Final Week
My last week at the field school was full of excitement. On Saturday we got a free day, so we started our morning by going to the ferry shops. Those are the souvenir shops next to the ferry to Xunantunich, and many of the artists are the families of the guys who work on the project, so we like to do our shopping there. They sell a lot of cool stuff, but my favorites are the slate carvings of the Maya calendar and Maya gods.
In the afternoon we went horseback riding. We did an hour long trip through the forest around the ranch, and it was a lot of fun. My horse was named Squirrel! We decided to pass the rest of our afternoon by whittling, as one does when one has been without access to technology for a month. We are very easily entertained at this point. Some people made alligators and fish, but I kept it simple and attempted a little canoe.
Like usual, we ate dinner at Hode's on Saturday night. I learned a very important lesson in Belizean cuisine at Hode's. You might assume that beans and rice is the exact same thing as rice and beans, but you'd be wrong- there's a difference! Rice and beans are cooked together and served all mixed together, but with beans and rice you get stew beans served separated from your rice.
The Succotz Archaeology and Culture Fair was on Sunday. The fair is a way for the archaeologists to give back to the community. There are a bunch of different stations with educational games the kids can play to win points, and they give out prizes at the end. Some of the stations included playing the ball game, using an atlatl, and putting together a puzzle of Mayan glyphs. There was also a performance by Guatemalan dancers. It was definitely a successful day; we had a great turnout and it was a lot of fun!
On Monday we got to go around to all the sites and see the progress we made throughout the field season. All of the undergraduates also got to show off our own work and explain to each other what we've been working on all month and what we've found. Then we took our group picture. At the end of every field season, all of the researchers, students, and workers from both the Mopan Valley Archaeological Project and the Mopan Valley Preclassic Project take a picture on the steps of El Castillo at Xunantunich. All together, it's 100 people!
To continue the saga of how a bunch of college students entertain themselves on a ranch, we had impromptu target practice on Monday night. We took one of the atlatl targets from the fair and made a makeshift javelin and a bow and arrow with some sticks, string, and duct tape. When we got bored with that, we started throwing the axe and the machete. It's okay Mom, nobody died.
On Tuesday we went to Actun Tunichil Muknal. Dr. Yaeger advertised it as "one of the coolest things you'll ever do," and he was absolutely right. ATM is a cave where the Maya used to leave offerings, because they believed that caves were entrances to Xibalba, the underworld. Our tour started with a thirty minute hike to the cave entrance, which included three river crossings. Once we got to the cave itself, we were wading through water almost the entire time, and a few times we actually had to swim. The cave was massive and full of beautiful stalactites and stalagmites (and the occasional bat and spider). At one point our tour guide had us all turn off our headlamps, and it was pitch black and completely silent other than the water. Closer to the cave entrance we saw a lot of pottery that had been left as offerings, but as we moved father back we started seeing skeletons. There were quite a few, but there's one in particular that ATM is famous for: the Crystal Maiden. The Crystal Maiden is almost entirely complete, only missing one small bone, and the cave's mineral-rich water ran over it for so long that all of the bones are completely covered in tiny crystals. The whole thing shimmered, and it was incredible. Of course, it was also misnamed; archaeologists more recently discovered that the skeleton belonged to a young male.
On Wednesday we had to take our final exam. Then we had most of the day to relax and pack, and we had a goodbye dinner at a restaurant in San Ignacio. During dinner came a project tradition: awards are given out to everyone who has completed their first field season with the project. They're all pretty funny; some of the awards given out were Extreme Boy Scout, Tries Anything Once, and Chillin' Like a Villain, and they're little medals made only with project materials: metal tags, aluminum foil, and flagging tape. I got the Tough as Nails award, in honor of my many blisters and assorted other injuries. All the undergrads stayed up late that night to celebrate our last night together. We even got some karaoke going, because Michael finished making the ukulele he'd been working on since he got there.
