Up at 4:15am to be at the site by 5:30. (Why? to get a full day’s work in before it gets too hot.)

On our first day at the dig, after hearing about the history and archaeological context of our site, we hauled tools from their storage nearby and were divided into teams.  The startup task was to clean the site — getting rid of grass and vegetation that had grown up since last summer, and giving it a thorough cleaning. Yeah, clean the dirt!

Over 60 people, college-aged students through older adults, took brushes and towels and rubber buckets (pictured) and gently removed a year’s worth of accumulated dust and dirt so that photos could be taken and features made visible. 

With this many workers, by our wrap up time of 12:30pm, the site was judged to be (mostly) in tip-top shape. 

So we cleaned some dirt today. 

Tired, exhausted, but satisfied with a good day’s labor, we trudged back to the hotel, to crash, clean up, refuel and rehydrate. 

Tomorrow begins bright and early.