By Sue-Anne Saunders
Storm clouds are starting to roll in on the third week and last few days of this year’s dig, the time has gone so quickly!!!
Because our family has been living in Cyprus for the past few years, I have been lucky enough as a volunteer to have had two years in a row working on this dig, last year with a huge group and this year with a tiny one! As they say, size does not matter as everyone still works hard no matter how many trenches are open.
I have also been in Trench 11A, and huge progress has been made this (short) season. Monstrous amounts of rocky tumble glued together with leached plaster, huge stones and wretched plaster lumps have been unstuck, unwedged, rolled, chocked, levered and bi-poded out of the nymphaeum (whew!). We are almost to the mosaic floor that we hope is still intact – alas this may have to wait until next year, as we seem to have run out of time. We shall see, if nothing else, it’s a great pre-Christmas Boot Camp! We’ve had a wonderful and colourful cast of characters slaving away both on site and at the dighouse which has made the whole experience an absolute joy.
Matilda, one of my teenage daughters, joined the dig for one day and Ronan’s trench (11B) provided from the dirt for her a piece of medieval pottery (canary yellow sulphur glazing) which she has delighted in telling most of Paphos that she found this fabulous piece all by herself! She was also a keen pottery washer – much to Rhian’s delight!
These experiences for us are things that will always be remembered and we are so grateful to the team for providing this sort of thing as well as just “the dig”.
It has been a fantastic experience with fantastic people. I hope Craig and the whole team, past and present, are proud of all their achievements and the wonderful opportunities they offer people of all ages. If not, they should be. Well done to an awesome team!
Storm clouds are starting to roll in on the third week and last few days of this year’s dig, the time has gone so quickly!!!
Because our family has been living in Cyprus for the past few years, I have been lucky enough as a volunteer to have had two years in a row working on this dig, last year with a huge group and this year with a tiny one! As they say, size does not matter as everyone still works hard no matter how many trenches are open.
I have also been in Trench 11A, and huge progress has been made this (short) season. Monstrous amounts of rocky tumble glued together with leached plaster, huge stones and wretched plaster lumps have been unstuck, unwedged, rolled, chocked, levered and bi-poded out of the nymphaeum (whew!). We are almost to the mosaic floor that we hope is still intact – alas this may have to wait until next year, as we seem to have run out of time. We shall see, if nothing else, it’s a great pre-Christmas Boot Camp! We’ve had a wonderful and colourful cast of characters slaving away both on site and at the dighouse which has made the whole experience an absolute joy.
Matilda, one of my teenage daughters, joined the dig for one day and Ronan’s trench (11B) provided from the dirt for her a piece of medieval pottery (canary yellow sulphur glazing) which she has delighted in telling most of Paphos that she found this fabulous piece all by herself! She was also a keen pottery washer – much to Rhian’s delight!
These experiences for us are things that will always be remembered and we are so grateful to the team for providing this sort of thing as well as just “the dig”.
It has been a fantastic experience with fantastic people. I hope Craig and the whole team, past and present, are proud of all their achievements and the wonderful opportunities they offer people of all ages. If not, they should be. Well done to an awesome team!
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