Barcelona

N.B. I only have 5 more minutes of free internet and it is on a public computer so there is no way I can upload photos.

Anyway, Barcelona has been amazing.  The buildings are unbelievable.  I have walked all over the city since I only had about a day and a half, but I think I managed to see most of the major attractions.  I'm running out of time.  I promise I will put up pictures at some point, but I figured I would at least give you an update.  Off to Paris tomorrow morning.

Adam

Last days in Menorca

Today (Friday) was my last day on the wonderful island of Menorca.  I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the island and I wish that tomorrow I was waking up to excavate rather than to leave, but oh well.  I can't, however, complain about my upcoming days since I will be in Barcelona, Paris, and London.  I don't know what type of internet access I will have so it may be a few days before my next post.  Anyways, for as much I am disappointed about leaving, I am just as excited (if not more so) for the next part of my journey.

Yesterday a group of us decided to rent bikes and ride to some places we had not been to on the island.  They were really cheap (only 7 euros for the whole day) and rode about as cheap as they cost.  At one point someone had two flat tires and some of the other tires were headed that way.  After a call and some broken spanish over the phone, we were able to get someone to come out and fix them.  While at first it seemed like an inconvenience, it ended up working as a perfectly good lunch break.  It has hot and we were beyond sweaty when we finally reached the beach we were looking for.  It would have been breathtaking had we drove there, but given the mechanical problems and physical labor, nothing could have looked better.  Here are a few pictures:

Hope all is well,

Adam

Skulls

Today was rather bittersweet as it was our last day of excavation.  It concluded what has been a terrific and unimaginably informative couple of weeks.  As with all other excavation days, we started with lab work which consisted of cleaning bones.  There was only one other student besides myself that spent the whole time in the necropolis (the others split time between the city and the necropolis).  Since we have become much more proficient at cleaning and identifying bones, our supervisor trusted us to clean two skulls.  They were both of children and very fragile.  Children's bones never preserve as well as adult because they are not as big and strong.  It was very difficult and required a lot of patience, but in the end I made a lot of progress.  In the hours I spent on it, I clean off most of the soil, but some other ambitious student will have to finish the task later on.  It was a great culmination to a week full of learning and excitement.  Here are some pictures...

Before:

During:

After:

In the dirt that was caked on the skull there was a part of a mandible (lower jaw).  Here is a picture:

On the right are two baby teeth and on the left you can see a tooth that has not yet come in.  From this we were able to age it and it comes out to between 4 and 5 years old.  Cleaning the skull was difficult, but very rewarding.  It was definitely one of my favorite things that I did over the course of the excavation.

Best,

Adam

Patience

We finished the tomb I have been writing about the other day.  It is likely that there were two children in the tomb, but definitely no adults.  After finishing we moved back to a tomb we had worked on some last week.  It is the one that has tons and tons of bones.  It is rather difficult to excavate because they are all on top of each other and rather fragile.  It is a big test of patience to be able to slowly take them out.  It's possible to work on a single bone for about an hour and still not be able to get it out.  Tomorrow is our last day of excavating.  The following day we give presentations on a topic of our choosing (mine is Roman Burial Customs and how they change from the Republic to the Principate to Christianity).  After that we have two days to do whatever we choose, and then I am off to Barcelona.  I'm a bit sad that I only have one day of excavation left, but I have really enjoyed everything I've done and I have learned a ton.  Here are some pictures...

Childrens' tomb after excavation:

Lots of Bones:

Best,

Adam

Child's Tomb

Over the past two days we have been excavating the newly discovered tomb that I talked about in my last post.  Yesterday (Friday) we didn't find a single bone.  It was a little discouraging, but it looked as though maybe the tomb had not been used.  Today it was similar news for the first 2/3 of excavating, but finally we started to find bones.  It was very exciting.  All of them were from a child of about 5 or 6.  There weren't very many, but enough to definitively say a child had been buried there.  There were some teeth, skull fragments, a rib, and other long bone fragments.  As of right now it seems that only one person was buried in this tomb.  Although that may seem normal to us, every other tomb discovered in this necropolis (remember this is just one of the seven found around the ancient city of Sanisera) have had at least two burials in them with one containing as many as 16.  We are not quite finished with it so we will have to wait until tomorrow to see if more bones are found and we won't know for sure until the bones are analyzed in the lab.  The other very precarious thing about this tomb is its location.  While it is counted in the necropolis we are excavating, it is about 25 yards away from the other tombs closest to it.  It is definitely separated from the others and its orientation is not east-west like the rest, but rather northeast-southwest.  It is all rather strange, but the more we excavate the more we will understand.  It brings me back to the same conclusion I have had so often - that we will never definitively know everything.  The more we uncover, the more questions are raised.  There aren't manuals for figuring these things out.  There are guides, but these are all based on previous knowledge.  The more we obtain the more we must tweak.  Its fascinating to just be apart of uncovering history.  I have no idea why this child was buried apart from the rest of the necropolis, in a tomb of his or her own facing a different direction than all the rest.  And to be honest, I'm not sure anyone will ever know.  While this may seem daunting or discouraging, I like to look at it from another point of view.  Its very enlightening to me.  I can let my mind wander about all the possible reasons.  I am able to guess at what is more plausible than the rest, but I find it enlightening that I will never know.  It reminds me that history is not just a bunch of dates in time, but real people who must make decisions based on the circumstances and beliefs of their time.  They were alive and had feeling just like all of us.  Thats something that a history book will never be able to teach me and that is why I enjoy the fact that most of what I discover will never be 100% known to me.

