One of the more difficult logistical issues we face is the balancing of fieldwork versus museum work. For PKAP, this is made even more difficult by the fact that we work on land owned by the British base and are influenced by the base’s firing schedule. When the ranges are being used, they block off access to most of our site and we lose half or all of a day’s work. This schedule, while known to us in advance, often changes suddenly. As a result, there is a feeling that when we can get into the field, we send the teams into the field and work while we can. The problem is that we also need people to process our artifacts (washing pottery, analyzing pottery, cataloguing artifacts, etc.). When everyone goes into the field, then the museum work falls behind. Since we process our artifacts at a storage place owned by the Larnaka Archaeological Museum, the museum work is also limited to the hours the museum is open. As the ceramicist for the project, I always feel that we need more help at the museum and worry that we are falling behind in processing the material at the museum. It is a delicate balancing at that we never know we never know how successful we were until the end of the season.
RSM
Ancient History Ramblings 