Thursday, 27 December 2012

Reflections: So long and thanks for all the fish.



So this is how it all ends. In a middle eastern airport with tears. I can honestly, hand on heart say that this time in Egypt has been some of the best moments of the past year, and that the crew are amoungst my most treasured friends. Leaving it behind is not easy.

The lead up to leaving was filled with moments. The kind of moments that whilst frivolous and fleeting, stay with you for life. The final toast of the season over a beer in the field. Roasting smores over a peterol fire on the roof of the dig house. Dressing up as drag-queens. Sining the robot unicorn attack song for several hours on repeat. All moments which to outsiders seem ridiculous but to me will be fond memories of a truly enjoyable time, and reminders of the end of an era.

This season of field-work has been a lesson in great archaeology but more importantly as an opportunity to be around some of the coolest-kids in the business.

In this light I have some thank-yous and other sentimental bullshit to convey:

To the people I worked with: You are among the most stand out archaeologists, and people that I know. The season would have been a different, and less pleasureable, experience without you.

To the fairy princess palace inhabitants: Im gonna miss the shit out of you. Im not sure we could have had a better group of people in that room, and the interior decoration that was completed was pretty outstanding too. Ducky #1 you are pretty much a mother to me now, and your makeup skills are immesurable. Tash, I will never understand how you fit so much food into such a tiny body, or why your end of the room constantly smelled like pickles. Slaggy, you get your own goddam farewell. Bitch.

To Slaggy: I CRII!!!! Im not sure how life is going to operate without you L this year in general and through the time in Egypt you have been like the black sister I never had. Go do good things with your life.

To Egypt, for all its faults, is cemented in my mind now as a place that I truly love working. Amazing memories of great archaeology, great people and great times. It might take afew years, but I will definitely be returning to this country. Hopefully to work alongside many of the amazing people I have had the opportunity to this season.

To NZ: GG NO RE. It was fun. Sheep. Stuff.

End sentimental crap.

I am now faced with a life in a country that I am unfamiliar with, with people that speak weirdly and enjoy tea too much. Life over here will be different without the great gamers, archaeologists and friends that I had back in Egypt and NZ, and im not sure that I will ever get used to the tea and jam shit, but I do know that this is the start of a brand new adventure. And that is kinda exciting. So I have shaken the dust out of my indianna jones hat and am looking forward to the gaming, archaeology and excitement that awaits in this strange new country.
So. Yes. This is the end of this blog. Anyone still stupid enough to be reading it is now relinquished from the daily trials of its existence.
So long and thanks for all the fish!!!

PS: for any one stupid enough to actually want to read more I will be continuing my blogging about life as an archaeological gamer and my travels through the UK HERE:

http://thegamingarchaeologist.blogspot.co.uk/
L8rz nerdz.

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Saturday, 15 December 2012

Day 29: Step back to reality

Not much to write about today... 
Thankfully...
Today marked a return to normality following yesterdays events.

The morning was fine.
The surveying was fine.
Everything was jusssssssssssst right.

Were working closer to the paleoshore at low elevations (4m - 8m above sea level) and thus there wasnt much in the way of neolithic artefacts.

It was thought that in our lowest transect we clipped the edge of L basin (exciting as this has not been done before).

SO YES.
Successfull. Non stressful day.
:3

In other news:
1) the mornigs are goddam freezing
2) only 6 more days in Egypt (only 4 more of work)
3) tonight we bid farewell to Ed, Hans and Nathalie :( :( :( 



Pretty sunrises

Team Total on the case


Friday, 14 December 2012

Day 28: oh.

Cant say much but today didnt turn out as planned.
No filming occured.

On the upside... New scarf...

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Day 28: KE$HA FILMING BEGINS

Just a heads up.
Todays going to get crazy.
We are filming our smash-hit archaeology single dig-dug.

I make no excuses for what you may or may not witness later...

Day 27: Just another day

Listen to this whilst reading about the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N--QcaqrkaE

OK.
So today was a return to normality after the military run-ins of yesterday.

