Seville: Tapas and Legends

Seville is the forth largest city in Spain, the capital of the Andalusia region and founded by Hercules (according to legend). The city is also famous for flamenco, a traditional dance and music style that was created by the gypsies (although not originally at this location).

When you’re going to Spain the thing that everyone tells you is to try the tapas (small plates). The locals all order and consume small entrees of thinly sliced ham, tuna on bread, cheeses, fish, meat, chicken, grilled, fried, salted, etc…you get the picture. When I was in Menorca, every restaurant had the same 6-8 tapas and none of them really sounded all that good. Then I got to mainland Spain and realize that there are hundreds of different tapas and a lot of them are fantastic. The thing is you either need to have a bottomless stomach or go with a large group of people if you want to try a lot of different ones.

When I arrived in Seville, I was perfectly on time for the tapas night tour. I joined with 15 college kids from Malta, a couple from Canada, a couple from Switzerland, a Dutch girl, a fellow Californian, and a few Germans, as we visited three different restaurants and tried about 15 different tapas. I got to try fried cheese, something I don’t remember the name of (a local favorite that taste like cold tomato paste with a little cream and cheese added in), mushrooms, grated olives, anchovies, a shrimp frittata, goat cheese with jam, and some others that I don’t even remember. The tapas were served with a choice of drink (Sangria is awesome) and it was a great way to spend and evening.

I spent my one full day in Seville on walking tours by Pancho. There are two free tours that are offered; a day time Folklore tour and an evening History and Legends tour. The day tour was about 3.5 hours long and the evening one was about 2.75 hours long. They were both incredibly detailed and explained a lot of the history of the town and the region. They also allowed me to be able to see a large chunk of the historical part of town. The city itself is quite large (as I discovered when I was wandering around on my own).

No8Do is the official motto of Seville. The motto is a rebus, combining the Spanish syllables (NO and DO) and a drawing in between the figure "8". The figure represents a skein of yarn, or in Spanish, a "madeja". When read aloud, "No madeja do" sounds like "No me ha dejado", which means "It [Seville] has not abandoned me".

The story as to how NO8DO came to be the motto of the city has undoubtedly been embellished throughout the centuries, but legend has it that after the conquest of Seville from the Muslims in 1248, King Ferdinand III of Castile and León moved his court to the former Muslim palace, the Alcazar of Seville.After San Fernando’s death in the Real Alcázar, his son, Alfonso X assumed the throne. Alfonso X was a scholar king, hence his title. He was a poet, astronomer, astrologer, musician and linguist. Alfonso's son, Sancho IV of Castile, was a cruel and arrogant man that tried to usurp the throne from his father when his father changed the laws so that the kingdom would not pass to him upon the king’s death.

Sancho IV didn’t like this one bit and being a devote Catholic, he ran to the Vatican and asked for their support in the war against his father. The Vatican agreed since this would mean more territories for them. Of all of King Alfonzo’s territories, only Seville and two small towns stood behind him. The war was thus over before it started. King Alfonzo conceded to Sancho, but asked that he be allowed to live out his remaining days as a king in Seville and when he died, Sancho could have the throne. Sancho agreed. NO8DO was believed to have originated when, according to legend, Alfonso X rewarded the fidelity of the "Sevillanos" with the words that now appear on the official emblem of the city of Seville.

The city of Seville is filled with orange trees everywhere. Legend states that there was once a king that was fond of his riddles and his rhymes. He made a game out of being able to say something and the people with whom he talking had to add on to what he said in rhyme. One day the king was walking with another important person and started a rhyme. The Kings consort couldn’t think of anything to go with the rhyme, but a young servant girl could and dared to speak up. The King fell in love with the young girl and added her to his collection of wives (although she was his favorite).

Years later, the King and the girl were arguing about whether Granada or Seville was the better city. They compared all the different features of each city and the girl declared that Granada was better because it snowed there. The King not wanting to be outdone by a mire trifle of weather concocted a plan to change her mind. He had everyone plan orange trees throughout the city. When spring came, the trees bloomed and small the white flowers that fell to the ground; giving the appearance of snow.

