Things Everyone Should Be Afraid Of....

or the reason why anti-anxiety medication is now advertised on television.

(compiled with the help of Tom)
1. Galaxies colliding with the Milky Way
2. Asteroids
3. Hemorrhoids
4. Aliens
5. Bees
6. Bird Flu
7. pharmaceutical ads
8. terrorists
9. Oreo being an alien
10. The vague, implausible, and rather paranoid fear that my reading glasses will catch the sun just right and fry my eyeballs.
11. Clowns
12. Pedophiles
13. open manholes
14. getting hit by a bus
15. the government
16. The Man
17. God
18. the Devil
19. Evangelists
20. The Illuminati
21. UFOs
22. Bigfoot
23. Nessie
24. germs (in general)
25. Bird Flu
26. E. coli
27. Ebola
28. Malaria
29. Tuberculosis
30. AIDS
31. Ass cancer
32. Gerbils
33. Richard Gere (if you hadn't already made the association between 31 and 32)
34. The Rapture
35. Being "Left Behind"
36. Enjoying anything with "Left Behind" in the title
37. Video Games
38. Sin
39. Fun

I am totally taping this...

It goes on for 180 minutes...I think I may have found a cure for my insomnia...

Merry Xmas everyone!

Boredom, Insomnia, and a Bot

Ask it the proper question with sufficient frequency:



Or discuss the merits of Star Trek TOS...


For real, Santa Bot, for real...

Parasite Free!!!!

So, I got the labs back last week. Turns out I did not bring any extra souvenirs back with me from Sudan. Problems were caused by the antibiotics we were taking to prevent malaria. So, I should be fine in a few weeks.

The conference this weekend seems to have been a success. Now it's back to work for me, getting ready to teach at Tulane over the summer.

Gross

No account of my excavations overseas would be complete without the inevitable health problems that occur.

So far, nothing really bad, but as anyone who read my journal entries from the trip will know, doxycycline is the devil. To illustrate, here is a recent picture of my thumbnails.





Note the lovely yellow color, weird shiny-ness, and the fact that they'll probably fall off soon. This, boys and girls, is what a sunburn through the nail looks like. So, yeah. Next season, I either go into debt or risk a psychotic break on one of the other available options.

In other news, I've had to go to the doctor since I'm feeling a little under the weather and don't want to risk it being something serious. I love these trips.

Doctor: "You've been where?"
Me: "In Sudan. Not Darfur. Not around refugees. In the desert. Doing archaeological salvage work."
Doctor: "So, you're an archaeologist?"
Me: "Yeah, more or less."
Doctor: "That's pretty cool."

Fast forward through medical history questions, etc.

Doctor: "You went swimming in the Nile!?!?!?!?!?!"
Me: "What part of we were living in a local village without running water, and only intermittent electricity did you not understand? I'd been bathing in it, washing clothes in it, and washing dishes in it for months."
Doctor: "You used Nile water?!?!?!?!"
Me: "I didn't drink the shit (that was Tom's thing...). Look, what the hell was I supposed to do? Not bathe for 2 damn months? Go dowsing for another water source on my days off? Introduce modern infrastructure to a village that's going to be torn down in a few months?"

Anyway, I wouldn't mind so much - but some of these people are supposed to specialize in travel medicine. Is it too much to ask that they actually...I dunno...travel? I mean, to somewhere other than Paris for the weekend?

By the time they get themselves sorted out and I sort out where I can go on our damn insurance, I'll either be well or will have had something the likes of Alien jump out of my stomach. If the latter, I can only hope it does that at the conference I'm going to end of next week. And that it latches on to the face of a certain someone there....

19 March and random thoughts

Khartoum, 1:30 AM, 19 March
Last day in Khartoum. Have decided sleeping is pointless as we need to leave for the airport at 4 AM. Such a lovely season. So many memories, not all of them recorded. Finished check-in at the National Museum yesterday. I swear we did 2 days worth of work in 4 hours. I was a trifle irritable by the time we were done, but got over that quickly. Just stress.
Lovely dinner last night at M’s house. Much laughing and chatting. All us girls tried on traditional Sudanese thobs with much hilarity. I joined the guys outside for shisha. M made a crack about T’s “zip” and I laughed. It seems that during our time in Karima at Murtada’s house the guys were hanging out in the kitchen exchanging euphemisms for various body parts. This would explain why, when I stuck my head in to ask T for something, I was greeted with sheepish, guilty stares and utter silence until I left them to it. “Zip” apparently is a term for penis. Anyway, when I laughed, M looked shocked and said, “you told her????!!!!!” Pretty funny.
M’s elder sister (Henneh?) came outside at one point and demanded we tell her that her tea was good – part of an earlier joke about M never complimenting her cooking. Anyway, I didn’t reply fast enough so she yells “Hey, Umm Shisha, say ‘good tea’.” Funny moment anyway, made funnier by the fact that “shisha” is a euphemism for ass. (And the first person to call me “Mother of Ass” is going to get his handed to him…) Then Henneh started asking M if any of the team was paired up. M said, “Well, T and J are married.” She thought that was awesome and them promptly started badgering us about having kids while M laughed.
One of M’s nieces decided that T looks like Chuck Norris. That’s going to be a long running gag.
Both Khartoum’s football teams won games last night, so getting back to the Acropole was a bit challenging. Got stuck in a traffic jam comprised of regular traffic and jubilant fans complicated by a fender bender. Eventually some guys decided to help the khawaji get home to bed and directed traffic so we could move.
Shopping at Omdurman Suq today – incense burners, scarves, a dress, and shisha pipe. Dinner tonight at an Indian restaurant. I just realized that I’ve only ever had Indian food in Africa.
Along the lines of the “zip” conversation, when T was telling me about the various new vocabulary he had acquired, he came up with a new euphemism himself. Jerry cans for boobs. After I stopped laughing, I told him he was probably out of luck on that front.
Guess I’ll throw in a few other random events here. Mostly ongoing stuff or things I can’t quite place in the calendar or things that have stuck particularly in my mind, probably some repetitions from journal entries:

- G trying and never being able to really smoke a cigar.
- Pandemonium at Khartoum luggage claim.
- Various people’s zippers breaking at various times. By the end of the season, apparently some people had a 10 minute long ordeal just to get their flies to stay up. Dust sucks
- G telling me in Karima, as we walked past a line of men at prayers: “Hey, look, they’re all bowing down to you.” Which nearly got me run over by a car as I stared at him in shock and tried not to laugh.
- Worries about the Manasir and others who don’t want to leave the 4th Cataract, or at least don’t want to move to the crappy land the government wants to give them. Ahmed Babakir saying that they’ll fight.
- Realizing that we’ll probably never see the village or most of the people we met there again.
- The workmen saluting me. No idea what that was about.
- The “gerush girl.” Little girl who hung around our house, usually demanding money (“gerush”) from people and being generally annoying. She liked me, though, and would stand in the gateway blowing kisses and share popcorn with me.
- Random guy passing through the site at HG who tried to sell me a freshly caught fish. I sent him to G.
- Walking through the courtyard at the dokhan one afternoon with T and seeing a guy who, I swear to God, looked just like Shaft. And then having to listen to T sing the song the rest of the day.
- Trying to explain sexual innuendo jokes to M.
- Sadomastic Paint
- Taking my kerchief off one day at the site to re-adjust it and the looks of awe from the workmen, quickly followed by them encouraging me to put the kerchief back on. Quickly. Apparently girls aren’t supposed to have afros around here.
- Abdullah and Ramalli borrowing my sunglasses.
- Yassir decorating every stationary or slow-moving target in reach with the Sharpie T gave him.
- G humming all the damn time.
- Riding on a mattress crammed in the back of the Land Cruiser.
- Squat toilets
- Swimming in the Nile
- G getting frustrated with the workmen refusing to call him by name and shouting across the site “What the hell am I? A monkey?”
- M confiding that he couldn’t figure out what the hell a certain member of our team was talking about most of the time, which worried him until he figured out that we didn’t know either.
- Elbow fights
- Yassir responding to nearly everything with “oooooooh, woooooow.”
- Ramalli and Abdullah
- Asir, Babakir, Gamar, and Idris helping me learn Arabic and hiding out behind the rocks ditching work.
- The yellow tea pitcher that refused to die. (Which is now enshrined in the office…)
- Random fish-mongers


