Week 2

Remember when I said my first week was busy? I didn’t even know the meaning of the word until this week. On Saturday, we toured Cahal Pech. Cahal Pech is a Preclassic Maya site in the town of San Ignacio. That night we had dinner in town at a restaurant called Hode’s Place, which has some bomb quesadillas. Dinner at Hode’s is also when I get my two hours of WiFi a week. On the way back one of my friends bought stuff to make s’mores, so Nelson helped us make a bonfire to roast marshmallows.

The next morning we went to Buena Vista, another site being excavated by our project. They recently found a tomb there, so we got to go see it. It was really cool, and there were a lot of grave goods like fancy pottery. Sunday afternoon we had our only free afternoon of the whole trip, so we swam in the new pool they just set up at camp.

On Monday, it was back to work. My partner Michael and I graduated from trowels to pickaxes, so it went much faster and we dug out another layer of our unit. We’re pretty sure it’s the midden because we’re finding huge concentrations of artifacts, especially pottery sherds and stone tools. I also got two more blisters, so I’m up to seven; I’m aiming for ten.

The students have a lab rotation, and on Tuesday it was Michael’s day to work in the lab, so I was on my own at the site. My supervisor, Zoe, paired me Ismael, an ayudante, instead. He was a really fast worker because he’s been doing this all summer, so we got a lot deeper in our unit that day.

They hire excavators and ayudantes from Succotz every year. The excavators are the ones who actually get to dig. Many of them have been working with the project for years and are experts on Maya archaeology, just without the degree. The ayudantes are younger guys who set up tarps and screen the buckets of dirt to sort out artifacts. We have three excavators: Don San, Pedro, and David. Don San is in his seventies and has been working at Xunan for over forty years! We also have three ayudantes: Darwin, Selvin, and Ismael. They’re all friendly guys, and they’ve helped us out a lot.

There was some other excitement on Tuesday, too: an actress was filming at the top of Xunantunich. Apparently she’s a famous Mexican telenovela actress, and she came with a whole entourage of armed guards. The rumor among the guys is that she’s El Chapo’s ex girlfriend.

On Wednesday Zoe was sick, so Michael and I got sent to work with one of the other grad students. We learned to appreciate our excavation site at the party platform, because our temporary site was back in the jungle where there’s no breeze, so it was really hot. We were also digging on a steep slope because we were trying to uncover some stairs, so overall it was much less fun than our own site.

That was also the day we learned about Chechem. Chechem is a type of tree in Belize, and it has black sap that gives you an itchy red rash. One of the guys had accidentally touched one without realizing, and he had to get sent home because the rash had spread all over. Luckily, Chechem grows right next to another tree whose sap gets rid of the rash.

Wednesday night we went back into Succotz to eat dinner at Benny’s. I tried something new this week, a traditional Belizean soup called Chimole. Just like last week, it was delicious!

Thursday was my day to work in the lab. I got to see what happens to our artifacts when we take them back to the lab, from washing to drying to sorting. I also got to wash one of my own artifact bags, which was really cool. Thursday night we had a lecture. Dr. Yaeger gave us an overview of Maya history, culture, and archaeology.

On Friday Zoe was back, so we got to work on our own unit again. We finished our fifth layer and are still finding tons of artifacts. We’re also starting to find some pieces of Preclassic pottery mixed in with the Classic pieces, which means as we dig deeper we’re going further back in Maya history. Hopefully next week we’ll find more Preclassic stuff, which is what we’re really looking for.

After my first full week of work I was sunburnt, sore, blistered, bruised, and all around exhausted, but I’m doing work I enjoy. Friday night we went into San Ignacio to eat at Hode’s again. We don’t get any free days this weekend, but we do have some exciting trips planned, so I’ll tell you all about them next weekend!