Since I spent my one full day running around the city taking the walking tours and getting a feel for the historic part of the city (the city is actually quite large – the 4th largest in Spain), I only had the morning and early afternoon to hit up the Palace and the Cathedral. This was definitely not enough time and led to me pretty much running through the Cathedral at the end, snapping pictures in a drive-by way so that I could look at them later and see what was actually there. I recommend that if ever someone comes here give yourself and entire day for the two things or at least 5-6 hours.

The Alcazar is the royal palace of Seville and home to the royal family when they make their way here. It was originally a Moorish fort, but was converted to a palace by the Almorhades and then added to and changed over the years by successive rulers. The palace is one of the best remaining examples of mudèjar (style of decoration using colorful tiles that was popular between the 12th and 16th centuries and influenced by the Moors) architecture.

The Palace boast fantastic gardens filled with lush green paths and fountains, walkways that peer over pools of mossy waters, blooming trees and flowers, and mixed architectures containing marble columns and tiled façades, wooden ceilings, and carved sculptures. You can pay a little extra and be lead through the royal living quarters with a guide that wags his finger at you if you accidentally mistake a royal bench as somewhere you’re allowed to sit while you listen to the audio guide. All in all, it’s definitely a place to visit.

From the palace, I fled to the Catedral de Santa María de la Sede (Seville Cathedral). This is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and the 3rd largest Church in the world and when you’re inside you can tell. The cathedral started as a mosque, but was converted to a church starting in 1401 (it took 105 years to complete) when the city was a bustling trade center and wanted something to distinguish it and show it’s wealth to the world. When it was completed, it supplanted the Hagia Sofia in Turkey as the largest Cathedral in the world (Hagia Sofia had held the title for over 1000 years).

The inside of the Cathedral rises to a height of 42 meters and contains 80 different chapels, all of which are lavishly decorated. Christopher Columbus is buried somewhere in the crypt. Attached to the Cathedral is the Tower of Giralda, which is 105 meters (343 ft) tall and used to be the minaret when the cathedral was but a small mosque. Giralda is the tallest structure in the city by law so that all citizens can see the tower and know where it is. The top of the tower is gotten to by walking up 34 sloped ramps. When the tower was a minaret, the muezzin (AKA the poor guy that had to ring the bells 5 times a day for pray) didn’t want to have to run up hundreds of stair all day long, so a ramp was constructed and he used to ride either a horse or donkey up it.

And that is the quick and dirty of Seville.

Barcelona in Snip-its

After an early morning bus, followed by a few hour wait at the airport in Mahon, another bus upon arrival, and a 10 minute walk, I arrived at my new home for the next 3.5 days, the BCN Backpackers Hostel in Barcelona. What I could see of the hostel in my five minutes inside showed yellow walls, clean restrooms, IKEA influence, and a smattering of random travelers. I dropped my gear and headed out to see the city.

There are free walking tours that are offered by a few different companies and advertised throughout the hostel trade. I meandered the cobble-stoned, graffiti riddled street of the University and Catalunya areas in search of Placa Reial, the location for where the walking tours departed.

Placa Reial is a 19th century square designed by Francesc Daniel Molina i Casamajó that used to house the Natural History Museum (pretty much a taxidermy shop at the time and now a restaurant) and Antoni Gaudi's very first commission. Gaudí designed two lamp posts that are in the square on a commission from the City of Barcelona. The commission was supposed to go to another artist, but that artist died and thus it went to Gaudí , who refused to work for the fee that the city offered and in the end they paid him more (not what he wanted though) and refused to ever higher him again.

There were two different walking tours, I chose the Gaudí one to start with. The tour went to four different locations that are famous Guadi works in Barcelona. The first stop was Güell's Pala (Güell's Palace), then Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, and finally, Guadi's famous, yet unfinished, Sangrada Familia.

Güell's Pala was the home of Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi (Count of Güell, textile industrialist and marquis's of Comillas son-in-law), Gaudí's benefactor and friend. Güell gave Gaudí unlimited financial resources and unlimited creative license. This lead to amazing works that were always made with the best materials, always over budget, always over time, and as a final result, amazing. Since Gaudí was a perfectionist, he would often tear down and rebuild numerous parts of the buildings he was designing if they weren’t up to his expectations.

