The good news is that I’m finding stuff, the bad news is what I’m finding is fairly boring. I’m finding mostly roof tile fragments, bone fragments, and a few pottery pieces. Except for the bone, basically my stuff gets counted, weighed, and discarded. Nevertheless, I’m still finding stuff and I don’t think I’ve hit bedrock yet, though I might have.

Dr. Fuller has put up a temporary webpage with some pictures and notes about the dig. It’s at:
http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/marko2006.html

Last night they brought me a birthday cake (Black Forest) and sang me the song. Like everyone, I hate it when that song is sung to me. I even had it happen twice, as they sang it to me when the bus broke down. It was, however, a great birthday and one I will remember and appreciate for some time.

We even got to hear about artifacts they have discovered in a dig in Novgorod while eating my cake. That rocked. I’m very excited about the boots they found there as they look exactly like my fighting boots and if I recall correctly are dated to the 10th century. My boots might not be so wrong after all. I’m going to check on that some more when I get back.

Tomorrow it’s back to moving dirt. I’m about to start my third and likely final Locus. A Locus is a level of a dig so that the artifacts and the paperwork can be kept organized and the context preserved. It won’t be final if I find something really cool, so wish me extra paperwork. Just this one time, though.