One in the Hole
Mood:
Frustrated
Last night we had a good game of poker, although I lost some 600 or 700 kronur. No big deal, that's only $6 or $7. I haven't played in a while, but learned the betting habits of my colleagues, so next week I will be out for revenge.
It being Saturday today, we started late and ended early. But that didn't make it less frustrating. Occupying a shoulder-high trench all day looking at layers of dirt, trying to figure out what they mean, can be trying at times. For example, we have these layers of bright white tephra from 1104, but they show up in a bunch of mixed up layers. We believe this indicates they were in turf. But if they were in turf this way when it was used in the building, why, then, is this jumbled up layer pretty uniform? One would expect that a turf wall or roof would collapse into the house below in a big jumble. If the layers are natural, then why are they all jumbled and overlapping? One would expect tephra to land in a nice even layer. Indeed, one trench over, there is a beautiful nice clean bathtub-ring of tephra on each sidewall. I'll post a picture of the tephra layers as soon as I can so you can see what I'm talking about.
In addition, this trench happens to cut through a deposit of stones at its bottom, on one end. Amongst these stones are voids (usually meaning they are not naturally in place), and preserved wood and charcoal. Having wood in that context is practically unheard of. These stones make no sense because they have no tephra anywhere near them, but they make no sense as a natural happening either.
In case you have noticed various colored flags in the some of the photos that I've posted, and wondered what they mean, then here's your answer: it depends. Orange flags mark every 50 meters on a large grid that overlays the country. They form the basis for laying out other colors of flags that different teams use for different things, and for general orientation. Generally red, white and blue flags mark 10- 5- or 1-meter lines, and people use them as guides when they carry instruments along them in straight lines.
In order to place the orange flags, one of our teams uses a GPS device to locate themselves in the field. Pink flags have been placed by an Icelandic archaeologist to mark known structures under the ground. Sometimes red flags show the backhoe driver where to dig. And lastly, most any flag color can be used in place of another if there's a shortage of one.
Tonight a number of people will be driving over to Skagastrond to attend a country-western festival. I'm not yet sure whether I will go or not. Tomorrow we have off, and a car load of us have tentative plans to drive down to Akureyri, the largest town in the north. It sounds like there might be enough things to do there for the day to keep us busy, but perhaps not. Cities here would be villages in the States.
It being Saturday today, we started late and ended early. But that didn't make it less frustrating. Occupying a shoulder-high trench all day looking at layers of dirt, trying to figure out what they mean, can be trying at times. For example, we have these layers of bright white tephra from 1104, but they show up in a bunch of mixed up layers. We believe this indicates they were in turf. But if they were in turf this way when it was used in the building, why, then, is this jumbled up layer pretty uniform? One would expect that a turf wall or roof would collapse into the house below in a big jumble. If the layers are natural, then why are they all jumbled and overlapping? One would expect tephra to land in a nice even layer. Indeed, one trench over, there is a beautiful nice clean bathtub-ring of tephra on each sidewall. I'll post a picture of the tephra layers as soon as I can so you can see what I'm talking about.
In addition, this trench happens to cut through a deposit of stones at its bottom, on one end. Amongst these stones are voids (usually meaning they are not naturally in place), and preserved wood and charcoal. Having wood in that context is practically unheard of. These stones make no sense because they have no tephra anywhere near them, but they make no sense as a natural happening either.
In case you have noticed various colored flags in the some of the photos that I've posted, and wondered what they mean, then here's your answer: it depends. Orange flags mark every 50 meters on a large grid that overlays the country. They form the basis for laying out other colors of flags that different teams use for different things, and for general orientation. Generally red, white and blue flags mark 10- 5- or 1-meter lines, and people use them as guides when they carry instruments along them in straight lines.
In order to place the orange flags, one of our teams uses a GPS device to locate themselves in the field. Pink flags have been placed by an Icelandic archaeologist to mark known structures under the ground. Sometimes red flags show the backhoe driver where to dig. And lastly, most any flag color can be used in place of another if there's a shortage of one.
Tonight a number of people will be driving over to Skagastrond to attend a country-western festival. I'm not yet sure whether I will go or not. Tomorrow we have off, and a car load of us have tentative plans to drive down to Akureyri, the largest town in the north. It sounds like there might be enough things to do there for the day to keep us busy, but perhaps not. Cities here would be villages in the States.
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