Today is hump day.
It represents the midway point of our field season.
And the supposed transition from feeling like OH GOD 4AM WAKE UP AND 10 HOURS IN THE SUN AND OH GOD IM SO TIRED to feeling more like OH GOD ONLY 2 1/2 WEEKS LEFT AND SO MUCH TO DO...
As far as I can tell this means a transition from one kind of panic and sadness to another.
I for one was definitley starting to feel it today. By 3.30 I was absolutley spent, like hit the wall.
Hard.
People would be talking and I just wouldnt register.
Shooting artifacts was ok, I would get into my groove and just go, but as soon as there was somthing new or somthing to interact with and I was just blank...
Functioning on minimum.
This functioning may have been due to extreme blood loss earlier this morning...
So...
This story starts last night at 9pm with a sleeping tablet...
And ends this morning at 4am with what appeared to be some kind of hack-slash film scene on my pillow...
I have been prone to nose-bleeds for some years now, on account of some nose accidents... and I must have hit my nose at some point during the night, causing it to bleed.
Profusely.
So long story short, aside from being a truly horrifying scene, I had actually lost enough blood to feel really really lightheaded when I woke up.
Staying home wasnt an option today as we had 2 of the crew already out of action with illness and bad backs and the third of our crew off on survey duty.
The next reason was that we had the australian with us today.
And we needed to give her shit.
All day.
No amount of blood loss was going to stop me from this pleasure.
Consumed chocolate to get blood sugars back.
Hit the field.
She will be right m8.
Anyway! We got to the field with only a minimum of chastising to the australian, mostly comprising of afew STRAYYYYYYLIIAAAAAASSSSS and WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YA?
Today was also my last day on survey, which began with shooting out the remainder of L1T8 which is a dense epi-paliolithic site.
Thousands of artifacts are scattered around the surface with a large amount of fish bone around as well. Of note in this transect is that they were using smaller cobbles than we have previously seen in the neolithic sites, which is inkeeping with the trends of previous years surveys in the Fayyyum.
This change in size is on account of the different tool manufacturing processes and needs, with the epipaleolithic people manufacturing more micro-liths and arrowpoints whilst the neolithic peoples were using more sliced core technologies to make larger flatter flakes as we saw in K basin in the first weeks.
Anyway.
We quickly trained the straylian up on lithics and set her loose on the transect doing artifact survey.
Karl and I played human etcher-sketchers marking in the last of the geo-morph before shooting in the remainder of the transect arms for artifacts.
By the end my head was spinning.
But there was a suprise in store :3
A new desert creature for us!
PRESENTING:
SPIDEY THE SPIDER!!! :D
Terrifying.
It represents the midway point of our field season.
And the supposed transition from feeling like OH GOD 4AM WAKE UP AND 10 HOURS IN THE SUN AND OH GOD IM SO TIRED to feeling more like OH GOD ONLY 2 1/2 WEEKS LEFT AND SO MUCH TO DO...
As far as I can tell this means a transition from one kind of panic and sadness to another.
I for one was definitley starting to feel it today. By 3.30 I was absolutley spent, like hit the wall.
Hard.
People would be talking and I just wouldnt register.
Shooting artifacts was ok, I would get into my groove and just go, but as soon as there was somthing new or somthing to interact with and I was just blank...
Functioning on minimum.
This functioning may have been due to extreme blood loss earlier this morning...
So...
This story starts last night at 9pm with a sleeping tablet...
And ends this morning at 4am with what appeared to be some kind of hack-slash film scene on my pillow...
I have been prone to nose-bleeds for some years now, on account of some nose accidents... and I must have hit my nose at some point during the night, causing it to bleed.
Profusely.
So long story short, aside from being a truly horrifying scene, I had actually lost enough blood to feel really really lightheaded when I woke up.
Staying home wasnt an option today as we had 2 of the crew already out of action with illness and bad backs and the third of our crew off on survey duty.
The next reason was that we had the australian with us today.
And we needed to give her shit.
All day.
No amount of blood loss was going to stop me from this pleasure.
Consumed chocolate to get blood sugars back.
Hit the field.
She will be right m8.
Anyway! We got to the field with only a minimum of chastising to the australian, mostly comprising of afew STRAYYYYYYLIIAAAAAASSSSS and WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YA?
Today was also my last day on survey, which began with shooting out the remainder of L1T8 which is a dense epi-paliolithic site.
Thousands of artifacts are scattered around the surface with a large amount of fish bone around as well. Of note in this transect is that they were using smaller cobbles than we have previously seen in the neolithic sites, which is inkeeping with the trends of previous years surveys in the Fayyyum.
This change in size is on account of the different tool manufacturing processes and needs, with the epipaleolithic people manufacturing more micro-liths and arrowpoints whilst the neolithic peoples were using more sliced core technologies to make larger flatter flakes as we saw in K basin in the first weeks.
Anyway.
We quickly trained the straylian up on lithics and set her loose on the transect doing artifact survey.
Karl and I played human etcher-sketchers marking in the last of the geo-morph before shooting in the remainder of the transect arms for artifacts.
By the end my head was spinning.
But there was a suprise in store :3
A new desert creature for us!
PRESENTING:
SPIDEY THE SPIDER!!! :D
what. a. cutie!
Usually im not a fan of spiders.
But spidey was pretty cute.
Till it moved at me.
And then i freaked out.
Oh god oh god oh god.
After we lost spidey into the desert (oh god probably in my bag or in my clothing :S ) we moved on to L1T28, marked out, geo-morphed and then shot in for artifact analysis 300 artifacts and 580 bone (in 2 hours).
The fish otoliths out here are HUGE! like seriously, kind of thumb sized, which is much bigger than most fish specimens I have seen back in NZ... According to resident know-all and paleo-ecology specialist Marcus the fish that used to be in the paleo-lake were huge. like catfish. 2m. bigger than humans kind of sized.
Terrifying.
We closed down after shooting out the portion of the transect arm and piled into the truck.
My last day on survey for this half at a close.
It has been a crazy 6 days.
From military scares to lizards in my jumper.
Im looking forward to returning to artifact analysis, and to not rushing like a crazy crazy crazy person to get the transect shot in before sun-down.
Tonight to celebrate hump day we drink on the roof and toast to a first-half of the field season well down.
My mid-way retrospective for now is thus:
Ive learnt alot.
I love the team I am working with.
I love Egypt.
I am looking forward to eating roast. Mc Donalds. Chocolate. Fizzy drink. Sushi. Burgers. OH GOD SO MUCH.
I am looking forward to the next half of the field season and the things that are in store for us in the coming days :3
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