Sabai dee

After a relaxing 10 weeks here in Hawaii it is time to for me to get back out there on another mission. I am headed to Laos for the third time and due my not having been there for a year, the only word I can remember serves as the title for this post. It means hello.

Due to a late heavy rainy season in the part of Laos I am going to there is still water, and rice, in the rice paddies. As such I am headed down early to take a look at a couple of sites to decide which one my team is going to be excavating. I have thrown together a specialized, and streamlined set of equipment to allow me to get the job done. There is a metal detector in the plastic bag. I hope I can get it through customs without too much hassle...

And for the peanut gallery...

...some photos of people.

Getting started in the impact crater.

Close to the bottom...

Completion of the crash crater.

Because my Mom asked...

...I am posting a couple new pictures. These two pictures are of my second site from this last trip to Vietnam. They show the excavation area at the conclusion of the excavation.

Second Site

This is the view from my second site.

First Site

Here is a panoramic photo showing our base camp (left) and the excavation (right). The photo is taken from the HLZ.

Didn't I just get back...?

Three frantic weeks after getting back from Papua New Guinea I am headed out the door again for a mission to Vietnam. It is a another six-weeker, and I am looking forward to it. Look out for more posts and pictures around the end of July.

Vancouver (out of order)

Immediately before my departure to Papua New Guinea, I went to Vancouver B.C. for the Society for American Archaeology conference to give a presentation about some of the work I did for my masters. I had a big plans to get outside and see some parts of the city, but the weather did not cooperate. I guess I expended all of my good weather karma in Europe...

Looking north over Burrard Inlet from the convention center.

Looking south down Burrard St. while it snowed.

Panoramics

The area around the volcano covered in ash.

View to the east of Blanche Bay from above Rabaul.

View to the west of Blanche Bay from the Rapopo Resort.

Sunset.

My site upon its completion.

Lap Laps

Volcano at Night

Photos by Kaily Brown

Baining Fire Dance

As tourism continues to increase at the north tip of New Britain Island in the Kokopo/Rabaul region side industries have sprouted up. One of the most prominent of these is a clan that has established a troop of fire dancers that will come around to the different hotels when there is a large group or a VIP staying there.


The dancers, all men, and their support crew arrive in the later afternoon or early evening and begin setting up. They unload all of the necessary firewood, which is considerable. They prepare their masks and don their costumes which consist of giant masks (vungvung), large wooden chest plates, lots of black and white body paint, a large mass of tropical plants on their back and, most importantly, the thick layers of plants that protect their lower legs. It should be noted that the plants they wear on their lower legs does not protect the bottoms of the dancers' feet. Oh, and they don't wear shoes either.


Usually between 8 and 12 musicians accompany the dancers. Their instruments are hollowed out pieces of bamboo of varying lengths and diameters. Each man pounds his piece of bamboo on a large wooden pallet in a complicated fast-paced rhythm. The different sized pieces of bamboo create different tones. Chanting also occurs throughout the performance.


Once the fire has been lit, the music begins and after a minute or so the first dancer comes out of darkness and approaches the musicians. After dancing for about 30 second he moves over to a position behind the fire. Each of the remaining dancers is brought out one by one until they are all lined up. The pace of the music then begins to increase and the dancers begin to jump, hop, shuffle, shimmy and twirl around the fire. Eventually, the pace becomes so fast that it drives the dancers to jump up into the fire causing a massive column of sparks to erupt. The dancer then jumps out of the fire and continues to dance. Each of the dancers takes turns jumping in and out of the fire.


According to our hotel staff the dancers represent spirits who surround us at all times and play a critical role in our lives. Through the music and dancing spirits are enticed to join in and dance. The better the performance the more pleased the spirits will be and thus increase the likely hood of good fortune in the future.

Photos by Kaily Brown.

Sundays

Missionaries did a serious number on Papua New Guinea. As a result more than 95% of the population follows some form of Christianity. Usually a rather fundamentalist version. Unsurprisingly, the local villagers, which we employed as workers on the site, would not work on Sundays. They had to go to church.


Since excavation was not possible without the help locals, we had Sundays off and were left to our own devices... After we had visited the volcano and the mask store in Rabaul we had to find something to do for the next five Sundays. Fortunately, one of my team members was savvy enough to ask around and soon discovered that the small island we could see from our hotel was deserted, had a perfect white sand beach, and excellent snorkeling.


Needless to say, the next Sunday we arranged to have the hotel's boat take us out there for the day. Loaded up with bar-b-que equipment, sunscreen, snorkeling gear, and a large cooler of refreshments we headed out for the day.

Super Green

After the completion of my primary goal on my last mission my team and I headed out on a few surveys to find new sites for excavation. Typically, this process started by getting touch with an individual who had previously contacted us about a site they knew about. Cell phone was the most common method of contact. The catch to this step was that it was quite often the case that the informant did not actually have a cell phone, but had given us the phone number of one of his cousins. This usually resulted in a one to two hour run around to track down the actual person we wanted to talk to. Once we found the correct individual they would lead us out into the jungle. Sometimes we got to drive on nice paved roads and enjoy views out over the valleys.


More frequently, however, we would quickly find ourselves off of the main roads, out in the boonies, doing some serious four-wheel driving.


At times it was a very frustrating process. We would be taken way off into the middle of no where and would be shown what turned out to be a Japanese plane. Worse, sometimes we would be lead to a place that a previous team had already excavated. The long hours in car on bad roads did pay off in the end. We were successful in locating a few new sites that may possibly be excavated in the future.

Turvurvur Eruption

It erupts like this every minute or so.

Turvurvur Volcano

Kokopo, New Britain, Papua New Guinea

View from our hotel. Yes, that is a volcano.

Dunluce Castle, County Antrim

Out along the northern shores or Northern Ireland a few miles to the west of Giant's Causeway is Dunluce Castle. The castle is situated on a small promontory overlooking the ocean. It has a long and interesting history that began in the 1200s and includes a murder and part of the castle collapsing into the ocean. It was only a couple quid to get in and was very interesting to explore.

Belfast

Mark and I spent a day and a half in Belfast and were able to get out and explore the city. The city center has numerous nice old buildings. Unfortunately the city hall was closed for restoration. Belfast is where the Titanic was constructed.



The Crown Liquor Saloon is a landmark pub in central Belfast. It is most well known for the mosaic in front of the door that includes a depiction of the Queen of England's crown. What side of the Northern Ireland situation you are on dictates how you enter the pub. If you are a loyalist and believe that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom, you never step on the crown. On the other hand, if you come down on the other side of the fence, you always make sure to step on the crown.

Giant's Causeway

Mark and I left Dublin and took the train north to Belfast. One of the highlights of Northern Ireland that we both really wanted to see was the Giant's Causeway. I is a very unique geological feature that is only found in a few places in the world. It is a section of basalt that has cooled into the shape of giant hexagonal columns. They form through very complex processes, so I have included a photo of the sign that explains how they formed.

View from the cliffs above.

How they formed.

View from ground level.

Looking right down on them

The legend of how they formed (and my new drinking name).