The Accidental Archaeologist

Stuck in Limbo

We’re still patiently waiting for our exile to come to an end. I spent yet another day drawing artifacts, while the rest of the students spent the day digging more test pits. It’s been strange to be in this limbo, not knowing from one day to the next when folks will be allowed to start leaving. We start every day pretty much exactly the same: drag over to the restaurant across the street, spend a couple of hours downing coffee and furrowing our brows trying to decipher headlines and predict the future, give up in disgust when none of the news has changed, and finally agree to spend another day trying to carry on work as usual. Folks are starting to chafe a bit at this state of unknowing, and each day the flights get pushed back is another potential week of waiting here in the US. We’ve discussed all kinds of wild ideas for getting home, including camping on the deck of a transatlantic freighter. Everyone admits that there are a lot worse places to get stuck, but the students used to the bustle and activity of Bristol are starting to realize that there is only so much fun one can have sitting on the porch and drinking a beer or going next door for ice cream before it starts to get a little old. Boredom has set in at critical levels. It’s actually quite good that we can keep digging or else we might be facing a full-scale mutiny. I’m actually not too bored, being quite used to long days stuck in a hotel with nothing to do but dig during the day and sit on the porch at night. I worry about the students, though.

However, we are starting to gear up for getting folks out of here soon. We thought Mark & Andy would make it out today, but Mark informs me while I’m typing this that the flight has been cancelled once more. They’re trying to get through to Continental right now to rebook, though their booking might not be until a week or more from now. The irony of this whole situation (if it is irony) is that I had scheduled myself an extra week here after everyone else had left, but now I may be the first to leave on Friday. In the meantime, though, we carry on. We try to combat the boredom as best we can. Last night found ten of us huddled in one room (it’s been quite cold at night) talking miserably about airspace and batting a balloon around. We may have to think of something to do to cheer these folks up pretty soon. I’m still fulfilling my role as “mom,” shuttling folks around in the one rental car we have left, nagging them to put on their seatbelts and take a coat when they go outside. I found myself going into the room we use as a communal gathering spot yesterday morning and tut-tutting at the empty beer cans and unwashed dishes. The two students staying in that room reluctantly joined in when I started bustling around clearing things away, and it suddenly hit me that I had become my mother. I also realized at pretty much the same time that, no matter how horrifying the thought of this may be, I also wasn’t about to stop cleaning up.

So here we are…still in limbo. Still waiting to see who will be the first one out of exile. It may be me, it may not. Y’all might actually be looking forward to a lot more posts saying the same thing over and over again for the rest of this week. There’s not much to say about the archaeology, partly because I haven’t been digging with the others this week, and partly because they’ve dug four test pits in various places and come up with absolutely zero results. Everyone’s hopeful for today, though, which will be a spot we’ve been wanting to dig since November and for which we just got permission. We’ll see how it goes.

I shall leave y’all with something for your amusement. The press release sent out yesterday by the University of Bristol at Mark’s request. It made the Bristol Evening Post today: http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Brits-stranded-place-colonists-lost-1580s/article-2040306-detail/article.html

And here’s the university article: http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2010/6974.html