first day on-site

Another fantastic day! We were supposed to start digging on the Tell yesterday but, due to some unforeseen and minor problems with permits, we had to delay it by one day. Instead, I gave a tutorial to the students on excavation practices, forms, techniques, recording, history of the excavation, etc. It seemed to go over well and was (mostly?) understood, so I am a happy camper. I do love to talk about archaeology.

The students arrived on Saturday and we have been giving them tours of the town, showing them where the internet cafe is (strangely named "The Iron Rod", for unknown reasons), where our friend, Youssef, is located (he is the "go-to" guy for gifts and things, and a very nice man, always ready to chat and have a cup of lovely mint and sugar tea). They all seem to be settling in nicely and I can honestly say that I find them to be a great group overall, very enthusiastic, excited, willing to work and learn, and trying their best to learn Arabic words and phrases. I am quite impressed by them so far.

Yesterday was spent by the pool lounging, much deserved due to all the hard work the staff has done since arriving, setting up house, finding and arranging field equipment, going back and forth to the airport, among other things. We went to a pool that we haven't been to before, at Arnon, about a 10-minute drive out of Madaba. All four pools there were largely empty as the kids are not out of school yet, and so we enjoyed some beers and argileh and got a bit of sun. A very nice day.

Today, the first day on site, as I mentioned above, was one of those physically-exerting days that leaves you with a most satisfying numbness and ache in your limbs when you sit down after work. We hauled away three-quarters of a rock pile that has accumulated over the years, rock that has been removed during the course of other excavations. All the staff were extremely satisfied with the work that the students did alongside us, moving all the rocks and boulders chain-gang style about 50m out of the way so we can open three more units under where the rocks had been laying. We also cleaned away all the weeds so we could begin with a clean slate. Today, we managed to accomplish much more site prep than we had thought was possible and we will be able to start marking out the new units tomorrow, in sha'allah. Happily, my two units will have the Iron II architecture removed tomorrow, which will involve bringing a lot of stone up 4m out of the units. Once all that is removed, we will be able to start digging to see what lies beneath. The below photo shows my two units, pre-weeding (they look a lot cleaner now). The stone architecture that is visible is mostly Iron I and II, and there is a huge fortification wall in the background.

Tomorrow has all the elements of another pleasantly tiring and eventful day, so stay posted for what we manage to uncover. We also have a field trip planned to the Desert Castles this weekend, which lie in the central-eastern area of Jordan. I did not manage to take part in this field trip last year as I had a nasty case of food poisoning and spent the entire weekend either lying in my bed or running for the bathroom. I'm optimistic that this weekend's field trip will top last year's...

safe in madaba, jordan

What a week! I have only spent two nights in my house (the same one as last year, an early- 20th centruy house owned by the family of a famous early-20th century poet that I can't remember the name of, but will find out). Previous to this, I was staying at a friend's house, in the beautiful village of Faysaliyya, about 10 minutes drive from Madaba, which had the most wonderful view of sunsets over the Dead Sea and the West Bank. Fantastic!

We have also already enjoyed the traditional, communally-eaten dish of mensev, which is a chicken or goat dish, served over rice, and eaten with the hands. One of my favourtites, especially the roasted pine nuts that are served on top. Very messy, but well worth it.

Deb and I were here for a few nights by ourselves, but the rest of the staff have since arrived and, after a week of hard work moving and setting up house, sorting field equipment, getting permits, renting a car, etc., we are on track.

I gave went to another friend's house and gave the children frisbees and lip balms (thank you Krista from Moody Bees!), which they absolutely loved. They love anything from the west, and they are so much fun to play with. We also had a few pick-up games of soccer, which brought out the locals to watch the "large white people."

I've also been enjoying the most readily-availble beers on hot nights - Amstel (thanks Nancy!). We had a great movie night last night on floor cushions, and with candles. We all fell asleep watching Zoolander, though, thanks to all the hard work this week.

We had our staff orientation and trip to the field this morning. Such a large amount of work to be done, but it will be so worth it. We are opening up five units in the same area that I worked in last year. I will continue work in the two Iron Age units I worked in last year, and an additional three units will be opened, which will begin with the remnants of Nabatean architecture.

I apologize for the largely-disjointed nature of this first post from Jordan, but I am extremely rushed and will make up for it next time. Until then...

let's get acquainted with....jordan

Amidst the madness of packing, I decided to take a minute and acquaint all of you with Jordan. Not that I don't have full faith in you all to know where it is etc., but I went to the bank on three separate occasions last week and on all three, when asking for Jordanian dinars (CDN 1.00 = JOD 0.600), the conversation went like this:

ME: "what is the exchange rate for Jordanian dinars?"
TELLER: "hmmm, Jordanian dinars...it looks like about 0.6...where are they from?"
ME: (incredulous pause) "Jordan"
TELLER: "Great! Where is that?"
ME: (another pause) "The Middle East"
TELLER: "Fantastic! Are you visiting family there?"