And again, here's a link to a Picasa photo album of select photos. Some of the best are actually not ones we took, so friends, do let me know if you want to be subjected to a slide-show via IM or something.

Sudan 2007

14 - 15 March

Karima, Wednesday, 14 March
Went for tour of Kendall’s work at Gebel Barkal yesterday. Very intriguing. Hashem, our cook the past few weeks, had us to his house in Karima for tea. Wonderful. Off to Kerma today. Still need to finish packing a few odds and ends and inventory the dig supplies, house stuff, etc., that we’re leaving behind. G and T kindly inventoried most of the dig supplies for me yesterday while I was lying down trying to kill a migraine.

Redwan’s House, Tombos, Thursday, 15 March
Brief note: After calls from multiple mosques this morning I am immensely grateful that Christians don’t do the call to prayer. “Morning, y’all, it’s time to offer up your prayer to the Lord.” I can just picture it. Women fighting over who got the honor (or whose husband go the honor). Mega churches competing to see who had the best sound system. I bet that huge cross thing in Effingham would be audible in Chicago if they did that.
Long, bumpy ride across the Nubian Desert to get here yesterday, through a sandstorm, no less. Not a bad one, but enough for Mubarak, the guy who replaced Bomba as our primary driver, to tell me I needed to wash my face when we stopped for lunch. ☺ I apparently attract filth. (And if that’s not an open-ended opportunity to make cracks about T, I don’t know what is…)
Scrambled around the Western Defuffa today. Lots of mudbrick pictures for a certain friend.

Kerma, 10:50 AM, Thursday, 15 March
Sitting on one of the reconstruction outlines of an ancient building near the Defuffa. Lovely morning scrambling around the rocks at Tombos to see various inscriptions. Beautiful Nile views. Awesome quarrying areas. And I got to play with a puppy. (I miss ours.)
As we drive through the towns around here, people stop and yell “Khawaja” (“foreigner!”) not in a hostile way, but it gets a little old. Anyway, on occasion we yell back “Sudani!” which usually gets a good laugh. Recently, though, G, sitting in the front of the Land Cruiser, leans out the window and yells back at a woman “Hey, baby!” I reached forward and smacked him. He turned around and said “hey, I thought you were listening to music.” I told him that didn’t prevent me from knowing when he was acting like a jackass. ☺

5 - 13 March

AW, Monday, 5 March
Slow day. Took me all day to plan my tomb superstructure. Start excavating again tomorrow. Someone who shall remain nameless was cussing like a sailor today (all in good humor, he just does that sometimes). I said something to the effect of “Quit that, we don’t need the workmen (especially Yassir, who is a quick mimic) to add that to their repetoire.” To which that certain someone replied, with slow, careful enunciation: “What, you don’t want me to say ‘what the fuck’?” Which Yassir promptly repeated. Sigh. Between laughing, yelling at the instigator, and trying to tell Yassir not to do that again, T and I had quite a time. We have been trying to get the workmen to pick up the fist-punch “Respec” thing from Ali G though and go do it to G.
Decided yesterday on the perfect joke to play on G. There’s a yellow coffee/tea pitcher that leaks from the bottom. G keeps throwing it out and Bomba and now the new cook, Hashem, keep retrieving it and using it. G tossed it (for good, he thought) yesterday. I had a moment of divine (or should that be satanic?) inspiration and retrieved it. I’m going to have everyone on the team sign it and stick it on his desk back home.
G found an excellent scarab in one of his tombs today. Man facing off with a lion. Not sure if I’ll have time to dig another tomb before the end of the season. Have to help with object photography. Finish registering stuff. Finish survey. Pack. Not kill people. Looks like being a long week.

AW, Wednesday, 7 March
Only a few days to go until we leave next Tuesday. My tomb is shaping up nicely. Apparently at least 2 individuals and a lot of busted up pottery. One individual has what looks to be a (mostly) intact skull under a rock which amuses everyone who comes by for a look. Abdullah and Ramalli are doing really well. I’ve finally managed to convey that they are NOT TO DIG the minute they see something but to leave it in place and let me decide what to do.
My ankles are a mess courtesy of the kultep. Kultep are these nasty little biting flies – apparently they only show up for a few weeks of the year. Anyway, they bite, which sometimes stings and always leaves a little drop of blood on the skin surface. A few hours later the bite starts to itch abominably.
Fun and games with being vulgar. Mentioned I had finally found the edge of the burial shaft – I was getting “good cleavage.” Couple of the guys said they wished they had some. ☺ I offered to purchase WonderBras for them. Later on in the day, G came by to check up on my tomb and T’s and I yelled up to him “Hey, check out my awesome cleavage!” To which he replied, “I’m looking anywhere but directly at you right now.” To be truthful, my cleavage (as opposed to the soil cleavage in my tomb) is anything but awesome right now what with the weight loss and there not having been much there to start with.
Getting hotter and thus harder to keep working. I got quite a lot of registration done yesterday. Hope to finish my tomb by Friday so I can start on the packing up.