The first thing that I thought when saw Gaudí's buildings was that he was on acid, a lot. His creations are straight out of fairy tales or from the depths of Alice and Wonderland. They're all whorls and curves, dragons, skulls, lollipops, and storm troopers. Everything that Gaudí made was unique and held a double meaning. Gaudí lived for four things, natural, architecture, church, and Catalonia. As a result there was lot of religious themes that made their way into his art. Rooftops that rolled represented the dragon that was slain by King George II. Metal grated balconies represented dragon scales on one level and the skeletal remains of the dragons’ victims (the persecuted) on another levels.

Gaudí was also a fan of making everything functional. Heads that looked like knights in armor were chimneys and gave George Lucas the idea for Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers. Christmas trees and lollipops and colorful swirly items were also the tops of stairwells that lead to roofs.

Gaudí was a Catalonian and very dedicated to that. This posed a problem during his lifetime, because at that time Catalonia was being subdued by Spain and its people persecuted. Gaudí met this challenge by refusing to speak Spanish (only speaking Catalan) and adding nationalist themes in his art. There are representations of the Catalonia flag, King George II, and other symbols of the Catalonian people throughout Gaudí's work.

It's thought that since Gaudí fasted a lot and rarely ate enough to really support his body, he may have hallucinated and his works could be a result of those hallucinations. Gaudí was also part of the group of artist at the time that partook in Absinthe so I'm not really sure what the real reasoning is behind Gaudí's work, but the final result is some truly spectacular creativity that I quite like.

I went on a tour of the old city (AKA the Barri Gotic or Gothic Quarter). This area is a mixing of dark imposing medieval buildings from the 14th and 15th centuries that crowd over the streets. Clothing shops, restaurants, knickknack stores, sites of historical significance all intermingle in these narrow corridors. The old Jewish Ghetto once was here, and was called the Call which translated to "narrow streets". The Ghetto was surrounded by a wall and when the population exploded over time, the people couldn't move outward so they moved inward and up. Thus the roads became smaller and the light lessened as the buildings arched heavenward.

La Seu originated as a Roman temple and then became an early Christian basilica, and is now Barcelona's cathedral. The cathedral is dedicated to the city's co-patroness, Santa Eulalia; a thirteen year old girl that was tortured and eventually crucified by the Romans for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. She’s buried under the parishioners’ seats and you can peer at her casket from behind wrought iron bars.

In the US Old Jolly St. Nick brings the good little and girls their gifts, but in Barcelona, it’s a creepy log with feet, a red Santa hat, and Rudolph’s red nose. The log is called Tio de Nadal or Caga Tió and is cared for from after El Dia de Inmaculada, which is December 8. Then, either on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve (it varies), the children beat the log (and throw him into the fire, if they have one) and sing songs enticing it to 'shit some presents'. And people think Americans have weird customs.

In addition to scaring the Santa log into shitting presents, there is another xmas custom here which has to do with owning a Caganer or “Little Shitter.” This is supposed to be a statue of a porcelain gnome-like creature with its pants down that is attempting to take a dump. Although in present day, it’s very popular to get shitters with famous faces on them. Every family puts the shitter somewhere in their house and the guests are supposed to locate it. Kind of like the Jewish tradition of hiding the afikomen at Passover. Like I said, the Catalonians are weird.
Parc Güell is another of Gaudí’s masterpieces. Gaudí got together with his benefactor and created the idea of making a housing complex where Gaudí would design all of the open spaces and the rich people that were going to live in the reserve would design their own houses. The project was a complete bust as a housing development because most of the aristocracy of the time hated the park and the idea. The only people that ever ended up living in the park were Güell, Gaudí (who had someone else design his house), and a lawyer friend of theirs. Today the park is filled with wandering tourists and is a way to see Gaudí’s genius (or psychosis depending upon your opinion of him) without having to pay a fortune (the park is free to roam around).

I convinced a few of my fellow hostel-mates to come on a ghost tour of the Gothic Quarter with me. We wandered to the now familiar Placa Reial and wondered how we were going to locate our guide among the hundreds of tourists crowding the place. This proved not to be a problem as an apparition in a black trench coat, top hat, and candlelit lantern ghosted its way through the square. Ty, our ghostly tour guide led the four of us (no one else came so we essentially got a private tour) through the narrow alleys ways of the old quarter and explained the ghoulish and macabre history of the area. I thought the tour was going to be about ghost stories and things that go bump in the night, but it was actually about the bloody history of the place and some of the tragic things that had occurred. It was awesome.

