Updates from the field!!

February 17th
Second day excavating G9. We're mostly finding charcoal and a few occasional flakes. Its predominantly part of a hearth feature.
The past two nights thunderstorms took place within minutes of entering our tents. The winds made the tent walls suck in and out all at once. Roaring winds and mild thunder with flashes of lighting. The first night it frightened us. We were afraid that our tents would blow away.
From a cultural perspective, male friendship is different here. The day we arrived at the airport in Addis, we saw a man with his arm around another man on a bench and for a split second we thought they were gay (the same scene in America would have likely been a gay couple), but we remembered Dr. Brandt mentioning how in Ethiopian society men holding hands while walking or having their arms around each other is a common way of showing friendship. We’ve seen it repeatedly since then. The children are also usually hanging on their friends. They always come up and hold our hands when we are walking around camp.
An important part of archeology is the cultural aspect and how the people interact because this directly relates to the artifacts. We watched “Woman the Toolmaker” on the projector after dinner. The film is about the Konso and the few remaining hideworkers that still use stone tools for scraping goat and cow hides. It was interesting to watch it again now that I’m here and have a better understanding of the context. The movie mentioned that a source for their stones is picking up old artifacts from archaeological sites. Now that I’m here, it seems like an obvious option. There are artifacts everywhere; on all of the paths, right on the surface. There’s even a large flake of obsidian embedded in the dirt right in front of my tent. Hopefully we will have the chance to visit the Konso and meet the workers and see how they made and use their tools as an analogue for the past.

February 22nd
More catalog computer work, transferring the 2k+ entries into the database. Only a few more pages left. Yay!
After work Jessica, Tommy, Lindsey and I went for a hike. Yesterday we hiked the ridge to the right of camp. Today the left. Saw some amazing fields. Crowds grew as usual, especially as we took pictures. We ended up in front of a house, and then another, and then a third. They pulled out a bench and insisted we sit. We sat, watching the sunset behind a hut. They brought out a basket bowl filled with warmed kolo nuts. I felt bad eating the nuts while the kids all watched, but the adults insisted and I ate handfuls. I think I had a permanent grin on my face.
As we were leaving, the kids all ran up to grab some of the nuts from the bowl (they had been waiting the entire time). I tried to give my remaining nuts to a small kid. His mom (assumption) then scooped up his big handful into my hand (me: “no, no, no…!”). I felt bad taking the kids nuts, especially since I’d already had so many.
Everyone here treats us with utmost respect. We all feel very welcomed here, by virtually everyone. We greet everyone we see, and they greet us back. I often feel like people are excited to see us. People would never be this friendly in the Western world. There’s a lot less of a personal bubble here. Kids poke their heads into your tent, trying to see what you’re up to. Crowds form when you’re out. It’s hard to get used to.

Feb 23rd
Today we had a large tea time lecture while we were down in the cave about the geological and archaeological history of the cave. It was fascinating to hear what the hypotheses were on the formation of the site and it was especially interesting to mentally feel all the pieces fit together, that sense of “Ohh, that’s why that’s the way it is”. Dr. Fisher has been working with the German Geomorphologist who is here to analyze how the cave formed and they were able synthesize a plausible hypothesis on how the cave formed and how that influences the stratigraphy and the archaeology. They have some intriguing ideas on how water influenced the cave and how it drained throughout the site. They had excavated several geological trenches to get a better idea of the overall design of the various stratigraphic formations in order to form a better picture of where to best look for archaeological evidence and explanations of why we are finding the artifacts we are finding and why they are there.
Through this lecture we learned the importance of collaboration to provide answers and an overall picture of what was really taking place during and around the time that the archaeological deposits were made.
We’re excited to continue excavating tomorrow!