Karima, Tuesday, 13 March
Ended excavations and finished packing up yesterday and this morning. Trip to Karima went smoothly. Staying at Murtada’s house again. T and I rode in the back of the lorry. Made sure people got pictures so we can give our parents and the Risk Management people at the university nightmares. Did well finishing up my tomb. Turns out I had two humans, one in beautiful condition, one in craptastic condition and a ram. The ram was in equally craptastic condition and the craptastic person had his(?) arm wrapped around it which made getting it out and keeping bits separate a little challenging. As did the fact that just freakin’ looking at the bones wrong makes them turn to powder. Argh. Nothing for it. The joys of salvage work. Anyway, apparently the ram-as-teddy-bear thing is pretty common in graves in this region.
The last few days of excavation were pretty stressful. Trying to hurry and do a good job was hard enough but it seemed like we had dozens of random visitors from the village or nearby villages stopping by and wanting to chat. Ordinarily, I’m fine with that, but not when I’m running out of time. Had a couple of yelling moments. The first one was when I needed to share a screen with someone else. We placed it equidistant between our units and explained we were going to share it, but the other guy’s workman decided he was going to move it when I wasn’t looking. Abdullah and Ramalli noticed and told me, so I stood up out of the burial pit and yelled “La! Hinak!” (“No – There!) I was apparently more forceful than I had intended (I’d yelled mostly because of the wind and distance, not because I was particularly pissed) because the dude dropped the screen and scurried back to work. Abdullah and Ramalli looked at me with this combination of awe and surprise, figured out I wasn’t really mad, and started laughing. The second yelling moment was the next day, I think. One of the kids around here is a real punk ass (I don’t think he actually works for us, just wanders around bothering people.) Anyway, he was bugging Abdullah the other day while Abdullah was doing some fairly delicate work and I finally lost it when Abdullah slipped and messed something up (not really badly, but it upset him and he wouldn’t have slipped if the kid hadn’t distracted him). I yelled “Imshi!” (Essentially, “go the hell away.”) at the kid. The only other time I’ve ever said that to someone (when it wasn’t a well-understood joke) was when some kid tried to pick my pocket in Luxor. He wasn’t going to go until he got a look at my face and I started to stand up. Then he beat a hasty retreat. I think he went to bother T, or tell him his wife was crazy or something. Anyway, I calmed down and then Abdullah says in this wee little voice: “Abdullah ma tamam?” (“Abdullah isn’t good?”) And I had to very quickly assure him that no, Abdullah was awesome, (“Abdullah tamam! Abdullah tamam!!! Aywa!!!!) it was the other kid who was “ma tamam.” Not one of my finer moments. It’s really hard to work with random people standing around staring at you, arguing with each other, asking you for stuff they don’t really need, etc., especially when you only understand one word in ten and you’re working toward a deadline.
The random visitation thing extended to the house as well. Apparently the local women decided they wanted to check out our digs and just wandered around, thoroughly startling some of our team working at the house who thought they were mostly alone. ☺
Spent past few days in blazing heat (115°) helping G with photography. (“Dude, you dripped sweat on the drop cloth again…”) Yesterday’s session was helped along by us making vulgar comments about the teapot-like vessel we were photographing. Went swimming Sunday afternoon, rather mischievously “sneaking” out. Kultep have been awful the past week and were just as bad down at the river so it was a quick swim. I actually swam this time and even with the kultep it was worth it.
Had a party Sunday for our workmen complete with roasting an entire sheep and after lunch music provided by some of the workmen. Lots of good video of that. Mohammed Ali insisted that we do a repeat at his house with him as host which was a bit irritating in the end-season shuffle but also nice.
Mohammed Ali is nice, but a little…demanding of our attention and gets petulant if he thinks we aren’t paying him enough attention. T sort of got him back. One of the young donkeys kept running into Mohammed’s house. T went to tell him that the donkey was in there again and said what literally translated as “the house of the donkey” – forgivable given his limited knowledge of Arabic, but T knew exactly what he was saying. ☺
Anyway, lunch at Mohammed Ali’s was worth it if only for some of the photos, including one of G, Mohammed, and R looking for all the world like hostages being forced to say “we’re fine, everything is fine, they’ve been very good to us.”
Have just enjoyed some wonderful grapes and my first cold soda (or cold any sort of beverage) in weeks.
It’s supposed to get even hotter the next few days and then drop again. I’m very tired. We were planning on dinner at the Nubian Rest House this evening as an end-season treat but apparently they want $45 (US) a head which is just freakin’ crazy. (Found out later from M that the European bastards who run the place won’t let Sudanis in, even if they have the money to pay. Won’t let them book weddings there, won’t let them eat, etc. Glad we didn’t go. Bastards.)

24 February - 1 March

AW, Saturday, 24 February
So apparently G made a major faux pas with his Syrian Arabic on Thursday. He told his workmen to clear around the “ass” of a pot. M thought it was hysterical, especially when one of G’s workmen wandered over and asked if he (G) was an idiot or something. ☺ Worked at HG today. Morning spent helping T with the unit from hell. After lunch continued the Great Grindstone Survey with G. This would go a little more smoothly if we could remember where all of them are. As I didn’t really find most of them, I’m not particularly helpful when G asks “Where’s number X?”
“How the hell should I know? I was digging another damn empty hole when you found it.” ☺
Nor is the situation helped by T singing “She’s a Grindstone Cowboy” everytime we come into earshot.
It’s gotten almost unbearably hot the past 2 days. I was immensely grateful for the irrigation channel running along the edge of the site today. Nile water is nice and cold and very good for dipping kerchiefs in. Only problem was the thing dried out within 5 minutes of me putting it back on my head. Went swimming in the Nile this afternoon. Well, T and G swam, I waded in up to my waist.
G and T had fun teasing me about forgetting to a “t” in “Unregistered” on the sign I put on the cabinet so people will know where to put their stuff so I can register it. Decided to continue the fun by singing snatches of Gold Digger at me, complete with what can only be called a grunt “ungh” until I nearly fell out of my chair while I was trying to edit attribute tables. Yet another song I won’t be able to listen to without laughing for reasons totally unrelated to the lyrics…
Noticed while doing the photo log data entry that G decided that suitable payback for me mocking his spelling a few days ago was to start deliberately misspelling things to keep me on my toes. Decades from now, someone is going to go through that notebook and have no idea why there’s a photo log in pen with snarky comments written in pencil next to some of the entries.

AW, Thursday, 1 March
Strange sense of déjà vu. I’ve just woken to the sound of G calling out the names of workmen, repeated by someone else from the village, and the sound of people coming in for payday. Reminds me of the dig in Egypt. Sick today and yesterday. Fever, headache, and intestinal troubles. I think I may have gone back to work after the last bout a little too early.
Made an awful mess (I think) of digging my first tomb. Will do better on the next one, now that I’m a little more certain of what I’m doing.
The window on the Land Cruiser was broken yesterday afternoon. No one is sure who did it or why but as a result of this and other matters, Bomba will be returning to Khartoum to be replaced by another driver and we’ll be hiring a cook.
Feeling terribly weak, sick, and useless. Probably just from whatever is making sick.
Photographers from a major US magazine that I won’t name here showed up a few days ago. After their visit G had to declare a moratorium on discussions of intestinal problems, bathrooms, etc., after one of the team treated them to a rather detailed description…

