, longer. The research, even less thrilling!

I have not written in much detail about what I am doing in Mainz for a month because there is really not much to tell. I arrived on *March February 25^th and settled into the museum owned guesthouse that is offered to visiting scholars for free if there is available room. I stayed there for a week, then switched to a friend’s (my friend from Vix 2011 that I referred to as The German) apartment for a week, and then back to the guesthouse.

When I have not been moving my stuff from one side of town to the other, I have been spending my days in a gigantic library. Why come all the way to Mainz for a library? Well, this library contains over 120,000 books on archaeology and history alone! Most of the publications are in various European languages (mostly German), and the focus of most of the literature is the archaeology of Europe. While we have many great libraries in the States, most of these publications are very old or difficult to come by across the pond. In short, it is a fantastic place for me to get some research done as many of the materials I need are available on site. Sometimes the reading is really great and I think, “This is just the thing I was looking for!” and other days, like today, I was almost bored to tears by a book I needed to finish and could do nothing after but watch a crappy zombie movie. Here is a highlight from Cockneys vs. Zombies:

So, on average, I am spending about eight hours a day in a library reading French. I have rather limited brain power for anything else after that. Luckily, after I arrived I realized I know several people in the city and have made new friends as well during my stay. I have been watching movies and TV shows as I do at home, and eating…a lot. I have rarely had a meal alone which is a nice change from my normal research schedule! The German has been a great host too and I have been comparing him to a Midwestern mother because he keeps making me eat! I fear I will be fat before I leave Mainz.

I have also shared some of my culinary masterpieces with The German and The Hobbit (another blogged about friend from Vix who came to town last week to visit!). As the former is an avid carnivore and the latter is a vegetarian, I tried to engineer some meals that would work for the three of our diverse food tastes. Baked gnocchi, stuffed peppers, and American-style pancakes were all successfully transferred recipes! Have not been drinking too much, though I was introduced to Schlappeseppel beer! Not only is it a delicious beer, it is a great word to say while toasting your beer (apparently the first time I tried to say it, it sounded like I already drank about five of them according to my wonderful friends)! I am trying to find a distributor in the States -- keep your eyes open!

To summarize, my time in Mainz has been spent walking from one side of town to the other, sitting in a library for eight hours a day reading French (because I cannot read German yet), visiting friends, and eating too much. All-in-all, it sounds rather boring, but each day has its highlights.

*Thanks Ami, for the correction! I am not that magical yet!

A Flawless Trip So Far

A "snowy day" near Frankfurt

Hello Loyal Followers! I come to you now with an update on my trip thus far.

My flights were fine, and even though my connecting flight departed a bit late as it was waiting for the snow to get better for landing in Frankfurt, I arrived at the same time. Their “snow” issue was laughable. I could still see the grass and the ground for the most part, but I suppose it was more of the visibility that was the issue as it was rather cloudy. I took a few trains to get to my friend’s apartment where I would be staying (one train was canceled completely, probably because of the “snow” leaving me to wait on a platform for almost an hour with a boatload of Euro-teens who just got out of school). Overall, it was an easy and average trip with the exception that my bag actually arrived!!! 

I had the best night of sleep in at least a month. I finally did not have to think about anything or plan anything. My brain tried to make a to-do list against my will, but it quickly realized I had nothing that needed to be done! The next day I finished my conference paper and resurrected the Sloppy Joe recipe for my newest victim. It was also a hit even though it was as messy as ever!

We did not have any sort of grater/shredding tool, so I had to use a veggie peeler  for the carrots, thus the extra messy batch of Joes.

The car ride from Frankfurt to Luxembourg City was quite quick as we were doing an average of 160 km on the highway. We stopped at a rest area while still in Germany to grab some lunch. The food was actually pretty good – all homemade relatively speaking.

Pretty posh accommodations!

We arrived at the hotel and goodness was I grateful to have my room paid for by the conference! It was 270 € a night! It was a lovely room and it had the best breakfast I have had in Europe! After checking in we had a trip to Dalheim, known as the Pompeii of Luxembourg and one of the most important archaeological sites in the country. The weather was cold and windy, but the tour was nice. We had a group dinner which was mostly light things: French fries, diced potatoes, salad, slices of meat, and a dessert. 

