Business continues, free time decreases

Hey family,

Sorry for being so lax (again).  The field has been a hectic place the last few weeks.  We have continued to excavate the top of structure 1, after uncovering all the walls that are left (some have eroded into the Pool, and others were broken into by looters).  We have found at least 4 rooms, which is exciting.  There were interesting deposits left on the floor of one of the rooms, and I will tell you more about those when I return.  Mostly, we are finding lots of pottery fragments and a few stone tool remnants, but nothing too crazy :)  The sun is hot and the bugs are worse, but everyone is so great to work with that it makes it all worthwhile.

Jess and I are going to a conference with Lisa in a couple of weeks.  So, we only have one more week of excavations and lab work and then one week of backfilling, mapping and writing up our conference paper before we go.  Time does fly when you are hectically busy!  I have been the chief photographer this trip, since I have such a swag camera!  So, I have been busy getting camera angles perfected.  I even laid down on the floor of our excavation last week to get the best shot.  Haha.

Today, we all got a "day off" from the field and lab because Jess' fiance, Roberto, came to visit her.  So, since we wanted to include her in lab work, we all took the day off.  I am spending it catching up on high-speed internet on all my web things, including Facebook, blogging, and window-shopping, and also seeing Belmopan free of agendas and timetables :)

Week 3

We are already nearing the end of the third week of field work. We opened 2 units today, Rooms 1 and 2 of the water shrine. Room 2 is an interesting structure, under a collection of stones that are arranged in a circle, and all fell the same way. So, we are assuming that it was an intentional placement and not an ordinary roof collapse like we have seen in other locations. So far, we have been finding what you would expect: chert and pottery sherds. 

Today, we took photos of the whole water shrine from the top of a ladder that the men made for us. We did that before we started excavating the units so we could get a better idea of what we are looking at, and of course to document the unique placement of the stones before we removed them. 

Yesterday, Jennifer Choc came to the field with us, our first female assistant! She didn't find anything to her taste, but she did manage to stay all day and even walk to the field with us. We also got our road fixed, after walking into the site for the past week. That was one long, sweaty, muddy kilometer that I will not miss walking!