We arrived in the field, unpacked, and chilled around as we nailed out artefacts, analysed them and generally had a dandy time. So because it was a relatively normalish day I will break this down in bullet point style.


  1. We found a blade tool on the road on the way in
    1. this was unusual 
  2. We found a Caton Thompson tool cache
    1. this was unusual
      1. we didnt know she worked at this lower elevation
  3. We discovered Sam is top-deck chocolate
  4. We found that the neolithic people had knowledge of the alphabet
    1. not really




ooooohhh prettty


The tool cache


One of the tools from the tool cache


I!


Mocha-Late


Sand is quite pretty


Our picture of Kar-al on the back of our truck :3

Day 26: Continued...

SO. YES. 
Continuing. From 2 days ago.

We were working in a military zone, and had found some pretty awesome things. 
A pebble back tool, some amazing hearths, a pretty purple heat treated rock...

So all in all things were going very very well to start with...
This was until the military showed up.

At first this took the form of a large cargo plane with cargo doors opening circling over head...
Progressively lower...

Now this kind of behaviour normally freaks people out...
But not Simon...
Who decided that now was the perfect time to utter his famous words: "whats the worst that could happen?"

We were soon to find out...
But for now we continued on, plane circling overhead, not even mildly concerned... I swear...
Soon enough a Chinook joined the party and began circling too...
At this point we were like... yes... ummm... hmmmmmmm...
A white smoke grenade went off somewhere in the distance by one of the bunkers and the two aircraft ceased circling and landed just over by the bunkers...

We continued work...

Within 10 minutes two cars of military personel pulled up beside our work area...
A little irate...
We showed our permits...
They were not satisfied...
We had 3 hours to clean up and pack down.
And to not ever come back.

This put us into hyperdrive for the afternoon trying frantically to record all the data possible in the short time we had been given...

In the end we analyzed and recorded 654 artefacts, excavated 4 hearths, took 5 OSL dates and ran around like frantic things for a number of hours...

The beers consumed this eve were definitley earnt.

So so so pretty!!!! A pebble back tool :3

Not your everyday desert wear.

A pretty purple fire-cracked rock!

One of the hearths :D

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Day 26: Fun n games in military zones

This morning was... unusual...
Long story short we didnt leave to the field till 7am, which is almost unheard of in the land of Simons puntuality.
And we also left with 3 guards.
Not even worried bro.

When we got to the field it was with 2 new faces.
Ed: our OSL dating man and Veila: our faunal analysis specialist...
To make it less of a squeeze we took two range rovers which gave us a never before felt sence of mobility whilst in transit...
As it turns out this was to make up for the ride back, in which we were exceptionally squished...

Despite being scheduled for a return to survey today I ended up once again on hearths...
In the military zone...
Yes...

This was all very thrilling again as we uncovered a great deal of charcoal from 2 of the mornings hearths.

Luncheon today was pretty much the best thing since sliced bread...
Or in egypts case: pre toasted toast (this is our breakfast staple... and its both concerning and gross)
Breakfast strangeness aside...

OH GOD MEETING TIME WILL FINISH WHEN BACK FROM GODDAM MEETING



Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Day 25: Hearths and heat

Today started at the crack of dawn as usual...
The difference was that today dawned with a glorious moon and stars still out :3

Pwetty!


The day took a turn for the worst at this stage, with me catching my finger on a stray nail as I jumped from the truck...

GOOD THING I GOT MY TETANUS JABS!

Anywho...

From this point on it was me and Tash on hearth excavations.
Work progressed quickly for the most part with us finishing off 2 hearths prior to lunchtime.
Both of these hearths were charcoal rich (yay) but otherwise relatively barren with the exception of afew small shells interred within the walls of the hearth.
Following lunch we started on the big kahuna of hearths.
The mother of all mothers...
This thing was huge... and absolutley loaded with charcoal... and bone... and and and and :D
Long story short it was a pretty cool hearth.
About 2cm below the surface we encountered a early paliolithic projectile point!


paleo projectile point!

