angiesbones

[angiesbones]

day 11

still chipping away at the lower half of the body– hopefully if the skull is intact, it's nearby somewhere. the other field workers are expanding the site some more, so hopefully we'll find it soon.

the archeologists say there's the remains of another spanish fort like the one by the river here! weird that it's gone undiscovered up until this point– there's no mention of it in the historical record. it explains the amount of small shells we've found nearby though (spanish used coquinas and limestone to reinforce the walls of their forts).

[angiesbones]

day 10

big day today!! seems like we finally found most of the lower half of the body– legs, pelvis, and some parts of the feet. it's going to take a couple days to dig these up, definitely don't want to damage them trying to yank them out of the dirt. hopefully they'll be back in the lab with me later this week!

[angiesbones]

weekend study 2

skull friend has been a huge help in staving off my boredom. excited to get back to work monday!

[angiesbones]

No outdoor pics due to the weather, but this is the skull I dipped yesterday! This is a later print where we decided to only hollow out the cranium. They feel a lot more balanced and are far easier to process.

[angiesbones]

day 7

only found another few small bone fragments today (ugh). at least it feels like we're making small amounts of progress. it seems like the archeologists made another discovery today though– something about the remains of a small building around here. hopefully I'll have more info soon!

[angiesbones]

day 6

didn't do much today but we DID get an email back from the lab!!!!! remains seem to date back to about 285 years ago, which places them during when the spanish occupied this area. wow!!!!! I really hope we can actually find enough of the skeleton to tell us who this person was (please please please).

[angiesbones]

weekend study 1

here's my little study I finished! oil pastels are soooo cool but also like kind of hard to work with. my hands feel sticky right now

[angiesbones]

day 4

we don't work on the weekends (happy and sad about that). So I'm pulling out my little replica skull friend and hopefully getting some drawing practice done today! everyone say hello :)

[angiesbones]

day 3: evening

WOW, I am so tired right now. I'll keep it short and simple for now. Found a few more fragments. we're assembling them in one of the makeshift labs we have on site (a storage container). So far all the remains seem to be from the same person.

[angiesbones]

day 3: morning

just had to kill a spider to get to my bathroom. that is all

[angiesbones]

day 2

I was so GODDAMN tired this morning. sorry for no post! but I'm here now and ready to tell you about my super-exciting day. I helped to widen the excavation area today– didn't find much except a few more fragmented remains. it seems like the remains were exposed to the elements and predators for a while and now they're scattered all over the place. hopefully the lab gets back to us soon about the dating, but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't hear back till Monday.

[angiesbones]

I'm finally done

The 3.74 meter reticulated python is finally finished, I am extremely proud, I feel like a peacock

There were probably more than a thousand pieces and I still have a 2.5 meter burmese degreasing and two other snakes in the freezer waiting to be cleaned and articulated

[angiesbones]

day 1: evening

I'm not gonna say that was underwhelming... it was what I expected. lol. I got to inspect some of the previous specimens found by the archeologists and prep them to be sent to the AMS lab for radiocarbon dating. so far we've got some teeth and a partial forearm. I would write more but it feels like walking around in the humidity all day sucked the life out of me... goodnight :)

[angiesbones]

This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever found. Half of this deer’s face was partially mummified by direct exposure to the sun, and the other half was perfectly cleaned to the bone. He looks mythical, like some sort of death spirit. I cherish him dearly, he’s all cleaned up at home with me now (photos from last fall)

It took… a lot of strength to get all that mummified skin off. And there were so many maggots. I tried my very best not to hurt any of them in the process, I love those guys.

[angiesbones]

day 1: morning

WOOOOOOO the day is here!!!! it's literally 5am right now but I am WIRED (thanks coffee). I know it'd just be more convenient to post in the evening when I'm back, but I can't contain myself. We're gonna start combing through matanzas national forest today, starting at the initial dig site. it's seven square miles across, so it looks like I'll have a summer's worth of walking around looking for dead things. yipeeee!

[angiesbones]

here's one of my favorite studies from the last month. the art building has all these displays in the hallway that stay set up for weeks at a time. it's nice to be able to practice even though I'm not an art student!

[angiesbones]

day 0

just got to the job site! only spent about two hours on the road and it was mostly trees along the way, which was nice. this state isn't all bad, but the highways definitely are (especially when they're crowded. ew). I've been to St. Augustine before, but it was only a short field trip I took in like fifth grade or something.

they're making me stay in a trailer which has been... interesting. it's good to have my own space at least (if you don't count the bugs). It was such a pain in the ass trying to fit my newsprint pad into my tiny room, but I really want to keep drawing even if I’ll probably be working around the clock. my hotspot is mostly functional, but likes to quit working on me at random intervals. hopefully I can keep up posting!