My first day working as an archaeologist
Aug. 27th, 2024 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaI was told that our work day begins at 08:00, so by 07:30 I was dressed and ready with plenty of food for the day in my backpack, and water bottles full. So were my three colleagues.
So we decided that Rasmus and I would go by the steel toe work shoes I need, and Åsa and Frida would stay at the apartment and try to convince the computer to cooperate with installing a program we need.
At the store they had a variety of different sorts of steel toed shoes. I had no idea what to get; I normally wear sandles till it is time to change into my snow boots, which are slip ons. So we started looking at the stacks of boxes to see what thwy have in size 40. The first pair we found fit, so we took them.
I asked if the had any 100% wool kong underwear, but the best they could do was 70%. But two doors down was another work clothing store, so we checked there, and they did have 100% wool long underwear, in box sets oof both top and bottom, so I took a set. Same price 999kr, as I nearly paid this summer for just the bottoms at a camping store, but that store won't take Swisk, only debit or credit cards, and I hadn't. Ine with me that day. Ironically, today's store takes Swisshh, but not debit or credit cards.
Then we went out to the job site and he took lots of before photos, while I jotted down the photo number, what it is, and facing which compass direction, etc. Then we got the metal detector out and atarted pputtinf a little flag out for every place that registered higher than 10 on its screen. Half of the area soon was covered in lots of flags, and Rasmus and I went to the trailer for a fika pause while he wondered if we should change the settings on the machine to avoid some of those hits, as it really was too many.
Around then the others called, so we picked them up and they agreed it really was too msny flags, so we took them all away, save one chosen at random to check a bit later, and cleaned away a lot of lose branches that had been left after tree removal. Note: the E10 highway is about to be widened and a bike path put in, during which project the trees will be taken out anyway, these just got a head start
Before checking the flagged area, I went around the premiter of the designated field area and marked the boundary with blue and yellow tape thst says "Fornlämning", using the Förnsök app to compare my current location with the polygon on the map.
https://app.raa.se/open/fornsok/
Meanwhile the others were discussing the plan of attack and laying out reference points and such. When I finished marking the area (and taking off the old red tape that had marked the general area before the forestry crew came in and removed the trees in the area for us) I joined Rasmus to check the remaining flag from the morning's metal detection.
He got out the little hand held wand shaped metal detector and we lifted away the plant matter from the area that had caused it to beep. All we found there was a couple of modern looking glass bits and a couple of tiny stones. Then we took lunch.
After lunch we took the big detector and looked for another area to check, and found a bottle cap. We repeated the procss a few times, but found only modern scrap: aluminium foil, bottle caps, beer cans, nails, and an old broken hacksaw blade.
Eventually, he left me to do a few more tests in my own while he climbed a tree to saw off some limbs that were in the way. Sion there after ir was time for fika
By then the others had finished marking dividing lines through the middle of each hearth, labeling which way is north, and the RAÄ numbers of each hearth. Therefore, after fika and cleaning away partbof an old down tree that would otherwise be in the way for the digger to come in tomorrow, we decided to roll up the layer of plant matter for a 1 meter wide strip to expose half of each hearth and the area to either side of it.
This process involved first using the shovel to cut the ground along the marked boundary lines, then carefully rolling up the plants as a second person used oruni g shears to release the roll from dwep roots
After clearing the plants away from each herth we had enougv time left to drive over to look briefly atvthe other two ares in which we will be working.
So we decided that Rasmus and I would go by the steel toe work shoes I need, and Åsa and Frida would stay at the apartment and try to convince the computer to cooperate with installing a program we need.
At the store they had a variety of different sorts of steel toed shoes. I had no idea what to get; I normally wear sandles till it is time to change into my snow boots, which are slip ons. So we started looking at the stacks of boxes to see what thwy have in size 40. The first pair we found fit, so we took them.
I asked if the had any 100% wool kong underwear, but the best they could do was 70%. But two doors down was another work clothing store, so we checked there, and they did have 100% wool long underwear, in box sets oof both top and bottom, so I took a set. Same price 999kr, as I nearly paid this summer for just the bottoms at a camping store, but that store won't take Swisk, only debit or credit cards, and I hadn't. Ine with me that day. Ironically, today's store takes Swisshh, but not debit or credit cards.
Then we went out to the job site and he took lots of before photos, while I jotted down the photo number, what it is, and facing which compass direction, etc. Then we got the metal detector out and atarted pputtinf a little flag out for every place that registered higher than 10 on its screen. Half of the area soon was covered in lots of flags, and Rasmus and I went to the trailer for a fika pause while he wondered if we should change the settings on the machine to avoid some of those hits, as it really was too many.
Around then the others called, so we picked them up and they agreed it really was too msny flags, so we took them all away, save one chosen at random to check a bit later, and cleaned away a lot of lose branches that had been left after tree removal. Note: the E10 highway is about to be widened and a bike path put in, during which project the trees will be taken out anyway, these just got a head start
Before checking the flagged area, I went around the premiter of the designated field area and marked the boundary with blue and yellow tape thst says "Fornlämning", using the Förnsök app to compare my current location with the polygon on the map.
https://app.raa.se/open/fornsok/
Meanwhile the others were discussing the plan of attack and laying out reference points and such. When I finished marking the area (and taking off the old red tape that had marked the general area before the forestry crew came in and removed the trees in the area for us) I joined Rasmus to check the remaining flag from the morning's metal detection.
He got out the little hand held wand shaped metal detector and we lifted away the plant matter from the area that had caused it to beep. All we found there was a couple of modern looking glass bits and a couple of tiny stones. Then we took lunch.
After lunch we took the big detector and looked for another area to check, and found a bottle cap. We repeated the procss a few times, but found only modern scrap: aluminium foil, bottle caps, beer cans, nails, and an old broken hacksaw blade.
Eventually, he left me to do a few more tests in my own while he climbed a tree to saw off some limbs that were in the way. Sion there after ir was time for fika
By then the others had finished marking dividing lines through the middle of each hearth, labeling which way is north, and the RAÄ numbers of each hearth. Therefore, after fika and cleaning away partbof an old down tree that would otherwise be in the way for the digger to come in tomorrow, we decided to roll up the layer of plant matter for a 1 meter wide strip to expose half of each hearth and the area to either side of it.
This process involved first using the shovel to cut the ground along the marked boundary lines, then carefully rolling up the plants as a second person used oruni g shears to release the roll from dwep roots
After clearing the plants away from each herth we had enougv time left to drive over to look briefly atvthe other two ares in which we will be working.