Today was our first day of new excavation for 2015. After a lot of work the site is now very clean after the winter. We removed a great deal of backfill - earth we put into the trenches to preserve the architecture we've exposed in previous seasons.
Our plan this year is not to have a large number of new trenches but rather we will concentrate on an area opened last year that was not finished. This is in Southeast quadrant of the site, very close to our zero point. This area has been the highest part of the site and so we normally were setting our total station up on it to view the areas where we were digging. Now that we are working here we need to position our total station machine in another area of the site, back-sighting to at least three known points. My co-director Bryan has fully figured out this procedure and it has given us new flexibility on site.
The new team of student volunteers has proven to be an excellent fit with our already great team of experienced workers. People bring their own diverse experiences to the project, making it a great mix of people. Everyone is working very hard and enjoying the relatively cool June weather. High heat is sure to come. Luckily we have not had any rain yet this first week - this is unusual based on previous seasons.
We had also fixed our work schedule - leaving Dilesi at 6:30, first breakfast at 9:30, second at 11:30. Lunch at 1:45. Home for rest/beach - 2:30-5. Then pottery washing 5-7. Dinner at 8. Most of us are in bed by 10 (I think!).