On Thursday it was time to say our goodbyes. After a (very) long travel day, I'm now back home in Texas. I was really sad to leave Nabitunich, but I have a feeling I'll be back. I went to the field school to see if I liked field work enough to choose archaeology as a career, and the answer was a definitive yes. I had an amazing time, learned a lot, and met some incredible people. Until next time, Belize!
In the afternoon we went horseback riding. We did an hour long trip through the forest around the ranch, and it was a lot of fun. My horse was named Squirrel! We decided to pass the rest of our afternoon by whittling, as one does when one has been without access to technology for a month. We are very easily entertained at this point. Some people made alligators and fish, but I kept it simple and attempted a little canoe.
Like usual, we ate dinner at Hode's on Saturday night. I learned a very important lesson in Belizean cuisine at Hode's. You might assume that beans and rice is the exact same thing as rice and beans, but you'd be wrong- there's a difference! Rice and beans are cooked together and served all mixed together, but with beans and rice you get stew beans served separated from your rice.
The Succotz Archaeology and Culture Fair was on Sunday. The fair is a way for the archaeologists to give back to the community. There are a bunch of different stations with educational games the kids can play to win points, and they give out prizes at the end. Some of the stations included playing the ball game, using an atlatl, and putting together a puzzle of Mayan glyphs. There was also a performance by Guatemalan dancers. It was definitely a successful day; we had a great turnout and it was a lot of fun!
On Monday we got to go around to all the sites and see the progress we made throughout the field season. All of the undergraduates also got to show off our own work and explain to each other what we've been working on all month and what we've found. Then we took our group picture. At the end of every field season, all of the researchers, students, and workers from both the Mopan Valley Archaeological Project and the Mopan Valley Preclassic Project take a picture on the steps of El Castillo at Xunantunich. All together, it's 100 people!
To continue the saga of how a bunch of college students entertain themselves on a ranch, we had impromptu target practice on Monday night. We took one of the atlatl targets from the fair and made a makeshift javelin and a bow and arrow with some sticks, string, and duct tape. When we got bored with that, we started throwing the axe and the machete. It's okay Mom, nobody died.
On Tuesday we went to Actun Tunichil Muknal. Dr. Yaeger advertised it as "one of the coolest things you'll ever do," and he was absolutely right. ATM is a cave where the Maya used to leave offerings, because they believed that caves were entrances to Xibalba, the underworld. Our tour started with a thirty minute hike to the cave entrance, which included three river crossings. Once we got to the cave itself, we were wading through water almost the entire time, and a few times we actually had to swim. The cave was massive and full of beautiful stalactites and stalagmites (and the occasional bat and spider). At one point our tour guide had us all turn off our headlamps, and it was pitch black and completely silent other than the water. Closer to the cave entrance we saw a lot of pottery that had been left as offerings, but as we moved father back we started seeing skeletons. There were quite a few, but there's one in particular that ATM is famous for: the Crystal Maiden. The Crystal Maiden is almost entirely complete, only missing one small bone, and the cave's mineral-rich water ran over it for so long that all of the bones are completely covered in tiny crystals. The whole thing shimmered, and it was incredible. Of course, it was also misnamed; archaeologists more recently discovered that the skeleton belonged to a young male.
On Wednesday we had to take our final exam. Then we had most of the day to relax and pack, and we had a goodbye dinner at a restaurant in San Ignacio. During dinner came a project tradition: awards are given out to everyone who has completed their first field season with the project. They're all pretty funny; some of the awards given out were Extreme Boy Scout, Tries Anything Once, and Chillin' Like a Villain, and they're little medals made only with project materials: metal tags, aluminum foil, and flagging tape. I got the Tough as Nails award, in honor of my many blisters and assorted other injuries. All the undergrads stayed up late that night to celebrate our last night together. We even got some karaoke going, because Michael finished making the ukulele he'd been working on since he got there.
On Thursday it was time to say our goodbyes. After a (very) long travel day, I'm now back home in Texas. I was really sad to leave Nabitunich, but I have a feeling I'll be back. I went to the field school to see if I liked field work enough to choose archaeology as a career, and the answer was a definitive yes. I had an amazing time, learned a lot, and met some incredible people. Until next time, Belize!
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