An Archaeology Adventure: Day Four and Five

Okay, so the archaeology side of things hasn’t changed too much over the last few days. We’ve dug he same large trench a little bit deeper and uncovered more stones which look like a wall of an iron age round house which is pretty cool, but we will need to just keep digging away to confirm this.

However, today (day 5) has seen a lot of media attention as we had a visit from a Internet news station and a local newspaper which was certainly interesting as I was interviewed by the newspaper about why I was at the dig as a British volunteer and how I found it all. A huge part of the project is working with the community so this was really great publicity for everyone and not too embarrassing for me, despite the muddy photo they took!

I also found an artifact today!! It’s a pink granite grindstone that doesn’t look like a lot but has been smoothed on two sides and found just outside what we think are the house walls. I’m really pleased with this- it’s not the most exciting find but it’s a start, and I’m just happy I noticed it wasn’t a normal rock before chucking it on the spoil pile! Makes me feel like a real archaeologist…

Last night we headed out to a ‘sardine party’ in the next village, which involved the biggest sardines I have ever seen, and tasted amazing simply fried in oil and salt. The band was also great also and their loud drum music really made you want to dance, especially with the very cheap wine on offer. It was fantastic to see a local fiesta and everyone enjoying themselves, although I was a little tired this morning after the late night!

I can’t really believe it’s Friday already, the week is going so fast and I’m now getting worried the best finds will appear after I have left next weekend! I’m still enjoying myself, including the hard work and mud thanks to the people, the food and the amazing views.

An Archaeology Adventure: Day Two and Three

The real archaeology at A Cabecina is beginning to happen now but it is certainly a lot of hard work!

Both days have seen the team setting up the trenches and clearing the ground of vegetation and the top soil layer, which means a lot of shovelling and trying to dig out huge root systems. This has been really hard work but it does feel good to see the difference on the site, but the downside is however resembling a coal miner with the amount of dirt coming up. It’s very dusty and seems to stick particularly well to my sun cream so I tend to look absolutely ridiculous… hence there will be no photos of this new look!

There is a possibility one artifact has already been found- a rounded piece of rock that is being debated if it is a grinding stone for grains or used for sharpening tools. I guess closer looks in the next few days might help.

The afternoons are much more relaxed after more delicious lunches. If the digging wasn’t such hard work I’d be he size of a house by now!

Day 2 saw us experimenting with the photo scan software, which creates 3D images of the site or specific objects using a series of photos. It takes forever but it is really amazing when you see the result! Hopefully they will be able to get the 3D image onto their website for all to see as it makes you really see the site as a whole and how y might have all fitted together. As interesting as it was, I’m just not techy enough to have the patience for the software and much prefer the more historical and social side of the site.

Day 3 saw a visit from an anthropology expert, Christina, who gave us a workshop in using anthropological methods in archaeology, something which I never considered before. One of her colleagues is on our team and is using the project as part of her PHd so it will be really interesting to see it in action. She talked us through the different stages of her research and then we had to interview each other which was a little awkward at first but really useful as it made us all properly think about our motivations for being here- mine being a secret love of TimeTeam on TV as well as needing to do a residential project for my Gold DofE, but there are such a range of experiences and backgrounds here that it makes for a very diverse and interesting team.

We then went to a ‘Bar-ference’ (an informal conference in a bar right on the coast near a windmill) about anthropology which looked interesting but was totally in Spanish so had to guess most of it from the pictures. It was great to see the local community turn up to find out more about the project and archaeology in relation to anthropology so hopefully this will be a great success in the coming weeks too.

It’s been a tiring few days but full of fascinating information and techniques to take in, and hopefully the real action and finds will happen in the next few days… It’s all very exciting!

An Archaeology Adventure: The Journey and Day One

As a bit of an introduction, I am currently doing two weeks of archaeology volunteering in Spain at the A Cabecina which is an iron age hill fort and bronze age rock art site. This series of blogs will follow my adventure here and of course have lots of stunning photos of the area.

As happy and relaxed as I am now at the end of my first day, the journey here was far from that. My plans were perfect and absolutely everything was booked but you know what they say about the best laid plans…

Firstly, the train from Leeds to Manchester Airport was cancelled and I had to then wait for the next one to Manchester Picadilly where I could catch another connection. The connection was then delayed by 45 minutes and by this time I’d had enough- I had only finished my gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition the day before and it was about half ten so I ended up in a very expensive taxi to the hotel for a measly 5 hours sleep before getting up for the airport. Oh joy.

The plane was then delayed for an hour. Of course. This meant I missed my next train from Porto to Vigo (somehow it was cheaper to do it this way than fly straight to Vigo) and being a Sunday, the next train wasn’t until 7.30pm. So I sat in the station for hours reading Bill Bryson before managing to arrive at the hostel by about 11pm. That’s over 27 hours since setting off from home, so you can imagine how I felt!

Anyway, enough with the rant and onto today, which has been fabulous. We’re staying in a hostel in the coastal village of Mougas in Galicia and the site is just above us on a hill, with amazing views over the sea.

The day started with a little guided tour of the site and explanation of what was going on, and then the technical kit came out. The experts were aiming to get gps points fixed to make a very detailed reference grid for the site, but the explanations were all in Spanish and I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with the machines anyway so spent the morning exploring the site and getting to know the other people.

Lunch was seriously impressive- a huge dish of freshly caught seafood paella which tasted so good and really got us into the Spanish mood. As did the wine at lunchtime to be fair! I am seriously looking forward to the next fortnight in terms of food, but a little wary that the summer diet might fail very quickly!

We then wandered into Mougas to have a look around, have an ice cream and ended up visiting the 17th century church at the top of the hill. We forget in England how beautiful Catholic churches are since we don’t really have many and this one was simply lovely, with huge gold alter pieces and a great view from the tower.

The day ended with dinner on the terrace of some kind of pastry calzone style thing with pepper, onion and tuna, with a great, fresh salad nicoise and then a few drinks with the team. I am a bit ashamed of my lack of Spanish- there are other English people here who don’t speak it either but that’s not an excuse. I’ll be revising the pocket dictionary tonight!

It really is lovely here- the sun is shining, I can smell the sea, I’ve had good food and drinks with new friends and am looking forward to learning something new. I’ve even forgotten about the stress of travelling!