Entry Writer: Ricardo (Rico) Pagulayan
Nothing – again, nothing. We had been digging in Unit 13 for three days now, and all we had to show for it were three sherds of pottery, sherds that even our graduate students, Ellie and Marie, were not excited about. According to Dr. Acabado, the site’s content was most likely landfill from sometime ago, and unsurprisingly, he seemed right. Day after day, the team, consisting of Sterling, Bo, and the two aforementioned graduate students, as well as myself has hit nothing but rock, clay, and some smelly soil that reeked heavily of water buffalo dung. Even then, it seemed, Dr. Acabado and Adam were going to make us keep digging deeper in Unit 13 anyway.
Then, out of nowhere, Adam came hurrying towards the Unit 13 crew, hard at work of course, telling us, “Hurry, hurry, get all of your stuff, you are going to start another trench right now!” Tired of seeing a bottomless pit of rock and clay, I think I can speak for all members of the Unit 13 crew when I say that we all excitedly grabbed our tools, relieved and ready to finally leave Unit 13. We then followed Adam across several rice terraces, balancing, yet still managing to scurry on thin terrace walls, headed towards a wooded area to the east of Unit 13. We were told that we would be excavating at Lola Martha’s yard, and our new unit would be called Unit 16.
Arriving at Lola Martha’s yard, we saw that the earth we would be excavating was dry and hard. What’s more was that there was no shade, and we were definitely not excited to fry under the sun. Nonetheless, we quickly measured and staked our 2x2 meter excavation area, and after back stringing the stakes together, we got right to troweling Unit 16, breaking the surface at last. Yet, I can’t fail to mention that, again, the SITMO guys (Edson, George, Mr. Martin, and Ton-Ton) came to our rescue once more, bringing some tarp that they rapidly made into a shade over our unit. We could finally excavate a little bit more comfortably.
The SITMO guys got right in the unit with us as well, helping us to trowel away the first 10 centimeters off the surface. Right away, down approximately two centimeters below surface, we started to find many, many sherds of clay pottery. One, two, three, another one, then another one, and more, and more – we found so many sherds that from zero to 10 centimeters below surface, we had already filled three large Ziploc bags with them. The Unit 16 crew collected the sherds right as we found them in the trench, but, since the team was also screening the excavated dirt of cultural material, the screening team too was finding loads and loads of broken pottery.
Additionally, sometime after our lunch break, the team was also made aware of our site’s oral history. Apparently, Unit 16’s location was never used as a terrace for growing crops, and therefore, could very well have supported habitation areas for the Old Kiyyangan Village. Dr. Acabado and Adam believe that the crew would have to penetrate first through this rock pavement in order to finally get to a layer containing cultural deposits from Old Kiyyangan Village. In fact, Dr. Acabado mentioned at one point that excavation of Unit 16 would probably reach 1.5 meters.
As the team continued to dig, working away to reach our goal of excavating 20 centimeters below surface, the SITMO guys stayed with us, digging and moving the dirt to be screened. We continued to find a plethora of clay potsherds, ranging from thumbnail sized ones to larger sherds measuring three or more centimeters in diameter, most of which were rim sherds. When the crew finally reached our desired depth of 20 centimeters below surface, we had filled up 6.5 large Ziploc bags with potsherds. At 3:00 p.m., with the hot sun still high in the sky, we were content to call it a day.
Digging with Dr. Acabado and Adam in the Ifugao Archaeological Project is my first ever participation in a field school, and with a hands-on approach to archaeology in general. Unit 16 was therefore extremely, extremely exciting for me, not only because finally, we were finding cultural material, but also because it was exhilarating to finally see results! To be completely honest, excavation is no easy or comfortable task, but even under the midday sun, starting to tire and thirst, the excitement of finding cultural deposits was enough to remind why I was there – I had a burning curiosity to know more about the Philippines’ cultural history, and a great interest in archaeology in general. Granted, not all excavations will yield desired results, as seen in Unit 13, but with excavating, you just can never be for sure. You just have to dig, and keep digging!
