sey080

The first week of any dig is "blister week," wherein students discover (sore) muscles they never knew they had and get blisters on soft hands that hitherto had mostly swiped Ipads and typed on laptops. Next week those blisters turn into callouses as using trowels becomes second nature - and proud badges of hard work. The great enthusiasm has continued and we are progressing at a clipping pace. Yesterday was a day off for all, which students spent venturing into the bright lights of the big city of Hamilton or on the beach. We capped it off with a pizza/movie night ( Jurassic Park , which Jim chose/made us watch) up at the Police Barracks - amazing surround-sound in the lounge. But today was back to business... For me, today started at 3am when squally rain pounding on my window snapped me awake and sent me out to check on the boat (safely safe!), but said rain stress-tested our tarp on the site and we spent the first half hour bailing out "Lake Luke.   After that, we had...

The 2014 team except Leigh, who had been abducted by cats It's been a whirlwind couple of days and I've been too busy to post, but if I don't I will fall hopelessly behind... The difference between a field school of five and a full team of twelve is pretty incredible, I can report, and I know now we're going to get a huge amount done this summer! My nine students drifted in on Saturday and Sunday from eight different states - Sam M and Judd had to overnight in Toronto, en route from California. They are now dispersed to Convict Bay, Featherbed Alley, and the Police Barracks and getting along great. Since the field school requires no prior archaeological experience or knowledge of Bermudian/Early American history, we spent Monday (Bermuda Day observed) in the classroom covering these foundational basics. Charlotte Andrews was kind enough to loan us the World Heritage Center for the day, which served as an excellent lecture hall and also had our museum exhibit of key Smit...

It's only been two days since I arrived in Bermuda but it feels more like a month. When the public sees archaeology documentaries of people finding cool stuff, they rarely are told of the many hundreds of prep hours that went into that thirty-second finds shot. With more than twice as many students as participated in past years, the logistics of getting food and housing ready has been pretty challenging, but luckily this year I have a right hand man and left hand woman (or something like that) - Leigh and Jim. Jim, fetchingly draped against the back of a dump truck  on the way to collecting our boat. Leigh was wisely inside the cab. We had a bit of a hiccup arriving due to a new Bermuda Immigration policy and a brief scare regarding having enough housing, but the Director of the Bermuda National Trust moved heaven and earth to get things righted at the eleventh (thirteenth?) hour. Thanks also to the Bermuda Police Service and St. George's Mayor Garth Rothwell for the use of roo...