Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Digging Days 3 and 4

When we started our third day at the site, it was a little disappointing, since Khris had to draw the baulks from the squares in the fort, which we had worked on the previous day. That meant that we began our own work day in others' squares, since we couldn't start without supervision. Between first and second breakfast, we were in Noora's square (her name in English is Barb, but she's much loved amongst the Bedouin). We started digging for the first time, mostly dusting and cleaning Noora's squares for the top photo (a photograph that must be taken before breaking to a new level).

For the first time, we spent our second breakfast eating with the Bedouin, sharing shrek (a salty flatbread similar to tortilla) and all of our food amongst each other. We also drank shai (sweet tea) by the tumblerfull - it's absolutely delicious and helps keep your body cool. We were all grateful for that. When we'd finished second breakfast, we wanted to start our squares so desperately that Meaghan and I went on an adventure to find Khris. With the baulk drawings finished, we were able to start digging! We set our squares, dusted them, took a surface photo and elevations in the four corners. 
Finally, we got to start digging. Using big picks, we broke the surface and started digging down 20 cm. It's a lot of heavy work but after today's go at it I think it's a little easier.

Today we continued the same - it's really difficult but kind of fun, as long as you drink tons of water. Once we had a good amount of the square fashioned out, it became a lot easier to work. We had a lot of help and many great tips from Mohamed, one of the workers on our square. Since Darcye wasn't feeling well today, her square partner, Mike, joined us and brought Ali with him - the two of them were able to seriously contribute to our square, though Mike came across every cool find! By second breakfast, he had found a piece of aqueduct that had been displaced or had come from the dump pile previously situated atop our square (from the 1989 excavation), a large amount of stones and some interesting pottery pieces, some nearly complete, as well as a wolf's claw. I was supremely jealous. We spent second breakfast at the fort with Salim, sharing some delicious home-made stew, shrek, watermelon, and shai from communal bowls. You eat everything with your right hand, and pass with your right, since your left is for other stuff (wiping your bum, e.g.). It's also important to keep the soles of your feet covered, so as not to offend anyone or Allah. We sit cross-legged to keep them from pointing towards anyone, or squat.

Salim joked about marrying off Mike to one of his nieces, and took a picture of him and of Jake to show his niece. He said he'd trade a Jordanian woman for a Canadian - "same fish," as he put it. It was so silly! Tomorrow, he threatened to make Jake milk his camel. He was quite the riot, and so friendly. Mohamed, though, is a complete sweetheart - he has a son named Osama who's two months old and quite sick at the moment, and jokes constantly in impeccable English. We've been helping each other to learn new words (today - elevation terms in english vs. excavation terms in Arabic). There were also some incredibly silly moments of dancing, singing, and joking. I've made several friends amongst the Bedouin already and am really looking forward to getting to know them better.

One interesting thing that I learnt from another Mohamed was that most of the men working around us range in age from 20-30. The eldest is maybe 40, but they all look much older than their years. It made me a little sad, to consider why that might be, and I wondered how we seemed to them by comparison.

When we get back from the site, I swear your could grow potatoes from the water we leave in the sink, especially after washing pottery, which we do from around 3 until 5. It's a loooong day, and there are muscles in my body hurting that I never appreciated before.

It's exhausting and pretty wonderful and as long as you keep laughing, it's quite a fun time. Our square is already interesting, so it'll definitely be a good place to excavate. We're halfway through our locus now, hopefully it will get finished tomorrow and we can finally break into an area that's less disturbed, so we'll have usable finds. Currently, we're looking for a continuation of an aqueduct that's on the surface and the wall that will mark the edge of a building from the Nabatean period. I'm definitely looking forward to the finds.

Until then :)