Since there were only four of us on the tour, we got to know Ty kind of well (as well as you can know someone in an hour) and so he invited us to tag along to a local ex-pat pub. We ended up in a very narrow, very crowded, Irish pub run by Londoners and packed with a shitload of crazy soccer fans all watching the Barcelona vs. Valencia (a rare event apparently) and random English games. It was entertaining.

On my second day in Barcelona I went to the City History Museum which essentially was an archaeological museum. The city is filled with museums of different types, but due to my time constraints, I was only able to see the one. I will have to come back sometime and spend an entire week in the city to be able to see everything that I’d like to see. There are some amazing things here. Anyways, the museum is built above the remains of part of the Roman city that at one time was Barcino or Barca. Your entrance fee gets you an audio tour guide and it takes about 1-2 hours to wander through the remains of the buildings and hear all of the information that’s provided to you. I recommend this place for all the nerds like me.

I managed to cram a bunch of hours of aimless wandering, getting lost, and discovery into my 3 and a half days, but I think this entry is long enough that I’ve lost most of my readers already. Until next time.

A Day Off and a Road Trip Across the Island

I managed to convince Alex and Maggie (Margret) to be co-conspirators on a trip around the island. I figured since I might never make it back here again, I should at least be able to say that in three weeks I saw something of the island apart from the city of Ciutadella.

Alex, Maggie, and I rented a Ford Ka, which is like a little toy car, but consistent with all of the other cars on the island. It’s almost impossible to find a big car (probably cause the roads are so narrow and gas is so expensive). We set out to see what we could of the island and its 1500 archaeological sites. We left from Ciutadella and headed towards Mahon, which is on the other side of the island and about 35 miles away (it’s 46km). On the way we hit up Naveta des Tudons.

The Naveta des Tudons is a very well preserved megalithic construction, considered to be one of the most emblematic archeological remains on Menorca, and possibly the best known one in the whole of the Balearics. The construction is 3000 years old and was used as a collective funeral monument. Two Euros get you admission to walk down a dusty road and take a look at the burial structure. It’s pretty neat, but not really worth the money to see up close as they’ve made it so you can’t enter and you can pretty much see the exterior just as well from the road.

We attempted to detour to another site on our way to Mahon, but realized that they all cost money and are for the most part small monuments that we really didn’t feel like spending $5 on to see for 30 seconds. We decided instead to just pick a few of the more well known sites and see those.

We made it to Mahon a little before noon and parked in the town center. There was a flea market/artist market going on in the park that we walked around a bit in and bought some souvenirs. From there we headed down the cobblestone streets and looked at the architecture, while taking in the atmosphere with its heavy tourists clogged center.

Mahon is like Ciutadella, but two or three times the size. The streets are narrow and contain cobblestoned paths lined by cafes and retail shops selling their wares. Mingled throughout are the gelaterias and pastry shops that call me like a siren. We stopped and had lunch at a small café and meandered till we came across an old judicial building that had been turned into a type of indoor marketplace. There were all of these small shops on the top level (some selling meat, some cheese, some fruits and veggies, etc…) and an actual grocery store on the bottom level.

By the time we had emerged from the marketplace, the city had settled comfortably into its siesta and most everything was closed down. We decided to walk along the waterfront a bit before ambling back to our car and hitting the road again. From Mahon we headed to El Toro, which is the highest peak (357 meters) on the entire island. El Toro is just outside the city of Es Mercadal, which is approximately in the center of Menorca. At the top of the hill is the Sanctuary for the Toro Virgin, a monastery.

The origin of the sanctuary is from the XIII century. According to popular tradition, the statue of the Virgin was found in the mountain by a group of religious merchants who reached the summit accompanied by a bull that opened the way for them. But the reason for Toro (Spanish for bull) as the name of the hill really originates from the pre-Roman root "tor", which is the same as the Catalan word "turó," both meaning hill. The present church was built in 1670 on the remains of the previous gothic church and is administered by a community of Franciscans of Pity.

From the views of El Toro to the subterranean remains of an old sandstone quarry we drove. Lithica, Pedreres de s’Hostal is a series of rock quarries that have been taken over by an eco-conservation group and turned into a weird assortment of gardens and monuments. In one part of the site there is a labyrinth that was created from left over quarried stone blocks. There are also various types of botanic gardens, a few mini animal preserves (for example a gold fish pond and habitat for snakes and frogs). The best part though is the medieval secret garden that looks completely out of place in stark white walls of the quarry, but down a slightly shaded pathway and through a crack between two stones and you emerge into this green oasis. It was a beautiful surprise that we decided to rest in for a bit to escape the heat of the day.