Anyways, sorry for the long-windedness, but I figured I would let you in on but a snippet of my thoughts today.  I don't have pictures of the tomb today, but I promise I will have them tomorrow.  I do, however have pictures from a second trip to the lighthouse nearby.  A group of us went, so there are a few group shots as well.

Goofy one:

Best,

Adam

New Tomb!

We were back to excavating again today.  The days off were very nice, but I was itching to get back at it.  We went looking for new tombs today and had unbelievable success.  The area in which we were searching was very difficult to dig.  There were rocks and vegetation everywhere.  Most of the plants were full of thorns so they were hard to handle.  We persevered and hacked away with a combination of axes, pickaxes, large trowels, and hoes.  Here are the before pictures:

And the after...

That took four people a couple of hours, but the time passed very quickly.  Onto the more exciting bit of the day - the new tomb.  We found and profiled a tomb in this area.  Profiling a tomb simply means that we define the edges around the outside in order to find the limits, but we leave the inside of the tomb filled.  While we were doing this, we realized that it was a very small tomb (only just over a meter in length).  This may mean that it is a child's tomb.  Another interesting aspect is that about 2/3 of the tomb is covered by a lid - something very rare in the necropolis we are excavating.  All of this information is making my mind wander a lot as to what might be underneath, but only time will tell.  Needless to say, I am very excited for the next days of excavation.

Here are a few pictures of the tomb:

This one includes a scale (the red and white stick on the right).  Each new color is 10 cm in length.  The arrow points north.

Here is one of just the tomb:

Well I hope that everyone else has had just as an exciting day as me.

Best,
Adam

Day off and a Trip to Mahon

We had today (Wednesday) and yesterday off from excavating and free to do whatever.  A group of us decided to go to Mahon (the capital of Menorca and the largest city).  It was only a cheap bus ride away so it was no problem at all.  The island of Menorca is known for two things.  Mayonnaise and Gin were both invented on the island so naturally we had to check out the gin distillery.  It was a very cool place and we were able to see them making everything, but the best part was the free samples.  The man working there kept giving us all sorts of samples and then major discounts on anything we purchased.  I never realized how many different types of gin they made.  There was chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, peppermint, and many other flavors.  The best was the gin and lemonade combo.

Picture of the sample station (there were three of them):

Anyway after we tasted a bunch of gin, we went to the Menorcan Museum.  It was very interesting because it has a lot of artifacts from the time period in which we are excavating.  In fact at the end of every season, all the artifacts found at our site go to this museum to be housed (only a few go on display).  I would show pictures, but unfortunately they didn't allow cameras inside.

We did a lot of walking around.  The city is beautiful.  Its very similar to Ciutadell where we are staying, but a bit larger.  Here are some pictures:

Today we did a lot of walking around Ciutadella (where our residency is) and went to the museum there.  Again they didn't allow cameras, so alas no pictures.  But I do have a few more from the city so here they are.

Back to excavating tomorrow!

Adam

Trip around Menorca

Today instead of excavating we took a trip around the island and looked at some other archaeological sites.  All of them were Talaiotic.  The Talaiotic people lived on the island from the second millennium BC until the Romans took over in 123 BC.  They were rather primitive and lived in caves for a long period of time.  Eventually they formed villages, but were less advanced than the Punics, Iberians, Greeks, and Romans with whom the interacted.  Here are a few pictures from our excursion.

View from a look out:

Typical Mediterranean Architecture:

Inside one of the Talaiotic Caves:

Caves in the Background:

Tomb of the Talaiotic Culture.  Over 100 bodies were buried here:

We have a two day break and then will be back to excavating on Thursday.  Tomorrow we plan on going to Mahon (the capital of Menorca).

Best,
Adam

5 Yanks, 3 Aussies, a Brit, and a Kiwi walk into a bar...

So I've been on this excavation for a full week as of today and so I figured now was as good a time as any to talk about the people I have been living and working alongside.  As the title suggests, we are a very diverse group.  Even those of us from the US are from all over (West coast, Midwest, East coast).  It isn't just our accents that make us different - its everything.  We have every range of interest and all ages as well.  There is everything from Episcopalian priest to staunch Atheist, yet everyone gets along very well.  The ten of us are easily able to walk to a bar and grab a drink after excavating.  It is a very unique dynamic.  It reminds me a lot of the title of my blog.  We are all on our own journey.  No one of the ten of us came to Menorca for the same reason.  We live in this weird time we call the present, always somewhere between where we have been and where we are going, somewhere between here and there.  Its great to meet so many people from such different walks of life and realize that we get along very well.

