King of the Mountain

Today I did it, I walked up and back without stopping, with a few minor quibbles. On the way back, I started from a different pit, but it’s about 10ft up and about 15ft away. I also stopped twice to get out of the way of a truck and once to pick up stuff to go up the mountain. I’m gonna call that good.

The castle, by the way, is called Markovi Kuli, which basically means Marco’s Castle. Marco was sort of a Macedonian Arthur, though I’m reminded more of Alexander Nevsky. I say Nevsky because Marco also helped fight to defend a homeland which was under the control of an outside ruler, Turks is the case of Marco, Mongols in the case of Nevsky. Anyway, as their last king, he’s an important figure in Macedonian history.

I’ve not been finding much of late, mostly because I’m not really at a level that will give much stuff. I did find a piece of medieval glass yesterday, and we’re convinced that a sizable piece of metal lies under one corner of my test pit. Today, I finished clearing off 15 centimeters of dirt in preparation for chasing that metal bit.

I took a day off from walking around yesterday, and the schedule got switched around a bit so we could go to bed early so I’m pretty refreshed right now. Tonight I’m guest lecturing on the differences between history/historiography and archaeology, which is mainly just viewpoint.

Now I’m headed off to buy some food for lunch tomorrow and maybe baklava, which is very tasty, inexpensive, and comes in many varieties here.

13 thoughts on “King of the Mountain”

  1. “I’ve not been finding much of late, mostly because I’m not really at a level that will give much stuff.”

    Ah yes, welcome to archaeology! πŸ˜‰

        1. As a whole, we’re finding lots of stuff. We’re discarding five buckets full of roof tile, pottery sherds, and ribbed industrial pipe pottery tomorrow after recording their number and weight. Plus we are finding a bunch of nice pottery and interesting other pieces which they’re keeping.

          Me? I just find roof tile, some pottery (not particularly interesting or nice), and bones.

          Yet I don’t think I’ve hit bedrock yet and stuff’s still coming out so I can’t complain. Plus my pit is in a lovely shaded spot.

          1. Have they made you taste the bones yet? πŸ˜‰ (it’s a way of determining if it actually is a bone- bone sticks, pottery and stones don’t)

          2. Yeah, as a matter of fact they showed me that trick the first day. I’ve tried it a couple of times. I’m not really worried about eating dirt, I’ve moved so much of it I suspect I’ve eaten quite a bit anyway πŸ™‚

  2. Baklava – yum!

    There is a fanastic little Lebanese resturant in Toronto where the baklava was lovely. Mouth watering at the thought of it.

        1. Thanks, I’ll go there next time I’m in the TO.

          BTW, what is your schedule again? I’m available to come over from the 27th to the 1st or so.

          1. That would be fine – after the 28th is best. I may be working, but we will see.

            Let me know what you would like to do. We have a car and English Heritage memberships, so a few days out would be grand. It has been over 100F the last few days… disgusting. Especially here… ug.

          2. OK, I’ll plan on coming up on the 28th. How do I get to your place? I have BritRail pass so I’ll be coming on the train.

            Looking forward to seeing you guys, but not looking forward to 100F πŸ™‚

          3. Hiya,

            the train to Redditch will get you to us and we will come pick you up from the station – hope you are ready for micro French cars!

            Our number is 01527 546614 or you can try my mobile 07890280182

            Let me know how it does. There are regular trains to Birmingham from London, and then it is a short ride down to Redditch from Birmingham.

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