This is the last installment of the field season. I am relaxing in the bosom of my family (and Mother's dogs mattie and erik) having enjoyed a very long soak in a hot bath, and hit the tea (english) and marmite toast.

The last few days involved finishing off all the work in the field, including backfilling all the trenches we had painstakingly excavated the last 6 weeks. I always feel sad when this happens - we reveal, measure, draw, select, trample and then close it all up again, irrevocably altered. And although the archaeology of El Cabo is probably more durable than soil marks in other archaeological situations, and although hotels and golf courses will encroach upon this spot in the too near future anyway, and although we will contribute to discussions and pictures of what life was like in the Greater Antilles a thousand years ago, it is still nevertheless sad to bury it all again.

There was no time for such sentimental musing in Punta Cana however, as all free time was cancelled so that we could finish finds processing before departure. Finds processing basically meant picking tiny shells, from tinier pieces of coral, from gravel and goat shit - not the most glamourous or scintillating of tasks.....

a typical 'feature fill' in need of processing by some poor BA2 student...

But eventually we were ready to leave for Holland with our data. And so it is just left for me to say THANK YOU Menno, Corinne, Angus, Hayley, Adriana, Ilona, Ingeborg, Pauline, Benjamin, Annemarie, Kate, Noortje, Alexander, Peter, Roberto, Nicole, Jason, Jose, Kelvin, Alessandra, Ramona, Belto and Manolo, Yann and Marc for a wonderful excavation season and for making El Cabo the most exciting site I have ever worked on and for being such a dedicated team of arcaheologists.






ps, a tip for those of you still in the DR - watch out when you go through customs - first they tip away your rum, deet and suncream (no liquids in hand luggage) and then they capitalise on your dismay by rifling through your wallet - yes, the airport officials and the army are responsible for this goodbye gesture. Be warned!

We are beginning to see patterns in the features and make the first tentative interpretations about the types of buildings which would have been inhabited in precolumbian times. Here is a working plan of the features in a 10 x 20m excavation trench. The circular shapes represent holes dug for wooden posts. Everyone on the dig has been joining up the dots and presenting their own ideas about the Amerindian ideal home. Today we placed wooden sticks in the postholes to better visualise the patterns, and for the rest of the week (if the rain holds off), we will excavate the postholes to test these ideas and make comparisons of the various features.

Precolumbian settlement features

It’s got to that stage in the season where lunchtimes are no longer for beach volleyball among the palm trees, but naps on the couch…poor Angus and Hayley!


Roberto has left us to go back to Cuba, but José has arrived to take his place with the snoring boys. Since the Americans (Nicole and Jason) arrived last week I have noticed that our beer consumption has increased (well done guys), and it’s only thanks to the abstemious BA2s that we don’t have to get in industrial supplies.

As for the site, we received a further stamp of legitimacy today when the director of the Museo del Hombre and a small entourage (2) of archaeologists came to visit from Macao. This gave me another chance to talk to Harold Olsen, someone who has done a lot of archaeological survey work in this area and knows much about the archaeological landscape.

From the artefact densities in our test units we are coming to the conclusion that the main occupation may not be represented by the Boca Chica component, but is earlier (i.e. Ostiones and the elusive fase transicional). We may also have uncovered parts of intact living floor in certain areas of the site (i.e. the floor of the house on top of the foundations), as well as a possible hearth feature (with pottery and fire cracked rocks and charcoal – possibly the remains of someone’s dinner!).