A dirty city . . a dirty site . . I need a bath!
So I´ve had my first 2 days of work. Yesterday, we worked on dividing up the site map into sectors (of only the Tello Complex--Cajamarquilla is much bigger but we´re only tackling this part) and then printing out pages of close-ups (aerial view) of portions within each sector. Today, we went to the site; after seeing it, we had to change around the sectors so basically had to redo some of the pages. But at least it´s better organized now.
Initial impressions of Cajamarquilla? Both unimpressing and impressive at the same time. The first is because it´s highly deteriorated; lots of the walls are rather small or very obscured by earth/fill. But it is awesome in the fact that it covers a really large area, and the deposits do go down quite deep (i.e. some sections were filled and reoccupation on top). So in its heyday it would have seemed rather nifty indeed. There´s an awful lot of trash debris around too, ick. unlike most other sites I´ve seen, there is little-to-no artifact debris on the surface.
We´ll do 4 steps for each wall, numbered individually within each sector (of which there are 9):
1) fill out a form with basic info about the wall itself--assoc. features, height, etc
2) draw a sketch (with scale) of each face of the wall
3) mark (using colored codes) on the close-up site plan more-or-less where different types of wall damage are present. There´s 21 diff types of damage, each quite different once you can recognize them, and a wall can have any or all of them. Overlapping, even.
4) take a photo of each face
Exciting, no? Right. It´ll take a while, and I´m not certain we´ll finish--we´re got 5 people and one month to do it in. Hmmm.
The site takes quite a while to get there, around 1 1/2 if the traffic´s quick. We rode with the director on the way there--and got stopped by the police.
Yes, folks, if you drive a nice car in Peru, la policia (they usually stand on the side of the road) will stop you to check your papers (license, registration, insurance, etc). That stuff has to be renewed far more often than ours and if everything is not in order, there are tremendous problems.
For example, with us: our director was missing the right paperwork. First the lady cop wanted our director to go with her. No way, we all had to get to the site, the main archaeologist for the site was waiting for us there. So instead, the cop came with us. Get this--she got into the car and rode with us to the site and waited about an hour until our director could take her back and get the papers; I think she was having her son bring the paperwork.
And apparently, it´s far worse to be without all your papers than it is to have too many people in the car. We were already sitting 4 in the back, so the cop got in the front and the other front passenger sat in the middle on the little storage compartment thing by the stick shift. So there´s 7 of us in a car for 5, and no one can wear a seat belt. And that´s not illegal. Oookay.
We took regular buses and comvees (shuttle-bus thing) back to Miraflores. Tomorrow, it´ll be more interesting getting there. The way it works is this company has shuttle-buses that run specific routes along major streets at certain times. You arrange and pay things ahead of time for them to pick you up--they don´t pick up random people, only those that have registered for those time slots. But it will be multiple other people going on this shuttle with different destinations; I´m the only Yachaywasi person on mine. And it´s still about a 20 block walk to the bus stop. And after I get there, it´s another short public comvee ride (10 min) and a walk (10 min) to the site. So basically, I get to navigate Lima by myself. Eep!
I´ll take pics of this site tomorrow. Expect lots of beige-tan walls.
And in other news, I´ve been knitting well. I made a washcloth the other day, and I´m almost done with my purse. :)
Initial impressions of Cajamarquilla? Both unimpressing and impressive at the same time. The first is because it´s highly deteriorated; lots of the walls are rather small or very obscured by earth/fill. But it is awesome in the fact that it covers a really large area, and the deposits do go down quite deep (i.e. some sections were filled and reoccupation on top). So in its heyday it would have seemed rather nifty indeed. There´s an awful lot of trash debris around too, ick. unlike most other sites I´ve seen, there is little-to-no artifact debris on the surface.
We´ll do 4 steps for each wall, numbered individually within each sector (of which there are 9):
1) fill out a form with basic info about the wall itself--assoc. features, height, etc
2) draw a sketch (with scale) of each face of the wall
3) mark (using colored codes) on the close-up site plan more-or-less where different types of wall damage are present. There´s 21 diff types of damage, each quite different once you can recognize them, and a wall can have any or all of them. Overlapping, even.
