Back to the Sand--literally!

As you know, if you've been following along, Krista & I were here long ago to dig in a place called Shisur.  We were supposedly looking for the lost city of Ubar which is mentioned in the Koran.  Whether we found that specific city or not is debatable but we did indeed find a city.

On Friday, we all trekked back to the lost city to see what it looks like now.  Krista got to see it in October when she visited in preparation for us coming this season but, I haven't been there since 1993. We intentionally left in the afternoon so that we could be in the desert for sunset, but more on that later.

Krista, Kristy, Lamya, Sarah, Anastasia, Brian, and our trusty liaison, leader, friend & tour guide, Ganem, all set out for the two hour journey.  If you go back and look at the map from a previous blog you will see that Shisur is North of Salalah.  What the map doesn't tell you is that you have to go through the mountains, then a scruffy low desert, then into a serious desert to get there.  It's a really cool journey geographically & temperature wise.

The first thing I noticed on the way back is the shiny new four lane highway.  It was barely two lane when we were traveling it, way back when, & pretty scary in some places since there wasn't anything like guard rails, etc.  Once you get over the mountain you head to a city called Thumrait, which is pretty much an air force base.  That place is huge and unrecognizable now (at least to me.)  After that it used to be a dirt road to Shisur, now it's paved all the way--weird.

Once you get close to Shisur, we are talking major desert here, it was 118 degrees, but it's a dry heat. ;-) They have decided to grow crops in the desert around Shisur using irrigation systems.  There are patches of green all along the way--their used to be patches of nothing but sand.  At first I was like this is totally ridiculous why would anyone want to grow crops in a desert---then I remembered I live in Arizona...

The town of Shisur is totally different, it used to only have a few buildings now there are several houses and the site has it's own entrance.  Growth & expansion has come to Shisur for sure.  It was really fun to walk around the site, it some ways it's exactly the same as when we left.  Here are a few before and after photos.  I happened to have some of the old photos with me so you can see the differences.

When we left Shisur in 1993 this is how it looked.

Not exactly the same shot, there are more modern buildings around now so I  couldn't get the same shot but you get the idea.  Also, a major change, they plastered/concreted over the drop off to prevent more rock from falling.

This is Bayheet, he was the sort of Mayor of the town then. (That's Juris Zarins behind him.)

As we were leaving a man walked up, I recognized him right away, yes this is Bayheet!

I took this photo as soon as I finished excavating, way back when.

A slightly different angle but still there!

This is Krista just starting to excavate a tower.  (OMG she's so young & look at those jeans, nice!)

Again, slightly different angle, but this is how the tower (& Krista) turned out. ;-)

This is a plastered well.  A couple of the guys and I worked at the very edge of the drop off.  (The site caved in log ago due to the fact that it sat over a water reservoir and when they used the water the cavern couldn't support itself and collapsed.)

It really doesn't look any worse for wear, impressive.

When we were leaving, in 1993, they were just starting to put up a fence to protect the site.  Now there are informational signs as well.

It's totally different yet totally the same.  I'm really glad we went to see it & I'm even more happy they are doing a nice job of preserving it.

After Shisur we headed out to the Rub al Khali (see previous blog) to watch the sunset over the dunes.  This is one of those amazing places that once you see it you want to go back again and again.  According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, the Rub al Khali is the largest desert in the world--I don't know if that is actually true or not but it is very impressive and awe-inspiring.  Here are some photos.

Krista & Ganem waiting for sunset.

At the end of the day, as we were all heading down the dune.
The little white speck is Ganem & the darker speck is Lamya.

An incredibly impressive place, definitely should be on your must see list.

Where in the World

So maybe I should have started with this but I have my reasons for just bringing it up now.  For those of you who haven't googled it, Oman is in Southern Arabia.  It sits on the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea (which quickly turns into the Indian Ocean.)

If you can tell on the map, there is a tiny bit up there in the Persian Gulf that is also Oman, there is a whole history lesson on that but that is for another day.

