Under the Honduran Sun

Dear Readers, today was our first day of excavations out at Sinsimbla. We broke ground in three different excavation units across the site, beginning exploration of Structure 5 and continuing our work on Structures 1 and 9 from the 2009 season. Appropriately for our first day of really hard work, it was blisteringly hot and humid. But nothing could dampen the spirits of our intrepid crew!

First we had to lay out our new excavation units by triangulating the corners from an established point perpendicular to the structures we planned to investigate:


Then, Inga, Ivy, Thomas, and Miranda tackled a mountain of gigantic tumbled cobbles on Structure 1 and struggled with identifying stratigraphic levels on the steeply sloping face of the decaying building.



Over behind Structure 5 Eric, Emily, Ben, and Sandra dove into the new excavations, sinking a test pit in a veritable shady grove in search of a midden (prehistoric trash deposit). Denton, Tomoe, Meredith, and Bill blistered in the shade-less purgatory on the west side of Structure 9, troweling through small tumble to get to a fallen bajareque (adobe) wall visible in the exposed profile from 2009. All of the excavation teams moved through 10-20cm of soil and recovered a number of interesting artifacts. Not at all bad for our first day of work :)

Meanwhile, the students are beginning to learn about washing and processing artifacts, taking detailed field notes, and exploring the bustling metropolis (okay, really small town) of Jesus de Otoro. The girls are living with the project directors in our palatial project house (PADO central), while the boys have made themselves comfortable at their bachelor pad a few blocks away. They have already adopted a family of chickens living in their backyard (the most intrepid of which they have named Maximus).

We're eating well, thanks to the ministrations of our cocinera, Dona Pasquale, and we even had water running in the showers when we got home from the field today!

Abrazos till next time!