AW, Sunday, 4 March
Rather adventurous few days. Felt much better Friday and got a reasonable amount of work done. Finished work on my first tomb yesterday – only pelvis and legs down to the ankles left, the rest of the body is gone, no doubt due to looters in antiquity. (I may have screwed up a bit, but not that badly.) Working with 2 kids of about 14, Abdullah and Ramalli. Pretty good kids but a little impatient to move rocks, dig, etc. at times when it’s better to go slowly. Started a new tomb with T doing one as well right next door. Looks to be undisturbed. The majority of the graves seem to be Kerma period, but not particularly rich. Babies are included with their own grave goods which is interesting in terms of notions of personhood for the people using the cemetery.
Our workmen are much amused by T singing. They do this sort of air-guitar accompaniment when he does. We did a duet of Austin Prison yesterday. I think that will be my only stage appearance here at AW. Yassir, one of T’s workmen, is funny. Nearly everything we do or find is met with Yassir saying “oooo-woooow.” I’ve become the official cigarette lighter it seems, as almost no one else seems able to flick my Bic (well, Mg’s Bic). It’s a nice little ritual. Every 30 minutes or so someone comes by, calls my name and asks for a light. I hand them the Bic. Depending on whether they’ve done it before and on the wind speed there’s a few moments of staring in consternation at this bit of plastic that apparently makes fire sometimes, then a few desultory attempts at getting the thing to light. Then I get handed the cigarette and the lighter.
Enjoying working with T close by. The Arabic/English word game is far more entertaining that way. Especially now that we have both crews doing a chicken dance. T keeps trying to get his guys to throw rocks at me. I think he has a crush on me or something. ☺
J arrived and is settling in nicely. He’ll be very helpful with the HG stuff.
Went to bed last night to the smell of smoke and thought nothing of it – I assumed they were burning garbage. Woke from a nightmare of the house fire we had when I was a kid to D and L yelling in the courtyard. The dokhan (store) next door had caught fire. Apparently D and L noticed it first – the smoke kept them from sleeping - but it took them a while to figure out where it was coming from until flames started jumping from the roof of the dokhan. Finally figured it out and went running to wake the village. T darted out just as I was finally waking up fully in time to see huge flames jumping from the roof of the dokhan, which our nook faces (though the view is mostly blocked by the wall around the house). Jammed my boots on, grabbed a light and whiste and ran outside and nearly into G. G asked where T was. There’s something dangerous going on and people need help, where else would T be but in the thick of it? We started forward as the flames got worse. T came out for a moment and we yelled for him but he went back in. I heard him shouting “La!” (“No” in Arabic). Apparently Mohammed Ali, who owns the dokhan, had come with his keys, hoping to save some of his inventory (and a safe, we found out later). T, knowing that we’d likely loose someone or at least wind up with someone seriously injured if they tried to empty out the shop was yelling at him not to open it.
The wind was out of the north, blowing embers directly across the narrow alley towards our house. They managed to clear everyone out of the dokhan and the attached guest house just in time and we waited outside to watch and see if our own house would catch. I asked G if we should pack up while we could and he agreed. I was shaking – bad memories- but threw all of our stuff into the luggage and T and I dragged it out to the courtyard. Went back out in time to see the portico on the dokhan (made of palm logs and fronds) go up. The women started wailing which made the scene all the more disturbing. T had gone back in and I stood with the others, shivering, to be sure he came back out if it started to get too bad. He finally did, and so we stood in a group watching. By that point there was nothing to be done. I looked up at some point, confused by the lack of light as it had been a bright full moon when I went to sleep to discover the moon was eclipsing.
Finally went back inside at the urging of the villagers, dragged our beds out into the courtyard because it was still too smoky inside and tried to sleep with the smoke and occasional snap-pop of the palm logs snapping in the fire. Didn’t sleep very well.
Still unclear how it started. T thinks it was a short while the generator was running and given that the wiring isn’t exactly up to code around here, that seems perfectly plausible. I think I smelled smoke before the generator went on, though, but that could have been smoke from elsewhere. The villagers think it’s part of a broader pattern of trouble between the people who have accepted the resettlement money and are planning to move and those who don’t want to leave (not all of whom are Manasir, just most of them). A few sheep were slaughtered the other night (and not by the mysterious wolf-thing they’ve been trying to kill lately). Some are inclined to attribute the broken window on the Land Cruiser to the same pattern, but that seems unlikely. We, as guests, seem to be sacrosanct.
Went ahead and went to work today. Long day. It’s getting hotter. The workmen were tired and so were all of us.
I’ve decided to have a lazy afternoon. My ankle is bothering me again and both calves ache so standing up to draw plans seems like too much to ask right now. I need to catch up on registration anyway. Only a few more days before we leave for Karima and then Khartoum – I figure I should relax while I can.

17 - 23 February

AW, Saturday, 17 February
Still no joy in excavation. Did 3 surface collections today. Asir said an area near our last surface collection might be graves. So, we started a unit there. Area O. For “zero” I think. Not a damn thing. My workmen have warmed up considerably, and now often won’t let me do the hard physical labor. I guess being willing to do so was enough. Thursday afternoon we had little to do so we sat around talking, playing the “what’s this in Arabic/English” word game. They decided T needs a Sudani wife who will give him 10 children since I’m not doing it. (T and I started referring to this as the “Thundercat Incident” hearkening back to the episode of American Dad when they move to Saudi Arabia.) After they got paid, we went, (I was feeling rather conspiratorial) to hide behind some rocks and chat some more. I doubt anyone was unaware that we were “shirking” work, but it was fun anyway. Babakir speaks more English than he lets on, but tends to be pretty quiet. Gamar speaks virtually no English, but can imitate it with disturbing facility. One of his favorite lines, whipped out at totally random moments and pronounced almost perfectly is: “I brush my teeth every day.” Idris is pretty quiet, he’s not from the same village as the others, but he can usually be persuaded to sing, which breaks up the monotony of digging nicely.
Thursday night went to Mohammed Ali’s (neighbor/landlord) to meet his family. Lots of pictures taken. His daughters took us for a walk and tried to teach us some Arabic. The two eldest are very bright and fairly assertive. Mohammed has paid for them to be educated and both plan to go to university before they get married – something of a novelty around here.
Friday went to look at a nearby island that can be walked to with the river at it’s low point now. Decided to split up to look around and Mg got lost. She ran into R, who had also gotten lost while birding. We spent a few hours looking for them but they eventually found their own way home.
Went to visit the Poles later that day. They were as charming and generous as ever and gave us permission to start work on a cemetery near our house.
Gamar told me, through Asir, that he would name his daughter after me. Poor child. I feel a bit out of my depth digging here. Perhaps it’s because we’re not finding anything but I feel like it’s because I’m missing it, not that it’s just not here. My hands continue to be bothersome, though I’ve taken to wearing my gardening gloves with the fingertips cut off and wrapped bandanas around my wrists to cover the gap between my shirt cuffs and the gloves. Haven’t had a full night of sleep in a week because of the burning and itching. G has suggested, and I agree, that since there are virtually no mosquitos here it may be an acceptable risk to stop taking the doxy for the duration and start up again once we head back to areas with mosquitos (Karima and Khartoum). As being unable to use my hands makes being here, malaria or not, pointless, I think I’ll take the gamble. And I intend to email the nurse who prescribed it when we get back to tell her under no circumstances should she recommend the doxy to people who have to work outside. And despite my gloves, now the ends of my fingers that are still exposed are starting to burn and swell. Just no winning it seems. I can’t wait until the damned doxy is out of my system.
Recorded some of the more recent field photography. For reasons passing understanding G took a picture of a lizard and kept it. So, there’s a field photo with the description “lizard.” I refrained from adding “because G is insane.”