You can also see Muscat, the capital, and if you look at the bottom of the map you will see Salalah.  That's where we are now.  If you follow the red road north you will run into Ash Shisar.  Krista & I's first time in Oman was spent there.

Geographically this country is very diverse.  Obviously, there is a lot of ocean & therefore beaches & sand, but there are also deserts, mountains, trees, and a variety of other things.

As you can guess Oman is big in sea trading, they are snuggled in the middle of Persia, India, & Africa.  This makes them a great stopping off point for all those people.  There are also trade routes across the land going north and other sea routes as far China and the Mediterranean.  The biggest ports today are pretty close to where the ancient ports where--if it isn't broken don't fix it.

A few pictures of some of the diversity of the landscape:

This is Mabruk in the Rub al Khali (The Great Empty Quarter) that separates Oman & Saudi Arabia.  You can see it on the map above.  This is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.  HUGE sand dunes for as far as you can see.  That little dot over his shoulder is a Land Rover, to give you an idea of how high we were.

This is a Dhow, a traditional boat used here.  It was late afternoon but quite misty & foggy.  This was taken in Mirbat (also on the map above.)

This is a common scene; camels wondering about.  There are even camel crossing signs (like watch for deer at home.) This was also taken at Mirbat but on the inland side.

And then there is the misty, green areas.  This too is north of Mirbat, but very north.  We drove up a jebal (mountain) and rain into the clouds.  It's green and lush and full of really cool trees & plants.  We accidentally found a little park here and wandered around for a couple hours looking at all the green stuff. ;-)

Another shot of the same park with Brian standing in front of a weird, but cool, group of trees.

As you can guess, based on the variety of the landscape there is also a variety of temperatures.  The jebal is moderate and can get very chilly & the Rub al Khali is crazy hot & dry.

Here in Salalah (and all the southern coasts) we are experiencing what is called the Khareef.  It is the monsoon that hits Southern Oman, Yemen, & the coast of Africa.  Salalah depends on the Khareef for water and coolness.  (Although I haven't actually felt the cool part yet.)  The Khareef goes from about June to September and it even has its own festival in Salalah.  Tourists wait until the end of it and flock to Salalah to enjoy the cool temperatures and the beauty of the green areas.

When we arrived in late May we asked the locals when the Khareef usually starts and we got a variety of answers.  We were told that it is June 21st every year.  We were told that the newspaper would tell us.  We were told that you would know because you will feel it.  And, my favorite, we were told by an older guy that when you see seven rows of waves it will have started.  We started counting everyday, faithfully but the most we've seen is six... does that mean it's still not really here?

This is from the front of our house.  It was actually pretty calm yesterday.  We've seen it a lot worse.  There has been absolutely no swimming since we got here, the undertow is crazy scary.  Just getting your feet wet in some places is taking your life in your own hands.

I'm still not sure about the exact date but I am sure it's here.  It is about 80-90 degrees and 80% humidity.  It is foggy & misty every morning and afternoon.  If you've ever been to the California coast and seen the morning sea mist (before the sun burns it off) it's kinda like that, but thicker and it lasts longer.  Now I know those of you from the mid-west are thinking, big deal, we have that every summer.  True (I'm from MO) but this is different I tell you.  It's MORE sticky, MORE wet, MORE different.

Here are a few photos that don't due justice to what I'm trying to explain:

This is about 630 AM over the site, the sun is trying to break through but it will take hours before that happens.

Here is a shot out the front door at 700 AM.  I think it's getting worse.

Another interesting thing is due to the fact that its dryer the rest of the year then gets crazy humid things warp and corrode like crazy.  We couldn't get out of front door for a week because the wood expanded and warped itself shut.  It had to be pried open and shaved down so that we can use it.  Now the question is, what happens when the humidity goes down? ;-)

There are already gaps around the edges, in a couple months, when the humidity goes down, I'm guessing you'll be able to use it like a window. ;-)

Ironically, the backdoor is warped open.  It won't close on it's own so if you aren't paying attention it stands open... no one pays attention and it looks like this most of the time.