If you compare this point to the others that we have found you will notice that its notching is more evenly spread, the strapping area for attachment to the projectile sliver is much less whittled and the arrow point itself is smaller... These features are all things which allow us to typologically group this projectile point... and stuff...

Home from the field in time to get mad at house people being incociderate and using our hot water :( and also for delicious food :D

All in all today was a good day, a nice change from the usual nailing out of artefacts...
Tomorow its back to nailing out for me, so hopefully the neolithic people have left some sweet projectile points around :3


Tash excavating the big kahuna!


BONUS: Things I hate

Ok.
Normally I am a pretty level headed person.

But seriously.
Today.
Almost lost my shit.
Critically.

So, we have this little issue at the dig house regarding water and temperature of said water...
Which means that normally there is only enough hot water for a shower for 3 people every kind of 5 hours or so...

Logic therfore would dictate that people who sit on their ass at the house all day should shower during the day...

Logic is apparently not a strong point of some people here.

For 3 days in a row now the same person has been having a shower at 4pm when we get home from the field...
Not only does this person have a shower... but they kind of... wallow...
35 minute shower...

W
T
F

So on day 1 I was not too upset...
Day 2 tension was building...
Today I was on hearth excavation...
Havent had a hot shower in over a week...
Im actually going to shank someone...

The good news is that said individual is leaving tonight...
So I will just restrain myself for the next 10 hours to not go super saiyan on that shit...

And maybe...
Just maybe...
I will get a hot shower tomorow :3

Monday, 10 December 2012

Day 24: Goodbyes, Camels, Wind n sand

Today started as a sad day :(
We farewelled the Auzzie (and also 3 others from the Karanis crew)...
We were sad to lose them all...
But especially Roo Roo :(
Despite being a dirty, filthy australian...
Over the last 4 weeks we had become close to roo-roo and shared many laughs, mostly at her expense...

Now, we made her a card last night which had a beautifully hand-drawn image of WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YA on it...

So yeah... We thought we had the last laugh...

Roo had other ideas...



Some of the posters she put on our walls :D



Some more of the posters on the walls



More posters


Yet more...


She also wrote on our oranges :O

So yes... 
As you can see...
Straya / Roo Roo came into our office in the depth of the night... and plastered it with posters... and massacred our oranges :O

Whilst this act of shennaniganary will not go unpunished we were truly touched.
We will miss our roo roo :(


Rach looking sad, whilst Roo Roo points and laughs L8RZ NRDZ.

Our day then took a turn for the more interesting as we came onto the desert road...

CAMELS...
EVERYWHERE...


SO. MANY. CAMELS!

What were they doing there?
Nobody knows...
WHY ON THE ROAD?
Nobody knows...
One thing is for certain is that the camels are now our camel friends :3

The rest of the day went pleasantly enough... 
Found a rough out of a arrowhead


Rough out 

The rough outs are the first step before making the actual projectile...
So basically what we are seeing here is where somebody 10,000 years ago grabbed a rock, started to make a projectile point and then was like HUH, SANDWICH TIME I GUESS...
Drop rough out...
Many many years later we find it :D
Hoorah!

So this was all very exciting and good...
Until...
Sandstorm...

THE HORROR...
OK SO. 
Think... sand... everywhere...
Breathing? Breathe in sand...
Talking? Talk in some sand...
Eyes open? Bad mistake
Long story short...
I now hate sand...
Which is unfortunate given that we have another 9 days of data collection in it D:






BONUS ROUND: Marcus with a tumbleweed


A wild tumbleweed appeared.
Marcus used catch.
It was super effective.


Sunday, 9 December 2012

Day 23: Attack of the camel spider

So today started as per usual...
Early wake...
Early to the field...
Nail out transects...
Profit...
Rince and repeat till out of nails...

This was successfull :3
In the early part of the morning I located an unusual arrowhead...