The next day the conference began, the theme of which was focused on bathhouses in the Roman Period. As springs are often found near baths because they provide a natural and local source of water, I was asked to speak about the typical objects found in springs. The paper, though very different from others presented in the conference, seemed to generate some interest and I had many good questions. It was also a great conference because I met some very wonderful and interesting people (especially a French girl from my session who I geeked-out with on Roman religion!) from different cities and countries! I can keep adding to my “people to visit” list!

Snowy ruins in Trier

Yesterday the last of the conference attendees made a trip to Trier in Germany to have a look at the baths there. Another cold and wet day, but it was an interesting tour and I learned some things that I missed last year when I saw the sites. 

I stayed in Trier with a friend, then hopped a train in the morning to connect with my Frankfurt-friend who dropped me off in Mainz. I just got settled into the Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum (RGZM) where I will stay for free in their guesthouse and use their library for the next month. They sure do have a lot of books which will keep me busy for a while…

I like the contrast here between my swanky hotel room above to my modest, but comfortable room at the research center 

I am leaving soon to meet a friend (The German) from my Vix excavations for dinner, so for now I will say Auf Wiedersehen!

I Got a Bit Distracted

Well, the excavations finished this week and I realized that I have not provided an update in a long time. While this might make some of you worry (Mother), this is actually a good thing because it means I was keeping busy and was having such a great time with my friends that I was not on the internet all the time. Since I slacked off, I will give a brief summary of what I did and what we discovered at the excavations this year.

We were still working in the same area as last year on top of Mont Lassois. There is about 12 to 18 inches of soil on top of the bedrock which was removed with some heavy machinery. After much of the top layer was scraped off, we cleaned off additional layers of dirt to search for features, such as postholes, pits, and ditches. We opened a huge area and it took four weeks to get everything visible and clean. What we discovered were lots of postholes which indicated that there was another (or several) houses on top of the plateau in addition to the large house which they discovered several years ago. In the past then, the site had one very large house which they believe belonged to the princess of Vix and then there were several smaller houses, but still quite large, that were around the big house. The entire area was then enclosed by a ditch which we also explored further. Several structures of later dates were also evident during our work and two more graves were also excavated this year.

I did none of this work though. I was adopted by the documentation team and helped to describe and draw 300 of these postholes, pits, and ditches. I worked with then daughter of one of our directors to do this. I am incredibly grateful to her because, though she speaks English very well, she let me practice my French which improved dramatically in a matter of the first three days with her. She is only 19, but she is one of the sweetest and most mature people I have ever met. It would have been a long and more trying summer without her help! Anyway, we were quite the team and really kicked ass at getting all of these documents in order. I even got to do some drawings this year which turned out quite well in my humble opinion and much to my surprise. My supervisors were also quite happy with my work and I feel good knowing I helped make things run smoothly this year. The weather was also much improved this year and we only had one day of rain, but it was not bad enough to make us stop working.

In addition to the work, my very good friend The Hobbit was able to come to the site at the last minute. He is in the top ten of my favorite people in the world, so we had a lot of laughs and good memories again from this summer. There were a lot of great people at the site this year in general. I really liked the people on the Swiss team, which was a nice change from last year and the Austrians were great this year too! Overall, there were lots of good conversations, good jokes, and late nights this summer. I have never felt more exhausted after an excavation as I do this year. It was worth it though.

To recover so that I may do more work when I arrive home, I am going to Nice for a week. Many people know of Nice, a beautiful and expensive city in the south of France which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. I am so excited to see the beach and the water I can hardly stand it. I am sitting at the train station now waiting for my train (which goes back to Lyon first). Why did I decide to go all the way down to Nice? Well, there are Minnesotans in Nice. A couple who went to high school with Reed and who I have met several times have taken a year off from the States to live in Nice. I am looking forward to some familiar faces and accents and I hope they are too! After Nice I will go back to Paris for a day or two and then will finally fly home on the 21^st of August. I will write again before then to share my adventures, but for the moment, just know that I am happy, relaxed, and going to a fantastic place in just a few hours!

Hugs to all!