It wouldn't be a big deal but it lets in mosquito's and the flies from hell.  Every time I see it open I hear my dad's voice in my head... "Where you born in a barn? Shut the door!"  I've started telling it to everyone else, I'm pretty sure they are annoyed. ;-)

They say that at the end of the Khareef and the beginning of the tourist season parts of Salalah will look like this:

I haven't seen this yet, I stole this photo from the interwebs.

We hope to add a short dig season in December or January some day so we can come and experience the cool, calm, green Salalah.  As it is, we are leaving just when things get nice--or so they tell us.

Progress

Things are moving along here at al Baleed.   One thing you may not realize is that we are currently digging in a relatively small area.  There are only 4 of us to supervise workers at any time and most of them were untrained when they started.  The idea was to dig in a backwards L shape to see what we have and go from there.  Well, the L has turned into a T.  Once we started clearing the areas it became obvious that what we needed to know more about was to the south and not to the north.

This is not 100% accurate (don't tell Krista) but you get the idea.  The green was our original idea, we've decide not to do the top and instead go towards the blue.  There is a ton of architecture here and sometimes that directs you more than anything else.  Sometimes you just want to figure out what you are looking at and the only way to do that is to expand certain areas.  In layman's terms its a bunch of rocks, to an archaeologist it's walls, rooms, doorways, etc. and we want to see where they all go.

Here is a photo of what the site looked like at the beginning of the season.

On one hand it is amazing how much dirt can be moved in a few weeks.  On the other hand it is amazing how long it takes to move the dirt. ;-)  We don't just shovel away until we find something good.  Instead each Locus (see previous blogs) is recorded by photo, by hand drawn map, by field notes, and a couple more places.  Also elevations are taken (actual mathematical data using rulers & plumb bobs and such) at various points depending on what is being found.  We need to be able to reconstruct what we destroy and elevations allow us to sort of put it back together later. 

We also record features.  Features are something that will inevitably be destroyed by digging it up.  Think of it this way.  When you build a fire outside you make a pit.  Maybe you surround the area with rocks then build the fire inside.  100 years later, archaeologists come along and see a ring of stones and an ashy deposit inside.  We are pretty quick, so we realize you made a fire here long ago.  Now any bones of critters you ate we can collect in a bag.  We can also collect the stones you used to make the ring.  But what do we do about the ash pit?  The whole reason we know it's an ash pit is because of the color of the soil and how it relates to everything else.  We obviously can't put the soil in a bag so we call this a feature.  A special notation that allows us to record it (again by photo, drawings, etc.) but then move on.  It will never be an ash pit again, once we dig through it, so we have to be very accurate when we initially find it and record it.  Another obvious feature is a wall.  In this case we don't want to destroy it, it gives us valuable data by leaving it alone.  We also need to know where it goes and what it connects to & how deep it is.  Not to mention the fact that some of them are huge and therefore it would be hard work to take it all down.  Each wall gets a feature number so that when you are at home or in the lab you can visualize where the walls are & even where the ash pit was.

Walls that are features and stones that have fallen from the walls.

Here is the progress we've made so far.  This is a view from the mound above Lamya in the first photo. It's hard to see how deep this is but Krista can stand at between those two walls and from the side we don't even know she's there. ;-)  Ok, she is only about 5'3" but still, impressive.

I always tell my students that you can be an archaeologist even if you don't actually like digging in the dirt.  There are so many other things that need to be done that practically every career you can think of can be tied to archaeology in some way.  Cartography, chemistry, accounting, grant writing, even video game designers are of use to archaeologists.  I bet you can't come up with a career that I can't link back to use in archaeology.  That is one of the things that makes this field so cool, you aren't limited by what you do, instead, whatever you are good at can be tied back (or at least helpful) to archaeology.