The arrowhead :3

So the arrowheads from the neolithic normally kinda look like the startrek logo... shorter on one side and kind of curved... this one is entirely straight... complete... and no curvature...

Its definitley neolithic as its size and general shape are inkeeping, however its not like any of the other projectile points we have found in this area, or in previous years of survey...

Any ideas??? plz gimmeh...

After some debate on this matter it was buisness as usual until...


a wild spongebob blew accross our survey area

So... we were just walking around minding our own buisness... when all of a sudden...
SPONGEBOB..
how does this even get out into the desert?
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?
nobody knows...
perhaps its a sign from our ancestors...
some kind of portent to the future...
D:

We continued on our field survey...
I warn those light of heart to turn back now...
Because I certinally almost wet myself in fear at what happened next D:

The first sign of things begining to go from good to bad came in the form of a dead snake.
Ever wanted to know what a dead snake looks like?
I havent...
It was horrifying...


The horror... The horror...


The next thing was probably my fault...
uhhh...
yeah...
So uhh...
So there are all these little holes around the desert, kinda fist sized...
And for the entire field season I have wondered what they are...
Today I decided to look at what they were...
By poking a rebar down there...
As it turns out...
This is not a smart thing to do.

About 3 seconds later I was screaming like a baby girl 
As it turns out camel spiders live down there...
Very angry camel spiders...
Who want to kill me...


Photo not mine... I was too goddam scared to take a photo of the abomination...


Screamed.
Like.
A.
Girl.
D:

So long story short...
Today... 
Almost died...





Saturday, 8 December 2012

Day 22: Ambassadors, wine 'n' meat :D

So today was a delicious day.
From start to finish it was filled with things out of the ordinary.

First thing this morning was repacking the truck after valley of the whales.
This turned out to be abit of a mission.
The next thing was tackling the morning traffic.

So satudays are the cow markets down the road from us.
Which means... uhhh... yeah...
Literally 100's of goddam cows... goddam everywhere...
Literally.

So we start off...
And then next thing we know cows... EVERWHERE...
GRIDLOCK COW TRAFFIC.
Cows in cars.
Cows on cars.
Goats behind cars.
Gamoosas in pickuptrucks.
No idea.

We closed the windows pretty rapidly to avoid any uhh... cow... uhhh... yeah...
They were close enough to poop in the windows...
And at 6am in the morning that is not exactly a good wake up...

Anyway...
To the field... was awesome... was a chill day...

Morning was spent excavating hearths and nailing out the transect so that when the ambassador arrived we had lots of pretty neolithic things to show him...

As it turns out none of the hearths were hearths...
soooooooooo...
yes...
but they were very very exciting for the astrophysists / geomorphologists amoungst us...
long story short the shoreline wasnt supposed to be up that high...
and all the hearths were PERFECT beach sand...
and compacted shell deposits...
havent seen anything like this anywhere else.

So yes...
The ambassador turns up , walks roudn the site, checks out stuff out...
I play photographer...

We return to base.
SUPRISE!
Ambassador has bought wine, beer, beef and sausages from NZ for us...
best. night. of. my. life.
seriously.
after eating "quasi meat" for the last 3 weeks, the taste of actual beef.
just. heaven!

my god.

that is all.

just.

yes.

:3


Conditions in the car this morning were a little cramped :S


Barrett and Slaggy shooting in the hearth lithics under Tash's watchful eye


The "hearth" which actually turned out to be a sweet sandpit


The hearth which turned out to be filled with nasty sharp shells :S

Friday, 7 December 2012

Day 21: Whale of a time

Last night was the big night.
Our night off.
Our night under the stars.
Joshs night to go b1g.

As was fortold it didnt matter how early we left, we would be getting to the camp site at darkness.
We had planned to leave at 2.
2 turned to 3.
We then got held up badly at some kind of horrifying police check point...
The only words I have to explain what happened at the check point are mystifying and completley bizzare... i dont really know what it was about... or why... all I know is that a large amount of money changed hands... we sat around for 30 minutes and then we were on our way again...

oh egypt you so silly.

