Earlier in the semester I went to a seminar presented by member of the Royal Army. After dating several military guys and knowing quite a few more this seminar hit close to my heart. These soldiers have set up a program to use archaeology as a rehabilitation program for soldier suffering from PTSD or depression. They brought the soldiers to a site and set it up as a military operation. They were taught all of the skills they needed and conducted a full excavation. At the end of the seminar one of the soldier who had gone through this program shared his story and told everyone that if it was not for this program he would have committed suicide. It had taught him skills that were applicable to many jobs and applied everything he learned in the military while giving him a sense of purpose.
I got the opportunity to participate in the beginnings of one of these excavations. Soldiers were present, but none who really suffered from anything. Everyone had an interest in it and it was nice to get to teach people what I knew. Low level archaeologists such as myself don't really get an opportunity to teach people anything. That is usually left to the supervisors and lead archaeologists. The dig was in Wales, in the city of Caerwent (Pronounced Carwen). I got up at the ripe time of 6am to be picked up at 7am. I was in and out of consciousness, but surprisingly to anyone who knows me I was in a great mood!
We got to the site and spent the entire day clearing off trees and sticks and everything else imaginable. We found a pile of tin and we were instructed to dig it out. My Dad will be proud of me for pointing out to every single guy on the site that they were shoveling in the incorrect way and proceeded to show them all how it was done and out-shoveled a very beefy 26 year old military man. That how Americans roll I guess. Underneath the tin we discovered an odd feature and we got to dig. I actually got to trowel!!!! The lead archaeologist stepped aside and told me to go for it. It was nice to have that opportunity. While working for my Dad is great I don't really get the opportunity to do much trowelling myself. It's more the people who know what they're doing due to time constraints. I'm there for brute force, all 120 feisty lbs of me.
The digs for the soldiers are more centered around making sure everyone gets to try something new and hone their skills. They are under time constraints, but everything is so efficient that things get done sooner than planned so there's time to teach people new things. Speaking of new things, I got to learn how to operate a magnetometer and a ground penetrating radar machine! I looked like I was dragging around a pathetic vacuum cleaner while imitating a scene from Ghostbusters, but it was pretty cool nevertheless.
Later that day we went back and were discussing plans for dinner. I got an agonizing pain in my stomach and was driven to the nearest hospital or A&E as they call it. Spent 8 hours there in various stages of pain from my stomach, the nurse who couldn't find my vein after 4 tries, an IV drip of some kind of drug one step below morphine and from throwing up due to all the drugs I was on.
8 hours later: no idea what was wrong with me except "you have an abdominal infection" Why THANK you! I couldn't have figured that out by myself... Long story short. I'm fine now and back in Leicester. I had to take a LOT of medication and discovered codeine (don't worry it was prescribed to me) does hilarious things to me. For example, Laura (my best friend) spent the night with me to make sure I was okay and did not need to go back to the hospital. I ended up serenading myself singing my own version of jingle bells while accompanying myself by banging my lamp cord against my wall as a musical instrument simulation. Imagine Laura's face walking back into the room to that. Apparently I was a priceless spectacle to witness. Never want to experience that again that's for sure.
All in all I learned a lot that weekend. 1: Wales is gorgeous and they have a castle that hosts jousting competition. 2: My abdomen hates me. 3: Drugs are bad. 4: I have some great friends I wouldn't trade for the world. Yes that's cheesy, but you can tell who your true friends are when they spend 8 hours in the emergency room with you and wake up in the night just to check if you're okay.
I almost forgot!!! Every road sign is in Welsh and English. We had a field day trying to pronounce everything. For example spring water is: ffynnon yrystog. Several towns are called: Blaenau Ffestiniog, Ebbw Vale, Machynnllyth, Usk, and Ystradgynlais. Good luck pronouncing those lovely names. As we said on the drive there and back "Oh look! We're now in the town of.... asdknnefwuit...fffg...gll....?"
Showing posts with label fort. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fort. Show all posts
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Hadrian's Wall
For those of you who regularly read this... if there are any... I'm sorry I've been way too busy to update this. I will try to keep these weekly as best I can from now on.
Hadrian's Wall. Everyone has heard of it, but I'm pretty sure the majority of the world has no idea 1. how expansive it is and 2. how many more sites, forts, outposts, turrets, etc are associated with it. On my trip (October 27-29) We visited around 7-9 different sites along the wall. We started, all 12 of us, at Arbeia. It was a fort along the wall and all that remains is the reconstructed gate and the outlines of the rooms around the area. This was no ordinary gate! Oh no. It was reconstructed and turned into a museum so you could go in it and see what it was like to be posted up there. We toured the barracks and got to see all of the different layouts that were possible, since no one really knows. How typical of archaeological sites!
We then ventured on to see a part of the wall that was built back to it's original height... upwards of 26-30 feet. If I was a Scottish barbarian I would be slightly discouraged... not to mention the archers waiting to shoot me while safely behind a stone wall and the spikes coming out of the ground that would have acted as barbed wire. Not exactly the most welcoming of sites, but today it is pretty cool! The whole wall stretches 81 miles across England. We started at one end and made it about 40 miles inland, by car of course.
