Very. Small. Rocks. In the beginning, it all looked the same. Bucket after bucket, screen after screen, a seemingly endless supply of very small rocks filled our working days. But as we approached the end of that first week, we began to look into those screens from a new perspective. It was not simply a […]

Our excitement this week has been narrowly focused on feature 40, the latrine. Although we do find important items in the hospital block, in feature 40 we are presented with a unique opportunity. We know the exact dates that this latrine was in use, affording us a snapshot in time of the everyday life of […]

Text and photos by the students of the field school Historical archaeology, like archaeology in general, must focus on key aspects of research while maintaining meticulous documentation.  In order to achieve this, multiple levels of technology are required.  Low-tech resources such as trowels and shovels are as important as more sophisticated tools such as digital […]

Bags unpacked, refrigerators stocked, trowels and plums in hand… The 2009 Heidelberg University Archaeological Field Crew is in the house! Like surfers in search of the perfect wave, we arrived this past week from distant, and not so distant places, from California and Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio, drawn here by the perfect dig, a […]

This year we have a very diverse group of students in the Heidelberg University field school. They come from all ends of the country and have quite a varied background. The first week we worked on the interior of Block 6. We will be continuing this part of the excavation throughout the summer. We have […]