Tuesday 1 Feb
Our day starts off with brekkie and then leaving in two waiting Songthaews to our site at Ban Non Wat. It will be a 40mins drive to the town, with a quick stop at Nigel's home (and storage area) to collect a few boxes full of artifacts for the researchers to identify and tag on site.
We arrive at our headquarters, which is at Mrs Voi's home and also the first area excavated in Charles Higham's days. Operation gets in full swing with the researchers leaving for their various sites and jobs. The Earthwatchlings wait for Nigel as he will spend the morning informing us about the history of the area, and taking us along to the three squares which are being excavated this season. We visit the squares (see video of Nigel in Gordon's square to the right) and meet some of the locals who are helping with the excavations and have been doing so for years. The excavations have been good for the township as it has helped with much needed employment/funds at this time of year. Nigel tells us there are 3 types of employment really during the year, rice fields work, weaving of mats and the excavations. A lot of the younger folk travel to Bangkok for gainful employment and send paychecks home.
The locals are really wonderful. They know the team quite well, and they are very welcoming and friendly (as are the many roaming dogs (including Jiang, Lady Sophia, Archer, Bygone and Leo), to my delight).
Morning and afternoon teas, as well as lunch are all held at Mrs Voi's (our headquarters) with an incredible variety of food available daily.
Following lunch it is time to get our hands dirty, and we are all assigned tasks for the afternoon. Today I'm helping Miph with pottery. Tons of bags full of pottery fragments from the excavation areas make their way here for us to sort through, and hold on to samples. Where there are complete pots they are excavated and pieced together in entirety. Where the fragments come from the 'pit' floor (olden day garbage dumps ;o)) samples are kept, with the rest discarded. Once an area has been completely excavated it gets filled back up at the end. Most pottery fragments are from Iron and Bronze age.
Nigel tells us that the approval of a culural centre has come through, with the start of the building to take place some time in February. The site of the building will be next door to Mrs Voi's (where the 1st excavations took place). This is great as it will be a building where the locals can learn more about their history and culture, and hopefully see some artifacts on display. The added news today is that the governor of the province will be visiting the site on 9 February, which is a great deal! This also means that over the next week all the villagers are making the area look 'tip top' and a number of government officials are around to ensure everything is set up right.
We finish work at 4pm everyday with two waiting Songtaews, one directly back to hotel and the other dropping off in town center (1.5kms from the hotel). Today I opt for town drop off, as to visit the daily night market and stroll back as the sun is setting.
Back at the hotel just enough time for a shower, change of clothes and a 'slop slap' session with the Deet. Dinner is at 7pm every evening with the the full team and usually followed by a lecture by one of the researchers. Following another wonderful meal it is Nigel's turn for a lecture tonight. Nigel's lecture today is about the Ban Non Wat area and the excavations which have been taking place since 2000. He shows photo's of the incredible finds in the area and talks through the aims of the project then (2000-2007; burial excavations, one main site and a couple of satellite sites) and now (2007-current; six satellite excavation squares over the time period and surveying/mapping of the area, and looking for other potential sites to compare finds). He also explains how you work backwards through the layers when digging (early history, iron age, bronze age to neolithic; between 3500-4500 years ago).
Following the lecture we all hang out pool side and have a few drinks, as Cristina and Kelly will be leaving us the following day. Cristina was a previous Earthwatcher who took up archaeological studies and was here to study some previous finds for her thesis. Soon enough it is time to head to bed and rest our aching bodies...
Wed 3, Thu 4 & Fri 5 Feb
Wednesday to Friday we follow the same routine of having breakfast and leaving at 7.45am for the 40mins drive to the site. Everyone disperses to their sites, coming back together for morning and afternoon teas, and lunch.
During our breaks we wander to the various sites to see what everyone is upto and to catch up with people. I spend these days working at Belinda's site which is turning really interesting. We have dug to almost natural ground level (bronze age) and have found a large buffalo horn, what seems like a rice field of sort and quite a bit of pottery. Nigel informs me that when they dug in the area last year, a couple of burials were excavated near the buffalo horn. He also mentions that the find of the buffalo horn where it is could be quite significant, as it would signify that the buffalo was already domesticated in the Bronze age; potentially for farming rice (meaning rice was already domesticated instead of wild).
During these days we have quite a few visits on site from curious government officials, which is great. We also try to fly the little camera plane Wayne leaves behind for the research team.
The best for me is saved to Friday, as on the way in I ask Miph if schoolchildren visit the site as well, and she mentions it usually happens on Saturdays. On Friday afternoon as I'm digging I can hear some murmurs from 4 metres above ground, as I tilt my head up I see about 60 schoolkids all looking into the pit with beaming eyes! Be careful what you wish for.. I come out of the square and the kids all want to take a photo with Belinda and I. The school kids eventually leave, and the group is replaced by an even larger group of curious, and younger, school kids. They hang around for a bit and as we walk back for our afternoon tea break, I look around and find that all the kids, sans teachers, follow us back to Mrs Wu's! They think it's heaven here, as this is also Miph's base and they all get to see how all those bits and pieces of pottery are put back together. These days are followed by a trip either directly back to the hotel, or a drop off in town to buy some supplies and wander the markets.
From Wednesday to Friday evening we also have a couple more lectures. On Wednesday it's Gordon's turn. He presents his thesis on jewellery through the ages in Ban Non Wat. On Thursday it's Caitlin's turn and her topic on osteoarthritis and is quite fascinating. Friday it's Nigel's turn again and he takes us through the project he's been running in Laos over the past 3 years.
All evenings are followed by a nightcap poolside, before retiring early for another hard day's work...
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