Ken's Bamburgh Journal

Wrap-Up

kps1@cornell.edu — Mon, 31 Jul 06 17:48:00 UT

It's been a good month, met a lot of nice people, got to dig up some Anglo-Saxons. Even got some cool and rainy weather today (finally!) while excavating my second skeleton.

This skeleton is coming out very nicely, but it will not be lifted until I've left

Thinking back, I've neglected to mention a few things:

-the modern military jets that buzz the area almost daily, some so low that you can see the pilot;

-the drinking of tea from cereal bowls;

-how to time your shower so that you get one that's not scalding and not freezing;

-the tat shop in Seahouses that everyone loves to rag on but buys stuff at anyway (a tat shop is one that sells really tacky souveniers or kitsch);

-that all Paul's knives are named Mike;

-the way that people love to play off Paul's media quote about those fabulous swords being "serious bling" and everything bringing out the "raw power of the past";

-that I finally found all the pictures Baby had hidden away in my luggage and packed clothes;

-the cry of "pants" going round, causing each person in turn to briefly pull up and out the top of one's undershorts to show everyone else what color they are

-they don't have Oreos here (a fact that I failed to notice in all my previous trips!)

I hope you've enjoyed this journal, even if it did appear on the web in bursts. I'm off for a bit of travel now, and will leave you with the traditional final sunset photo.

The Raw Power of the Past

kps1@cornell.edu — Sun, 30 Jul 06 16:13:00 UT

As I write this, I'm sitting in Dunstanburgh Castle, with my back to the remains of the Lilburn Tower built in the early 14th century. I've never blogged from a castle before, and this seems to be a good time to do so, given that the place is open for another hour yet, and I've got a couple of hours before the last bus back to Bamburgh (then a two-mile hike to the campground). It's both easy and hard to imagine people living here 600-700 years ago.

I've just spent the last hour or so shooting numerous panoramas in and around this broke-down fortress so it's good to sit for a spell, listening to the wind whip through the medieval arrow slits in the stone wall and rustle the dry, brown grass outside it. It's a crystal-clear day with a deep blue sea, fishermen down on the shore, a sailing boat gliding by slightly further out, seabirds wheeling and calling in their never-ending plaintive voices.

Earlier today I did a "PTC" or "piece to camera" with one of the media guys. In a PTC, one talks at length about something, repeating the process for a total of three takes: one for full coverage, one for your upper body and head, and then just a close up. In my case, the goal was to explain the equipment, technique, and process I use for making the immersive panoramas that have been linked in this journal.

The PTCs are usually reserved for the various directors to explain their thinking regarding the excavations as they progress, for posterity. In my case it's just to help the staff make their own panoramas, if they decide to invest the money and equipment in something similar. With that done, all that remains is to make them copies of the panorama files and a final day in the Bowl Hole tomorrow.

The front of Dunstanburgh Castle as seen from the sea

Pano near Lilburn Tower in Dunstanburgh Castle (1 of 21)

Vikings!

kps1@cornell.edu — Sun, 30 Jul 06 08:11:00 UT

Yesterday I caught a ride over to the ruins of Lindisfarne Priory with a guy named Mal, who also wanted to see the special English Heritage-sponsored presentation of Viking re-enactors. It was in the year 793 that Vikings first raided anywhere, according to surviving written accounts, and it was Lindisfarne that they attacked in that case.

The re-enactors had set up numerous Viking-style tents within the ruins, and apparently go for 100% authenticity wherever possible. Therefore their presence was most impressive, with many working craftspeople using replica tools, wearing period clothes, etc. There were no eyeglasses in sight, although they did stick to English and used blunted weapons in their mock battles.

The presence of kids from infant to late teens in period costume, as well as several dogs, helped a great deal to set the scene. This group, known as The Vikings, apparently has a small but growing contingent in the U.S., so I'll have to check them out. They say that in October, for the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings, they're going to have a massive number of people showing up. Apparently this happens every 5-6 years, when the anniversary falls on a weekend (as this year). That would be something: well over a thousand re-enactors - in full authentic kit - camping out and mock fighting for a weekend, and doing so in more than a dozen languages (they have large groups in just about every European country coming over).

