Maramures

Friday, July 9th: Slow day at work, Lauren and I sifted excavated dirt with a screen in order to try and find more pieces of a particular vessel that we dubbed "Man Vase"; some pieces of of pottery with a man's face, an eagle's head and wings were found, so we were hoping to find more of it, though I don't think we did or will. The popular hypothesis is that it's Ganymede being carried away by Zeus who is in the form of an eagle. It's pretty cool. In the afternoon, I levelled down trench 23b with a spade, but there's absolutely nothing there, so it was pretty boring. I did manage to get away for the afternoon water run to replenish bottles of water for all the workers.

Saturday, July 10th: Maramures! I look forward to this trip every year, since it's always such fun. We did the usual, visited the tallest wooden church in Romania (if not the world), went to Baia Mare and explored the Museum of History and Archaeology there and dined at the same pizza place we always do where the food takes ages to come out (very few Romanian restaurants are equipped to take big group orders.) We picked blueberries on a tall hilltop where you can see across to the Ukraine. Then after a stop at the Barsana Monastery (rather, it used to be a monastery but is now a nunnery) we went to the hotel. I split a room with Lauren and Vera. Dinner was slow going but after that, when the wine and beer were ordered, the party began. It was a lot of good fun and conversation.

Sunday, July 11th: We went to the Communist museum in Sighet (a former prison that had exhibits explaining the prison and Communist history in Romania), and Elie Wiesel's house that had been made into a small Jewish culture museum. We ended the trip at the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, which is always a joy. We did not, however, throw rocks at the Ukraine (there's a river that marks the northern border between Romania and Ukraine, so there's usually a contest to see who can get a rock across the way) nor the other wooden church that we usually visit. Instead we drove the long way back to Porolissum. Once there, I watched a bit of the World Cup with the others, the final game between Spain and Netherlands (though I think I was rooting for Spain) but it seemed to be dragging on a bit so I tucked in early. I heard the game went on for a good long while, but Spain won in the end.

Monday, Tuesday and today, I alternated pottery-washing and work in the trenches, so nothing terribly exciting as far as work goes. I did watch Raiders of the Lost Ark with a few others on Monday night, which was fun.

Folks have been discussing taking a trip away for this upcoming free weekend. We're hoping to go to Poenari Castle, the castle actually built for Vlad Tepes, aka Dracula. I've been wanting to go for ages, so if it works out, it will be wonderful.