Speaking of being helpful, for those of you who don't know we are trying to raise funds for some items here on the dig.  Things like computer software, lab supplies, additional iPads, etc.  If you haven't seen our Indiegogo campaign yet take a look.  If you have already contributed, we really appreciate it but... have you seen the new donation level, Frankincense Trader?  It's about the coolest thing ever.  Check it out here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/al-baleed-let-s-save-the-land-of-frankincense/x/3601610

Things that make you go hmmm

Some amazing things are coming to surface here in al Baleed.  Whenever you tell someone you're an archaeologist the first thing they ask is "What is the coolest thing you've ever found?"  What they don't know is that is a loaded question.  What WE think is the coolest and what THEY think is the coolest may not even be close to each other.  In an archaeologist's lifetime the likelihood of finding something gold, or even monetarily valuable, is slim to nil.  Most of those things were never lost or were stolen long ago, or have alraedy been put in a museum somewhere.

BUT we do find things that are cool.  Cool to the site, cool to science, cool because they are weird, cool because they don't belong, cool because there are so many of them... etc, etc, etc.

We also find things that we aren't 100% sure what they are.  Some of those things are too dirty, too stained, to broken to be able to tell.  Some things are from objects that we don't get very often or that we weren't expecting to find so when you see them you go" hmmm what is that again?"  or "hmmm why is that here?"  or even "hmmm that's really pretty."

Base of a green glass jar.  We have found several of these.

Here are some cool things we've found and some things that make you go hmmm.

Somebody's little teeth.

The shell in the middle is a terebralia.  They are found in mangrove 's -- I don't know if you've been to Oman lately but here in Salalah there aren't any mangroves anymore. .  We have found many of these.

This little guy is cuttlefish--not sure about the dots...

Some coins, found nearish the top but still cool.

Glass bracelet, one of many.  Either one girl lost all of them or several girls lost one each. ;-)

Last but not least, this appears to be eggshell with the number  9 on it.  (Arabic 9 & American 9 are the same FYI.) The other object appears to be a bead of some kind.... hmmm

Living in the Field

Today's blog is about Cultural Anthropology.  In case you didn't know (lesson time) there are four sub-fields of Anthropology: Archaeology, Linguistics, Physical, & Cultural.  You are learning all about archaeology whether you want to or not by reading this blog. ;-)  Linguistics deals with languages--modern, ancient, dying, thriving, new ones being invented, etc.  Physical has to do with the actual physical part of humans--the body.  Physical Anthropology is a wide field that covers everything from COD (cause of death for those of you who do not watch American crime shows), to DNA, to genetic mutations, to Primatology (study of the great apes.)

Cultural Anthropology is another huge field since it deals with the actual culture of people.  What does that mean?  It is the rituals, beliefs, practices, people follow, as well as, things like foods & taboos.  Pretty much it covers everything in your life and if you are living you probably have some sort of culture--see why this is such a big field.

Why, you ask, am I going to talk about Cultural Anthro today?  Well let me tell you living in a house with 14 other people makes you appreciate (or not) other cultures and forces you to get along with everyone (or not.)  There is something called Ethnocentrism that is the belief that your culture is better than someone else's and that you think they are wrong/backwards/dumb because they don't do things the way you do.  Most of us are guilty of this (accidently) at some point or another, but anthropologists strive to respect all cultures. But living with other people (did I mention there were 14 of them) makes you have some doubts... I'm kidding! ... sort of.  ;-)

Currently we have 6 Americans, 6 Italians, 1 Australian, and 1 French person all living under 1 roof.  On top of that we obviously have Omani visitors almost everyday, some work with us, some we work for, and some just stop to chat.  We also have 4 house staff who are Indian, Thai, and Pakistani.  Then there are the field workers and pottery washers.  Between all of us we have about 40-45 workers in total.  They are mostly from India, Pakistan, & Bangladesh with a few other places thrown in.





This is Noshot, I'm continually in his way but he just keeps cleaning. ;-)










Talk about a lot of cultures!  Here are some observances: Italians are loud & boisterous; Americans group together; Indians & Paki's are always smiling and are exceedingly polite.  The French are passionate and Australian's & Thai like to talk a lot.  Omanis are also very polite, always shake hands, and are always trying to make sure you are fine & happy.  As a matter of fact they are teaching some of the people in the house Arabic phrases and when they tell you what the answer is to Kayf al Haluk (How are you?) they tell you the responses are bekhair (fine), zain (good), tamam (ok), hamdallah (sort of a thank you or praise be to God)... notice no one said I'm crappy, life sucks?  Because it doesn't and even if it did it would be impolite to say it!