AW, Tuesday, 20 February
Little to report past few days. Ill with a migraine on Sunday – a truly horrific one, not one of my “I can mostly work through it if I have to” that I usually have. Finished my work at HG yesterday. (Still not a damned thing to show for all those holes.) Spent the time after lunch helping G track down and measure grinding stones. And listening to him sing Ring of Fire. Not a bad voice, but insufficiently gravelly to truly sound at all like Johnny. ☺ Watched Ali G last night, which is becoming something of a team tradition. C and L are to arrive this afternoon. Started excavating a grave at AW today. T and I planned it, then he went back to the house with a splitting headache and fever. He says his eyes hurt if he shifts focus too quickly. This does not bode well, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on him.
Dug down today to tumulus cross-section. Difficult to figure out which stones to leave and which to move. Still feeling my way to figure out what I’m doing.
Chatted with M and G about dissertation possibilities. Lots of potential in 4th Cataract stuff. The problem is I wouldn’t really be an “Egyptologist” anymore and I’d have to start being nicer to Anthropologists. I’m not overjoyed by either idea. ☺

AW, Thursday, 22 February
Out today and yesterday. T ill Wednesday with splitting headache and fever. I was fine until I was about to leave to walk to the site and suddenly had terrible stomach cramps. By end of day, had whatever T had. Same thing today, along with dizziness. Am down to 101 lbs and don’t want to loose any more. Cemetery is producing great things – whole pots, beakers, etc. Can’t wait to get back out. Hope to work on the database and registration tomorrow for my recouperation. T has most of my workmen from HG working with him while he finishes up his monster area excavation out there. They had him to lunch in the village today at the house of a guy we’ve dubbed “Mr. TAMAM!!!!!” “Tamam” is a word that essentially means, “good” or “great” and it gets used a lot, especially in greetings. Anyway, Mr. TAMAM!!!! had a tendency to come visit us at HG and go around to each team to greet them, and he yells. A lot. Mostly he yells “TAMAM!” at all us khawagas. I’m not sure if he’s hard of hearing or if he’s doing the classic “if I speak loudly, they’ll understand my language” thing.
Gamar, I gather, refrained from his totally random interjections of “I brush my teeth every day” while working for T. And Babakir did not, at any point, find it necessary to look at Gamar and say (in English, for some reason) “Be silent! You talk too much!” to Gamar. T’s missing out on all my fun. ☺ Idris is now working at AW, since he lives here and made a point to come visit me in my part of the cemetery the last day I was out at work. He finds it immensely entertaining to ask how I am and receive the response “tamam!” No idea why – I don’t think my pronunciation is that bad. ☺
C and L have arrived. Bomba had a bit of a breakdown today, I gather. It seems no one really asked if he wanted to cook as well as drive. Apparently a discussion with G over his pay solved that problem, though. He also told T something about fearing he was going mad last night. This should end well.

AW, Friday, 23 February
Stumbled out of bed this morning and made my way to the dining room. Apparently people were pleased to see me up and around and not clinging to the walls for support while walking because as I was chatting with R, G wandered in and greeted me “Good morning, princess, feeling better?” For a minute, we weren’t sure whether he was talking to me or to R. ☺ Still not clear what the hell was up with that. I’m pretty sure I didn’t pack my tiara. Still feeling poorly, but well enough to work on registrar stuff.

Sidebar and 8 - 14 February

Sidebar
I figure I ought to put something in here about the usual routine. We worked six days a week, with Friday “off” though we usually worked on Friday, just not with workmen. Usually stuff like checking out other potential sites, photography, planning, registration, catching up on notebooks, etc.
Anyway, we usually all rolled out of bed between 6 and 7:30 just as it was getting light. Very light breakfast of tea or coffee, bread if you wanted it, tea crackers, grapefruit, or whatever else you could scrounge rather than a formal meal. When we were working at HG we’d all load into the Land Cruiser no later than 8 to be on site at 8:30. When we were digging the cemetery we just walked out to the site.
Lunch (which the workmen all called “breakfast”) at 11:30. At HG we had a box lunch. Bread (always), oranges or grapefruit, and stuff to stick in the bread. Usual things were hard boiled eggs, this egg-scramble thing with tomatoes and onions, salad, etc. Also, usually had a round of processed cheese (which wasn’t that bad despite the LOUD complaints of a certain person). Finished up with hot tea served in the usual way – small drinking glasses with lots of sugar.
Back to work until 2 or 2:30 when it started to get hot and the workmen needed to get home to do whatever they needed to do at home.
Usually had the time from getting home until 3:30 or 4 free. “Free” meaning washing your laundry in the basins, filling your shower, catching up on notebooks, fixing things, etc. After 4 it was usually back to work, either around the house in the sherd yard or something similar. Depending on the day, people often went back to the site, especially when we were within easy walking distance, sometimes with workmen, sometimes not to continue excavating or to draw plans until dark. I used this time to catch up on field work and also to do registration things.
Around 7:30 or so (a while after dark), AW Power and Light usually fired up. Also by this time the flies were mostly dead in the WC and so people who’d been holding it all day could go in relative peace. I gotta say, having flies on your ass is not cool. Anyway, the lights came on (most nights) and stayed on for 2 or 3 hours. Most people showered around this time as the shower room was really freakin’ dark otherwise, even with one of the battery-powered lanterns. In my case, this involved getting T to hang up our sunshower since I couldn’t lift it over my head as it was filled with enough water for 2 people. Or, when T was sick, swallowing my pride, deciding not to risk breaking my neck falling off a stool, and asking someone else for help. (“I have always had to rely on the kindness of strangers…”) If you caught it early enough, the sunshowers were usually pleasantly warm having been heating all day (if you remembered to fill it in time). Otherwise, it was freakin’ cold – always on the nights when it was really damn cold too. Aside from the hot spells we had, when the water was practically boiling. Couldn’t hang the sun showers high enough to actually stand under them, so I pretty much spent the whole season performing all intimate functions in a crouch or semi-crouch. I can probably whip out some badass yoga moves now. Damn squat toilets.
Dinner was usually around 8. After the first week or so we banned okra stew. Bread was usual. White beans, lentils, occasionally pasta were typical. Meat once a week or so. Plenty of food, just not a lot of fat.
The water filters crapped out, probably because despite the manufacturers claims, they were not meant for “extreme conditions” unless getting some bacteria out of a perfectly clear Rocky Mountain stream is “extreme.” Nile silt, on the other hand, will mess that shit up good. So, we wound up getting bottles of water from Karima. Water for washing, etc., was brought from the Nile a few times a day by the water guys who served the rest of the village and stored in big plastic barrels.
After dinner, some people go to sleep. Other people sit in bed and read. M lights up his shisha every night and T and R usually join him. Depending on how tired I am, I usually sit in for a few rounds. This is actually an excellent arrangement, as the following anecdote will demonstrate. They usually sit fairly close to the toilet-room thing. This is also, for some reason, near where the few scorpions we had liked to hang out. I can’t remember what day it was, but the first sighting was by the shisha-circle. I was laying in bed at the time reading. I heard T come into the dining room which led off to D and Mg’s room and say “hey there’s a scorpion out here if anyone wants to see it.”
D says she does and yells through the window to see if I do. As I was all warm and cozy in my mummy bag and I’ve seen scorpions before, I declined. So, I’m sitting there listening to everything outside. I hear D go out, T say something to R about not throwing more sand at it because it’s getting pissed…then I hear D sort of yell and come running back in, wondering aloud where her bug-spray is. I yell back that that won’t kill it just as I hear the clang of the shovel and amend “but that will.” So, having the guys smoking shisha near the toilet was actually a much needed service for our safety. Or something.


AW, Thursday, 8 February
Started work yesterday on site. Very rich finds from surface collection. Probably primarily Neolithic and Kerma. Hot, long day, but good. Circular collection units with 3 m radius.