Pano of Viking Encampment

Pano of Lindisfarne Abbey ruins

Vikings vs. Saxons

A large embroidery in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry, detailed enough that I recognized individuals on it who had fought in the mock battles

All the re-enactors wore linen or wool; here's some flax plants partially beaten into fiber (I've never seen this level of work in a re-enactment group before)

Flax ready for spinning (the spindle in the image above has its thread leading into this pile)

All my ~~ducks~~ gulls in a row

More Skellies

kps1@cornell.edu — Fri, 28 Jul 06 17:47:00 UT

On to a new grave today, which turned out to be most interesting because it appears to be a double grave, with one person buried beneath the other at the same time. It's possible that the two graves are not related to each other, although this seems highly unlikely, but future excavation should reveal what's really going on. In addition to the two skeletons, other bones seem to have been tossed in on top of them, perhaps by grave diggers who started digging a new grave and accidently found them and tossed them back in.

Further, one of the bodies lies with head to the east, which is very unusual. Unfortunately I have only one more project day and may not see the results of this grave for a while. The past few days have been very pleasant for working, which is nice - I fear the day I leave it will rain heavily, just when I need to move bags between train, bus, and airport. I've taken both days off this weekend to visit a Viking event, and another castle or two.

One skeleton lies with its head to the west, and other lies underneath it, with head to the east (very unusual); on top of both are a few extra bones, probably the result of someone starting to dig a new grave, but finding someone already there and tossing the bones back in their hole

Put Your Dead to Bed

kps1@cornell.edu — Thu, 27 Jul 06 18:06:00 UT

Every day at 4:30 we get the call "Put Your Dead to Bed" which means clean up your mess, pack up your gear, put protective covers over the skellies, then lay plastic tarpaulins over everything, and weight it down with sand (via bucket from the spoil heap). We need to take such precautions in order to discourage stray visitors or vandals from messing with the skeletons. Despite the tarps, we always find a frog and/or toad or two down in the graves the next morning.

My skelly's skull came out today, but broke into very many pieces as it was lifted and bagged. Still, we do have them all, and it should be intact enough for more careful excavation in t he lab, so that tiny ear bones can be found and various measurements taken for health and population studies.

Our dead put to bed

A couple days ago one of the castle staff took me up to the clock tower roof, put a harness on me, and let me make a panorama of the view from there

Pano from Clock Tower

Thunderbugs!

kps1@cornell.edu — Wed, 26 Jul 06 15:02:00 UT

Very frustrating the past three days: delicate digging at hard clay with dental tools in order to extricate bits of skeleton from the soil matrix. Despite good-looking bones, the skelly's just falling apart as it emerges. All the large bones come out in at least three or four sections. The longest pieces to come out intact are the finger bones. At this point all that's left is the skull, which will be pulled out within a block of clay, for finer, more controlled excavation in the lab. Mine is not the only skelly coming out badly, but still, it's disheartening.

On top of the difficult digging on hands and knees, we have thunderbugs. When the weather turns hot and humid as over the past few days and/or the local farmers harvest their wheat and barley fields, swarms of tiny, tiny thunderbugs take to the air. And then land on us. These things are too small to photograph - a hundred might fit on your thumbnail - but sheesh, you can feel them crawling on you. This creepy-crawly feeling does little to enhance one's time in the trench while poised over the skelly with small tools, trying not to shrug or brush away the bugs because you might accidentally bump the bones and destroy them.

Social life on this project is excellent, given the number of people and weekly changes - always someone new to talk to. One recent arrival - who used to be professional chef - showed me how to hit a head of iceberg lettuce on a table in order to break out its stem completely, which saves a lot of time when making salad. Whoudda thunk I'd learn how to make salads faster while on ar archaeological project?

My skelly's skull on a block of soil, for lifting first thing in the morning.

