We are up and running in the field – a total station (many thanks to AD for the donation!), 2 tablets, 3 shepherds, 8 archaeologists, a herd of cows and a herd of goats – no one can stop us! Our last archaeologists arrived last – welcome Jocelyn R. We hope you have a great first visit to the region.

A man, the total station, and two tablets…

Genius Chad – 2 tablets in the field!!

Tablets in the field – a dream come true.

We start our days at 5:00am when we climb into the van and head to the site. At 8:30am we eat breakfast on site – sandwiches, yoghurt, granola bars, veggies, and other strange items (today we had weird banana chips). Sometime we share our breakfast spot with a herd of goats and/or a herd of cows.

Sometimes we eat breakfast with goats

Gabby B in the house – tools of the trade

JF cleans the baulk and finds some rather large spiders . . .

Day 1 in the field – lots of cleaning thistles, wrapping barbed wire, lots of sandbags, two frogs, a mouse, and a few scorpions. Our final tally is 8 intrepid souls and 8 disappointed folks back in the US. Over the next three weeks we hope to find some floors, to understand the construction of various building, to make some 3D models, and to bid farewell to Marj Rabba.

Director – Yorke Rowan supervises the clean up.

Sherd dump and barbed wire fencing

At many archaeological sites in this region the non-diagnostic pottery pieces (mainly body sherds) are dumped back at the site, once they have been weighed, counted, and studied.

BH cleaning

JF, ACH, GB cleaning in Area BB

In the coming days guest bloggers will tell tales of the dig – stay tuned for future updates!

Last season we left without finding the bottom of Room 1 in Area BB, which left us feeling that the excavations at Marj Rabba were incomplete. On Sunday we head back to the field where we will be concentrating on this area and wrap up any other unfinished business. It’s a small experienced crew from the following institutions: The College of Wooster, Columbia University, Whitman College, the University of Connecticut, the University of Chicago, DePaul University, and KPMG.

Area BB and Room 1 – the object of this year’s affections

Close up of Room 1 and the storage area

We hope to keep our friends and families up to date by blogging regularly about the season. Check back on our progress over the three-week season as we wrap up at Marj Rabba.