Sigh. Not that I couldn't be from Jordan but, people, look at my face: I have the map of Eire written all over it. Sheesh.

Fast facts (all info taken from Lonely Planet _Jordan_ 2006. Map from: www.lonelyplanet.com):

• Land area: 96,188 sq km
• Population: 5,759,000 (July 2005)
• Human Development index: ranked 90th out of 170 of world's countries (Egypt: 120th; Syria: 106th; Palestinian Territories: 102nd; Israel: 22nd)
• Religion: 80% Sunni Muslim, 15% Shi'a Muslim, 5% Christian
• Only 4.5% of Jordan's land is cultivated
• Around 1.7 million Palestinians live in Jordan
• The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth at 408m below sea level
• Over 80% of Jordan is desert, and 95% of Jordanians live in the remaining 20% of land
• Jordan has just 140 cu metres of renewable water per capita per year, compared to UK's 1500, Israel's 340, and the Palestine Authority's 70. Jordan's figure is expected to fall to 90 cu by 2025. Anything under 500 cu metres is considered to be scarcity of water

For a basis of where to locate me on the map (above) I'll be living and working in the town of Madaba. Madaba has a population of 50,000 and is best known for its Byzantine mosaics, which are absolutely incredible. There is also a mosaic school there, for students to learn the production of, and conservation of, mosaics using little pieces of tile called tesserae. The region around Madaba has been occupied for around 4500 years, and is thought to be mentioned in the Bible as Medeba. It's also mentioned on the famous Mesha stele, raised in about 850 BC by the Moabite king Mesha, to commemorate his victory over the Israelites.

Enjoy, and stay posted. The next post should be coming from somewhere in the Moabite desert...

graduate school: "frauds...assholes...& self-medication"

I just read an article in the May 15, 2007 edition of The Tyee, and I strongly recommend it for all you, faithful readers and friends, who are currently in grad school, or are currently contemplating grad school. Heck, I even recommend it for those of you who have finished grad school and, like myself, are left wondering, "was it worth it? Am I better off now, with an MA/PhD than I was with a BA?"


Now, I know that a large part of deciding to go to grad school is based upon the actual field you are in, or planning on being in. For example, a future doctor must go to grad/medical school, a future lawyer must go to law school, and a future archaeologist must go to...?

Most aspiring archaeologists will find themselves up &%$# creek without a graduate degree. It really is that simple. Without an MA, unfortunately, you are not qualified to teach, you can't hold permits for ocntract work and consulting (at least in BC, though I know that most of the US and parts of Europe have the same regualtions), and you are left vitrually without any chance to specialize.

Unlike the MDs and lawyers of the world, however, an MA in archaeology is still not nearly as specific as other fields requiring "higher degrees of learning." I can honestly say that most of what I learned of archaeology came from working in, and making mistakes in, the field. Truly. I don't think doctors get that type of grace period.

So, what does it mean? Why get the degree? I was speaking to a couple of friends of mine today, telling them about my usual lofty plans, and discussing the possibility of beginning a PhD next year. At this point, my friends (including these two I was speaking with) know that I love what I do, and do what I do solely because I love it, said, "well, you may as well just keep on going." To which I agreed and replied, "it's kind of like McDonald's: I've already got three of them, why don't I just keep on going and get the whole set?"

The reason for continuing, besides having the academic equivalent of a complete set of "Shrek the Third" collector glasses/tumblers? It allows me the relative freedom to be able to pursue my own line of research (hopefully) with a slight bit more credibility. And, I do love to teach. And, I must admit, though I won't be saving any lifes with the type of doctorate I'll have one day, I will get a kick out of being called "Doctor" while doing something stupid at a party..."hey doctor, get off that bloody table and quit stealing my gin...!" Not that I would or have done that type of thing.

On anther, slightly related note: if you want all the glory and none of the work, check out this website: http://www.fakedegrees.com/fakedegrees/samples.asp I was absolutely astounded to come across this site for creating fake degrees and diplomas. I suspected a site like this existed but, for some reason, I thought it would be harder to find.

And no, I don't condone this site and, no, I am not going to use it myself. For shame!

field logistics and preparation

There's something so necessary and hopeful in having one (or more, if you're really lucky) great thing/talent/possession/understanding that gives meaning to the other daily doldrums of life. Currently, working the rest of my year around the field season is definitely one of those things. It's worth it. Which is why, likely, there are both a lot of people who identify themselves as archaeologists but work at other jobs during the regular work day and make room in the evenings and on weekends for small excursions and research, and even more people who don't identify themselves career-wise as archaeologists, but who spend every season they can volunteering in the field, even if it is only for a few days or a couple of weeks.