AW, Friday, 9 February
Couldn’t finish entry yesterday. Another day Thursday of surface collection and topo mapping. Finding lots of enormous, mostly broken grindstones littering the site. Trouble writing. My hands are so badly sunburned that they’ve been threatening to blister since yesterday afternoon. Just brushing the backs against anything is excruciating. Woke this morning to find them swelling. Hope staying (mostly) out of the sun today and tomorrow will help. T got horribly ill around 2 AM, spent most of the night in the latrine. Woke me at some point for Pepto and more TP. He’s slept on and off much of the day but seems to be doing better. Probably just the usual “welcome to a totally foreign country” variety of intestinal trouble as he doesn’t have a fever. G and some of the others are also ill, just nausea and exhaustion it seems (probably something we caught on the plane rather than the food here or anything like that). He wants to start formal excavations tomorrow. I’ll have to miss out. Just a few moments in the sun today threatened blisters on my hands. I’ve torn a bandana in half, wet it, and wrapped it around my hands, but that only helps so much. I assume it’s the sun-sensitivity from the doxycycline causing the problem. I just hope it goes away soon. The feeling of pulsing, radiating heat in my hands is not pleasant, nor is the threat of infection if they do finally blister. The idea of having to stay cooped up in the house for the next month out of the sun is even more unpleasant though. Plan to try to set up the recording database tomorrow while the others are on site.
The house is going to be very crowded when the rest of the team shows up. B usually sleeps in the courtyard, but stores his stuff in the 2nd of the sleeping rooms where M also sleeps, (D and Mg share the other), Bomba sleeps in or near the kitchen. G and R have beds on the veranda. It seems the whole village has the run of the house, regardless of whether the gate is shut, which is a bit wearing. Our neighbor/landlord is almost too sociable. He insists the women must go to visit his wife. We will, eventually, but as I have the most Arabic, it’s likely to be an awkward visit limited to “hello,” “thank you,”, “good,” “yes,” and “tea.” ☺ I’m beginning to think that I will risk malaria (with no meds), insanity (mefloquine), or bankruptcy (Malarone) next season rather than take the damned doxy again.
The crowd of strangers forever talking outside or wandering through the courtyard is threatening to make me display some unpleasant ethnocentric behavior. So long as I don’t wake to find a face in our “window” or have an audience while I change I guess I’ll be fine. The looks of surprise/disapproval as I made my way back to the room after my shower yesterday (fully clothed) of course were a trifle irritating. This is our house for the time being.
The difference in this dig from my past experiences is remarkable, at least in terms of director. G is easy-going, good tempered, tries to be clear, asks for and considers input, and is, in general, a decent human being. How novel.

AW, Saturday, 10 February
Another day spent at the house. My hands don’t hurt quite so much, but start to when I go out in the sun. Mg is down with a cold. Everyone else seems okay. They’re starting excavations today. I threatened T with dire punishment if they find anything good without me. Told him to keep and eye on G and vice-versa since I wouldn’t be there to bitch at them in person. I think I’ve got the database worked out. If not, it’ll just been more data entry or more fiddling. I’ve no idea how to cope with some of the data right now, but so long as it gets recorded somewhere we can figure it out later. Worked with ArcGIS to display maps of surface collections and grinding stones from the past few days of work.
The radios don’t work between the house and the site, but I’ve little doubt that G is warbling nonsense into his every now and then to see if he can get a response from me.
I despair of ever learning the ceramic typology here. Between a certain someone’s tangential expository style and the fact that it ALL seems to be impressed with some pattern (or at least some is in all periods) I’m a bit frustrated. I’ll puzzle it out eventually, though.

AW, Sunday, 11 February
Unpleasant day, though I did find an Egyptian (style?) seal impression in one of my surface collection units. Starting having awful stomach pains during the morning, so returned to the house with the driver after lunch. Some unpleasantness with Bomba the driver that has, hopefully, been resolved as merely having been a misunderstanding.

AW, Wednesday, 14 February
Back to work yesterday to start excavation with 4 workmen – Asir (who has worked in the past with the British team), Idris, Babakir, and Gamar. Asir is serving as a sort of unofficial “Gufti” for me, as he has several seasons experience and speaks fairly good English. Bit of a false start. I wasn’t helping much with the heavy physical labor because that was something I was strongly discouraged from doing in Egypt. Here, however, my helping shift buckets of sand, etc., is met with great approval, so once we got over that hurdle, the guys started to warm up to me.
I got so thoroughly filthy yesterday with sand blowing into my face that at one point G broke off in the middle of a sentence to ask me “How the hell did you do that?”
My thumbs hurt – weird, I know. I’m convinced that I’m sunburned through the nail. Bleh.
Hoping to find something of moderate interest tomorrow. So far just random sherds, bone fragments, etc, and mirages of mudbrick that turn out to jut be compacted (natural) soil, despite digging around the place I found the sealing in the hopes of finding more. G says my most recent area will only be in the middle of nowhere until I find the Napatan city center. I told him he didn’t ask much of me, did he? I guess digging far away from everyone else does have the advantage of forcing me to improve my Arabic.

Abu Harez and AW 5 -6 February

Abu Harez, Monday, 5 February, 10:50 PM
At the moment, sitting on a web-bed in an abandoned house near the Polish mission’s house, sans mattress, blanket, or anything else really, in Abu Harez. We set out today around 3 PM. G had found a house yesterday. We rented a sort of lorry for most of the gear, including our luggage. T, G, M, and R rode in it while the rest of us and the more delicate equipment went in the Land Cruiser. Alas, the lorry had a tire come off the bead about 45 minutes out of Karima. G moved R to the Land Cruiser and sent us on ahead while he, T, and M stayed with the lorry to wait for a wrench to be brought from Karima so the tire could be changed. We arrived at our house in a village in Manasir territory only to be told by the local Omdeh (sort of a mayor over several villages) that because it was Manasir territory we couldn’t live in the house, even though we weren’t working in Manasir territory. The young man we’d rented the house from looked apologetic, but could do nothing. The Omdeh was polite, but very firm in telling us that we had to go. Imshi (the imperative for, essentially, “go away”) was used frequently. We did manage to persuade him to let us stay for a little while so we could decided what to do next. After some discussion, B and Bomba decided we should go back to Abu Harez where the Polish team is based. Abu Harez is, I think, at a sufficiently central location on the track between Karima and HG and environs that the lorry won’t miss us when it comes through.
The Poles gave us a very warm welcome, dinner, water, and a great deal of stronger beverages, including smuggled “special tea” (Sudan is a dry country in more ways than one. We dubbed the moonshine Sudangac, like Cognac, only more likely to maybe make you blind.) I had a shot to try to calm my nerves. The Poles also arranged this small house we’re in and the beds. B consumes (and continues to) a great deal of the Poles’ stash, but the rest of us decided to come out here to the house so the Polish team could get some sleep as they have work to do tomorrow.
Paused for a moment to take my doxycyline. I’m too concerned about the guys in the desert with the lorry to sleep tonight, I think. It’s likely to be a long night. If we’ve had no sign by midday tomorrow, I plan to insist we head back to Karima along the route they’d intended to take to look for them. It’s hard sitting here in the dark and cold wondering where my husband is. I hope they’re all right. I can’t bear even to write down the worst going through my mind.
I doubt Mom would believe I’m so calmly sitting here, dirty, tired and cold. Nothing bothers me so much right now than the not knowing. I should have stayed with them. Logically, though, they won’t pull in tonight – it’s gotten too late. But I don’t think they’ve gone back to Karima either. Band I borrowed the satellite phone from the Poles (after we couldn’t get ours to work) to try to call M’s cell phone and got an “out of area” message, suggesting they were still out in the desert. I just hope they’re okay.

