The 2009 Archaeological Preseason
The PKAP season is slowly coming to life with the arrival of various team members. Almost every day from now until the end of next week, we’ll head over to the Larnaka airport to collected travel-weary colleagues from various universities across the U.S. and the world. The first few days of the season are always more about logistics than archaeology per se.
There is always a bit of a shock arriving in the Mediterranean from North Dakota. The heat, humidity, and noise are striking on first arrival (especially when you arrive on Friday night when our seaside town comes to life). Last night the constant buzz of motorcycle, car, and scooter engines kept us awake (in combination with jet lag) well into the wee hours of the morning.
Arrival also brings with it the momentary traumas as we face the various things that we forgot in the U.S. or have somehow become inaccessible to us. It was relief to find that we had remembered all the software and cables for our GPS units, for example. It was less of a relief to discover, however, that this year the TSA kindly locked the case that contains parts of our GPS unit, the tripod, and other odds and ends. Unfortunately, we do not have the key to the case. So, for now, some vital equipment is trapped inside a heavy duty plastic golf bag case. The solutions at present range from trying to find a TSA key to sawing through the somewhat flimsy plastic latch. I’ll leave it for Scott to recount how we resolve this issue…
Tomorrow morning we head up to Nicosia to meet with folks at the department of antiquities and discuss our fieldwork plans. Once we have that worked out (and various meetings with folks at the British base), we should be able to get to mapping out our trenches for this season.
Stay tuned!