It depends on how you look at the sentences above; they could be ethnocentric or they could be truthful.. sometimes they are both.  In this case they are simply observances but unless you are the one living it you don't know if they are positive or negative, which is the beauty & responsibility of Cultural Anthropology.

Back to the living arrangements.  As I said in an earlier blog, the house is sort of divided into two parts. Each side has two floors and each floor has a living room area, 3-4 bedrooms, a bathroom (which actually has 3 toilets & showers inside individual rooms) and a laundry/kitchen.  Plus there are three offices on the bottom floor.  One of those is the lab & the other two are computer/desk areas used by the Italians.  Pretty much we are segregated by Italian & American with the other nationalities thrown about.  On our side we have 5 Americans upstairs, 1 French & 1 Australian downstairs.  On the other side is Krista and an all Italian contingency. ;-)  (Krista moved in first & is the director of the American team so she got the big room which happens to be on the Italian side.)

One of the living rooms.  On the left are two bedrooms, in the back the kitchen area which is used by Mai to do our laundry (thank you Mai!)

  

Here is the main room of the toilets, as my students know I'm obsessed with toilets, I find them culturally & practically fascinating.  Below is a picture of the rooms that have a toilet, sink, & shower stall.  I could write a paragraph on this room but I won't bore you again.

I write all this in fun, we actually do mix and mingle and hang out, all shuffling together.  We have outings where all of us go and we have times when we divide up and groups are formed based on who is going where (i.e. swimming, the store, etc.)

Our local leaders took us to dinner for traditional Omani food. All 15 of us ate a lot of goat, fish, hummus, great seasoned rice & a ton of other things.

Interestingly enough, the American team is all women but Brian and run by Krista.  The Italian team is all men and one women, the woman runs the team.  The French guy is a famous linguist who is visiting & the Australian women is a conservator working on restoring wood & rope of ancient boats in the museum.  I should also say that the Italians are made up of Architects, Archaeologists, & Conservators.  Most of them work at Khor Rori another port site about 20 minutes from here.

In all honesty, everyone has gotten along fine but it is a bit of a crush in the dining room--we have 12 chairs and 15 people, Rafe, the poor cook, has had to hire an assistant! ;-)

Anastasia (Sarah's daughter) & two of the Italian boys, Alex & Nicky (as she calls them.)

Culture is what you make of it, if you go in accepting & interested you are likely to have a good time & learn a lot.  If you go in negatively & judgmental (ethnocentric) you will most likely be upset & out of place most of the time (remember culture shock?)

It has actually been great fun (most of the time) getting to know the variety of people that are here.  It is also interesting to get the real perspective of other people's cultures instead of reading about them in the paper or a textbook.

Ok this doesn't really go with today's blog, but it does deal with culture & you have got to see this!  This is the LuLu, it's an Indian version of Wal-Mart and I gotta say it kinda rocks--I mean look at it at night, who doesn't want to go there!

Inside the Lab

This part is either love it or hate it.  Most find it either boring or the best part of archaeology.  What most people don't understand it that it is actually made up of many, many parts.  I'm talking about the lab, of course.

All the artifacts that are collected have to go and live somewhere, forever.  Not only does that mean that they need a permanent home but also some way to find them again if they are needed.  Artifacts are kept for research, display, and the idea that in the future someone (or machine) may be smarter than we are now and be able to tell us something we missed.  So, not only the most pretty, most possibly reconstructed, or most likely to be studied are kept but everything else as well.

We pretty much have one space that we are using for all parts of the lab.  Let me walk you through it...

First, artifacts are brought in from the field.  In the field they are bagged & tagged & once they get to the lab we must check to make sure we didn't lose any along the way.  We call that the "check in".  Krista & I compare notes to make sure each bag is accounted for & then I sort them on a table.