Celebrating My Independence in a Most Independent Way

Since turning to a life of archaeology, I have celebrated very few ‘Fourth of Julys’ properly. Properly consists of 1. Being in America; 2. Eating delicious food fresh off the grill, various sorts of salads, and lots of watermelon; 3. Watching fireworks; and 4. Being on the beach or near water. That is what I, as a girl from the water-abundant places in the Midwest, think of as being good ways to celebrate being an American.

Well, it is the Fourth of July once again and once again I am not in America. I have not eaten anything delicious today except for the last of my jelly beans which I brought from the States. There are certainly no fireworks, although I could probably count the lightening we had. And the closest I have come to a beach was the sand that got in between my toes and I hurried through the park on the way back from the museum during a watery downpour. Here I am in France, probably the only American for at least 30km, celebrating my independence to the fullest extent…alone.

I know, I am in France!, but the Fourth of July is my second favorite holiday (Thanksgiving will always take the pie!) and while I am here alone in this dark and abandoned dormitory (yes, the very same one from last year), it makes me miss home and the few traditions I still enjoy. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to recount some of my favorite July 4^th celebrations that took place outside of the U.S.A.

2011

Last year I was in the city of Chatillon-sur-Seine, France having arrived the day or so before from Dijon. I did have someone ask ‘Oh, isn’t this your country’s birthday? Happy Birthday!’ This made me smile a bit. Nothing else that exciting happened. Ten days later though, I was back in Dijon and they were celebrating their country’s Bastille Day complete with some spectacular fireworks! (See this post for photos). I silently pretended they were for America. 

2009

I was a week into excavations at Alalakh in southern Turkey. The heat was unbearable most days, but the evenings were rather comfortable. There were a fair number of Americans at the site, so we all knew what the day should hold in store. The Fourth of July fell on a Saturday, which meant we had both Friday and Saturday to celebrate since it was still early in the season. We grilled like we did every weekend and at some delicious, delicious food! There was music, dancing, and lots of alcohol to go around. It was a beautiful night for sleeping on the roof and watching the stars pass through the night sky.

2007

After a day of excavating at the coastal site of Kenchreai, we headed back to our hotel in ancient Corinth, Greece. We were an American run excavation and there were about fifty of us. There was no way we were not going to celebrate the Fourth of July! I remember I packed party hats and noisemakers for the event! I think there may have even been a birthday or two that we decided to celebrate as well. Before we even began, we were told by our project leader that we should not draw attention to ourselves or be loud (this was at about the height of the world hating us). We said we would move our cocktail party to the back porch instead of the roof and celebrate there; a fair compromise it seemed to us. Well, the noise makers did not go over well with the project director and we were told to ‘shush!’. It did not matter though because even though the noise makers went away, the party hats stayed as did all of our cocktail attire and joyful spirits! We even had sparklers! It was a fantastic celebration with a wonderful, laid back group of people with whom I shared some of the greatest memories and conversations of my excavation career.

2006

And finally, probably my favorite Fourth of July celebration away from home. I was near Batman, Turkey in the southeast excavating with local residents and ‘the Italians’. As per usual in that part of Turkey, it was hot. There were four American students (including myself and my soon-to-be-best-friend, Ami), and our professor from GVSU. I seem to remember the students discussing what we should do for the Fourth of July, if anything at all. We all seemed to be a bit disappointed that we would miss it. When we arrived back at the hut that night, we found that while the Italians were at the market, they found a form of sausage that is about as close as one can get to a hotdog in a foreign land. We had all the proper fixings for our ‘hotdogs’ on the grill and tons of watermelon! I believe there was some mild drinking involved as well. This was by far the most special Fourth of July for me because there was a tender extension of consideration and respect for our traditions. Buying hotdogs may seem like a simple and silly thing to gush over, but at that time with so much of the world despising us, it made me see that some people could recognize that we were people too and that we did not need to be ashamed of who we were.

That wonderful hotdog...

After remembering these past Fourth of July celebrations, I come to see that you do not need to be in America to celebrate the Fourth of July, but it does work best if there are other Americans to celebrate with you! Hope you all celebrate the crap out of today for me!