My skelly is to the left; to the right of it are a couple new graves opened recently; to the far right are three more marked out for excavation - they packed people in here, many times cutting into existing graves, thereby greatly confusing the whole layout for us

Castles in the Sand

kps1@cornell.edu — Sun, 23 Jul 06 20:33:00 UT

An extremely nice day today, with exceptionally clear air, lazy puffy clouds, breezy with soft sunshine at times - perfect for taking it easy on a slow Sunday - everyone sitting near the trenches washing bones, shells, and pottery where the castle visitors could see us working.

In the evening, a special treat: Sarah got ambitious to save a large tray of browning bananas (that would otherwise go to the garbage bin) and made banana pancakes with shaved chocolate on top. Yum!

Pano of Bamburgh area (the two people are goecachers not affiliated with the archaeology project who just happened to be at the best view point)

Sandcastle on the beach - a lot of people down there today

Bamburgh's castle and town, and one of the Farne Islands

Holy Island, a few miles away across Budle Bay, as seen with full zoom; I'm headed there next weekend for a special event involving Viking re-enactors

Most of my green meal from yesterday in Berwick: the cheese is sage darby; the chocolate Aero bar has minty green air bubbles in it; gotta love the nice potato chip (crisp) flavors here ("gently infused lime & thai spices" in this case); the apple juice was the best I've ever had

Internet!

kps1@cornell.edu — Sat, 22 Jul 06 12:35:00 UT

As you can tell, I finally made it to an Internet connection in Berwick-upon-Tweed (mid-way between Edinburgh and Newcastle on the east coast).

A big welcome to all the WB folks who are following this journal!

It was originally my intent to post "live" from the field rather than in batches of entries as has turned out to be the next-best and only possibly alternative so far.

The campground where we are staying offered Internet access last year, but does not this time. The castle has a dial-up connection, but almost hardly ever works, and when it does, it takes minutes to render a page, assuming someone else isn't using it.

Accessing the Internet in rural Egypt was much easier than from this place. This morning I used the local library to catch up on email but could not upload the photos or panoramas from there, so I've had to come down here to a hostel for the journaling.

Okay... off to download some videos of Baby to my digital camera's card (which serves as a thumb drive via USB adapter), for viewing in the comfort of my own tent back at camp tonight. Then, I'll take a hike 'round this town's medieval walls, visit some shops, and perhaps try an Indian restaurant down the street.

No Pub Tonight

kps1@cornell.edu — Fri, 21 Jul 06 20:08:00 UT

Not feeling too well, so tonight I'm staying in camp while everyone else heads off to the pub. Which is fine: I'll take it easy and watch some videos or read or sleep. Tomorrow's my day off, and I plan to head up to Berwick-upon-Tweed by 40-minute bus ride at 9:00 am for Internet access and shopping. I intend to buy some amber for Kelley's birthday in August. Shelley and I plan to gift her some each year for her birthday. Some people on the project told me where to find a store selling it in Berwick, and I'll get her a wee necklace if possible.

We lifted our skelly's feet, legs, hands, and right arm today. Although all the bones appear to be in good shape, they broke easily with little pressure, so none of the long ones came out in less than three pieces. We'll leave the rest until Monday, since they don't open the Bowl Hole during the weekend. In today's trench tour we got to see what everyone up at the castle achieved, which is mainly widening and deepening Hope-Taylor's areas, still looking for the extent of his earlier work. Next week they expect to go through it and into untouched areas.

According to consensus, my skelly was a male, probably with a female-ish face/forhead, about 5-foot, 10-inches tall. In general, all the skeletons in the Bowl Hole may have come from aristocratic families and/or clergy, given their apparent robustness and good health. Since no record of a nearby church or monastery exists, the case for aristocrats strengthens. Carbon dating places them in the 6th or 7th century A.D.

Our hot weather's supposed to continue at least the rest of the month. I guess England's not the place to come to escape LA's heat. Sigh.

