Day Off Starts
Mood:
Fine
At 2:00 pm our weekly day off commenced, and a whole big carload of the student inspectors went back to Cairo directly from the site. After lunch another group left in a rented vehicle. I'm still not feeling great, so going to Cairo right now doesn't sound like a good idea. Besides, there is talk amongst the rest of us of going out for a fish dinner tonight and then tomorrow we'll go for a swim (not in the lake, but somwhere else nearby).
Only one item came in from the field today: a vitrified mud brick. Vitrifacation happens to stone and mud brick when it reaches a very high temperature, such as produced by a major fire. The nature of the stone or brick changes -- it kind of melts some, but also changes chemically (I believe). Vitrification could not happen if someone merely built a cooking fire next to the wall.
Most people took the afternoon to relax, either by reading (like I did) or sleeping or studying Akkadian (a long-dead cuneiform language existing only in baked caly tablets) or listening to music. Speaking of which, we had a chicken bbq this evening (first time for any real meat in the past week). For entertainment we first drove over one of the vehicles and played its only cassette tape (Reggae). But then I noticed that one of the trench supervisors had an iPod, although she said she didn't have a tape adapter. Then (geek alert!) I remembered that we had unused computer speakers in the office, so I hooked them into the iPod and we had quite the party scene out on the porch.
Speaking of partying, Willeke broke out Heinekin beer for all us foreigners (and anyone else who might want a sip). I don't like beer all that much in general (some archaeologist, eh?), but it sure was good to have a couple of cold carbonated bevvies. We then had our chicken, and I made a crack about "all we need now is a fire and some port" and@#&$ if Willeke doesn't bop over to her tent and bring back an unopened bottle of the stuff! (and then suggest we sit nearer the glowing coals of the bbq).
And so the talking and dancing on the patio continued until the relatively late hour of about 11 pm and good comradeship was had by all.
Only one item came in from the field today: a vitrified mud brick. Vitrifacation happens to stone and mud brick when it reaches a very high temperature, such as produced by a major fire. The nature of the stone or brick changes -- it kind of melts some, but also changes chemically (I believe). Vitrification could not happen if someone merely built a cooking fire next to the wall.
Most people took the afternoon to relax, either by reading (like I did) or sleeping or studying Akkadian (a long-dead cuneiform language existing only in baked caly tablets) or listening to music. Speaking of which, we had a chicken bbq this evening (first time for any real meat in the past week). For entertainment we first drove over one of the vehicles and played its only cassette tape (Reggae). But then I noticed that one of the trench supervisors had an iPod, although she said she didn't have a tape adapter. Then (geek alert!) I remembered that we had unused computer speakers in the office, so I hooked them into the iPod and we had quite the party scene out on the porch.
Speaking of partying, Willeke broke out Heinekin beer for all us foreigners (and anyone else who might want a sip). I don't like beer all that much in general (some archaeologist, eh?), but it sure was good to have a couple of cold carbonated bevvies. We then had our chicken, and I made a crack about "all we need now is a fire and some port" and
And so the talking and dancing on the patio continued until the relatively late hour of about 11 pm and good comradeship was had by all.
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