Work of the Day

Not a whole lot to post about today. We're settling into a routine of get up, work, come home and swim at the beach, shower, dinner, hang out. I spent the day cleaning the rat excrement from the small finds and then sorting the small finds in the catalog, making sure the weight, length, width and thickness of every single nail found was recorded. The experts are hard at work putting everything together and figuring out Butrint. During the excavation seasons everyone moves too fast to look at every item recovered and finds usually are removed from the trenches, rushed off to get cleaned, labeled and photographed, and then stuck in storage without more than two or three people getting a chance to analyze them. This season we're digging back through all that's been found, and really starting to draw conclusions. It's fun, and the Notre Dame students are really working to get the system finalized and functioning for the experts to run with. There are times during the day where it feels tedious, but it's necessary tedium. On site there are birds everywhere, who give little thought to workers or tourists. We have one who has laid eggs in the tower where we work, so we're watching as she nests on them and waits for them to hatch. Pictures will follow in the upcoming days.