Gamarjobut,

Almost 4 weeks into my trip now and there has been plenty that has happened thus far. We just got back from Dmanisi where we went to see the excavation in process, as Reid's M5 excavation has now reached the period of interest, i.e. the same layers as the hominins, so there is a lot going on. They found a pretty much full mammoth tooth, a few horse and deer teeth, and a number of long bones. Things are going pretty smoothly now with the field school starting tomorrow. A picture of the excavation is below.



Last night at Dmanisi, David Lordkipanidze, the head of the museum, came out and showed the site to the architect of the museum at the site, and the old French ambassador. Also, the guys from the Spanish team arrived, with a documentary team in tow. Not sure what the documentary is about, but they were following around Jordi Agusti, the microfauna specialist, and they had been to several other sites around Europe too.

Not too sure what the plans are for this week, but I'm sure some mapping and computer work is in line. But I'm being kicked out because the cafe is closing so I must leave you there.

Nakhvamdis

Dmanisi

Gamarjobut!

All is well in Georgia. We just got back from Dmanisi today and we are witnessing the first rain in Tbilisi since we've been here. It is actually tolerable outside too, and not 100 degrees, which it has been pretty much every other day.

Dmanisi is really awesome. It is a beautiful location in the Lesser Caucasus. I took many pictures as we walked around the site, and I'm sure there will be many more to come as I start being involved with the excavations. The photos are on FB and can be seen at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032742&id=185200036&l=043a635f12

I slept in the bunks the first night as not really anyone was around, and then I slept in my tent to test it out the second night. And of course, it started storming shortly after I set up my tent. It seems to be fairly water proof though, which is good. It is a little small though. I had to sleep diagonally in it and there were a few giant rocks that I apparently didn't see that were right underneath where I slept. I slept decently despite that fact though.

The dighouse itself was a lot of fun. Most people just sit around and play games, mainly chess and backgammon, both of which I was lucky enough to have been taught as a kid. I also got my first taste of Chacha, which is basically a Georgian moonshine of sorts, made from the leftovers of the smushed grapes from the wine making process. I didn't think it was too bad. Of course, I had it after we ran out of cognac, which is also popular there, so it wasn't a true tasting. We had many toasts to many different things and I had a pretty good time.

There were many interesting things at the site. Dr. Ferring was excavating in M5 and they have a pretty deep hole so far, and apparently have about 10-15 more meters before they hit the Mashavera basalt, which is where the sediment ends, generally speaking.

Gotta run though.

I'll keep the blogs coming as quickly as I can write them.

Nakhvamdis,

Reed

Museum Work

Gamarjobut,

The first week of working at the museum has finally arrived. My job is to go through every bone and see if it is entered in Martha's database, and if not, I must enter it in to our new data entry file, which creates a data table directly. I started with the cervids, and of course, I started with the teeth. First the uppers, then the lowers. There was definitely some deja vu from my extensive work with the Site 12 bovid teeth in the fall for bones class. Thankfully, that knowledge actually came in handy because almost all the teeth had not been entered in Martha's database. I completed this daunting task in a day and a half. I just finished up the humeri tonight. So far so good. No cut marks or anything exciting yet, but I did find a tooth that was glued on backwards. We have been working up until 6 or 7, right when the museum guards with the assault rifles and AK47s kick us out. A little overkill on the security precautions, if you ask me.

I was able to watch the Spain-Germany football game. Pretty boring until the second half when Spain took over. Should have been 3 or 4 to 0 with all the missed opportunities.

We are actually planning on going to Dmanisi next week just to see the site. Reid is excavating the medieval stuff at the site and they have found several interesting things, coins and such, and I am excited to see some of that stuff.

Monday, we are starting our feeding experiment at the zoo. We are feeding horse limbs (which is what they feed them anyways) to the striped and spotted hyenas, the jaguar, and the Georgian wolves. We will go to the zoo four times over the next two weeks and do this, and observe the animals chewing on the bones and then collect the bones, boil them, and then examine them to see what kind of markings are left by the teeth. We will then use these to compare the collection from Dmanisi and see if there are any similarities with the surface modifications on the fossils. Should be a fun experiment.

More pictures and updates to come.

Nakhvamdis,

Reed

Gamarjobut!

I am starting to get assimilated to the hot weather, and I'm hoping it will be beneficial that I have to hike up 45 degree inclines to get to our apartment everyday, especially in lieu of my WiiFit workout plan.

We spent day 2 running around Tbilisi to get air conditioners for the museum and to exchange money. We also went to an outdoor 'Home Depot' neighborhood called Basroba. It was just miles and miles of lumber, metal, and every other home building materials and necessities that you could think of. Other than that, we have not been doing much, nor is there much to do until the cabinets arrive at the museum on Tuesday when we can start organizing the collection. Martha and I worked at the apartment for most of the day yesterday to create a data entry form for entering the bones into a spreadsheet and we actually got it to work, which was a great thing. That should save us a lot of time and keep the databases consistent.

