Last week I worked on a variety of things at the site. I started off the week helping everyone finish clearing out the acropolis so that we could finally open our trenches. After more rock and brush clearing, we were finally able to measure and mark out our trenches and officially open some of them. The trench I was assigned to is between two walls that form part of an interior room. During the two days in this trench we most found top soil, rock fall from the walls, and architectural pottery (roof and floor tiles).
During the second part of the week I worked with Jason and learned how to use GIS to map out different points of the site. Our main project was to go around the whole site and find all of the columns that were at least partially visible and record them. By measuring the top and bottom of each column (or their visible ends), and recording things like whether they were broken or buried, we are able to map in the computer where all the columns are, how many there are, their size, and how they are positioned on the ground. This can tell us what certain structures around the site might have looked like, how they might have been destroyed, and how some of the columns were moved and reused by later people.