Today we started by continuing work on the beautiful soil ball I wrote about yesterday. I was hoping to make good progress today, but I didn't make half as much progress as I had hoped, but for an awesome reason.
I started today by removing the rest of the spinal column. I was very happy as I managed to salvage nearly all of the bones (generally, many crack and break). The arrangement of the bones was extremely difficult so this took me a while. Then I added some Primal to the long bones (it helps prevent breaking by fortifying the bones) and chipped away at the other sections to try to remove some other bones.
While working away, the assistant head of the field school stopped in a few times and said she was happy with the quality of my work which is WONDERFUL - It feels amazing knowing that people with this much experience are genuinely pleased with the work you are doing, especially on such a complicated, difficult burial! Meanwhile my TA worked on the other half of the soil ball with my partner for this excavation. They safely removed a large portion of mandible (exciting!) and just after they did ... I removed a large portion of mandible. From the same side. Our burial had two left mandibles. And then two sphenoid bodies (Its a bone in the middle of your skull behind your eyes). In other words... we have two babies. Possibly twins, possibly an infant from another burial that was moved by the forces of gravity/water over the hundreds of years that have passed since they were buried. There are so many options, and they are all so exciting.... only about 5% of the burials here contain multiple individuals.
So, while burials usually only take 2 days to excavate, this one will likely take 3 or 4 due to the incredibly complex nature paired with the fact that there are TWO highly fragmented babies inside the soil ball. In other words, lots of CAREFUL work left to do, however, it will have to wait until Thursday.
In other news, the big test on anatomy and lab protocol is tomorrow... wish me luck! Afterwards we get to go on a field trip. We are going on a boat trip around the southern part of the island. I promise to post lots of photographs tomorrow!!!!!
Finally, my room-mates and I have worked out the best schedule ever.
Monday: "Have a bottle of wine with dinner" day & "Slapsgiving" day (aka best stealthy ninja slap of a room-mate wins.... not sure how this one started but its going to be fun)
Tuesday: "Have a beer before, during, and after dinner" day
Wednesday: "Brave the Demon hill a second time to buy Gelato in Chora during the evening" day
Thursday: "Hopefully get some sleep day" (The Roosters seem especially devious thursdays)
Friday: "Buy a Pastry from the amazing bakery on the way home from work" day
Saturday: "Fancy dinner and stay up late" day
Sunday: DAY OFF!
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