Things I learnt while working on an archaeological dig in Arram:
– That despite the entire UK being small enough to fit twice into NSW with room left over, something as simple as travelling from London to Beverley, which should really only take about three and a half hours, takes over five hours, and involves two buses and three trains.
– That all Brits, whether they follow cricket or not, upon hearing my accent, like to rub it in that they are beating us at Cricket. I’d just like to say, it took you eighteen damn years! I wouldn’t gloat just yet.
– That staying in a Fourteenth-Century-Dominican-Friary-cum-Youth-Hostel practically all by yourself sounds awesome, but is damn creepy come midnight.
– That archaeologists are really passionate about archaeology. After six days with these guys, I think we had a total of five conversations that didn’t revolve around a dig. Four of those five conversations were about where we were going to go for beer tonight.
– That archaeologists find putting the Australian in the tent marked ‘beer tent’ pretty damn amusing.
– That dirt ain’t dirt, apparently. There are many, many types of dirt, and just as many words to describe them.
– That after digging at the same bare hole for two days, finding a bit of broken Roman Pottery at the bottom is very exciting.
– That it’s pretty exciting to look out over a trench and suddenly see the blobs of different coloured dirt resolve into a picture. You finally know what everyone else was talking about, and can see where the Iron Age hut and its surrounding pit used to be. It’s like watching one of those 3D pictures coming into focus.
– Holding something in your hand that was made over 2000 years ago is awe inspiring.
– That there is a huuuge difference between the East Yorkshire accent and the West Yorkshire accent. Apparently.
– That to a German, the Australian accent sounds a lot like the East Yorkshire accent.
– That archaeology is fifty per cent geology, fifty per cent history, and I’m not such a big fan of geology.
– That I don’t think I am archaeologist material, I think I’ll stick to the book side of history.
– That the East Yorkshire archaeologists find it very amusing to regale the Australian with stories of ghostly monks before she has to go back to the Friary at night....
– That I want to come back to Yorkshire.
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