Nothing – again, nothing. We had been digging in Unit 13 for three days now, and all we had to show for it were three sherds of pottery, sherds that even our graduate students, Ellie and Marie, were not excited about. According to Dr. Acabado, the site’s content was most likely landfill from sometime ago, and unsurprisingly, he seemed right. Day after day, the team, consisting of Sterling, Bo, and the two aforementioned graduate students, as well as myself has hit nothing but rock, clay, and some smelly soil that reeked heavily of water buffalo dung. Even then, it seemed, Dr. Acabado and Adam were going to make us keep digging deeper in Unit 13 anyway.
Then, out of nowhere, Adam came hurrying towards the Unit 13 crew, hard at work of course, telling us, “Hurry, hurry, get all of your stuff, you are going to start another trench right now!” Tired of seeing a bottomless pit of rock and clay, I think I can speak for all members of the Unit 13 crew when I say that we all excitedly grabbed our tools, relieved and ready to finally leave Unit 13. We then followed Adam across several rice terraces, balancing, yet still managing to scurry on thin terrace walls, headed towards a wooded area to the east of Unit 13. We were told that we would be excavating at Lola Martha’s yard, and our new unit would be called Unit 16.
Arriving at Lola Martha’s yard, we saw that the earth we would be excavating was dry and hard. What’s more was that there was no shade, and we were definitely not excited to fry under the sun. Nonetheless, we quickly measured and staked our 2x2 meter excavation area, and after back stringing the stakes together, we got right to troweling Unit 16, breaking the surface at last. Yet, I can’t fail to mention that, again, the SITMO guys (Edson, George, Mr. Martin, and Ton-Ton) came to our rescue once more, bringing some tarp that they rapidly made into a shade over our unit. We could finally excavate a little bit more comfortably.
The SITMO guys got right in the unit with us as well, helping us to trowel away the first 10 centimeters off the surface. Right away, down approximately two centimeters below surface, we started to find many, many sherds of clay pottery. One, two, three, another one, then another one, and more, and more – we found so many sherds that from zero to 10 centimeters below surface, we had already filled three large Ziploc bags with them. The Unit 16 crew collected the sherds right as we found them in the trench, but, since the team was also screening the excavated dirt of cultural material, the screening team too was finding loads and loads of broken pottery.
Additionally, sometime after our lunch break, the team was also made aware of our site’s oral history. Apparently, Unit 16’s location was never used as a terrace for growing crops, and therefore, could very well have supported habitation areas for the Old Kiyyangan Village. Dr. Acabado and Adam believe that the crew would have to penetrate first through this rock pavement in order to finally get to a layer containing cultural deposits from Old Kiyyangan Village. In fact, Dr. Acabado mentioned at one point that excavation of Unit 16 would probably reach 1.5 meters.
As the team continued to dig, working away to reach our goal of excavating 20 centimeters below surface, the SITMO guys stayed with us, digging and moving the dirt to be screened. We continued to find a plethora of clay potsherds, ranging from thumbnail sized ones to larger sherds measuring three or more centimeters in diameter, most of which were rim sherds. When the crew finally reached our desired depth of 20 centimeters below surface, we had filled up 6.5 large Ziploc bags with potsherds. At 3:00 p.m., with the hot sun still high in the sky, we were content to call it a day.
Digging with Dr. Acabado and Adam in the Ifugao Archaeological Project is my first ever participation in a field school, and with a hands-on approach to archaeology in general. Unit 16 was therefore extremely, extremely exciting for me, not only because finally, we were finding cultural material, but also because it was exhilarating to finally see results! To be completely honest, excavation is no easy or comfortable task, but even under the midday sun, starting to tire and thirst, the excitement of finding cultural deposits was enough to remind why I was there – I had a burning curiosity to know more about the Philippines’ cultural history, and a great interest in archaeology in general. Granted, not all excavations will yield desired results, as seen in Unit 13, but with excavating, you just can never be for sure. You just have to dig, and keep digging!