zenat meta...

Now that I'm back in the states, I have become aware that our pictures that we spent forever uploading never actually uploaded. As a result I will attempt to go back through and add some (more for posterity sake than anything else). Andrew has most of the ones we originally thought we posted so I will have to wait till the rest return but until then I will try to go through and re-vamp everything :) I will also be updating about our adventures in the Bale Mountains, Wondo Genet, Axum, and Harar, and hopefully the others will write about lalibella and Gondor. So be sure to check back over the next few weeks for more stories and pictures.

As for myself, it is a delight to be back in the states. :) It is a rainy day on campus (tornado warning in fact) so hopefully I will be able to get a good jumpstart on finally unpacking and uploading/editing photos.

Cheers!

The End. but not really.

Today was our last day at Moche Barago. Tommy and I were still excavating in our units and Hannah and Sebastion were busy drawing and mapping the profiles before we closed the units for the season. It was an extremely relaxed atmosphere and was a wonderful conclusion to our excavations. As apparently there always is on the last day of excavations, there were many interesting finds including plant remains Christopher found a quartz core in his unit and possibly a human tooth (I found that one)!! Overall, things look to be very promising and exciting for next year :) After lunch it started storming while we were in the cave and it was really peaceful listening to the rain and the thunder and the water cascading over the waterfall. We haven’t had enough rain for the waterfall in several weeks so it was a nice change. Things up at camp were alittle more hectic with everyone packing up the research tent and inventorying all the supplies. Andrew was sent on a mission to collect soil samples from the mountain with Kochito. At the summit, 2900 meters up, the views were incredible and were well worth the exhausting climb up. They began taking soil samples all the way down the mountain every 100 meters until they reached camp. Along the way they stopped for some photo ops on a rock formation that is believed to have been used for human sacrifices. (Dr. Ralf and Andrew jokingly threatened to sacrifice me when we went surveying up by it last week. Haha. Not). They than began hurrying down with the approaching storm bearing down. Dinner was delightful. Pasta with egg salad and tomatoes Yumm! We leave tomorrow for the Bale mountains to go on a hiking/horseback riding trek. We are unbelievably excited to start travelling around Ethiopia (we are following the historic route) but I am admittedly kinda sad to stop excavating. I really enjoyed it and I hope I will get the opportunity to do it again soon.

"Shooting!"

Jessica and I alternated excavating and learning how to use the Total Station. Hannah was an excellent instructor and I was really excited to learn. The overall technique was relatively simple but it was important to always pay attention because the slightest distraction could cause a measurement (i.e. rod height or prism standard) to be over-looked and then all of the following data will be incorrect. It was a long day of gunning but it was very successful and I’m glad I got to learn how to do it.
Tonight it started monsooning during dinner. Ok, so maybe not actually monsooning, but it was pretty close. We all got completely soaked walking back to our tents (except Andrew cause he was smart and wore his North Face) and Elfinish (our cook) was wonderful and walked us each individually under an umbrella so we wouldn’t get additionally waterlogged. It is thundering and lightning pretty bad and there was an extremely loud flash/bang of a lightning strike a few minutes ago. You could literally feel the shocks move right through your bones. It was rather unnerving. Hopefully it wont be raining tomorrow!!

"...but it's green!"

Today we continued excavating. H9 is starting to become exceptionally interesting. I am predominantly finding lithic artifacts made of a stone called Rhyolite (“archaeological kryptonite!” as Lindsay calls it). It is a volcanic stone of greenish coloring and it is really exciting to spot because it’s so different from the usual obsidian artifacts. I have found many flakes, a few blades, scrapers, etc. It is really interesting to find this material since there is no local source (that they know of). I am looking forward to continuing to excavate this unit as it keeps getting more interesting the deeper we dig.

We're gonna have a dance party!

Today Dr. Brandt, Hannah, Andrea, Sebastion, and Tommy went to the obsidian quarry 20km away. We all wanted to go so we drew cards. The highest cards got to go. I only had a Jack and Andrew got the Joker (haha) so obvi we didnt get to go. Tommy lucked out and got a King so he got to go. They came back tired and exhausted to a scene that apparently reminded them of Lord of the Flies. In reality it was just us all super hyper on coffee making up drinking songs and dances. Love sunday nights.

"We're gonna have a dance party, a dance party, a dance party,
We're gonna have a dance party, with Elfinish tonight.
We're gonna have a dance party, a dance party, a dance party,
We're gonna have a dance party, we call it Sunday Night!!"

Souvenir total: 3

Today we all got coffee pots!! They are in the traditional Wolayta design with long necks and round bottoms. They had gorgeous designs on them and when we asked one of the local men who work with us what say he laughed and said “15 bir”. Literally that’s what they say – Haha! Mine actually says “gator” and “lizard” on it which I think is quite fitting since we’re Gators.
Our other souvenirs are spear tips which we bought from a local blacksmith here on the mountain. They are really wicked looking and I can’t wait to put them up as decoration when I return home. We also have gotten little woven baskets that one of the local elders made for us. They look like the little baskets that would hold cobras in movies.

photo by Andrew

Bless the rainsdown in Africa...

Today while laying in my tent listening to the rain pitter-patter on the tent roof I finally began to understand the allure travel to Africa has held for foreigners over the years. The ability to be in such a completely foreign place yet feel at home is exceedingly difficult to describe. The people have been wonderful and the scenery is breathtaking, especially the sunsets. I think that perhaps the most difficult part of returning home is the knowledge that my stories and descriptions and photos will be thoroughly inadequate in explaining the true experience that this trip has been. Only those of us who have been here and present for it will truly understand what it is like.