by Maeve Mooney
Thursday and Friday were my first two full days in Madaba, and they were jam-packed with info. Our morning (May 18th) began with us being split up into our square groups. These are the people I will be excavating with for the next 4 weeks. Our square supervisors took us on a practical tour of Madaba. They showed us all the places they think we will need or want to go during our stay in Jordan. My supervisor, Lidya, showed us where the grocery store, pharmacy, mall, and tourist area were and told us about some of her favourite places like Kawon, a café and bookstore. While on the tour, I noticed we passed a bakery that I want to go back to as I have a soft spot for bread and am interested in the kinds of desserts enjoyed in Jordan.
Once we got back to the Dig House, we started day 1 of our lab orientation which gave us our first taste of what lies ahead for Jordan field school, teaching us a variety of tasks we need to know to create a detailed record of our field season. We were split into our lab groups and rotated between 3 sessions. Each taught by either one of the supervisors or field directors. The first session I had was top planning. We learned how to draw the features, architecture, and objects we will find in our squares. This session was more difficult than the rest as I got confused with the measurements and placing the position of the items on the graph; hopefully I will get better at it as I do it in the field.
Next, my group went to the pottery registration session led by Vera Doležálková, our pottery specialist. She explained that there were three different coloured tags that we would be using on site: yellow for pottery, pink for objects, and blue for samples. She explained how we would register pottery. Vera also had handouts for us to look at explaining the various parts of a vessel and ware types.
Our last session of the day was learning how to set up and use the theodolite, which we will use on site to find the elevation of architecture or objects that we find in our squares. This session was easier to learn about since I already had prior experience using it. We finished our lab sessions early, so we had some free time which I spent unpacking and settling into my apartment.
On Friday (May 19th), we had a new set of lab sessions, so we got back into our lab groups. My first session of the day was section drawings which will be used in the field to record the vertical cross-section of the square and its features. Our next station was pottery drawing, led by Vera and Chris. Luckily, I have done this many times before and, once refreshed on the steps, was able to do it with ease. Everyone had to draw one rim and one base as practice. Theses drawings will be part of our lab work as we find pottery sherds while excavating, and it allows us to have an idea of what the entire vessel might have looked like.
Our last session of the day was object drawing. I prefer pottery drawing to object drawing, mostly because my stippling isn’t that great. Our last activity of the day was Professor Foran quickly going over the excavation field manual which will be our guide and textbook for the next 5 weeks. It was a ton of information that I will refer to numerous times. This marked the end of our lab orientation. Next up is our historical tour of Madaba!