4) take a photo of each face
Exciting, no? Right. It´ll take a while, and I´m not certain we´ll finish--we´re got 5 people and one month to do it in. Hmmm.
The site takes quite a while to get there, around 1 1/2 if the traffic´s quick. We rode with the director on the way there--and got stopped by the police.
Yes, folks, if you drive a nice car in Peru, la policia (they usually stand on the side of the road) will stop you to check your papers (license, registration, insurance, etc). That stuff has to be renewed far more often than ours and if everything is not in order, there are tremendous problems.
For example, with us: our director was missing the right paperwork. First the lady cop wanted our director to go with her. No way, we all had to get to the site, the main archaeologist for the site was waiting for us there. So instead, the cop came with us. Get this--she got into the car and rode with us to the site and waited about an hour until our director could take her back and get the papers; I think she was having her son bring the paperwork.
And apparently, it´s far worse to be without all your papers than it is to have too many people in the car. We were already sitting 4 in the back, so the cop got in the front and the other front passenger sat in the middle on the little storage compartment thing by the stick shift. So there´s 7 of us in a car for 5, and no one can wear a seat belt. And that´s not illegal. Oookay.
We took regular buses and comvees (shuttle-bus thing) back to Miraflores. Tomorrow, it´ll be more interesting getting there. The way it works is this company has shuttle-buses that run specific routes along major streets at certain times. You arrange and pay things ahead of time for them to pick you up--they don´t pick up random people, only those that have registered for those time slots. But it will be multiple other people going on this shuttle with different destinations; I´m the only Yachaywasi person on mine. And it´s still about a 20 block walk to the bus stop. And after I get there, it´s another short public comvee ride (10 min) and a walk (10 min) to the site. So basically, I get to navigate Lima by myself. Eep!
I´ll take pics of this site tomorrow. Expect lots of beige-tan walls.
And in other news, I´ve been knitting well. I made a washcloth the other day, and I´m almost done with my purse. :)
posted by archaesmd at 5:33 PM
3 Comments:
Hey Stacy
I'm not particularly certain that seat belt usage is compulsory in Peru as those laws tend to be only in effect in the "West" (i.e. first-world countries) and if it is I'd be willing to bet that the police generally only enforce it as an attempt to milk, for lack of a better term, anyone that looks like they can afford it, which is probably why the cop didn't care much at all about the overloading. Especially seeing as she was contributing to it.
Of course seeing as you've already described drivers in Peru as being a bit on the insane side, I'm guessing that you weren't particularly thrilled about that, considering that you're usually (almost) as anal-retentive about wearing one as I'm.
Outside of that, the work you're going to be doing sounds pretty interesting if a bit obtuse to a wanna be historian such as myself :) Not to mention that you'll probably be able to find a niche researching the Incas a hell of lot easier than I will writing about former Senator Majority Leaders from Montana. Plus I'm guessing that Lima is more cosmopolitan than Missoula.
Anyways, good luck with the navigating of Lima tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of the work site.
One last thing, do I get anything for making the first comment? Outside of the obvious scorn and derision. :)
Talk to you later.
-Mike
I think this could be of real use to you. I saw it in San Juan earlier this year. Onboard version of ArcView, GPS, digital camera, laser rangefinder. If you are doing fast and dirty preservation work, rather than precise for scientific publication illustration, I suspect this would be very useful. But I haven't used the device, so I can't say for certain.
But if they've got $6000 - 9000 (I saw the more expensive military version) to play with, it could radically speed up the amount they could do, and it would be input to the GIS in the field.
http://www.surveylab.co.nz/
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=2284
I don't know if this cop was looking for a mordida, which is the stereotype. But the fact that he went out of her way to go with you to confirm what as said, actually sounds like she was just trying to be honest.
A former project director of mine was pulled over in Honduras, and the cop wanted to know where his safety equipment was. The gringo driver assumed this guy was looking for a bribe, and kept nudging in that direction. Nope, the cop really was a stickler for this sort of thing, and wanted him to be a safe driver.
Also, don't freak out too much about those checkpoints. We got them all the time in El Salvador. They are interested in your car (to make sure it isn't stolen and you aren't trying to transport it across a border for resale) and in any non-gringo looking passengers (who might be trying to illegally emigrate, though this is more of an issue in Central America).
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