Week 1

I’ve had a busy but very fun week! We got back from the airport just in time for a late dinner on Monday night and then went to bed. We got to “sleep in” on Tuesday, which meant breakfast wasn’t until 7am... that’s the opposite of sleeping in if you ask me, but the super early sunrise woke me up anyway.

In the morning Dr. Yaeger (one of UTSA’s archaeology professors) led us through the “walk-around” - which the grad students call the Death March. We walked around the whole camp property, looking at some Maya house-mounds in the fields, a site that’s currently being dug where they found a burial, and the Mopan River which the project is named for (the Mopan Valley Archaeological Project). It was really hot but I wouldn’t call it a death march. It was pretty cool, and we got to see some monkeys!

On Tuesday afternoon we had our lab orientation. The lab is where all the artifacts brought back from the field get washed and sorted. We learned how to do some basic analysis of lithics and ceramics.

On Wednesday morning we learned how to map structures. We practiced using a compass and tape measure to draw an outline of a building, to scale and correctly oriented, on graph paper.

In the afternoon, we toured Xunantunich (shoe-nahn-two-neech), which is where all the undergrads would be working. Xunan is only about five minutes away - we can see the tallest structure from camp. It’s a big site with lots of different excavations going on. Toward the bottom there are Preclassic structures, and as you get to the top of the hill there are more Classic structures. The biggest pyramid, called El Castillo, is the biggest in Belize and is very impressive. We got to climb all the way up to the top, and there’s a great view! There’s also more pyramids, a royal palace, and a room they think was used as a school for scribes. I also got to see the marketplace where the artifacts that I used for my research project my freshman year came from! I learned more about the supposed ghost, too. Tunich means stone and Xunan means maiden, and that’s exactly what people have seen- a ghostly young Maya woman who appeared in a cave in El Castillo. I won’t be going there at night, that’s for sure...

On Wednesday nights we go eat dinner in Succotz, the small village where Xunantunich is located. Succotz is where all the local people hired to help excavate and wash artifacts live. We eat at a place called Benny’s that serves traditional Belizean meals. Mine was pork, pico de gallo, and avocado on corn tortillas, and it was absolutely delicious.

On Thursday, we got assigned to our sites and started working. I’m paired up with one other undergrad, and we’re being supervised by a PhD student. We also have a team of Belizean guys working with us, some of whom have been working for the project for years and are expert excavators. The site I was assigned to is the “Party Platform,” a big Preclassic structure at Xunantunich that they think was used as a gathering place, maybe for feasts. My partner and I got to open up our own lot to excavate over the next month at the bottom corner of the platform, where our supervisor thinks there may be a midden where we’ll find broken pots and tools.

To get to our site, we have to cross the river. That involves driving all the trucks onto a ferry, which is hand-cranked across by one man. Once we’re there, we have very simple amenities. We have some tarps rigged up with branches to give us some shade and protect us from the rain, and our bathroom is a screen of palm fronds back in the jungle. We’re definitely roughin’ it, but I’ve enjoyed it so far. On the first day we started excavating the top layer of our unit, and sorting through the material to pull out artifacts. We found lots of stuff already, which is exciting!

On Friday we kept working, and finished excavating our first layer. We found lots of broken pottery and fragments of stone tools. It’s hard work though, and by the end of the day I had six blisters and my whole body was sore.

We got a treat Friday night, though. It was Dr. Yaeger’s birthday, so we got cake! Normally we don’t have dessert at the camp, and anyone who knows me knows I have a major sweet tooth, so it was a pretty big deal. Then we had a firework show. A Belizean researcher wanted to celebrate the Fourth of July (even if we were a couple days late) so he brought some fireworks to set off at camp. He told me afterward that fireworks are illegal in Belize and he sent someone across the border to buy some in Guatemala and smuggle them back, so I guess we’re all criminals now. Exciting! We finished our night with a movie, watching The Goonies with a projector outside.

Overall, it’s been a fantastic week! I only have a few hours of WiFi and everyone is trying to use it all at once, so I’m just going to upload all my photos when I get home. I’ll post some more updates next weekend though!