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

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

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

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.

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...