Today we are going to the zoo, since there is not much else to do on Sunday.

I posted a few more pics of the area around the museum in my facebook album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032742&id=185200036&l=043a635f12

I am starting to get a feel for the language. I can read most of the Georgian alphabet and pronounce everything, but I can't translate it. That part isn't important though, right? Just looking at signs and labels that have both Georgian and English is a great way to learn the alphabet, and, since it is all phonetic, pronounciation is pretty straightforward.

We were able to see the snow capped peaks of the Caucausus in the north yesterday too, and they are pretty large, around 15-16000 ft. We may take a road trip one of these days to Kazbegi, which is the main mountain peak that we can see. They can only be seen on a fairly clear day though, because there is a little haze that blocks them out. They are about 80 miles away or something like that.

Not much else going on.

More stories to come.

Nakhvamdis,

Reed

Arrival

Gamarjobut!

I arrived in one piece in Tbilisi (physically, at least) at 22:20 local time. My flights were very uneventful. I had layovers in Paris for 5 hours and Kiev, Ukraine for 2 hours. We arrived early on all of my flights except for the last leg of it to Tbilisi (of course). I watched Invictus for the first movie of the flight which was ok if you can get over the terrible accents by Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The other movies were Leap Year (pukey face), which I did not watch, and The Time Traveler’s Wife, which Katie made me watch a few nights prior. Needless to say, the last two thirds of the flight were really boring. I didn’t sleep much but I did manage a nap at the Paris airport on a bench for a few hours. The flight from Paris to Kiev was really uncomfortable because my seat didn’t recline at all and it was hot. The Kiev airport was smaller than the Duluth airport and maybe the size of the Grand Rapids airport, the terminal at least, and there were birds inside flying around everywhere. We bused to the tarmac and got on the plane using a stairway on wheels driven by the Bluth family and then took off to Georgia via Ukraine Air.

The apartment here is really nice. Enjoy the pictures that follow. (having trouble uploading them now, but they should be up tonight... tonight here)

I share a room with a grad student studying geology, but he and Reid Ferring, the geologist, will be staying at the site through the weekend. Reid informed me that I spelled my name wrong and I took the mature route and said ‘nuh uh, you do.’ Not in those exact words, but at least we got that argument out of the way. Also, we have a balcony and there were two rock martens running around last night. That is my best guess as to what they are, but they were big and looked like martens and based on the local fauna, it’s a decent guess. I also have a great view of the giant tv tower up on the mountain behind our place, which has moving lights that makes it look like it’s going to take off.

The first day was pretty eventful. I got my first looks at Tbilisi and the Museum where I will be spending much of my time. The museum is about 5 blocks away and it is on the main drag of Tbilisi, which is named Rustaveli after the Georgian poet. Much like my adventures through China, the traffic is horrifying. Not congested, simply horrifying. Luckily our driver, Irakli, knows what he’s doing, which is whatever he wants. I have only seen a small part of the city and so far it is pretty amazing.

The museum was pretty cool, but we didn’t stay too long. It is under construction and apparently has been for a few years so there is a lot going on. It is closed to the public but we will be getting a private tour of the exhibits in the near future. I also saw some of the collection in the back rooms when we met with Maia, the paleontologist. The first bone I saw was a fossil rhino skull. Everything else was just as interesting, except there are no cabinets or anything to organize or even protect the collection. Some of the money from our grant is going to cabinets as they will be receiving some as early as next Tuesday. That is a giant step for organization, since there was a room of just a 12 foot set of floor to ceiling shelves with cardboard boxes and some fossils just sitting out. I noticed a few mammoth teeth, mastodon teeth, and a mammoth humerus just sitting out on one shelf and a number of cervid(deer) skulls just sitting on the floor. This grant will do wonders for this great collection.

The food has been excellent so far. We went to a kingali (dumpling) place for dinner and tried a bunch of different types, including lamb, beef, and cheese. Lunch was good and I had a hot dish type thing with chicken, French fries, tomatoes, and cheese. The tomatoes here are very sweet and juicy and especially delicious. I’m excited to try the other fresh fruit because apparently they are known for their watermelons and peaches/nectarines/apricots. I did have to get a box of cereal from the store and maybe you can guess why.

I also got a cell phone and was able to talk to Mom and skype Katie so things worked out pretty good on the first day. There is a café with free wireless close by so I will be able to keep the updates and pictures coming as I go along. There will be a little lag on my posts since I plan on writing them at the apartment and then posting them later. The rest of the photos will be on Facebook at the following link for those who are not Facebookers:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032742&id=185200036&l=043a635f12

Until next time,

Reed