Some of us in above a local beach:

At the beach you can give yourself a clay mud bath, so naturally we had to try:

Anyway enough with the philosophical thoughts on people and on to digging.  We've been working furiously to finish up the two tombs we have been working on.  One of the them has a lot of bones, the other has almost none.  We switch every day so that we all have a chance in the good tomb.  Today I was in the rather empty tomb, but we made great progress and hit bedrock, so the tomb essentially finished.  There are still a lot of bones in the other.

Teeth in the tomb:

Me digging:

Sunset:

Hope all is well,

Adam

A Little Background

Today it was a bit cloudy in the morning and so we excavated first and then after lunch we took a trip around the whole site to see the extent of it all.  It is much larger than I originally realized.  Excavations went well.  I moved to a different tomb today to switch things up.  The tomb I had been working on is turning out to be very interesting.  A hip was taken out today and another is next to it so it should come out soon.  There are also long bones near it.

Here is a picture of the hip (on the right) as well as the long bones on the left:

Here is one of the long bones.  The hip that was taken out was located at the bottom right of the picture.  It belonged to a woman of about 40:

So now for a little history lesson...

The port of Sanitja is the port where all of this is located.  It is on the northern coast of Menorca and is a very protected bay.

(http://turismo.sinsopa.com/hoteles/port_fornells_mercadal_(es)_0701062.asp)

The museum is at the very end of the water and up a hill.  On the left is where the current excavations of the city of Sanisera and the necropolis are taking place.  On the right there was a roman military camp that dates to the late 2nd century BC (i.e. 123 BC) and onward.  This was excavated before the city and necropolis were started.  They have been under excavation for 3 years.


The foundation of a watch tower at the end of the bay:

This is a picture of the Roman barracks from the military camp.

Romans first came to the island in 123 BC and conquered all three of the Balearic Islands by 121 BC.  The city was inhabited from then until about 550 AD.  The city itself is probably about 60,000 square meters and in three years only about 1,500 square meters have been excavated.  This means that this site will be excavated for years and years and years.  This doesn't even include the 7 different necropolises that are located outside of the city.  Plus there are underwater excavations at certain times of the year.  The site is massive, but at the same time it is extremely unique.  There were only three Roman port cities on the island of Menorca.  The other two are located under major cities and so will never be able to be excavated.  Sanisera is fortunate to be located in farmland.

As I mentioned before, there are 7 different necropolises surrounding the city.  We are currently working on the one farthest from the city.  This is the only one that has been excavated (the other 6 are untouched).  This appears to be the latest of them.  The tombs date to the 5th and 6th centuries AD (400's - 500's).  Most are multiple inhumation and are probably family graves.  They are likely Christian graves based on their orientation (east/west) and the time period.

Anyway I know the history is probably more than any of you bargained for, but I hope it was somewhat interesting.  If I skipped over something or you would like me to elaborate a bit more on one particular aspect please let me know.

Best,
Adam

Young Bones

Today (Wednesday) we were business as usual at the port of Sanitja.  Morning involved lots of bone cleaning.  I'm getting better at identifying bones, but it is very difficult because so many of them look similar.  During our break we walked to a local beach.  The excavations today were quite good.  We found the scapula (shoulder blade) of an infant.  It is in rather good condition.  I found two ribs of a young child today ( 2-3 yrs old).  Given the fact that there is such a range of ages (infant, child, adult) the tomb may be that of a family.  This is probably why there are so many bones and they are all disarticulated.

This is the infant scapula:

Here is are the child's ribs:

Best,
Adam

Lots of Teeth and a Trip to the Lighthouse

Tuesday we resumed the schedule as usual and so in the morning we focused on human anatomy.  We practiced identifying bones and then learned how to clean bones.  After lunch we have a break during the hottest part of the day and so I used the time to hike the 30 minutes to a nearby lighthouse.  The views were unbelievable.

View from the lighthouse looking back at the museum where we are based.  If you look closely you can see the excavation site on the right of the water:

After the break we were back to digging.  It was a great day.  The people digging in the city found four bronze coins.  In the necropolis we found a whole mess of bones.  I personally found some large fragments of skull, four teeth, and a the end of a femur.  We also found a small bronze bead in our tomb.


One of the teeth I found.  It is in excellent condition:

The tomb I am excavating:

This is the section I have been working on specifically.  There are skull fragments in the upper left corner.  It is difficult to see, but there are bone fragments scattered everywhere:

Digging at sunset:

Hope all is well,

Adam