Wow I’m all ready on my third week! I feel like I just got here.
This week has been really busy. On Monday and Tuesday I floated (a way of processing dirt by using water to process soil to recover tiny artifacts.) On Wednesday I went with one of the leaders of the project, Kathryn Catlin, who is working on her dissertation at a farm called Keldudalur.
Nika helping dig the hole in Kathryn’s site
We dug a test pit in a spot where, through coring, we believed we had found a midden (an old trash pile). After further examination we decided it was a floor for a Viking age pit house that we believe was a freed slaves house. I made my first find there, a large piece of slag (stony waste separated from metals during the smelting or refining of ore, in this case mainly iron).
Thursday I returned to Keldudalur, and continued to dig and straighten the side walls. Once I completed my task I cored in the neighboring area just to see if there was any interesting tephra.
The Hallgrimskirkja church with the statue of Leif Erikson
By Friday I had moved to a different part of Keldudalur to work for my roommate Nika, who is working on his masters thesis. I worked with Dr. Steinberg for part of the day there, learned how to use an extremely accurate GPS system, and cored to find traces of metalwork.
A waterfall at Þingvellir
On Saturday for my last two-day weekend I chose to go down to Reykjavík with two of my colleagues. We went to the Saga Museum, Hallgrímskirkja church, and stayed the night. The next day we drove the Golden Circle with attractions including the Þingvellir National Park (a UNESCO site), and the Gullfoss waterfall.
Overall my week was busy, and hard, but every once and a while being able to rest and take in the surrounding beauty makes it all worthwhile!
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