Our last stop for the day was a beach. There are so many wonderful beaches on the island that present crystal clear waters and intriguing vistas. We decided to head for one of these at random by following the brown signs that denote the beaches of the island. We arrived when most of the rest of the world was packing up and leaving as the tide was rolling in and the water turning a muddy color as the waves churned the seafloor. A quick dip in the ocean, a little bit of time enjoying the lazy evening and it was time to return to the residence. All in all, it was a great day and a very cool way to end my time in Menorca.

Sidenote/Story:

Most of the food at the residence tends to be meat and so a lot of times I’m on the prowl for edible food in town. There are two kebab places (gyros) that tend to fit the bill because they’re just so good and don’t tend to be all bread. Maggie and I have taken to the kebab place down near the water front. We went there the other night and asked for a spicy kebab. Here spicy is a joke and usually means that they put the barest hint of spice on anything you order thinking that you really don’t mean it when you ask for it. This happened to be the case this night as well, but since we were eating in the restaurant, we asked for extra. Our server gave us a small tray with hot chili sauce (it was like a saricha) and told us to be careful cause it was extremely potent. We nodded thanks and then took a giant spoonful and dumped it on. The look on the server’s face was priceless. Especially when we then proceeded to asked for another bowl of it and used it as ketchup on our French fries. The server told us that he was Pakistani and that he thought we were crazy cause we liked it as hot as he did and that was unusual. We went back the next night too to the server’s amusement.

A Week in a Necropolis

The second week of the excavation I spent working in a Roman or Vandal necropolis (city of the dead or in layman’s terms, a cemetery). The archaeologists on this project aren’t sure yet whether this is from the Vandal period of occupation (5th c. AD) or the Roman period of occupation (2nd-3rd c. AD) on the island. Due to the fact that by the time the Romans decided to come here and settle down for a bit (read as attempted to conquer) they had been interacting with so many different cultures (whether through trade or war) that they’d adopted many of the traits and customs of some of their neighbors. Once Carmen and Fernando (the head archaeologist for the necropolis and the director of the Ecomuseu and the whole project) have time to sit down and actually look at the things that we, the students, have pulled from the unrelenting clay, they’ll be able to tell for sure what era this site hails from.

Regardless of the Era, the cemetery is comprised of cist style graves dug into the hard earth. A cyst grave is where a circular or rectangular (as in this case) hole is dug into the ground and then the sides and sometimes the base are lined with large flat stones. The bodies are then entombed in the graves. After enough time has passed so that the remains become skeletal, the grave is reopened, the bones shifted to the side, and new body(ies) added. Due to this practice the remains of 5-15 individuals could resides inside one tomb alone.

Our job is to (a) locate the tombs via pickaxing, (b) excavate the remains from each tomb, and (c) attempt to determine the minimum number of individuals that could have been present in each from the fragmented remains that are pulled out. The remains are incredible fragile and many of them splinter upon the slightest touch, which makes it very frustrating to work with. In the lab were get to put the bone puzzles back together, which is kinda fun.

We’re currently finishing excavations in Necropolis 6. These excavations were started last year or even possibly the year before that and now we’re coming to a close. At the start of the week there were only two tombs that still had work remaining on them and one amphora. At the end of the week there was one new tomb that was located (under a rosemary bush) on the second to last day and is only partially excavated. Everything else is either backfilled already to preserve it or left as a show and tell piece for the government and media personnel that are coming for a tour next week.

One of the tombs that we worked on this week we’ve taken to calling the “Tomb of Despair,” due to the fact that no one really wants to work in it. At the start of the week, the tomb was almost completely empty. There was just a little left at the bottom. The problem was that the bottom was about two feet under ground level and you couldn’t get inside the tomb to excavate. As a result you got to hang over the side, head down, and dig practically upside down. Caused a great head rush when you later sat back up to let the blood flow back to the rest of your body again. It was not the most pleasant of positions, that’s for sure.

