A Day on the Dig

The view from the sift pile. It's peaceful work. Sometimes I'll put in my headphones and listen to music while I sift since I'm usually there alone. The playlist I had intended to listen to for the trip never downloaded properly (data is too spotty for regular streaming) but I had an older, smaller playlist of about 60 songs from my trip to Texas last November that was still on my phone. So that ended up being the only music I listened to this whole trip.  A lot of nostalgic tunes from years long gone by attached to some special memories. It was nice.

 I've been here in Jordan for just over two weeks.  My days settled into a fairly predictable and peaceful routine.  I get up around 5 AM, do my Bible reading and try to knock out Wordle for the day. Breakfast is at 5:30 AM.  It's the exact same tasty spread every day and so far I haven't gotten tired of it.  I always have two falafels, some chicken sausages, zaatar bread, olives, and a pita sandwich with hummus, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cold cuts--all washed down with a glass of orange drink.  I then follow that up with a pancake or two topped with preserves and a cup of tea, which I usually have to gulp down because the bus arrives at 6:00 AM sharp.

This is our breakfast spread every morning at the Salome Hotel. It's always the same every day but there are enough options that you can mix it up for variety

The tea station

The drive out Tall Hisban is about 20 minutes. Once we arrive we pile off the bus and grab a tool from the trunk of Dr. Bob Bate's car.  Dr. Bates is the chief archaeologist for the dig this season.  He arrives at the dig site early to take photos and prepare for the day.   We carry the surveying equipment and other tools up the tall to their designated spots.  Then we go to our squares where we will receive instructions from our square supervisor and field supervisor. There are three "fields" on this season's dig:  Field T, Field C and Field M.  Field M and C have two squares each (although only one of the squares is currently being excavated in Field C) and Field T has one square.  I work in Field T. My field supervisor is Liz, a graduate archaeology student with seven years of dig experience under her belt. My square supervisor is Colton, a  senior at Andrews University. Both are great to work for.  Also on our team is Farah, a Jordanian university student, Christen, a sophomore from Andrews U, and two local Jordanian workers, Blaal and Ahmad.

The Great Leader (Field Supervisor Liz on left) and Dear Leader (Square Supervisor Colton on right) as I jokingly call them

Left to Right, Stacie Hatfield observes as Liz listens to instructions for the day from Dr. Bates

Jordanian university student Farah carrying the surveying equipment

Andrews University student Christen

Our work basically consists of excavating or sifting.  We'll have one or two people down on the sifts, two or three people excavating the square, and the workers ferrying the dirt-filled gufftan  (that's the plural of guffah)  from the square to the sifts (thought they will occasionally excavate or sift as well).  We tend to trade off jobs every hour or two so that no one gets too tired. 

Sifters at the sift pile waiting for more gufftan of dirt to be brought over for sifting. You can see an overturned guffah on the ground in front of the wheelbarrow in the foreground

The other task we have is the pottery washing and reading.  Pottery reading is done by the square supervisor under the guidance of Dr. Bates.  They sort through the pottery, categorizing and cataloging everything that is found.  But before the pottery can be "read", it needs to be washed. Washing is basically exactly what it sounds like.  The pottery collected during sifting from the a day or two previous is stored in buckets, filled with water.  Our job is to clean each piece of pottery in preparing for reading.  We basically scrub each pottery piece with either a wet bristle brush or a toothbrush removing as much dirt and grime as possible. 

Thanks to "hand models" Dr. Stacie Hatfield and Isabel Srour

In my opinion, it is the most arduous task in the field.  I've washed pottery four times over the course of the dig.  The first day I did it, it was rough.  My back was so sore I could barely stand when I was done, and my hands started hurting early into the process from the scrubbing and gripping.  Since then I  have stopped sitting in a chair to wash pottery.   Instead, sit on a low wood stump or cinderblock with pottery bucket almost even with me so I don't have to lean over the whole time. I also take care to vary my hand positions as I clean so  that I don't put too much strain on my hands. It's still not my favorite task, but it's bearable now.

There is one other thing that made that first round of pottery washing arduous.  When we were working the sifts we were instructed to save only pottery sherds that were larger than Dr. Bate's thumb.  Well, I was so worried about throwing away something of value that I tended to use my own (considerably smaller) thumb as a guide and tended to err on the conservative side when it came to ballparking the "thumb size."  As a result, when it came time to the wash the pottery--much of which I had likely sifted--I was bedeviled by a seemingly bottomless bucket of tiny pieces of pottery. By the time I finally got to the bottom of the bucket I was seething.  I swore then and there to become a new man on the sifter, ruthless in dispensing any pottery sherd that I would later hate if I had to wash it. And that benefited not just me but everyone up the line--the square supervisors and Dr. Bates reading the pottery.  Nobody wants to deal with a bunch of tiny, essentially useless body sherds.   A small diagnostic piece could be valuable (any sherds with distinguishing characteristics--a rim or base, a handle, designs or glaze, or engraving) but beyond that the little sherds needed to be left in the sift to be discarded.

Washed pottery goes here.  Body sherds and tesserae go in the main basket. Diagnostic pieces go in the mesh bag. All pieces will be "read"--counted, inventoried and recorded--later by Dr. Bates and the square supervisor

A nice diagnostic piece

Pottery washing starts after breakfast and can take all of the rest of the morning.  If you finish early you go back to your square to work for a bit before lunch.

We wrap up our work on the squares around 12:30 PM and then take a short bus ride over to the local women's center.  The ladies there prepare us a delicious lunch and then we take the bus back to our hotel in Madaba.

Dr. Labianca holds forth before lunch is served.  Some of us ate inside in the dining area, while others of us preferred to eat out here in the courtyard.

The first thing I do when I get back is take a shower.  Then I might read for a bit, maybe nap. Both Mondays I did laundry--which is done by hand in a bucket.  I might walk to the store, do some souvenir shopping, or write in my journal or on my blog before supper, which is provided by the hotel at 6 PM.  I often spend the evenings in a leisurely fashion, chatting with team members out on the hotel's lovely outdoor patio area until the sun goes down. I turn in early most nights, after maybe talking with Barbara on the phone via WhatsApp.  I might read a few pages of my book before turning out the lights.  My goal is to be in bed before 10 PM.

This is life in on the dig in Jordan, and it's not bad!