Today was our last preparation day before we actually break out the ceramics to look at tomorrow morning. Bill spent most of the day trying to reconcile our Polis work from last year with the database. This involved a lot of sighing and commenting on how I had screwed up some of my data entries last summer. This is why I brought new headphones with me this year. Anyway, he made a lot of progress on that, and so now the goal is to generate a list of priorities for the season. A danger for archaeological projects is that there can be a lot of down time that results in some or all of the team basically standing around while decisions are being made. Since we have a limited window of opportunity for analysis, the goal is to try to be as productive as possible in collecting data – useful data that is. While the excavation at Polis generated a lot of archaeological evidence, and I mean a lot, there is no way we can examine it all – nor would we want to. Our goal has been to target certain areas or develop specific research questions before we begin to collect data. Then we look for specific stratigraphic levels that are key to answering our questions. This allows us to focus our energies, and as a result, hopefully answer our questions. While we narrow our focus, this still involves a lot of work. For example, over the last two seasons in Polis I have looked at well over 10,000 sherds. [Photo below shows a Google Earth view of the part of the Polis Excavations we have been focusing for the last two years.]
On a different note, I found a bag of Lay’s Sensations Japanese Teriyaki potato chips to try. I know that I reviewed these last year, but I am getting a bit desperate on finding some potato chips to try. So, a re-review. They were pretty bland, with an occasional salty taste, and the merest hint of teriyaki. They were crunchy, though. I asked Bill what he thought of them and he said that “they were salty with a potatoey aftertaste.” Anyway I would give them a (***) 3, even though I gave them a (****) 5 last year. I have a bag of Feta flavored, and a bag of tomato ketchup flavored to try in the next few days.
RSM
Ancient History Ramblings 