Questions! Answers!

[katycat]

It has been brought to my attention that I've been completely remiss in my promise to post here about archaeology and Iceland. Yeah, yeah, mea culpa. There are a few reasons for this which can be summarized as (a) busy and (b) inertia and (c) some things that have been troubling me wrt one's right to privacy and oversharing on the internet - but mostly (d) increasing awareness of my own intellectual inadequacy (which I hear is something that happens when you learn more, go figure).

But I have an MA in archaeology now (have had since June, didn't post, oops?), which means I Know Things And Have The Documentation To Prove It.

Far too much has happened, and has led to what is happening, for me to summarize here. Also, I am hungry, and have been too distracted to eat most of the afternoon (because I have just finished a really outstanding novel called Eifelheim by Michael Flynn).

So if there's something you want to know and/or talk about, why don't you ask it here? I will possibly expound in comments.

Comments

[mushfromnewsies.livejournal.com]

Okay, I just saw this now, and am adding this to my list of things I would love read about. :D

[katycat]

Ha, okay! We went to Greenland on an NSF grant to see if the geophysical methods that work for finding buried turf structures in Iceland (longhouses, etc) would work in Greenland. We were in the field for about two weeks, and there was a lot of shuttling between sites in Zodiacs and lugging heavy equipment up giant hills and walking back in forth in the rain till after dark and sleeping in tents. I loved the hell out of it.

As for the science, due to differences in the soil composition and the fact that Greenlandic turf is vastly inferior to Icelandic turf, we didn't have much luck finding buried turf, but we were able to locate Viking Age irrigation channels, burials, and stone foundations. Honestly I could go on for hours about the specifics. The report is online here if you want more info!