Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Youngster

Six of us formed a crew this day and we were an unwieldy group! Some experienced at survey others not.

When doing an archaeological survey crew members walk side by side at given distances apart in a straight line to a given point. This is called a transect.

Well having said that- we were all over the place!

Each of us were trying to find artifacts on the surface but going in all directions; we were untamed. Our method was definitely not the way to cover the assigned area in our search for sites.

At break time, one of the members pointed out to the group we were not following the correct survey protocols. We should tighten up our lines so as to do a better and more complete job. We all acknowledged we were doing a terrible job; having fun but doing a terrible job!

It was decided we needed a leader, a crew chief, to keep us in ‘tow.’

One member was really brand new to archaeology-no experience what so ever. As I said, others had some to a lot of experience.

We elected the youngster to be our leader!

In a hushed and amused voice he said, “Why me?”

“Because you are the youngest, have no experience and need the experience,” we responded amid much laughter.

He did a super job in keeping us in tow, in straight lines, for the rest of the very successful day.

By the way, he is now getting his PhD in archaeology. I like to think he owes his success to us!

If he could deal with this unwieldy crew everything else would be easy!

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