Field School Stobi

I don't even know how to begin writing about my experience at Field School.  It was probably the most fun I've had all year.  I got to participate in some real hands-on history, learned so much about the Balkans and Roman history, and made some wonderful new friends.

But let me start at the beginning.

Field School was a dream of mine, to learn about the craft of archaeology outside of the classroom.  The program was organized by the Balkan Heritage Foundation, and based at Stobi, a Roman provincial capital in modern Macedonia.  We spent four weeks excavating in the morning and spending the evenings in lectures and workshops related to the finds.  We had lectures in history, pottery, coins, burials, and architecture.  We learned how to use GPS positioning in archaeology and how to work equipment like a total station.  We practiced pottery drawing and pottery reading (figuring out what the vessel was by the shard). We washed a lot of pieces of pottery, glass, and bone. 

My team worked excavating two 5x5 meter squares in an area between two previously excavated sections.  One part of our squares was a road.  That was pretty easy to identify and tedious but not difficult to clear.  We found a lot of animal bones on it. 

The other part of our squares was more interesting. It was at a higher elevation, meaning it hadn't been worked on before.  We dug down and first found a burned pit on the edge of the area.  Then we found the walls of a medieval era room. You could tell the age based on the type of wall construction.  THEN WE FOUND A BATTLE AXE!  No serious, in the room there was a medieval (probably Byzantine) battle axe along with another metal tool, probably a carpentry wood scraper.  They were huge finds and I can't wait to read the papers about how they change the knowledge of medieval life in Stobi.

The other teams found some rooms as well, though they were deeper and probably 6th century Roman.  I wish we could have kept working there.  It was so sad to walk away before reaching floor level.  I would love to spend summers there working for the foreseeable future. 

The whole project was just phenomenal.  The supervisors were 3 archaeologists who have working at Stobi since finishing grad school. They knew more about that site than I know about anything.  They each had their specialties but they worked so well as a team and were such great teachers.  The professor and TA from Queens University led the tech pieces of the dig. While that definitely wasn't my favorite part, they had great info to share.  The food was mostly delicious (loved the chicken and white gravy, loved the broccoli alfredo, loved the pork and risotto), except for mish-mash and sausage night. 

But what really made field school wonderful were the other students.  This group of mostly 18-24 year olds welcomed me, the very much older lady, with open arms.  They shared their drinks and games, their inside jokes, and their music freely.  I felt like I was back in college, and it was wonderful.  I loved my team of 6, who made getting up to the site not-miserable at 6:45 every morning.  I love that they made me use Snapchat, finally.  We hung out in the theater, or the Roman palaces at night and it was probably the closest I've ever come to stepping in to history. 

Ultimately, I was an archaeologist for a month.  I pulled a piece of history out of the ground and brushed away the dirt to show the lives of people in the past.  Someday, something I was a part of will be in a museum to teach others, and that's just the best feeling.  I can't wait to bring that into the classroom.