Author Archives: Rebecca Phillipps

  At last we grasped the final day of excavation. It was a day of blood, sweat, swearing and tears with the clashing of trowels and the flinging of dirt… In the morning we trudged to the site with the … Continue reading →

Its day 11 on the island and the countdown to a long, hot shower has begun! There’s only three days left and already things are starting to get crazy, but still we progress. Today the Hilly Mountain Goats (as survey … Continue reading →

The average day in the field for the students on the GMI project includes excavating, recording, and surveying at the site, registering artefacts, forms, and photos after the field work has finished, and doing cooking and cleaning chores if it … Continue reading →

Sunday… day seven… a half day!!!  But first… work again.  We began as per usual, digging, troweling, sieving, climbing the slope and generally getting dirty.  Yet, once midday rolled around we were free to do what we wanted, for some … Continue reading →

It is our 6th day on the island and time is going insanely fast. If it wasn’t for our built up dirt layer, the sunblock grime,  blisters and awkward tan lines (sock lines are all the rage) reminding us of … Continue reading →

So it’s our 5th day in the field today. The view from our worksite is really beautiful, and although it is very dry here has a really amazing, picturesque view with the pristine waters surrounding us, the stepped pas and … Continue reading →

Dear Dig Diaries, It’s becoming increasingly difficult to wake up in the mornings despite the sheep calling in our ears. However, once we are up and running its all action at base camp (queue epic explosion soundtrack). Bags packed, sunscreen … Continue reading →

For most people archaeology is excavation.  Although (as you have noticed by the previous two blogs) this is definitely not true, that was the main task assigned to us for the last three days. We learned new techniques like spade … Continue reading →

Dear Dig Diaries After waking up refreshed from a deep sleep in a tent (who would have known) we dived into another day of uncovering New Zealand archaeology on Great Mercury Island. With trowels, spades and developing blisters the excavation … Continue reading →

Dear Dig Diaries, We arrived on the island on a beautiful, sunny, cloudless day via charter boat from Whitianga Marina.  The journey over was beautiful, uneventful and relaxing. On arriving at Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island (also known as GMI) we unloaded … Continue reading →