2. Na! Haladjunk már! (Come on! Let's go already!)

Well, that was an interesting week! As I reported in my last dispatch, we were able to work from Monday through Wednesday. But on Thursday things really hit the fan!

Just as we began to excavate the various units that we had uncovered earlier in the week, it started to rain. Then on Friday, it snowed several inches and the temperature dropped to -12° C (about 10° F). Saturday morning—after a spontaneous snowball fight broke out and the students built the compulsory project snowman—we sent a team out to see the site. It was a veritable winter wonderland (see Photo #1 below), but from an archaeological perspective, it was an absolute nightmare.

We had just gotten the plowzone stripped and were starting to get the team into a rhythm. Then we lost a full five days of work. We really can’t complain, though. Over the last three years, we've lost only a couple days to bad weather, and that's just unheard of in Hungary in the springtime. We used the opportunity to catch up on lab work, and finally by Tuesday morning we were able to get back out into the field. The road atop the levee that we normally used was inaccessible, so we had to walk three kilometers (almost two miles) through the mud just to get to the site.

After shoveling snow drifts and clearing chunks of ice off the tarps that we use to cover our excavation blocks (see Photo #2 below), we bailed out the several inches of water that had accumulated over the last week. Just as we began working, a vicious storm cell swept in—and within minutes we found ourselves in a hail and windstorm the likes of which I have never experienced (and I am from Chicago!) Drenched to the bone, we quickly tarped up the excavation blocks and started the long slog back to the cars in the rain and sleet.

Fortunately, the hailstorm did not last too long, and today we managed to get in a full day of work. Three of the excavation blocks fared very well, but FW1B1 was a pond (see Photo #3 below.) We decided to leave the FW1B1 block open in the hopes that it will dry out. Then, we moved the FW1B1 team to the northern blocks to help get the ball rolling with the longhouse.

This weekend two of our specialists arrive—Takis Karkanas and Apostolos Sarris. Takis is a micromorphologist who will study the stratigraphic layers of the tell at a microscopic level. To prepare the site for his work, we need to re-open the tell trench that we excavated last year (but then backfilled at the end of the year). Apostolos will continue the magnetometry survey to help us define the outer edges of this massive village. We need to get things ready for him and are hopeful that the weather will cooperate at the end of the week. Unfortunately, the forecast calls for rain on Thursday and, unbelievably, snow on Friday.

More soon, (cross your fingers!)
Bill