Bad to the Bone

On Tuesday the 25th, in the mosquito infested area of Kierikki, a startling discovery was made by our survey team which consisted of Dan, Rob, Greg, Laurel and Dusty. The discovery, though only a glimpse at what could potentially be the biggest find of the excavation for us, was the uncovering of bones and human teeth. After a few hours of shovel tests the team grew weary, especially considering past survey teams have made it back to camp empty handed. This time, however, morale received a boost of hope after Laurel and Greg carefully screen the shovel tested dirt. The discovery not only brought hope to the survey team but also the team back at the excavation site.

On the other hand, with highs come the lows and those lows were given to the team at the dig site. After hours of digging with the hopes of finding more fire cracked rock or potential fire pits or maybe even a dagger the team came up empty handed. But even with days where nothing comes up something is always learned. In this case the lesson is that patience is an archaeologists best friend and also we learned where not to dig.

Today, Wednesday the 26th, most of the day was spent preparing to complete the excavation. Some people worked diligently on the strange circle in the fire cracked rock unit but only to notice that the circle has been slowly disappearing. While others were assigned the duty of mapping out the excavation area and drawing profiles for the already completed units. With the rains punishing us today, the team trekked on through the harsh weather completing the tasks at hand and we were rewarded with a lunch makkara feast over a fire in reconstructed stone age village hut. Though we did not find anything new today, it should not be considered a failure and many necessary tasks were completed. Tomorrow holds new breath for our excavation site.