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Excavations - Day 1
Today we were at Stóra-Seyla, a Viking-era farmstead a few miles outside of Sauðárkrókur. SASS has worked it for several years in a row, so the site was under a layer of "geotextile," which was under a thick layer of turf. Also, we want to do ground-penetrating radar on another part of the site, so another huge area needed to be cleared of turf and smoothed before we can start that.
Here's what the site looked like when we got there:
We spent two hours shoveling turf off the cloth; then we had a cofee break, and then spent two more hours shoveling turf. I took some pictures:
The horses were fighting at various points throughout the day.
These guys were out trying to match the site with data from last year, and planting flags.
This is the modern farmhouse of the people who are letting us dig on their land! The dig site is to the left, and halfway down the side of a large hill.
Then we had a lunch break, and the backhoe finally showed up!
But then we still had to spend three more hours shoveling turf off the parts too delicate for the backhoe. The backhoe mostly cleared off the area intended for GPR and moved away our dirt piles that resulted from shoveling.
Then we had another coffee break, and then we spent the last couple of hours shovel-scraping half the GPR area so the machine will be able to move over it smoothly.
We did hit the 1000 AD tephra layer while shovel scraping, and we also encountered a couple of pieces of historic (19-20th c) ceramic pieces, which we just put aside and will store separately from the Viking-era artifacts we should be finding later.
And this is what it looked like after we left:
The part we did by hand is the lighter-colored stuff in the front. The backhoe did the rest. The part on the left that looks smoother is where we shovel-scraped.
It was cold, but not *too* cold, and sprinkled sporadically. I had about seven layers on and it was fine, but I think I'm going to switch it up a little tomorrow. I also need to be more rigorous with my sunscreen. And I'm probably going to ache all over. But no blisters yet! It was definitely hard physical labor, but I didn't expect anything else - and every time I got tired I just thought about what I'd be doing if I wasn't here, and then it seemed awesome. .... *pause as I wave to friends from work*
We closed up at about 5:30, and then went to the showers (which are at least half a mile from the house). There wasn't time for me to try out the hot tub -- I'll check it out tomorrow though, one way or another! And then dinner, which was very delicious, and then computer lab.
Tomorrow we're going to finish shovel scraping and probably also finish shoveling off the previously excavated walls. And for a big chunk of the day we're going on a Turf Tour, to learn how to recognize various types of turf houses in varying states of decay. I'm looking forward to the tour!
Here's what the site looked like when we got there:
We spent two hours shoveling turf off the cloth; then we had a cofee break, and then spent two more hours shoveling turf. I took some pictures:
The horses were fighting at various points throughout the day.
These guys were out trying to match the site with data from last year, and planting flags.
This is the modern farmhouse of the people who are letting us dig on their land! The dig site is to the left, and halfway down the side of a large hill.
Then we had a lunch break, and the backhoe finally showed up!
But then we still had to spend three more hours shoveling turf off the parts too delicate for the backhoe. The backhoe mostly cleared off the area intended for GPR and moved away our dirt piles that resulted from shoveling.
Then we had another coffee break, and then we spent the last couple of hours shovel-scraping half the GPR area so the machine will be able to move over it smoothly.
We did hit the 1000 AD tephra layer while shovel scraping, and we also encountered a couple of pieces of historic (19-20th c) ceramic pieces, which we just put aside and will store separately from the Viking-era artifacts we should be finding later.
And this is what it looked like after we left:
The part we did by hand is the lighter-colored stuff in the front. The backhoe did the rest. The part on the left that looks smoother is where we shovel-scraped.
It was cold, but not *too* cold, and sprinkled sporadically. I had about seven layers on and it was fine, but I think I'm going to switch it up a little tomorrow. I also need to be more rigorous with my sunscreen. And I'm probably going to ache all over. But no blisters yet! It was definitely hard physical labor, but I didn't expect anything else - and every time I got tired I just thought about what I'd be doing if I wasn't here, and then it seemed awesome. .... *pause as I wave to friends from work*
We closed up at about 5:30, and then went to the showers (which are at least half a mile from the house). There wasn't time for me to try out the hot tub -- I'll check it out tomorrow though, one way or another! And then dinner, which was very delicious, and then computer lab.
Tomorrow we're going to finish shovel scraping and probably also finish shoveling off the previously excavated walls. And for a big chunk of the day we're going on a Turf Tour, to learn how to recognize various types of turf houses in varying states of decay. I'm looking forward to the tour!
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But your job is still kind of more awesome than mine.
I want a Turf Tour! Can you take pictures, or is that Frowned Upon? I wanna see the turf houses!
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