Blackfriary: Day 0 - 1

Hi everyone.  So I am going to be posting frequent updates while I am here excavating in Trim, Co. Meath.  Should be posting everyday or so, depends on how things develop on the site.  Hopefully there will be lots to share with you all.

Day 0:
I arrived in Trim on Sunday afternoon.  I drove up with another student who was leaving from a town outside of Cork.  Took about 3.5 hours to make the journey up.  Trim is a very small town.  There really isn't much here at all.  After we arrived we checked into the hostel and headed out to get an idea where the site was so were wouldn't be lost in the morning.  The site is less than a 5 minute walk from the hostel.  Then again, everything is less then a 5 minute walk from the hostel. Yes, the town is that small.  After locating the site we headed to the pub to watch the Ireland v Croatia soccer match.  Ireland lost miserably.  The pub was a sad place.  After the game we headed back to the hostel and called it a night.

Day 1:
First day on site.  Spent most of the morning doing paperwork and health/safety training.  Had a mini lecture on the site history then we were assigned different tasks.  Those of us with field experience were sent straight into the main digging area.  The new people were near by with the directors who were teaching them excavation techniques.  My task for the day, along with a few other students, was to clean up the north area of the main trench to get it ready to be photographed.  This involves taking a very small layer of dirt off the top, levelling out the surface and cleaning up all the loose dirt that might have been left over from the previous work.  That took a good part of the morning and a bit of the early afternoon.  Very little was found today as we were not digging very deep.  Several pieces of bone were uncovered but they were most likely animal bone.  It was not really identifiable and showed no signs of butchering or such.  The bones were also likely a more recent deposit and therefore we discarded them.  A single human tooth was also uncovered as was a bit of ceramic.  The tooth was an upper first incisor (one of your big upper front teeth).  The piece of pottery was left in situ and will be excavated at a later point as it was too deep in the ground to be safely removed at this point in time. Once it was all clean we took pictures of the area.  With that task finished we moved onto cleaning up the wall that formed the southern boundary of the north area.  This is the remains of buttressed wall of the cloister of the original church.  The wall is slightly abnormal so we are looking to see if it might be that it was added on at a later point in time.  We cleaned up the wall in preparation for tomorrows work which will entail a detailed drawing of the wall and the possibility of removing a section of it to explore what lays under.

Hopefully tomorrow we will start getting into the areas where the burials are thought to be.  The game plan is for me to assist the bioarchaeologist in the field on the days the weather allows and to work in the lab on the remains already uncovered on the rainy days.  Should be a good mix of field and laboratory work.  So that's it for the first field update.  Lost more to come over the next two weeks.

Moving

First off, I want to thank those of you who responded to my last post and offered financial support.  Without your contributions I would not be able to go on the upcoming dig.  Things are still going to be extremely tight with the budget.  As such, I am still accepting contributions.  There are several academic conferences that I would like to be able to attend to further my professional network and learn as much as possible.  I thank you in advance for any contributions!!

I hate moving.  I have moved so many times in the last 4 years.  Sadly, the last 9 months have been the longest I have lived in one location for a while.  That being said, I really like my new flat.  It is a 4 bedroom house with a large backyard that has a built in fire pit.  I currently live with 2 other Irish guys.  Both of them work and one goes home every weekend, so there is a lot of space for us right now.  Not sure if there will be a 4th person living here or not.  I would assume so.  My room is a bit smaller than my last place and I no longer have my own bathroom.  But it is large enough for me as I don't need much.  My only real complaint about the flat is the tiny kitchen.  Can really only fit one person in it at a time.  The place is right across the street from the main university campus but its further away from the archaeology department and the city centre.  Nearest grocery store is just about a mile away.  Looks like I will be getting in a lot more of a workout with all the walking I will be doing.  I'll upload some pictures soon.  My new mailing address is posted on the mailing address page.

Next Sunday I leave for excavation.  I am really looking forward to the trip.  This opportunity will open up a lot of doors and will help establish me in the professional Irish archaeology field.  I will be working with a team from ASU and an Irish team.  I will be part of the team that is excavating the cemetery and analysing all the human remains.  The remains will hopefully become part of my master's thesis as well.  I really don't know what to expect, as with most digs, so it should be a very interesting experience.  I will try and post as frequently as possible during my time in the field.  They have already found several burials!!  Looks like I am in for a treat!  If you want to check out the website for the dig here is the url: https://blackfriary.wordpress.com/

Still no luck on the job front.  I have been all over town the last few days stopping in to every shop and bar there is looking for work.  Just none to be found.  Hopefully, something will turn up soon.  Until then I am watching every penny I spend.  really beginning to like my meals of rice and beans!

Well that is it for now.