The Best Laid Plans

17th June, 2018

Knysna, South Africa 

Our second week in the field has been just as crazy and as productive as our first one. We had been warned of a taxi strike in Knysna, which was to shut down the major roads. Mentally we (at least, the students), began prepping for a lab day on Monday. Before dawn, we were up and ready to go, waiting on our scouting driver to send us a message letting us know that everything was clear or if we were stuck at the flats for the day. Surprisingly, the anticipated road blocks did not occur, instead they were moved east to the Township. Admittedly surprised, we loaded the vehicles and headed to site. The roads were hauntingly empty, devoid of the usual traffic. Not even the regular foot traffic was visible.

Tuesday our schedule changed again. Our OSL specialist is here, taking samples. Optically Stimulated Luminescence is a dating technique, measuring the number of trapped electrons. It requires samples to be taken in the complete darkness, as exposure to light causes the release of the electrons. When the sediment is exposed in a lab, under controlled conditions, the number of electrons can be correlated to a timeline. However, before this could occur, Dr. C decided that we needed to complete a round of night photography. Night photography generally requires a lot of preparation, given that several of us must remain onsite and clean and chit the section prior to photographing it.  The chits are the most important part—they are one cm crosshairs with unique numbers that are shot in with the total stations. This allows us to create a “3D” image, by tying the spatial data and the overlapping photographs together.

Our vehicles left site as usual, but five of us turned around and returned to site, stopping to grab food on the way. Most of us scarfed down our food by time we reached the glen. It was nearly dark by the time we reached the cave. Using our new night photography manual, we set the tripod on the slope, set our flashes to manual, and got started.

Immediately we had several equipment malfunctions. Although the flashes were linked to the camera, they didn’t offer us enough light to take the high-quality photos necessary. I made the mistake of holding the flash pointed upwards while I scanned the manual, only to be nearly blinded when someone set off the camera. My near blindness didn’t stop me from search the cave for the bat we heard (five people is too many when working in a narrow trench, and I found myself with nothing to do). Between the difficult angles of the slope, the narrow trench and the camera issues, we didn’t finish until ten-thirty. All of us were exhausted by time we returned to the flats.

Our photography adventures were not yet over. On Thursday we had another senior researcher visit, and after some discussion, it was decided that the samples would be taken from a different wall. This session went much smoother—our amazing lab manager Tina brought us a ton of food and drinks, and drove the crew home so we could hang out onsite until it got dark. Because we were shooting a flat wall, all we had to do was take five photos and call it a night. It began to rain as we hiked out, sheets of water turning the headlights of my companions into pale ghosts. The rocks, usually slippery with sea spray, were worse with rainfall. However, we were still in high spirits, glad to have finished early. 

Every week, more of the site is opened. This time we stepped the long section back another quad (a 50x50 cm square that one excavator digs), moving into the LSA material above where previously excavated. In the trench, we are moving rapidly through the nearly sterile, rocky layer. Generally digging that many rocks drives our excavators a bit nuts, so we have changed up people frequently. My job is usually to “gun,” i.e. collect the spatial data we use for analysis of density and placement of different types of artifacts. 

Friday we realized how much sediment was collecting onsite. Everything that gets dug is collected—dirt, rocks, ect and bagged. These bags need to be sieved and the contents analyzed. This year, our designated sieving expert is in Mosselbaai, so we need to take it all to him over the weekend. This meant multiple trips to haul giant bags of dirt to the truck. Somehow, we carried it all out. The storm surge and the spring tide caused the water to rise higher than I've ever seen it, waves splashing across the cobbles of our path, water licking at the road through the lagoon. That night, we gathered at Muse, our favorite restaurant (also conveniently the one we eat at twice a week) for a round of beer and milkshakes. One third of the season is finished.