As the end of trip draws near, the exhaustion is setting in. To start, my visit to Sockburn was enlightening in many ways. The weather was beautiful, unlike the disgusting weather we had experienced earlier that week. Two other girls from the field school were also there. Compared to Binchester, working at Sockburn was very simple and tame. The trenches were smaller and there was only one supervisor, an archaeologist named Sarah Semple from Durham University. I really liked her because she was really patient with our questions! I learned a lot more about the relationship between the changes in soil and the deposition of various objects such as rocks and pottery.
Also, the owners of Sockburn were very kind and generous. At the digs, we generally have tea time at 11 am and lunch at 1:30 pm. At tea time, they actually served us tea. The Sockburn estate is beautiful, but needs renovation. The owners were telling us that it would be really expensive, but in order for the place to generate money through tourism, it needed some major repairs.
Another interesting thing I learned is the Sockburn Worm, which is rumored to have been slain by the owner of Sockburn in the medieval period. Also, this creature may have influenced the creation of the Jabberwocky from Lewis Carroll's book, Alice in Wonderland.
On Saturday, Beth was kind enough to drive us to Alnwick Castle, where the exterior shots of Harry Potter were filmed. Needless to say, I was super excited. While it was fun to match up the different places from the film, the history of the castle became a lot more interesting than the HP stuff. Though we had a tour guide for the state rooms, I found it a lot more interesting to explore with my friends. It was our first castle, and I will always remember it!
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| Alnwick Castle or Hogwarts |
The massive treehouse was also loads of fun, especially when we made the rope bridge shake! It was really scary but thrilling!
Then Beth took us to Barter Books, where I drooled over the shelves of books: old and new!
After that, we went to what I believe is the best part of the trip, Alnmouth Beach. We walked along the shore, collected shells and sea glass, and just enjoyed the sea breeze.
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| Erin and Adam being silly |
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| Alnmouth Beach, the North Sea |
After Beth dropped us off, we ended that night by having dinner at La Spaghettata, a cheesy but cheap Italian restaurant! The food wasn't that great, but only because I ordered a dish that had mussels in it. I don't really like mussels :(
On Sunday, we on another field trip with the rest of field trip. It was in Newcastle and we visited two museums. The first one was on a former Roman military fort called Segundum. The best part of this visit was the reconstructed baths! I loved pretending that I was an everyday Roman just walking into this structure, hoping to socialize with others. Too bad it wasn't an actual bath!
On Monday, Fiona and David from the International Office took us to dinner at Zen, a Thai restaurant. The food was really great! I ordered the hottest item on the menu because as much as I enjoy the food at St. Johns, the Bengali in me really missed spicy food. The company was even better. Fiona bought along her super adorable daughter, Aila, who seemed to hit it off with Erin! And it was really fascinating to hear David's overseas stories. It must be really fun to be able to travel to different places, to experience the different food, and to interact with different people.
The rest of the week for the most part was spent at the dig! We had no field trips with David Petts, who is awesome for being able to put up with our silliness. But I actually did very little digging, because around the section in which I was working, Jamie, my supervisor, moved us along to the recording process.
He was kind enough to show Erin, me, and Adam how to use the survey equipment, in order to record small finds. Then I cleaned some rocks for two days :( I was really terrible at it. But then Kelsey gave me some pointers, and I improved (hopefully). After I finished cleaning (on Tuesday and Wednesday), on Thursday, I filled out a context sheet. I know I must have really annoyed Jamie with all my questions. But I was by myself, when most people usually have someone with them on their first context sheet. But Erin, with whom I usually work, was out sick, along with Kelsey. So yeah, it was very frustrating. It took me the entire day. To be fair, I was also recording small finds at the same time.
I was told the context sheets get easier. I have a feeling it will, and in retrospect, Jamie and others in the trench were really helpful and patient with me. So I really did appreciate that. After the context sheet, I had the draw the plan of that same area. The drawing took about half a day on Friday to do. In my opinion, I think I took too long. But it was my first drawing. And I got lucky because there were other people in the trench who had to plan bigger areas.
After I finished the drawing, Jamie made some corrections and showed me how to record the height of rocks on the leveling machine. I had a little trouble with the whole centimeter and meter relationship (I'm sure I seemed a little ditzy to Jamie), but I figured it out eventually :)
Finally, after I went through all the trouble to record my section of rocks, I had the pleasure of dismantling it. Yay :( Incidentally, I found a rock that displayed evidence of architectural refinement. So it could be the corner of a building. But, being the klutz that I am, I emptied that same piece in a pile of rocks. Thankfully, Jamie was able to relocate it :)
Overall, week three, while it was my hardest week here, it was the week, in which I learned the most. I also got to know Jamie, my supervisor, better. It's amazing that he hasn't exploded yet, with a trench full of people who always seem to need him. I'm really thankful that he took the time to teach me how to record etc. He also took the time to explain how my section fits in with the bigger picture of trench two. So thanks Jamie :)
I'm exhausted. So I'll stop for now. But for my next post, I will give an account of this past weekend, as follows:
Saturday: Edinburgh woot woot!
Sunday: Lindisfarne and Bamburgh Castle
Monday: Kiln
Tuesday: Field trip to Warkworth Castle and Edlingham Castle with David Petts
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