Coming Back

Let me tell you an interesting tale that spans 20 years.  In 1993, Krista Lewis & I were asked to join a dig in the country of Oman.  We were college students and our Professor, Juris Zarins, was conducting the dig.  We went, we dug, we learned, we fell in love with archaeology & Oman.

Krista continued on, non-stop, working in a variety of places, countries, & time periods.  She eventually ended up working in Yemen for several seasons.  I ended up switching from field work to museum work. Now we are both college professors ourselves continuing the tradition of enticing students to archaeology.

Fast forward to 2013, Krista works at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock & I work at Estrella Mountain Community College.  I also co-own a graphic design company with my husband, so I don't spend as much time in the field as I used to.

Meanwhile, Juris continued working in Oman, eventually retiring from American university life & moving there permanently. At that time he was working at a site called Al-Baleed, just outside the town of Salalah.  In 2012, he & his wife moved to Qatar where she got a job at a shiny new museum.

So, someone needed to take over excavation of Al-Baleed.  Juris suggested to the powers that be in Oman that Krista be offered the job.  After the offer was made she called me & said something along the lines of "So what are you doing this summer, wanna go back to Oman?"  My answer was something like "huh?" She explained the whole thing and here we are in Oman.

Krista & I originally worked with Juris (& several other people) in a town called Shisr in what felt like the middle of the desert.  During the last month of our time here in 1993, I was asked to join the nautical portion of the dig and live on a beach. We dove everyday looking for anchors, amphora's and other things that might have fallen off, or been a part of, the sea trade.

Now, we sit here in Salalah, south of the desert where we once dug and west of the place where I dove.

We've come back to the sand and back to Oman, 20 years later.

{But if anyone asks, we are still very young, so tell them we came here when we were 5!}