C’est Fini

As I am heading back to the States on Tuesday for my Ami’s wedding, this will be my final post for this trip. The last week of excavations at Vix (last week for me that is) was by far the best for me. I was talking to one of our field supervisors last Saturday night when I mentioned I have had quite a bit of experience in the field and was a trench supervisor at my last excavation. I also tried to phrase, in the most polite way possible, how much I hate cleaning postholes. My supervisor was quite pleased with this knowledge and said on Monday I would be working with the documentation team come Monday.

I’m sure after reading my post about cataloguing artifacts many of you realized how much tedium and organizing I can endure. Documenting a site is quite similar to this. You must make notes about every unique feature discovered on site, such as a posthole or a pit for example. Information collected varies, but often includes color of the soil, placement in the site and relationship to other features, a list of objects discovered there, soil composition, etc. as well as sketches of the feature from above and in profile or section. This is the sort of thing I have been doing for the past week. The first part of the week, myself and two to three others who also had previous excavation experience worked on documenting and measuring profiles of all of the postholes we had been cleaning. We did at least forty in one area alone and probably another twenty at least in another area of the site. I coordinated the work and did the official measurements of these features. After we finished this toward the end of the week, another student and I started the documentation for a group of new postholes discovered recently that had not yet been noted. Despite some rain and a few issues with a compass that didn’t point north (think ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’) the work moved along quite efficiently and I enjoyed helping to keep it all running smoothly.

I noticed I was in a much more cheerful mood doing this sort of work. I love excavating, but I don’t feel like I accomplish anything when I move maybe twenty buckets of dirt a day – this is much less than I am used to, but the site isn’t that deep meaning there isn’t as much dirt to move. I had a strong sense of accomplishment doing this work that others don’t like or can’t do quickly. The two supervisors I was assisting by doing this work appreciated it as well. They would like me to come back next year in a more official role on the documenting team, which would be fantastic for many reasons. This has to be discussed first with the site directors, but if they are ok with it, then I shall return to Vix again next summer!

Not much to share about the rest of the week. I’ve been trying to enjoy the time I have left with my new friends. While I hate having public co-ed toilets and showers, living with a large group of guys and girls my own age makes me feel like I’m back in freshman year at college. We do silly things, such as chasing each other around with mattresses, breaking into each other’s rooms in the night to tickle-and-dash, or hug mobs when someone looks like they need one. It’s all silly and fun and makes me forget I’m a grown up for a little while. Despite the language differences, we generally all understand one another and have shared so many laughs I can’t believe it. We are here in a different world for a short time without responsibilities and a fair amount of time on our hands to do what we want whenever we like. Many people here say they come to excavate at Vix as their vacation and I’m starting to understand why. There are great people here and unlike any other excavation I have been on, there is no drama – everyone just wants to have a good time eating, drinking, talking, and laughing with one another. I’m hoping I can bring some of these good feelings home with me and that I take time out to enjoy myself a little more, especially when life starts stressing me out. Aside from the many useful archaeological contacts and friends I’ve made, I think the best part of this trip for me has been retreaving some of my silliness and ability to relax and not take myself so seriously all the time. I see now that I can still get things done even if I take some time to enjoy life and the people I share it with.

Thanks for following along this summer! If all goes well, I will be reporting to you all again around the same time next year!

"Allez la France!"

Excavations continued this week with a little less rain finally, though we’ve still had to start and stop several times because of the weather. It has been quite cold too, which is surprising. I woke up this morning with a bit of a sore throat which has been going around the French-German team. I’m hoping it’s just because I went to bed late last night and not that I’ll actually have a cold for my last week of excavation…

The excavation itself has been a little under-whelming much to my surprise. Instead of moving many wheel-barrows full of dirt each day, I fill maybe twenty buckets of dirt in an entire day. I’ve been digging post-holes (the holes which held the framing for a house) for two weeks now and am bored to tears with it as are most of the others working at the site. These post-holes are cut into the natural soil, which is rock. I clean the dirt (mostly mud with the rain) and debris out of these to make them ready for photographing. 

It’s the same thing every day, though sometimes I get to “spice it up a bit” by cleaning a ditch instead. Some graves were found, but they are early medieval and only a few people have been excavating these. It has been quite difficult to go from being the person in charge/responsible for an area and all of its data collection and paperwork back to a person who is merely there to move dirt. I feel no connection to the site as I don’t know what is even going on here. I expressed these feelings to one of the supervisors who is responsible for all of the note-taking and it sounds like he may put me to work this week with more of the mental work, which would be a nice change. Here’s hoping. 

