The Plague

Well, well, well...England has gone and done it again. Archaeologists there have unearthed what is believed to have been a burial ground for plague victims. You gotta love Europe. Their rich, long history does amazing things for history seekers.

(click here for article)

The thing I love about this is the questions it brings with it. I have never really studied the plague. I know it happened. I know the song "Ring Around the Rosies" was created because of it. I know a lot, and I mean A LOT of people died from it. But beyond that my knowledge is limited. I've heard stories about how some people believe that because cats were killed due to witchy superstitions that there were no animals to kill the rats and therefore they ran amok spreading disease. I have heard stories about how it was really caused by a lack of plumbing where buckets of human waste were thrown out windows onto the streets. Do I know what caused it, no. I've never studied it or read up on it. What I find interesting about this find is the fact that the victims were buried in neat little rows.

I know that in other locations where the plague killed large numbers of people (ie; Italy) they burned the bodies and dumped the ashes in fields. Its my understanding that the Island of Poveglia in Italy was used to quarantine plague victims. Once they died there they were cremated. So why did they bury victims in England? Or was it that some victims were buried and others were burned? Could be something fun to start reading up on. I don't know. What I do know though is that I thought I would post this on here because it just goes to show all the cool things we have yet to unearth. Not to mention, I know that some people find stuff like this to be very fascinating and I wanted to give them something to dive into for the weekend. I hope it will encourage someone out there to do a deeper search into history or visit their local library for more information.

Rachel B.

Stonehenge

What a great way to start off my birthday with an article trending across the page of MSN about Stonehenge! I don't know about you, but Stonehenge is pretty awesome. Never been there but Ive pretty much been obsessed with it ever since I first heard about it...in elementary school. I mean, who isnt obsessed with it. So without further ado, here is the piece trending on MSN right now... I would ellaborate more on this but it is my birthday after all and I kinda wanna be somewhere other than on the computer.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday to all of you too!

Rachel B.

Creepy finds...

Since I have nothing really new to report this week, I thought I would share a slideshow with you from LiveScience.com. This was put together in April of 2011 so you may have seen it before. Personally, I think it's interesting because humans do tend to have a knack for enjoying the macabre and it seems that the most grisly finds tend to be the ones that make the news. (Go figure.) Click on the pic to go to the article titled "8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries."

As a final note for the day...it would appear that I am going to need to focus on something other than Archaeology, unfortunately. More matrixing lead to another intense headache today. I guess my eyes really are going to be a problem at moving forward in the field. Its a good thing Archaeology isnt the only thing that I like about Anthropology.

Rachel B.

Matrix and 20/20 vision...I wish...

I spent 3.5 hours at the Fort yesterday doing what is referred to as matrixing. Basically, they give you a giant bag of dirt taken from a specific layer at the dig site. This bag you then dump, little by little, into a tiny box and begin the slow process of sifting through it with tweezers for micro artifacts. (For a more thorough, educational explanation click here). Sounds like it could be pretty boring but its actually not. At least for me it wasn't. I found glass, seeds, tiny pieces of ceramics and what had to be the tiniest little red bead I had ever seen. Literally as small as the head of a pin. All in all, it was a pretty interesting experience. It reminded me of looking for beach glass only on a much, much smaller scale.

However, as this was my second trip to the fort, I noticed a repeat issue that arose. The two times I have gone there, I have left with sore eyes and a massive headache. Of course to me this is pretty concerning. Part of being an archaeologist is using your eyes to find tiny things. The first time I went I was analyzing fragments and artifacts. This time it was sifting through dirt for micro artifacts. Here's why this is concerning. I have bad eyesight. As in, the last time I went to the eye doctor he told me I was in fact, legally blind (20/400). A visual for you to see the difference between 20/20 and 20/400...

This is correctable vision though with glasses and contacts. I worry that it is my bad eyesight that is causing the problems and that this may hinder my ability to work in this field. That doesn't mean I couldn't be an Anthropologist, per say, I just couldn't be an Archaeologist.

So here's my plan. I will go to the fort again during the next two weeks. If the problem persists then my only option is to contact my eye doctor again and get his opinion on whether or not the issue really is what I think it is. If that's the case, I may need to refocus my efforts. To me that's not too big of a deal however because I am also interested in ethno-history and Cultural Anthropology so I can always go down those routes. As it stands, my eyes still hurt today (nearly 24 hours later). Would it suck to have to back out of the archaeology track? Heck yes! But who knows, maybe the eye doctor will have information on how I can strengthen my eyes so that the strain isn't so bad.

Here's lookin at you kid...

Rachel B.

Corrections....

So I look like the worlds biggest goofball. I have to admit, I usually don't proofread most of my posts simply because I am usually writing them during my spare time. (Which is very little...) So imagine my angst when I realized that I spelled Chief, "Chef" throughout my entire last post. lol. I'm only human...and that is what this blog is about after all. Who knows, maybe CHIEF Chenoweth was a talented cook.

Until next time...

Rachel (spellings not my best subject) Bryan. :)