The amphora (a large ceramic jug) was used as a burial vessel for an infant. Carmen believes that the child might have been two years old at the time of its death, but it seem so much smaller than that. Could just be that it only take up half of the amphorae which itself is only about 2 feet by 1 foot. The amphora is the only one of its kind to have been found on the island to date, so the finding of it holds a significant (although I don’t really know what that significant is).

There is one more day of digging left at the necropolis and then presentation day where everyone had to present a five minute powerpoint on a topic of their choice that relates somehow back to either the site, the various conquers of the island or bones. It’s not so much finding a topic that’s a problem as trying to make a five minute presentation intelligent, brief and informative all at the same time. Then two more days of chilling on the island (hopefully I can’t find some people to rent a car with this time and get to see more of the sites) and then it’s off to mainland Spain.

The End of the Cave and the Start of Our First Free Days

Cave week has come to a close and I’m sad cause in reality we only got to work on the on the actual site for about 7 hours. Our first day was comprised of hiking and viewing the different caves in the vicinity. The second day saw me working on an archaeological drawing with a few other students. It wasn’t until the third day that I actually got to lift up a trowel and peel back the layers of dirt at the site.

Maria, our instructor, has split the cave diggers into two groups; so that there are always three people drawing and four working at the site itself. If you’re part of the drawing group and you finish early then you can come back and join the excavators for an hour or so, but other than that, your digging time is short.

The site itself has three open units, two outside the cave and one inside the cave. The two units outside the cave consist mostly of debris and broken bone fragments that were dragged/dumped when looters desecrated the cave looking for goods. We’re painstakingly going through the topsoil trying to recover as many remains as we can. The main goal is to get an idea of the minimum number of individuals (MNI) that were buried here. It’s hard though cause you’re basing it off of how many bone fragments can be identified to a specific bone and then how many of those can be sided (left or right) and then based on that, how many should there be in a human body and… you get the point. It’s not the most accurate method, but it’s the best you can do when working with fragments that range from a few centimeters to a bare handful of completely intact remains.

Day four was an entire day spent in the lab washing the remains that we found and then attempting to determine what is what. I’m realizing just how much I’ve forgotten of my human anatomy in the last 8 years. Most of the other kids in the group have just taken human anatomy and remember the names of all the protuberances and processes and muscle attachment points and I can pretty much tell you whether it’s a long bone, short bone, or flat bone. Makes me want to go back to school. The good thing is at least the long hours in the lab are allowing me to distinguish what fragments of bone look like. The rule of thumb is if you think it’s a rock, it’s probably bone; if you think it’s a piece of pottery, it’s most definitely a bone.

Day five saw me drawing again and day six was back to digging but in a different unit.

Day seven was excursion day. This is the one day of the program where everyone is loaded into vans and driven to different sites on the island. There are over 2500 different archaeological sites on Menorca and most of them are free to wander around; you just need a car to get to them. We were supposed to head out at 10 am to view some places, but a misplaced key and a dead battery on one of the vans put us back an hour. We saw two sites: the Talayotic village of Son Catlar and the Necropolis of Cala Morell.

Son Catlar is a prehistoric Talayotic village that was believed to have cropped up in the Bronze age and then expanded right before the Romans conquered Menorca in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. The site contains an 870 meter long rock wall that encloses the entire village. During the expansion, Talayots (watch towers) were added to the villages to allow the inhabitants pre-warning of any approaching parties.

The minimal excavations that have been done at the site show that the village was inhabited until at least the end of the Roman occupation of the island. The site contains a hypogeum (underground burial chamber) which was slightly unusual for the time, as during the heyday of this society most people buried their dead with lime in caves or cremated them. Also of note was the large taula that was found. Taulas are created by two stones sitting one atop of the other, creating a “T” shape. Taulas are usually found in what archaeologists believe are temples or meeting places due to the finds that are recovered during excavations at these locations. There also appears to be a correlation between the size of the taulas and the size of the village or city from which it comes. The taula at Son Catlar is one of the largest ones found to date on the island.

From the village of Son Catlar, we headed to the Caves of Cala Morell. The Caves are used as the necropolis for this area. The site is on the North side of the island and comprised of 14 artificial caves. It is believe that this cemetery was in use from the pre-Talayotic period until the 2nd century AD.

