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.

Of Cities and Mountains (Part 2): Shatili, Georgia

On our trip to Shatili (and around Tbilisi) I learned a lot about driving in Georgia. For example:

·         Two lanes equal enough space for three cars;

·         A leapfrogging method is used for passing cars that are backed up, but this does not appear to be very effective because the car you passed will inevitably pass you after two minutes;

·         Honking should also be used as much as possible and at seemingly random moments;

·         Honking means more than “watch out”, such as “get out of my way”, “you are too slow”, “I am going to pass you so do not turn”, “Hey, Friend!”, and so on;

·         Seatbelts are optional, unless you are in the front seat;

·         And cars do not break for pedestrians, but will break for cows.

I found it better to just not watch. This was actually beneficial because I could focus on the beautiful landscape during our journey. Our destination was the village of Shatili on the recommendation of Reed’s friend/driver and his wife. They said “It is a very special and beautiful place, trust us!” And since we trust them, we agreed to go.

The village is located in Upper Khevsureti, one of the mountainous regions of Georgia. While it was only about 75km/50miles away, the drive took about four hours partly because of the slow climb and curving roads of a mountain, but also because of the road itself which was mostly unpaved, narrow, and rather treacherous at times (this made the Road to Hana in Hawaii look easy).

 The first major feature we passed was a giant reservoir for one of the rivers (sorry, no photos -- I was trying to ignore the fact that we were driving right on the edge of a cliff). It reminded me a bit of Scotland because it looks like the hills just rise up out of the water. The area was flooded in the not-too-distant-past covering a small town. Apparently when the water levels are a bit low, the top of the local church begins to appear. Not today though, there was plenty of water and it was beautiful!

"I gotta go, we got cows!"

Most of the journey was a typical mountainous ascent: switch backs, narrow curves, pulling over for other cars to use the road, changes in vegetation. Reed and I observed that unlike the Rocky Mountains, these hills have vegetation growing all the way to the top. There are plants that thrive on every level, which make the mountains really beautiful. There are also a huge variety of beautiful, colorful wildflowers which grow all the way up, as well as wild herbs, and a plant that looks like giant rhubarb.

Shatili

After about four hours of passing through the hills, seeing an occasional house (some of which appeared to be abandoned), and breaking for many cows, we arrived at our destination. Unlike the lower habitations and many of the other regions of Georgia which have traditionally used wood for constructing their homes, Shatili used dry-stone construction with just a bit of mortar in some places. This may not seem very impressive at first glance, but then when you learn this collection of houses date to the 12^th century and have been nearly continuously occupied since…it is incredible. Along the journey we saw many other stand-alone houses built like this. There were also many towers that sort of appeared across the landscape too, which were erected for signaling in case of invading armies (think Lord of the Rings when they light the fires in the towers which are seen by another tower who lights a fire in theirs quickly, and so on).

Stone signaling tower from the nearby area. 

Reed exploring Shatili. 

A cow enjoying the shade inside.

We had some lunch next to the river flowing nearby, walked around for a while, and then made the four hour trip home again. The scenery was lovely, the village incredible. It was a worthwhile trip, just leave the driving up to the Georgians. 

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!