Hello and welcome to my last post!
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!
Final week
Work has wrapped up and I am writing this from home in Portland! The last week in Can Fanals was not very exciting. Paqui, Carol, and a few of the more experienced Spanish students worked the whole week to finish documenting the area, taking photographs, making drawings, taking measurements, and covering things up. The rest of us were in the “doghouse” washing pottery and bones, or doing research back at the church or excavation house. It was a nice way to wind things down. However, on the last Friday we had to go back to the field in the afternoon because some very important people were visiting the site and we had to look busy even though most of the work was finished. Once that was done we put away all the tools and said goodbye to Pollentia.
The final day in Can Fanals was a lot of fun
The last week of research focused on making sure we had all the data we needed. We went back to the church to retake spectra of a few spots, and to get some new points. We were finally brave enough to set up the tripod on top of the scaffolding to reach the blue shields at the very top of the painting, but sadly we were not able to get a spectrum. We also used the XRF on Jesus’ cloth, Sebastian’s cloth, the golden area next to Sebastian, and the blue part of the king’s chair. Once we had finally collected all the data, we spent a few hours doing arts and crafts, which consisted of taping in and labeling data on the lab notebooks.
Final Weekend
On the last Friday, we all got together for a giant dinner. Tony, the bartender from Es Mercat, made dinner for everyone that participated in the excavation. He served croquetas, a pizza type snack, steak, sangria, beer, fried squid, potatoes, and many other delicious foods. It was a great way to end the excavation, and to socialize with all the Spanish people for one last time before everyone started to leave.
Tony setting up the tables for the final group dinner
On Sunday, Billy took me, Kevin, and Riley out for a typical Mallorcan breakfast in Sa Pobla. We were a bit skeptical about how it was all going to taste because of the things we were about to eat, but in the end, everything was delicious. The food consisted of fritos (a mix of heart, lungs, ribs, and other sheep organs mixed with potatoes and a sauce), cow tongue, callos (cow or pig stomach, I’m still not sure), sheep kidneys, liver and pork. It may sound terrifying, but it was one of my favorite meals of the whole trip! After breakfast, I met with Triona and we went to see Palma. We visited the cathedral in Palma, which was amazing, and we walked to the docks to see the fancy yachts. There were also a lot of gelato and food breaks because it was insanely hot outside. The final two days consisted of a final beach trip and a final dinner at Bon Gust, the five-euro pizza/pasta place.
Billy, Kevin, Riley, and I enjoying a delicious breakfast
The cathedral in Palma
Finally, I just want to say that this was one of the best experiences of my life. The work was difficult, and I missed home at times, but not many people get to experience something like this, and I am glad I did. We had a great group of people and I made some really good friends, both from America and from Spain. Thank you everyone for an amazing month!
The awesome UP PURE group!