So yes.

Finally we get there.

We then proceed to trapse through the desert.
As it turns out in a circle.

After figuring this out we rectified our course, found our perfect site and got cracking with setting up for the night!

Josh and Bex dissapeared off into the night.
We waited, getting the site ready for the forthcoming return.
Champagne was poured, we gathered.

Not gonna lie. Was more than a little nervous for Josh!

We waited.
And waited.
And then...

SHE SAID YES :D !!

Hoorah!

The champagne was drunk.
Frivolity ensued.

For some reason Bethany had decided back in the US to buy many many glow sticks...
And also a laser pointery thingery ravey thingy.
And brought them to Egypt...

This transpired to be a good move as we began our mid-desert rave partay.

On a serious note.
There was atleast 5-7 points in time last night where I became truly aware of what a unique kind of an experience this is... and how lucky I am to do the things I do... whilst being around the people that I am...

Long story short.
Amazingness.

Soon we all went out stargazing and observed the pristine stars from the desert before returning to base to set up sleeping bags, stare at the stars and attempt to sleep.

The night was cold but amazing. Again another of the truly amazing experiences :3

In the morning we awoke to a clear day, only slightly unnerved to be in the middle of the desert with nothing around...

We proceeded to do some geo-caching and walk the wadi el hitan track.

It was then back into the car and back home.
Whilst the night was truly amazing it was also exhausting.
Truly exhausting.

Now it is time to chill out.
Kick back.
Drink a beer and contemplate what tomorrow holds.

photos to come soooon


First approach to the site


Hamman and co cooking our foods :D


The view on wake up in the morning


our camping area


The geocache


Simon and Marcus getting down to truck pack up


View out over wadi el hitan


The sign that looks like tie fighters on the way home

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Day 20: I think the crews gone crayyzayy!

So today... today... was a crazy day in the field...

Words cannot describe...

I started at like 7am with copious laughter... and didnt stop... till just now...
Seriously...
My abs hurt...

So long story short it was a good day...
My camera is in my bag so will upload photos later tonight...

But know this...
1) we live up the road from a factory that smells like doughnuts... turns out... plastic bag factory...
2) tomorow we travel to valley of the whales for our camp out
3) I am SO EXCITED FOR TOMOROW
4) Its really goddam cold right now
5) I found a bead and epipaliolithic arrow point today :3

6) today was a good day





Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Day 19: Luke! LUKE!

Today I captured a magestic picture of star-wars in action.
Legit.
No photoshopping here.


The live scene captured this morning outside the skywalker house

Anyway. In seriousness. The house really really really does look like Uncle Owens house. I am sufficiently happy with the setting of this transect here :3

So today I woke up feeling a little bit less than chipper, but decided that I was going to be good enough to go to the field...
So off we went...
Into the now winter temperatures of the desert.

A northerly was blowing today which meant extra cold and extra wind :S not cool when ya feeling sickly :S

Luckily today was my first day off of the survey team as I dont think I could manage another day staring at the screen wizzing round shooting in points whilst feeling sickly.

So today it was artifact analysis duty: nailing out and analysing 800+ artifacts :O
More fun than it sounds, trust me :3

One of the cool artifacts from today was another epi-paleolithic projectile point:


woo! epipaleolithcness!

Not quite as nice as our last one, but pretty cool none the less!

The rest of the day wizzed past, the only other excitement being the giant ants:


oh god so big :S

And a human sized tumble weed that blew across the transect (photos forthcoming)

We all were feeling the other side of hump day today and on the way home were more silent than usual... 
UNTIL!
Second lunch time.

So usually second lunch is some form of fish or somthing else relatively averagely appetising which we kind of shove our faces with without really tasting it... but not today... oh no...

Today was fried chicken and some form of delicious pasta...
hump day no longer was a feeling...
WE FELT LIKE KINGS.

Seriously though. delicious. amaze. yes. 
10/10
Happyness :3