Another cool thing about this area is that all of the houses are white. It’s a style that’s modeled after the homes on Ibiza built by architects Luis Rey and Enrique Ventura. The white house with the small streets, spectacular views, and clear waters create a picturesque sight that gives you an idea of why people have been living on this island for many millennia.

The weather and cries from the students directed our van from sight seeing to beach chilling. When you live on an island in the middle of the Mediterrian sea, there are no shortages of beaches to chill out at; and all of the beaches here are beautiful. The water is ten shades of blue, and pretty freaking clear. It’s also got a fairly high salt content that allows for some floating if you don’t want to have to tread water constantly. Our group got to hang out for a few hours, splash around a bit, and soak of some rays. It was a nice way to end the excursion.

From the beach it was a dash back to the residency to shower and get ready to head to Mahon for the festival. September 7th was the one of the nights of the Festes of Sant Joan (The Festivals of Saint Joan). I’m not a hundred percent sure what this festival really is about, but it usually takes place over the course of three days and involves horses. There are many riders (that represent the elite and nobles) who ride their horse through the streets of Mahon that are thronged with people (the peasants). When the riders get to the various squares around the city, the “peasants” run up to them and attempt to get the horses to rise up onto their back legs and charge forward like a motorcycle popping a wheelie. It’s the weirdest thing and pretty dangerous because there are thousands of bystanders and here are all of these giant horses rising up, kicking out their hooves and charging forward. It’s like being in a giant mosh pit where the goal is to push towards the center and touch a horse or get it to rear up (both are considered good luck because the horse have been blessed). The riders do three separate circuits around the town and range in age from about 14 or 15 to their mid-50s. It’s a really weird experience and definitely something everyone should checkout at least once in their lifetime. It’s supposed to be on par with the running of the bulls.

Now we have two days off to do as we like. I’ll write more in a few days. Hope all is well with everyone back home. I'll leave you with some quotes from people on the dig that I found humorous:

Jeanne to Sara:
“I don’t want a Facebook Account!”
“But how will I keep in touch with you?”
“Send me an email like a normal 20th century person”

Jeanne:
“Everyone loves getting handwritten letters, even if they’re written on a typewriter.”

Introduction to Menorca and the First Few Days of Field School

Menorca is the upper most (closest to mainland Spain) of the three Balearic Islands. The other two islands are the well known Mallorca (sometimes written as Majorca) and the lesser known Ibiza. Menorca was declared a Biosphere Reserve site in 1993 by Unesco. It has more archaeological sites spread across it than both of the other islands combined and the government is in the process of getting it declared a World Heritage Site as well.

The island host two main languages, Castilian and Catalan, but many of the inhabitants speak their own variant, Menorca, which is a dialect of Catalan and kind of like listening to the difference between someone from the Bronx taking to someone from Fargo. The languages also come with spelling differences and a few additional letters that make it hard to even attempt to read the language unless you’re at least a little familiar with it. The good thing though, is that the island is a main tourist destination for not only mainland Spaniards, but also tour ships and residents from other European countries. This adds up to a very multicultural place where many people understand a variety of languages or at least are used to charades.

Menorca has been constantly changing hands from the pre-Talayotic civilization’s inception (in the late second millennium BC) when it was believe to have first been settled. First there were the Talayotica, who built megalithic (large rock) structures called talayots (from which the group’s name comes). Then came the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Byzantine empire, the Normans, the Arabs, the Crown of Aragon, the Ottomans, the British, the French, the British again, and finally the Spanish. I think that there were a few other cultures that held the island during it’s long history, but the gist is the same; there were a lot of hands in the cookie jar and they all left evidence of having been there. The multitude of conquerors residing on the island all left their different archaeological remains that help us to tell the story of their occupations.

Citudella, my home for the next 20 days, is the capital of Menorca and contains a plethora of historic buildings that are more than happy to collect a few Euros from each passing tourist in exchange for entrance. The city is field with cobble-stone streets and mini cars that vie for the limited parking and honk at the throngs of pedestrians that don’t like to wait for traffic signals to change. There is a definite European feel to the place and also a sense of peace and relaxation. The city adheres to a strict siesta in the afternoon, where everyone closes down their shops during the heat of the afternoon and then opens them again late into the evening. It’s neat to walk around at 11pm and see whole families out for a stroll, eating gelato (which is everywhere) and listening to music in the walkways to the harbor.