AW, Tuesday, 6 February
The guys rolled in around midnight. We had all finally gone inside the house (where it was warmer) to try and sleep when we heard the sound of an engine. I ran on ahead of the others through the narrow little alley between houses in time to run into T and Henryk (the Polish field director) just coming in from the other side. I probably woke half the village saying “Well, aren’t you a site for sore eyes!” and promptly jumped on him. ☺ Much relief to see them. Went into the Poles’ house to be greeted by B, swaying a bit on his feet who confided (in a voice loud enough to wake the rest of the village) that he was a bit drunk. ☺
It transpires that the van sent to bring the wrench from Karima broke down. Someone decided to try to take a shortcut across the desert with the wrench to save time and got lost. So, some people were trying to dig out the van, others trying to fix the tire, and still others were out searching the desert. Fortunately, everyone made it through in one piece. T, G, and M spent a great deal of time just sitting and sleeping, T and G curled up under G’s sleeping bag in the bed of the truck on top of our mattresses (and enjoying one of our precious cans of Pringles) and M in the cab while the rest of us shivered in Abu Harez without our sleeping bags. ☺
Long, cold night. We couldn’t get to all of the luggage in the lorry so I had to loan my sleeping bag to R while T and I unzipped his and tried to share it. My red duffle got thoroughly anointed with peanut oil from the damned jerry cans (despite our attempts to clean them) but I don’t think it leaked through onto all my stuff. By sheer chance, the alarm clock I’d shoved into my backpack got set for 7:30 and woke us all up in time to greet the Omdeh for the Abu Harez area who has agreed to help us out in finding new accommodations near HG.
Poles treated us to breakfast – we owe them a great deal. Arrived here in Al Widay and found a house. Interestingly, this village of Al Widay is populated by Beja nomads who settled down to farming about 40 years ago. We’re about 2 km from our site at HG. The house belongs to our neighbor and the local shopkeeper, Mohammed Ali, or rather to his brother, a doctor who now lives in Wow. The house was filthy when we arrived around 9:30. Spent much of the day cleaning and arranging furniture. T found a dead, partially mummified cat in one of the rooms. There were syringes and razor blades in random places. Half the village turned up to stand around in our courtyard and watch the proceedings. The shower room (just a room, no tap, faucet, or anything) is infested by enormous daddy long-legs. I think I managed to take care of them with D’s bug spray though. No taps at all for water, we’ll be relying on 3 large plastic barrels for all of our washing up and to pump drinking water out of – they’ll be filled by someone we hire in the village. No WC of our own yet either, though one will be dug and a wall built around it in the next few days. Instead we have to take a little stroll out past the village generator (AW Power and Light) to a privy out there, which is fine, except the wall only comes up to about my armpit, making it less a privy and more of a “hey, check it out, I’m trying to pull my pants up and hold on to a roll of toilet paper in the gusting wind-y”.
We’re screening over all of the windows and most of the doors (or door frames, I should say) to try to keep the flies out. T and I have a nice little nook on the veranda, walled on one side by the wall of the room D and Mg are sharing – their windows with shutters open out onto it, but no one really minds, and opposite that the veranda wall with one doorway and a window, both to be screened in. There’s a narrow passage outside that between the house and wall around the house. The other “wall” is 2 huge chests left here in the house placed back to back, one for us to use as storage and one facing the rest of the veranda to be used for dig supplies, etc. There’s just enough room to squeeze past the chests into our nook. We’ve hung our mosquito nets. Most everyone else has tent-like things, unlike ours which are more, uh, Victorian. Anyway, G made some crack about them looking all “fairy princess” I told him I planned to decorate them with butterflies. I think that backfired, because I think he thought I was serious. He’ll learn.
I’m tired and sore and looking forward to getting to work. Writing this sitting with the gang out in the courtyard with the thunk-thunk-thunk of the diesel engine used to run AW Power and Light in the background. Our house is wired but there appears to be a short somewhere, so we’re in the dark. I gather the power is run for a few hours every night. For everything else, we’ll need to rely on our solar panel. G is trying to smoke a cigar, I’m hoping I don’t find bits of the end he’s spitting out on my pants tomorrow. Flies are dreadful, hopefully the screens and judicious use of PiffPaff (the local bug spray) will work.
Though frustrated by the delays beyond anyone’s control, everyone seems mostly in good spirits, if tired.

Karima, 2 - 4 February

Karima, Friday, 2 February
Too busy to write yesterday. Arrived Karima around 11 PM Tuesday. Couldn’t get the Land Cruisers across the Nile as the ferry was down for the night so retrieved sleeping bags and took a small boat across. Beautiful moonlit crossing of the Nile. More than ready to take off my boots, loosen my belt and curl up in my mummy bag to sleep in the house of Murtada, head of the Gebel Barkal Museum and an old friend of our inspector, MS. Spent yesterday scrambling around Gebel Barkal. Still getting used to local toilets (of the squat over a hole in the ground variety). Can’t puzzle out the aiming exactly or where to put my feet on the concrete frame thingie. I’ll have plenty of time to perfect my technique, though, over the next weeks.
Went to el-Kurru today. Not a lot left to see. Wandered around town looking for evidence of the ancient settlement. Not much visible at surface. Did find, with T and B and the aid of a local boy I promptly nicknamed “Flinders” several potsherds. “Flinders” had attached himself to T, watched what he was doing, and promptly found some sherds. Outside one of the houses, the lady of the house came to watch what we were doing and after a few minutes told us that if we were that interested in broken pots, she had plenty. The women here seem far more free to go out and more likely to talk to foreigners of either sex than I’ve seen in rural Egypt. Very refreshing.
Climbed Gebel Barkal last night to see the sun set. Rough climb, I needed plenty of help and busted my knee up on the rocks. Was more than worth it for the view.
I apparently snored loudly all night in the room with D and Mg. ☺ I’m hoping our more permanent residence will allow for a semi-private room with T to solve that problem.
Spent the afternoon cleaning plastic jerry cans that had been covered with/filled with peanut oil at some point. We’re planning on using a few of them for water transport and the rest will be cut up to serve as buckets during excavation. Went for a walk with T, G, and B through the palm groves near the Nile. Stumbled on a modern pottery production area for zirs. (Large, coarse ceramic vessels used for water throughout the Middle East. The relative coarseness of the ceramic fabric allows some of the water to evaporate, thus keeping it cool. Zirs are placed in stands in houses and throughout settlements, usually with a metal cup, to provide water for passersby.) Got some great photographs of the vessels air-drying before firing, the fire-pits, etc.
T has been going “like the Energizer bunny” according to G. I explained that he’s merely on T-crack. Hopefully we’ll get to visit our site tomorrow. We’re all getting antsy and setting up housekeeping wherever we live is likely to take a full day. Had a freezing shower last night using the tap in Murtada’s house. Setting out the sunshower today in hopes of a warmer evening shower.

