Stuff

Everybody likes and hates 'stuff'. We write about 'stuff', we talk about 'stuff' and we do 'stuff'. As an archaeologist, I like to find 'stuff' but before that I like to drink 'stuff' (I'm human before archaeologist)

Last I posted, I had just left the duke of york after drinking some 'stuff' an electrician named Billy bought me...

(This is some of the local 'stuff' from Coleraine--a town also known as Cold-Rain for it's propensity of cold-wet 'stuff')
...and was on my way to drink more 'stuff' with my co-workers--the picture below really captures the way things look when you drink that much 'stuff'.


"...I-I-I think I heard something...In the woods behind me...Oh God! I'm so scared!"--crappy acting from 'the blaire witch project' or a close facsimile there of...and 'stuff'.

All out of 'stuff' to drink...yep, I felt the same way Al.

So, off we went to our respective spots to pass/black-out till the full bladder or the queasy stomach woke us up for our respective hangovers...


But that's not all, I also got to do 'stuff' this week that I don't normally get to do like visit another site that has something to do with my dissertation--It has Mesolithic 'stuff' on it so my boss arranged for me to go see it. (Alright, I'm dropping the 'stuff' bit cuz its starting to annoy me!)
I am not going to give too much info on these pics as I promised the director of this site that I would run things by him before putting them in my dissertation--I will afford him the same respect for my blog as this site is really spectacular and is not completely excavated yet. It is enough to say that the site may have an early Mesolithic component and may show continuous use through to the Bronze age but, again, these determinations have yet to be made for certain through carbon-dating and specialist scrutiny (this is not to say specialists haven't seen the site yet only that the final reports are not complete blah blah blah)

The site location.


Some of the boggy stratigraphy.


A water-logged in-situ woven reed fish-trap.
A drawing of the trap.
A photo of the trap...from what I could see of the trap it originally was well over a meter in length and was conical in shape with the widest opening being roughly half a meter.
A sample of some of the lithics recovered here.
Mesolithic Bann flake
Bann flake.
Polished stone pendant.
Polished flint pendant.
A very large stone axe that was possibly broke during production and subsequently salvaged for flakes for other tools.
Flint blade.
A couple Neolithic hollow scrapers.
A very thin bi-face tool (I may be using American terminology here--basically the tool has been worked from both faces)
Flint scraper.
Bone pin--you can still see a good bit of the polish on the surface.
Some Neolithic pottery--exterior.
Same piece interior--I think some analysis might be made on the organic build-up on the interior surface.
A rolled rim from another Neolithic pot.


The director of the site was extremely helpful and seemed genuinely interested in exchanging info regarding the site. He also pointed me in some good directions for research on my dissertation. I just wish that I could have spent a lot more time on the site (like maybe a month.) All in all, a day worth twice my going rate! So, special thanks to Audrey (my boss) and John our project manager for setting up the little excursion and a big thanks to Matt, the director of the site for sharing his thoughts and thanks to his supervisor and lab folk for showing me what they have been working on.

After the disertation and the site reports are both complete I may republish these photos with more info but for now this will do--so enjoy the eye candy for the moment, the brain candy can come later.

Anyways, off to bed... n 'stuff' (HA!)
Later