Pano in Bowl Hole showing various graves and grave-like features in different states of excavation; my skelly appears with the red and white ranging rod

Pano deep in Trench 8 showing its present depth of about eight feet; had to wear a hardhat while taking this one

Delicate Work

kps1@cornell.edu — Thu, 20 Jul 06 17:48:00 UT

Today Hanka and I finished our skelly, after another long day of awkward positions yesterday. At least it wasn't hot; and I could stand in the grave, carefully, albeit that wasn't a great improvement over laying alongside or part way within the cutting. Near the end of the day they brought in some planks (finally! - I suspect their newly arrived manager's suggestion to get them carried more weight than mine) so future work should be easier and faster and better.

After we completely dug around all the bones, we photographed them and plotted them on grid paper. Tomorrow we'll excavate them completely and lift them from the ground. The skull will be lifted separately within a block of soil so that it can be dealt with in a lab under better lighting and conditions, in an effort to find the miniscule earbones and any other details of possible significance.

As you can see in the photos, we have a complete skelly, even the tiny feet and hand bones. In general that's an uncommon situation, because graves can be disturbed or simply dissolve away altogether. We have exceptional preservation here for some reason, although many of the bones come apart when touched because they're soft.

This particular person (not sure whether he or she yet, opinions on the site differ) has one arm in a rather strange position: the lower section of the right arm reaches straight up to the shoulder. The arm might have been bound tightly to achieve this, or perhaps somehow it just ended up that way, but it's a topic of discussion. It may also be the case that the right hand was clutching a stone (see photo), however that stone may just be coincidentally positioned just where the hand came to rest. We should know tomorrow on that point.

Our skelly at the stage just prior to lifting

Closer view; note right arm bent back to shoulder, and possible clutched stone in right hand (just below teeth)

Need Boards

kps1@cornell.edu — Wed, 19 Jul 06 19:05:00 UT

For the past two near-record-hot days I've been excavating the same skeleton in the Bowl Hole (and will probably be at it for a few more). As you can see in this picture, it's awkward work: I have to be very careful to not collapse the unstable walls of the cut while reaching way down in there to remove clay from around the bones. I'm finding it rather taxing to perch precariously in the small space available, and work with my left hand's fingertips to pry out chunks of clay with dental tools.

It seems to me that it would be much better to remove more of the sand dune in order to give more flat space around the grave, then lay some planks over it so that the work can go a lot faster, but resistance to that idea frustrates me, for no logical reason. Sigh. Given the working conditions, I'd consider asking to go back to the castle trenches, but I really want the experience of working with skellies (for me resume) and believe it would be best to stick it out all the way through bone removal for at least one.

Our skeleton at the end of work on Monday

Working with Hanka, who's from the Czech Republic, to clear more hard clay soil from around the bones

Sarah working to remove the pelvis of her skeleton

Paul, Jake, and Paul

kps1@cornell.edu — Tue, 18 Jul 06 21:24:00 UT

The project director, Paul Gething, apparently has a thing for knives, swords, and axes (he even forges them in his own metalworking shop), so he's especially excited about the possibility of finding more items from the hypothetical metalworking area where the recently rediscovered swords were originally found. These weapons were found by Hope-Taylor in the 60s or 70s, but kept under his bed until after his death just a few years ago.

One was recently x-rayed and found to be pattern welded. This means that the smith took extreme measures to build a blade that was strong but flexible. The term "pattern welding" refers to the end result: gorgeous almost-magical patterns appear along the length of the blade within the metal itself, something revered by the Anglo-Saxons and others, with such weapons being passed down through the generations.

Anyway, to-date the most beautiful pattern-welded swords, such as the one found in the famous Sutton Hoo ship burial have been four-strand. The one found here is six-strand. That not only makes in unique in the entire world, but probably an order of magnitude harder to forge in the first place. Quite a find indeed. Why the weapon appears to be deliberately broken in half remains a mystery, but possibly the sword became damaged in battle and had been ritually killed.

Jake, Paul's Rhodesian ridgeback dog, appears to have accepted me finally. For the first 10 days or so, he'd go into a fit on sight. Apparently he has a thing for guys in ball caps and/or beards, and I have both, so I had to steer well clear of him for a while. He rides around in the back of Paul's Jeep, and usually hangs on in the project office at the dig, so I have to be careful about popping in there unexpectedly, despite some biscuit feeding and head patting.