The sites that the group I’m working with, Ecomuseu Cap de Cavalleria, are a mix between Talayotic and Roman. There are currently four different projects that are being worked on. There is a Roman City dig, a necropolis (cemetery), a funerary cave, and an underwater excavation (shipwrecks and such). Each of the students that opt for this field school have the option to sign up for either two weeks working in just one of the four areas (with the exception of the underwater program where that’s the only thing they can work on), or one week in one area and one week in another area. I’ve chosen to work one week in the cave and one week in the necropolis.

The cave we’re excavating is one of a series of 12 that have been located to date on the North side of the island. These caves are dated from the Bronze Age (roughly 2000 to 1350 BC) and only one of the caves has fully been excavated previously, and even that was done in a hurried manner that left a lot to be desired. Many of the caves though have been looted (supposedly by the same person, who was later caught). This is the first year that the Ecomuseu has been working at the caves.

There are seven students (including me) in the mixed cave/necropolis group. On our third day at the museum and in the field school, but the first real day in the field, Maria, our instructor, took us on a tour of all twelve caves. The eight of us went on a nature hike that would freak out many others. We climbed over rock walls, through the overgrowth that hides the caves from the random passerby, bouldered across rock faces that overlooked the beaches below, hiked up a mountain, down a few thorny rabbit holes, and through a meadow. Armed with notebooks, cameras, and a sense of adventure, we explored and saw sites that very few people have seen in the last 2500 years. Just that thought itself is amazing.

Today was our fist day working at the cave itself. Maria broke us up into two different groups. One group was set up at two separate units outside the entrance to the cave, where they were to excavate the human remains that had been unceremoniously dumped from their original resting places when looters dug for funerary goods that may have been left with the bodies. The other group, consisting of Darcy, Alex, and me, were sent up the hill to another cave to create an archaeological drawing of the interior before excavation could be started. Excavations of this higher cave probably won’t start though for at least another season or two, as there’s much to do on the previous cave.

The set up for the field school consist of waking at 6 am (or sooner as a bunch of my roommates like to rise around 5:30 or 5:45 am), a quick breakfast of corn flakes, a 45 minutes drive to the site, excavating for a few hours, a drive back to Citudella and the lab, a few hours cleaning and examining the remains that we pulled from the site, lunch, and then free time. It’s a pretty easy-going schedule that leaves plenty of room for exploration of the city and surrounding areas. We get two days off every 7 and I’m planning on renting a car with some fellow students and exploring as many of the island ruins as we can get to.

That folks is the first brief history lesson of the trip with a few other tidbits thrown in for good measure. Here are a few humorous stories for those that had the patience to wade through the “Scholarly Professor” part above:

I decided to go see the Castle of Saint Nicholas which sits on the end of the island and peers out over the Mediterranean. The Castle is really just a watch tower that is dedicated to an American Admiral that is the “Adopted Son of Menorca,” but I wanted to see it regardless. I knew it was at the end of the city, but not precisely how to get there, so I walked the opposite direct to get to the waterfront so that I could then follow that back down and around to the point. I was dragging three of my fellow field school mates: Alex, MJ, and Ted with me. After a mile and half meander, we made it around to the Castle to find that it was closed permanently. I made the boys do a jumping picture with the Castle in the background and then we continued to walk along the edge of the island. A short distance later we were greeted with the pale ass of a completely naked and otherwise tan guy running around the cliffs looking for a place to jump in. Not what we were expecting. Deciding that this wasn’t really a sight that we needed to view, we turned inland and started walking towards the direction we believed our residence to be. Four blocks away we’re looking around and realizing that we’re right by the dorms. We essentially walked half way the wrong way across the city to get to the Castle when we only needed to go a few blocks south. But we did get to explore the city some more and I got to watch how fast three boys can turn beet red and change direction.

Ted, originally from San Francisco, but now residing in Chicago, walks into the main room of the dorm wearing red lip stick across the whole bottom half of his face and talking like the Dark Knight. He was doing a pretty good job of impersonating Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the character. Apparently, he had grabbed a colored lip chap from home thinking it was lip balm and upon using it this evening and realizing that it tasted really good, he ventured to the mirror and saw that he might as well be putting on lipstick. It was good for a few laughs and Ted has promised to go out to the bar wearing the lip chap on the last night of the dig.