¡Hola!
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 Three
Work at Can Fanals is wrapping up! We found five of the previously excavated graves, and we started digging them. We found some coins, nails, and some glass fragments in the graves. We also found human and animal bones. We had to be extremely careful because a few of the graves had intact skulls and we did not want to break them. One of the graves contains an articulated skeleton, but we need to dig further in to the grave to make sure. Hopefully all the graves can be fully excavated before the last day of work, which is on Friday.
Five new graves in Can Fanals
This was an exciting week for research as well. We borrowed some scaffolding from the dig site and we have been using it to reach the upper parts of the painting. We were able to get nice spectra from Jesus’ red halo rays, his cloth, the gem on his necklace, Mary’s red sleeve, and the arrow wounds on St. Sebastian. Riley finished collecting data on two boxes of coins, and now he only has one left. We have started to use the LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) on the coins. Dr. Ontiveros said that the small mark that the LIBS makes on the sample is not significant so he allowed us to use it on the coins. The LIBS, similarly to the XRF, is used to obtain elemental composition of materials. However, the LIBS can identify some of the elements that the XRF cannot.
Triona standing with the scaffolding setup
Raman spectroscopy of Jesus’ gem
Weekend Trip
This weekend we traveled to the coves d’Arta, which is East of Alcudia. We learned all about stalagmites and stalactites. We were treated to a spectacular light show while Carl Orff’s O Fortuna played. The views from outside the caves were amazing too. The caves are near the top of a mountain and from the edge you can see the ocean. After the caves, we went to a beach near Sant Pere. At first this beach didn’t seem very good because there was a lot of seaweed, but after walking for a bit we found the best part of the beach. The waves were great and the sandbank went out pretty far out, which made the beach shallow. It was one of my favorite beaches so far. The water was amazingly clear and the views surrounding the beach were great. Finally, I want to thank Kara for funding the ticket to the caves and for driving everyone around. It was a great Sunday.
Kara and Andrew’s silhouettes at the Coves d’Arta