After the bags are sorted they are brought into the lab and sorted again (you are going to see that word a lot) by type if possible.  Some bags only contain pottery, some bone, etc.  Most bags are a mixed lot so those are set aside for later.  The pottery bags are organized, each bag has to remain separate & unique throughout the process, then sent to one of the workers to wash.  (Let me just say that my pottery washer is the BEST he sits down, turns on the radio on his phone and washes like a mad man.  I can hardly keep ahead of him some days!)  Bone is currently being cleaned by a new employee of The Land of Frankincense, Ahmed.  He spends the first half of the day in the field then comes in to help me in the lab.

Bags that are mixed have to be sorted out.  Each item is looked at then divided on a tray (so as not to lose anything) into large groups.  Things like shell, bone, metal, glass, rocks, pottery, etc. are all grouped together.  Pottery is sent to be washed (this usually takes place outside for obvious reasons,) bone is lightly brushed, shell is usually given a quick rinse, metal & glass are left alone (the glass we are getting is very fragile and tends to break if you try to wash it.)  We also are finding some coins and a few ground stones or other stones used in building.

After the quick/rough sort the tray of artifacts is photographed.  Everything has to be kept track of since again it all has to remain grouped together (according to the bag it came in from the field) until it is recorded and stored.  Once everything has dried it is bagged by type.  So all the shell goes into a bag, the pottery, the bone, etc.  We also have what we call "special finds" things that are really cool or that we aren't sure what they are, or maybe we know what it is and it is very fragile.

After each item is bagged the whole Lot (bag it came in from the field) is divided out & numbered.  Each group of items gets a number that starts with BA13A (al Baleed, 2013, Season A) after that it gets the number of the bag it was in (the lot number) and finally the type is noted.  So bone ends up looking like this: BA13A.24.B.  Once you see that number it tells you many things about that object or group of objects.  Each bag is also labeled with a unique number that tells you where it came from (literally) in the field, we call this the Locus Number.  It would be something like 1.R.2 (Area 1, Unit R, Locus 2.)  You may have heard Unit referred to as square and Locus as layer, depends on where you come from and when you went to school. ;-)

Now that we have a bag of bones that are labeled they also have to be recorded in the database.  Krista, Kevin (a friend from home), and Brian designed the database and the forms we all use.  Now that the info is all recorded digitally (on an iPad) that bag of bones is ready for storage.  In the future anyone interested in the bones can look at the database and see a picture of them, search the database and find all the bones or simply walk to the box in storage that says "Bones".



There is a bit more to this but you get the idea and I don't want to bore you.  One thing to note is that pottery/ceramics (there is a difference don't get an archaeologist started on what that is, you'll be sorry) and any lithic (chert/flint--see above argument) materials are being analyzed here in the lab.  Sarah is handling ceramics and Lamya is handling lithics.  Every piece found is being looked at by them and they decide if they want to individually photograph it, draw it, give it a special number or location so they can find it again.  There is a special area of the lab for them to use for these purposes.

Once artifacts have gone through this entire process they are stored in boxes, eventually these will go to the museum with detailed notes as to which unique numbers live inside.

The other parts of the lab are used for computer areas, storage areas, and supply storage areas.  It's a big room but with five or more of us in here at once it gets a little chaotic.  I end up getting most of my work done between 630-1030 (tea break) &  1100-130.  After lunch, which is usually from 200-300, we have a meeting and rehash of the days events & we plan for the next day.  By 430-500 we sort of divide off.  I go play tennis, some people work in the lab, some swim, some relax.  Dinner is around 800 PM then we are almost all in bed by 1000 since we are working by 630 AM.


You can see why some people love the lab (its inside being the biggest selling point,) it is organized and requires thought, detail, and multitasking--all things I love.  You can also see why people hate the lab... for the same reasons mentioned above. ;-)

Speaking of the lab, we are working on a project to fund the lab with supplies not provided for us here or from our Univeristies at home.  Some things are software related, some are drawing tools, some are items to make life easier in the lab (like cloth instead of plastic bags.)  If you'd like to learn more visit:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/al-baleed-let-s-save-the-land-of-frankincense/x/3601610