¡Hola a todos!
As part of my project for the Gilman Scholarship I will be writing once a week about the work, the food, the fun, and the people of Alcúdia. Let’s dive in!
Week Two
Work in Can Fanals is progressing at a rapid pace despite the heat. This past week we have been digging in an area that has never been excavated. We hope to find more graves or part of a structure. A large part of our group has been digging here, and tons of dirt have been removed from the top layer of soil. We have been finding some pottery, human and animal bones, and even some Roman glass. There is still a long way to go before we reach the layer we need, but we are optimistic and hope to find something by the end. Also, this past week a group uncovered two more of the previously excavated graves. Now, it is just a matter of digging the graves.
Delta Nu Raman Spectrometer setup at the Sant Jaume Church Museum
Research has also been going on at an incredible pace! We finally received keys to the Sant Jaume Church Museum, which means that we could begin work on the painting. Triona, Jonathan, Kevin, Father Mark, Andrea, Sarah, Dr. Walters, Kara, and I have been working at the church in the afternoons collecting Raman spectra using a Delta Nu Spectrometer and IR images using a MiScope 2 Megapixel microscope. We were able to identify an ultramarine pigment on Mary’s robe using the Raman spectra. This is possible because each pigment shows up as different peaks on a Raman spectrum due to their chemical composition. In this case, ultramarine shows up at 542 wavenumbers, and the peak we got was 536 wavenumbers. The data also seems to indicate that the painting is painted on a gesso surface. Riley has been staying at the excavation house collecting XRF data on ancient coins that were found in Pollentia. So far large amounts of data have been collected.
Altar piece being analyzed at the Sant Jaume Church Museum
Fun
These past few weeks have been very busy, but we still have time to have fun here in Spain. This past week we played a soccer game against the Spanish students. We won 4-3! It was very satisfying to say the least. However, on Monday we had a rematch where they beat us 4-1. We are also planning a basketball game and a capture the flag match against them during next week.
When we are not playing soccer against the Spanish we are usually hanging out at the beach. My favorite beach that is close to home is Sant Joan beach. It is a 30-minute walk, and on the way you can say hello to a donkey and a few horses. The beach is usually pretty busy, but the water is great for swimming and the views are spectacular.
On Sunday, we took a trip to Soller, which is about an hour away from Alcúdia. This was one of my favorite parts of this trip. The town is immensely picturesque, and the cathedral is amazing. There are extremely detailed altars all along the church walls, and the main altar piece is huge.
Main altar piece at the Soller cathedral
After walking around the town we took an amazing tram down to Port de Soller to enjoy the beach that is surrounded by mountains on all sides. It is exactly how imagined the Mediterranean. The water was beautifully blue, and the views were spectacular.
Port de Soller
