Diggin' the Caribbean

Digging. Dig in. Get it? Thanks, Dad, for the "punny" title!

So digging. We dig from 7-1 Monday through Friday at a site called Coconut Walk. We chose the site because about ten years ago a BBC show called Time Team excavated a section of it and found features from an amerindian settlement. Even on the surface we found a ton of pottery and shells, so hopefully underneath we'll find more good stuff.

Digging is really really hard work. Right now we have three open 5x5m trenches. One we divided into 1x1m squares and we're working in 10 cm layers to excavate them. It's difficult because we're supposed to pick out every piece of pottery and tiny shell we find. It's hard to tell the rocks from pottery, and the shells from coral, but I'm getting more used to it. Yesterday and today we wet screened 4 of the squares. So we had to lug the buckets of dirt down to the shore, and then carry big buckets of water up from the ocean to pour over the screens. It was exhausting.

Wet screening

The other two trenches are side by side, and in those, we're mostly looking for features instead of artifacts. So instead of going through all the dirt by itself, we shovel it into buckets and dry screen it. It's such dirty work. The wind blows the dirt everywhere and there's no way to avoid it. I just gave up and tied a bandana around my face because I was tired of having dirt in my mouth (plus it looks super cool). Still, the hard work is really worth it.

Looking like a bandit

So far with the ocean breeze it hasn't been too hot digging. On day this week it rained for a while, so we all hid out in the old lime kiln. After the rain the clouds disappeared and the breeze was gone, so that day was rough. But besides that, we've been lucky so far.

Ye old lime kiln

The site is from the late Ceramic Age, so between 1500 and 1000 years ago. So far we've found a ton of pottery and shells. There have been a few really cool finds, some beads and intricately carved pieces of pottery. We've also found a ton of fish bones, and some bones of an extinct species of amphibious rat. Those were interesting at first, until we realized that there are literally thousands of them. We haven't found any human bones yet, but have found a few human teeth. Maybe that means a burial somewhere, but maybe not. We will see. The features trench isn't deep enough to tell if we'll find post molds or anything like that, but Monday we're bringing in a backhoe to really move some dirt.

In addition to digging, we have lab 3-6 every day except for Wednesday. And by lab, I mean they have a tent set up for us, and we have to clean all of the finds with toothbrushes. The pottery and some of the shells aren't bad, but we've found a ridiculous amount of nerites, which are the worst type of shell to clean. Lab work is kind of boring, but it all has to be cleaning before it can be sorted. It's likely that we won't get to do much more than clean everything here, so I'm probably going to do an independent study research project on all of it when I get back to NC State in the fall. I'm really excited about it! Right now lab is just overwhelming because there's SO much material that needs to be cleaned. Hopefully we'll catch up eventually.

Wednesdays instead of lab we have class. And class is at a bar, and our professor scheduled it for Happy Hour. AND they feed us pizza. Needless to say, it's really a good time. Quetta, one of the program directors, gave the lecture this week. We also watched the Time Team video from the last excavation of our site. Right now we're working with 4 professionals. The 3 program directors are Scott Fitzpatrick (NC State), Michiel Kappers from the Netherlands, and Quetta Kaye from University College London. Right now we're also working with Willem Schnitger, who's also from the Netherlands and specializes in data management. Later in the month we'll have other people join us, including an artist, a finds manager, and a ceramics specialist.

Being here is amazing. It's just such an incredible opportunity. At the end of every dig I'm so gross and exhausted, but I can't help but smile. I'm on an archaeological dig! I'm learning a ton and loving it all.