Despite the monotonous work, I am enjoying myself over all. We get coffee breaks and ice cream breaks which is nice. I can listen to my French lessons or music on my iPod if I like, which helps the day pass a little more quickly. If I’m actually working near others, we have entertaining conversations while we work. We were all so miserable on Friday that we wrote a song about being miserable in our ditch and it turned out quite good!

I’m not sure why, but we had the excavation party in the second week of excavations and also on a Thursday night. I haven’t been drinking much at all this excavation, probably because there is so much drinking going on around me all the time, but the others more than made up for it that night. We were divided into teams based on country (German, Austrian, Swiss, and the French legionaries which included me, some Germans and the actual French because there weren’t enough for a full team) and had to play archaeological games such as tossing a trowel into a bucket, a blindfolded girl pushing a wheel-barrow with a boy inside around a series of obstacles, and a pick-axe toss. I didn’t even want to participate, but got stuck doing the trowel toss – and no, I didn’t make any into the bucket.

After this was the wheel-barrow race. We needed three girls from each team to participate and a quick count revealed we only had two girls on the French team and I was one of them. I finally agreed to do it one minute before the race began and quickly threw on some sneakers which looked pretty funny with my dress. I got up to the wheel-barrow and got ready to start when they told me I had to be blindfolded. I was in the first race, so I didn’t know this was coming and all of the directions for the games were only given in German leaving the French team quite clueless about most of the rules. I managed to get around and back, though it’s a bit difficult when the person giving you directions speaks only French… I was thankfully finished with the games after that race. We were still short a girl and they wouldn’t let our other girl go twice, so we dressed up one of the French guys in a skirt and sweater and he played for us – we had no other options! We ended up tieing with the Austrians for third place, which was fine with us since we really didn’t care that much. We just cheered a lot and waved our baguettes, French flags and pirate flags while shouting ‘Allez la France!’ (Let’s go France!).

 Last Saturday a group of us went to Bibracte, an important archaeological site for Gallo-Roman history. We decided to change it up this week and go to the medieval city of Troyes. Before we left, The Hobbit, the French girl, our blonde German boy, and I went to the Douix and had a picnic breakfast with croissant, homemade jam, baguette, juice, and fruit. It was quite lovely and there were ducks there that day too, so they enjoyed some breakfast as well. We usually have the same breakfast every day in the cafeteria making this a nice change.

After this, we hopped into the Red Fox (a car) and were joined by our driver who looks like Sigmund Freud’s twin. We made our way through the hilly countryside to the city and spent the day walking around. As it is a medieval city, there are a lot of old buildings, many of which look like they might tip over if you leaned against them – they are very tilted and sagging, but still standing! We had some Lebanese food for lunch since there was a vegetarian with us and it seemed like the best option for all. We ate in a small park next to a fountain and then met up with another group which included TSP, another really nice German girl who I like and a few others. We visited the cathedral and after the museum which has some regional archaeological finds on display. The other group left after the museum, but our car walked around for a bit, visited some shops, and had some ice cream. It was a really perfect day from start to finish with a lot of laughing and joking, good music in the car, and perfect sunny weather. It certainly rates up there as one of my favorite days I hope to remember always. The rest of the night was pretty quiet and I got caught up in conversation with some friends until about 5AM. Overall, it was a very perfect day!

This morning was a bit rough because we were getting up early to go to another flea market. I was in the Red Fox again with ‘Freud’, TSP and the French girl. We were following the car that had the map and was supposed to know where this place was, but they somehow managed to get us lost in the woods and countryside making the drive about 45 minutes long. After we arrived, everyone walked around really quickly and wanted to leave about 15 minutes later. This happened last weekend to the French girl and I who are slow and like to look. We hide when we notice them waiting for us so that we can take a bit longer. This flea market was too small to hide for long and we reluctantly left shortly after. The drive home took only 15 minutes because we saw that it should have been a direct line between the cities – oh well.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I napped for about 3 hours, ate dinner, and then went to visit a local cemetery at night. I am in the home-stretch so-to-speak, and finish my time at Vix this week. Hopefully it will be a more interesting week for me and the others! So long, for now!