We had another personnel turnover this weekend, with one of the new arrivals being an older guy named Paul, who's a manager at the commercial archaeology firm that employs most of this project's staff during the rest of the year when they're not here. He looked a bit familiar and had the right accent and the right name and age, so I asked him whether he had dug in Orkney in 1988, and he replied affirmatively: thus, we had worked together on a project 18 years ago. Can't cite the small-world effect really, given the pretty small British archaeology community. But still, how cool is that?!

Puffins!

kps1@cornell.edu — Mon, 17 Jul 06 07:41:00 UT

My day off yesterday started (and ended) with a 2.5 mile hike to the bus stop, then an hour-long, 15-mile ride to Alnwick, in order to find an Internet cafe and check out a bookstore. Arrived there to find the Internet cafe closed and under renovation, and nothing of interest in one of Britain's largest second-hand bookstores. With much disappointment, I jumped on the bus back to Seahouses, a small touristy town a little south of Bamburgh, in order to try a boat trip out to the Farne Islands.

Found a nice deal amongst the various companies running tours, and took a 2.5 hour trip out and about the islands (just a couple miles from shore), to see seals and many kinds of seabirds. The boat dropped us off for an hour on one of the islands, which are controlled by the National Trust, who charge an additional fee to come ashore.

As you can see from the photos below, I got to see puffins pretty close up! There are over 55,000 pairs of puffins and huge numbers of other birds too, such as gulls, kittiwakes, razorbeaks, cormorants, eider ducks, terns, guillemots, etc.

Puffin bringing food back to its babies in its burrow

Puffin on ledge

Many puffins!

The Farnes greatly resemble the Isles of Shoals but lack the 15th- and 16th-Century buildings

Seals with Bamburgh Castle in the background

The National Trust's paths let you get quite close to some of the many chicks on the island this time of year (this is not a puffin, not sure what it is, probably a tern)

Styca Time

kps1@cornell.edu — Sat, 15 Jul 06 11:41:00 UT

Last night's pub experience left much to be desired: too much smoke, too-loud music. Scotland has taken the wise step of prohibiting smoking in pubs, like California and New York have done, but England's attempt to legislate it has not yet passed into law, and may not for some time. After two pints of cider, I just couldn't take the incessant smoke, and mouth-to-ear shouting that had to pass for conversation to be heard over the jukebox, so I walked a couple miles back to the campground about 10:45.

The usual late start for today, with us just troweling in Trench 3 as a tourist exhibit. There's a wedding on right now up in the upper ward, and it's shaping up to be another sunny, hot day, so my tan's going to get even better. Shortly after digging in, I found a styca, a small Anglo-Saxon coin about half-inch diameter. It's rather corroded and comes from a medieval layer in this case, so it won't be particularly useful for dating anything (which is why archaeologists love coins), but still, it's my first coin find from any project, so it's made my day.

Both sides of my styca

Face in the Grave

kps1@cornell.edu — Fri, 14 Jul 06 17:52:00 UT

I've heard of having one foot in the grave, but my face...? Yeah, made it to the Bowl Hole this morning, where we're digging out three skeletons at the moment, with more graves easily seen in the area -- enough to keep us busy the rest of the season. All three skeletons have been exposed over the past week, one almost completely, one partially, and one just starting to show.

They put me on the partial one, and I had to lay there on my stomach with arms reaching out fully to scrape away sand and chunks of clay that compose the grave fill. My face literally was in the grave for much of the day. Of the three burials, two are crouched and on their side and one lays on its back fully extended, all have their heads to the west. Nothing has been found with them yet, but could still turn up. Whether they were pre-Christian or not will be hard to determine because burial customs at this time were transitioning from one to the other.

Last night was the coldest yet, even with no wind. On Sunday I intended to buy a cheap heavy blanket or hat or both to keep me warmer. At the moment the plan is to take a bus down to Alnwick and visit the town and its huge second-hand bookshop. I may also/instead take a boat ride out to the local Farne Islands to view seals and birds in the wildlife area there. However, tonight's we're all headed to the Castle Hotel's pub for cider etc.!

Pano of Bowl Hole