Having said that, I don't want to give the impression that only working with 75% effort the rest of the time is acceptable. If you must do something - for whatever reason - choose to do it well, or what is the point?

I will be leaving in exactly two weeks and there is so much to be done before then. As always before a trip, there are last minute things to buy, Canadian dollars to be exchanged into the local currency, matters to be cleared up and put on hold for a few months, people to see, maintenance and tidying to be done, and so on. But all of these things really help to heighten the anticipation.

Field-specifically, there are lists and notes to be written and prepared, whether it is putting together a preliminary grocery list for the Madaba houses, or creating a list of house and field rules and guidelines, or putting together a mini library and extended bibliography to use in the field. So much to do logistically. It's similar to planning a May long-weekend camping trip for yourself and perhaps 6 of your friends, and then times that by 4 for people and 17 for days spent there.

But, then again, I've always enjoyed planning camping trips and outings for groups, so perhaps I have been preparing for this type of work for a long time. Oh, the interdisciplinary nature of archaeological fieldwork logistics...if only the archaeological research could be as interdisciplinary and varied in its approaches.

data gathering on the interior plateau of BC

The field season has kicked off! I just returned from a brief and relaxing trip to the Interior, where I (along with a motley crüe of people from SFU and one from NYU), spent some time measuring up housepits and mapping the site with a Total Station. Both of these things were desperately overdue at the site, and will help to make the data from the site more accessibile and consistent for other researchers. What a relief that will be!

The site itself (for those of you who have had the pleasure of visiting it) is as magical and spectacular as always. The greens are bordering on neon, and the wildflowers are out: the yellow flowers ringing the high edges of the housepits and growing within the depressions, the white flowers clinging to the north-facing slopes, and small purple flowers scattered here and there in smaller amounts. The weather was absolutely fantastic - couldn't have asked for anything better: hot sun, blowing wind, blue sky. Lovely. And, as if this picture I have tried to paint for you wasn't enough, there were three new foals there, still shaky on their gangly legs, who must have just been born within the last two weeks. It also looks like the bears are starting to come out of hibernation, likely due to the warm weather. While we didn't see any bears, we found some scat on the road in.

The data gathering proved to be fruitful and slightly futile at the same time. As often happens, the more you research, the more you realize that there are problems to be solved - it's a very circular process. And, the more I dip my toe in academia - whether through writing, researching, or teaching - the more I realize just how ugly and political it can be. It all comes back to tradeoffs.

Soon enough, these posts will be coming from the Moab desert. Stay tuned...

another day, another interview

Such is the life of an archaeologist, I suppose. I have had more interviews in the last two years than the previous ten combined. And, not for lack of trying, I now find myself working in a sales job that I would have never expected. Having said that, it provides me the flexibility to do research and small amounts of weekend field work during the majority of the year, and enables me to take leave of absences during the "high field season" to do fieldwork abroad. In truth, I am exactly where I want to be, doing what I want to be doing. Lack of lack monetary funds is certainly an issue, but it is by no means the issue.

Today's interview was the most strenuous yet. It began a couple of days ago with a very in-depth phone interview on the site itself (Historic Fort Langley, managed by Parks Canada), national historic sites in general, and the economic history and origins of British Columbia. That initial screening resulted in a group of ten applicants undergoing a group interview today, six-and-a-half hours in length, at the site itself. There were various team-building exercises, including assembling a fur press, making a barrel, and pitching a canvas tent, and - the most daunting part of all - a five minute interpretive presentation, no topic provided, to be presented before a panel of fifteen people (including the three Parks Canada interviewers). Whew!

I haven't presented formally since my thesis defenses, so I was certainly a bit nervous. I presented on the topic of trade, focusing specifically on the requisite reciprocity of trade. A lot of the public programs at the site, while very interactive and educational, have focused on trade within Fort Langley, and have not looked at the impact of the trade moving out to surrounding First Nations groups. In my presentation, I looked at a couple of options for exploring this aspect through role playing and archaeological "digs" for students in areas representing traditional First Nations settlements. I think it was well received. All the presentations and presenters brought unique aspects to the day and, overall, the day was a success, and quite enjoyable.

I had forgotten the Fort itself, as I have not been there since an elementary school trip. It appears smaller than I remember (as happens the bigger and older we get), but there are just as many activities now as I remember as a visiting child, perhaps even more. Let's put it this way: I could certainly see myself spending the day there with a group of kids and neither the kids or me being bored.

Fort Langley, though it was only established in 1827 and enjoyed a brief "hey day" of only thirty or so years, has made a lasting impact on this province. The Hudson's Bay Company and the Fort brought a new type of economy and international trade to the region, and was instrumental in the establishment of (the future) BC as a British colony. Plus, we can now enjoy those beautiful HBC wool blankets. Gezellig!