The first night there, my friends Mike and Angelo took a night walk with me. Those of you back home may not realize what dark means until you go to North Umberland. When they say dark, they MEAN dark. I had to flash my camera to actually see if I was still on the road. It was something out of a horror movie, but with a better ending in my case. However, on our way back we were vocally attacked by a cow. We were walking along minding out own business and then Voldemort was reincarnated in this cow. It... moo-ed at us... but it was the most demonic moo it could possibly have uttered. Scared the living crap out of 2 men and then me. I have a weird feeling farmers up there secretly train their cattle and sheep to haunt passerby in the middle of the night. Must get a kick out of it.
After the excitement, we decided to walk back, but we couldn't help but stop and stare at the stars. I have never seen so many in my entire life. For the first time in my life, I saw a shooting star. There's just nothing like it. So of course being the educated MA students that we are, we decided to lay down in the middle of the road to watch them. Unfortunately, someone was driving full speed down the road and we scrambled to jump into the ditch. I really wonder what the person in the car thought was going on. He saw us run from the road and then as he passed Angelo was waving like nothing had happened, I was halfway up a tree gripping on to it for dear life, and Mike was in the ditch with his butt in the air because fell over.... I'll just leave you with that mental image.
The next day was spent exploring more forts and then we walked along the wall for 5 miles. Seems like a simple enough task. Mother nature decided the steep hills and cliffs weren't enough for us archaeologists. She added some wind, rain, and extreme cold for us as well! The view was unimaginable. I wish my pictures did it justice. I will post a few but WOW. It is definitely not a site to miss if you ever get the chance. I hope to hike the entire wall one day! Yes, all 81 miles! The walk was so wet that my shoes dyed my feet blue and yellow.... Yep, definitely wished I had listened to my Dad and brought along my hiking boots. Oops.
To get a little deeper.... Hiking the wall in those conditions, which was typical of Northern England, really put into perspective how it used to be not just manning the posts, but also what it was like to haul that much stone which was extremely heavy, that far. The hills there are no joke. It was a tough climb, definitely rewarding, but I couldn't imagine doing it over and over carrying literally tons of rocks. It gives you a whole new appreciation of the past. They were very dedicated to this project and it gives a whole new interpretation to putting blood, sweat, and tears into an undertaking.
Hadrian's Wall. Everyone has heard of it, but I'm pretty sure the majority of the world has no idea 1. how expansive it is and 2. how many more sites, forts, outposts, turrets, etc are associated with it. On my trip (October 27-29) We visited around 7-9 different sites along the wall. We started, all 12 of us, at Arbeia. It was a fort along the wall and all that remains is the reconstructed gate and the outlines of the rooms around the area. This was no ordinary gate! Oh no. It was reconstructed and turned into a museum so you could go in it and see what it was like to be posted up there. We toured the barracks and got to see all of the different layouts that were possible, since no one really knows. How typical of archaeological sites!
We then ventured on to see a part of the wall that was built back to it's original height... upwards of 26-30 feet. If I was a Scottish barbarian I would be slightly discouraged... not to mention the archers waiting to shoot me while safely behind a stone wall and the spikes coming out of the ground that would have acted as barbed wire. Not exactly the most welcoming of sites, but today it is pretty cool! The whole wall stretches 81 miles across England. We started at one end and made it about 40 miles inland, by car of course.
The first night there, my friends Mike and Angelo took a night walk with me. Those of you back home may not realize what dark means until you go to North Umberland. When they say dark, they MEAN dark. I had to flash my camera to actually see if I was still on the road. It was something out of a horror movie, but with a better ending in my case. However, on our way back we were vocally attacked by a cow. We were walking along minding out own business and then Voldemort was reincarnated in this cow. It... moo-ed at us... but it was the most demonic moo it could possibly have uttered. Scared the living crap out of 2 men and then me. I have a weird feeling farmers up there secretly train their cattle and sheep to haunt passerby in the middle of the night. Must get a kick out of it.
After the excitement, we decided to walk back, but we couldn't help but stop and stare at the stars. I have never seen so many in my entire life. For the first time in my life, I saw a shooting star. There's just nothing like it. So of course being the educated MA students that we are, we decided to lay down in the middle of the road to watch them. Unfortunately, someone was driving full speed down the road and we scrambled to jump into the ditch. I really wonder what the person in the car thought was going on. He saw us run from the road and then as he passed Angelo was waving like nothing had happened, I was halfway up a tree gripping on to it for dear life, and Mike was in the ditch with his butt in the air because fell over.... I'll just leave you with that mental image.
The next day was spent exploring more forts and then we walked along the wall for 5 miles. Seems like a simple enough task. Mother nature decided the steep hills and cliffs weren't enough for us archaeologists. She added some wind, rain, and extreme cold for us as well! The view was unimaginable. I wish my pictures did it justice. I will post a few but WOW. It is definitely not a site to miss if you ever get the chance. I hope to hike the entire wall one day! Yes, all 81 miles! The walk was so wet that my shoes dyed my feet blue and yellow.... Yep, definitely wished I had listened to my Dad and brought along my hiking boots. Oops.
To get a little deeper.... Hiking the wall in those conditions, which was typical of Northern England, really put into perspective how it used to be not just manning the posts, but also what it was like to haul that much stone which was extremely heavy, that far. The hills there are no joke. It was a tough climb, definitely rewarding, but I couldn't imagine doing it over and over carrying literally tons of rocks. It gives you a whole new appreciation of the past. They were very dedicated to this project and it gives a whole new interpretation to putting blood, sweat, and tears into an undertaking.
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