The Accidental Archaeologist
The official on-the-go adventure blog
Day Six (Sunday) was a sort of day off. By “sort of” I mean no going in the field and digging, but there was still tons of work to do. We now have piles of artifact bags full of grubby potsherds and animal bones and whatnot that all needed washing and sorting. We did let the gang have a lie-in after all the partying Saturday night, but by 09:00, most were spread out on the motel veranda with toothbrushes and tubs full of water, scrubbing away. I continued trying to draw some of the more interesting artifacts, like a couple of pipe bowls and a button. The drawing has been going slowly, but it’s still looking pretty good. Mark started recording some of the bags of washed artifacts, which involved sorting by type, counting, and inventorying each pile by bag.
At noon, though, it was time to tidy away and hit the road. We all piled into various vehicles for the 1.5 hr drive to Manteo on Roanoke Island. It was a gorgeous day (as usual), and everybody was in high spirits as we barreled up the coast road towards Nags Head.We got to the town hall a little early, so a few of the students wandered down to the waterfront with Mark. I arrived a few minutes later, only to find the coordinator searching for our group and trying to get everyone seated and ready to go. I offered to go find the rest of our group downtown, and eventually discovered them having a pint and waiting on sandwiches at a deli/bar down the street. I gave them my best “mother’s not very happy with y’all right now” glare and herded them all back to the town hall just in time to get seated. The twinning ceremony was short and sweet. A speech by both mayors and a joint signing of charters. I hope some of y’all were able to watch it on the web as it was broadcast live. The folks of Manteo were unbelievably excited to have a group from England visiting, but they kept referring to the Bristol students as “the group from Bideford.” I didn’t want to deprive them of the notion, since it was too difficult to explain the Bristol connection at the time.
After the twinning, we had our second big barbeque in two days down at the Boathouse on the waterfront. Yet another heap of excellent food, chattering with locals, and generally enjoying ourselves. We managed to sneak away after about two hours, though, because we still had to take the gang to see Fort Raleigh. Mark did his over-the-top tour guide bit telling everybody the history and myth of the fort. We trekked through the woods to look at erosion on the beach and last year’s excavation trenches (which had never been backfilled). Finally, we made it back to the cars and split up. Mark wanted to go with Scott across the road and take a look at an unusual trench feature (identified by some as possibly a Civil War fort) and a lot of students wanted to go with him. Some, including me, were not keen to go crashing through the jungle, though, so I took a carload back to town to sit at the bar and wait for the rest.
We sat for over an hour chatting and sipping on a pint on the sleepy waterfront street, then suddenly a police cruiser came zipping by the window, blue lights flashing. Someone joked that Mark must be back. We all laughed. Then a student came in from outside with an incredulous look on his face. He said they had been out having a smoke and wondered if we saw the cruiser go by. We said yes, we’d noticed it. “Guess who they pulled over?” he says. I almost started banging my forehead on the bar. Not again! Sure enough, Mark comes in a few minutes later with a sheepish grin. This time, he’d been pulled over for going 35 in a 20 AND cutting an illegal u-turn in the middle of the main street which included going up on the pavement to complete. But did he get so much as a ticket? Of course not. Yet again, he pulled his “I’m terribly sorry, I’m British” bit, and was let off with a warning. There is just no justice.
We got back very late last night, sat around chatting some more about the usual topics of Lost Colony speculation and archaeology. I eventually had to beg off and crawl into bed. Today’s going to be a long day and we have a couple of folks from East Carolina University visiting the site. Guess I’d better gulp my coffee and dash. Catch y’all later.