Karima, Sunday, 4 February
Went up to visit our site at HG last night. Very rough ride and we were nearly lost on the way back to Karima after dark. Site looks very promising for surface collection, everything from Mid-Paleo to post-Meroitic remains. We’re on the “border” between Shagiya and Manasir territory. Apparently the Shagiya consider themselves more “civilized” than the Manasir. Most of Karima is Shagiya, as is our inspector, M, though his family has lived in Khartoum for a generation or two. M, incidentally, is awesome. His English is superb, he’s incredibly helpful and very personable. Our driver, also M but nicknamed “Bomba” is also great and proving to be a fairly good cook, so we may not need to hire a cook after all.
G, B, and M have gone up to the site area to try and find us a house. The rest of us are hanging around here. Did some laundry. Mostly just loitering around though. Hoping no one gets seriously ill up at HG. It’s pretty remote and a fairly difficult drive back to Karima, especially after dark when it’s difficult to see the tracks through the rocks and desert.
It’s almost 5:30 and the guys still aren’t back. We’re trying to decide how long to wait before either trying to cook something or wandering into town to find dinner. We’ve had troubles with the water purifier already, but no one is sick yet (and we would be) so we’ll see. T apparently drank Nile water the first night we were here, not realizing that the tap in the courtyard feeds directly from Nile water. M was amazed he didn’t spend the whole night regretting it in the WC.
I noticed today that the zir here in Murtada’s house is identical to the ones we saw in the palm groves – same shape, same fabric, same impressed design on the shoulder. Pretty cool.

In Khartoum, 26 - 31 January

Khartoum, Friday, 26 January 2007
Have arrived Acropole Hotel. Flight through Amman, but alas, we couldn’t get out. Feeling snappish after long flights and delays getting through customs at the airport. Lovely room with 3 beds and sink, WC/shower just down the hall. Plans to go out on the town this evening.
I should sleep, but I suspect I’ve hit the no-sleep point. Khartoum, at least the brief view from the airport to the hotel seems slightly more modern that Cairo in layout. I hadn’t realized how enormous the city and suburbs are until we flew over.
Khartoum, Saturday, 27 January
Took Acropole quickie tour yesterday. The National Museum is dark and rather empty, but we didn’t have much of a chance to look around. The Ethnography Museum is small but pretty cool. Got some great photos of modern pottery. Supposed to go back to National Museum today for meet and greet, etc.

I’m fascinated by the women’s clothing here. All very put together, both the more sort of pan-Islamic style tunic and skirt with ordinary headscarf and the more traditional Sudanese thob – something like a sari, fully enveloping and usually in bright gauzy fabrics.
Khartoum, Sunday, 28 January
Returned to National Museum yesterday, wandered around the reconstructed temples, which are amazing. T rescued a sparrow that had run into a window. Helped out by a lovely lady inspector, Amal. Walked back to the Acropole without G and B. Long, hot walk despite B’s assurances that it was a short trip. Looked over satellite photos after lunch, then did 1st shopping trip with T, G, and B.

Felt poorly last night and passed on dinner but forced myself to shower. Oddly, the tap was electrified. Very odd feeling brushing against it accidentally while showering.
Finished up looking over and marking satellite photos this morning with most of the rest of the team. I expect there will be another shopping expedition this evening. Things seem to be more expensive here than I expected based on my experience in Egypt.
Khartoum, Monday, 29 January
Problems with the site at Shiri Island, apparently. The Manasir and the governor at Abu Hamed are in negotiations at the moment, so it’s unclear if we can work on Shiri, which is in Manasir territory. We do have backup plans if necessary, but will not be able to leave by tomorrow as planned.
Debate with one member of the team over toilet paper – specifically how much we should purchase to have with us. As I commented to G, “Fine, we can get not that much, but if we run out, I’m stealing his clothes and using them.”
Khartoum, Tuesday, 30 January
Yesterday’s shopping something of a trial, but we got it done.
We’ve found out we can’t work on Shiri. Instead, we’re taking on a probable Kerma-period settlement in the Polish concession in the 4th Cataract area closer to Karima and the dam. We leave tomorrow. Have finally met the mysterious “Solar Man” – purveyor of solar power equipment, who does in fact have a real name (which I have forgotten). I was rather upset to discover that he does not in fact have a cape or any indication of super-powers.
T and I went out on our own today to the Suq al-Arabi to gather more supplies and did quite well I think. It helps that we only needed 3 meters of wire mesh (as I can only count to 3 in Arabic).
Omdurman Suq yesterday was interesting. T was offered a horrific assemblage of tourist kitsch, including 2 whips (shades of Indiana Jones), a horrible crocodile head knife-sheaf thingie, and I was offered a purse that would double as a green plaid fez. I was also offered a bra. Full marks for effort there, considering that my sports bra and haircut make me look like a young boy (and the bra was for a generous figure).
T twisted his ankle yesterday on the way back from the Suq al-Arabi. Got it iced and wrapped so it should be fine. He’s doing wonderfully adjusting here – chatting with people, learning as much Arabic as possible.
Khartoum, Wednesday, 31 January
It’s just past 12:30 PM and we’re still waiting to leave. Dinner last night with the Polish team who so kindly granted us part of their concession. Dinner wasn’t bad, very spicy, but I was too paranoid of illness just before a long car-trip to eat much. Bit of an adventure on the way back to the hotel. The mini-bus taxi we were in broke down on the Omdurman Bridge. Most of us piled out and made our way along the edge to the end of the bridge, dodging traffic and hoping no one plowed into the stalled mini-bus. G stayed to steer the mini-bus while the driver pushed. The driver laughingly asked him if he wanted to drive the rest of the way to the hotel. Khartoum traffic being what it is, I think I’d have to be drugged to the gills to try such a thing. We decided to walk a few blocks, but as some people weren’t wearing walking shoes (having not expected to have to walk far) we wound up hailing another mini-bus with a pimpin’ blacklight dome lamp. We’re all getting restless and ready to leave Khartoum.
6:50 PM
Stopped after about 3 hours on the road at Tam Tam station for tea. Used to be a major stop for smugglers and looks it. Did not avail myself of the “facilities” (as these are “Over yonder behind the building in the desert”) as I’m not entirely certain I can manage without peeing on myself. I’m not sure how I’ve managed it, but I’ve never had to pop a squat outdoors before in my life. Really. No idea how I’ve avoided that considering what I get up to on a regular basis, but there you have it.

Sudan Blog

So, I'm going to start posting excerpts from the journal I kept while in the field. I've changed the names of most people to initials to try to preserve a bit of their privacy. If anyone wants names/anecdotes/photos deleted do please let me know. I'll be doing this a bit at a time to save people having to read 18 some-odd pages of text all at once.
I've also eliminated most of the site names here. To be perfectly clear:
This is not a field report of any kind. No information here is to be republished in any form, nor are any conclusions to be drawn from comments here regarding the archaeological finds and research conducted during the season.

I've been experimenting with including photos in the actual posts and I'm not sure I want to do that.... It's sort of a pain.

I've also been experimenting with Picasa instead of Flickr...

Anyway, here's the Sudan album on Picasa:

Sudan 2007

Delays...

So, Tom and I were supposed to depart for Sudan this evening. Unfortunately, none of the visas for the team arrived this morning as they were supposed to, so we're delaying. We will instead be departing Wednesday evening (I hope). Everything is packed and ready to go, so now we mostly just have to sit around and wait. Bleh.

Anyway, most of you probably know this already because I think most of my few readers are on the email list I set up to send messages once we get to Sudan on those few occasions when I might have email access. Just thought I'd post here as well. Also, if you want to be added to the email list, let me know...