We began field work for our 2011 Ceren season this Monday. A professional surveryor joined us on Monday with his students to located our old excavations and map in key points of interest for our research this year. On Tuesday 20 workers arrived at our house and we began a basic introduction to the site and our research. We are fortunate that of this group approximately 3/4ths worked with us in 2009. It is great to see old friends and to have our workers not just familiar with our work but also us already in the season. In previous seasons it took time for our workers to begin joking and talking with us, but this year it is immediate since we already have a relationship with so many of them.
We established 4 new test pits (3 m by 3m) along the southern boundary of the Ceren site yesterday. Quiz question' what is the hypotenus of a 3 x 3 m pit? :)
These pits are aligned in such a way as to hopefully intersect the agricultural fields we excavated south of the Ceren site in 2009. This is the first year we are excavating within the archaeological park boundary in many years. Being that Ceren is a United Nations World Heritage site, the opportunity to work within the site boundaries is truly special.
Our goal for this season is to identify further agricultural fields and assess the relationship between the fields and the site center. Most importantly, we are hopeful that this field season will allow us to futher identify and locate manioc (yuca) fields. These fields are very significant to our understanding of the ancient Maya, as no where else do we have evidence for this intensive cultivation of manioc. It is very likely manioc was a very important plant to the ancient Maya (particularly in times of drought) but it is extremely rare that this evidence would preserve to present day. Thus, these Ceren data afford an extremely important window on the agriculture of the ancient Maya. Agricultural production is more than just how people fed themselves. Food production has implications for all aspects of a group's life and lifestyle.
Today while excavating we found multiple Post Classic artifacts (mostly ceramic sherds) and one obsidian blade core (hopefully my photo will attach). We quickly moved through this Post Classic horizon and are now well into the Loma Caldera tephra sequence. Loma Caldera was the volcanic eruption that resulted in the burial (and amazing preservation) of Joya de Ceren.
Our work is off to a great start and I am so happy to be back in El Salvador. As usual, it took about a day to adjust to being here and most of that was spent trying to remember how to speak either English or Spanish. I am still in the transition between languages right now .. something I am terming Language Shock. In this phase I am speaking English and a Spanish word comes out of vise versa. Also, there are moments my brain is fried from working so hard to translate (especially when people are speaking very quickly) and I am left not knowing words in either English or Spanish! :) We are joking about this and enjoying the process or remembering and learning a non-native language and culture. We had so much fun on site today attempting to tell various riddles to each other. If you want to work on your language skills just try to tell complex riddles in that language! What fun. A favorite of the day was ¨"What is mine but other people use more often?" ...
Give up? The answer is my name! If you have any good ones please share since it is a wonderful way for all of us on site to connect through shared laughter and fun.
There are also many cultural differences that I will try to touch on next time when it comes to our work here, but for now just a brief hello from the field. I am covered in dirt, have too many ant bites, and am ready for a shower and a beer! Ain´t this archaeological life grand!
Chris
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