dia diez

Hello Dear Readers,
Posts will be sporadic, as I've said, when I have the time and inclination.
I'll start with Friday's activities.
We started the day again with the llama and alpaca skeletons that we had defleshed on Thursday. We congregated in the courtyard of the villa we live in, and arranged ourselves at tables that were set up, in teams of about 4. Each table received a bag of archaeological llama/alpaca bone fragments that had been excavated from the Qorikancha/ Santo Domingo monestary. Our task was to identify as many bone fragments as we could, and determine if there was any evidence of their ritual use based on bone markings (i.e. butcher/cut marks, evidence of burning, various types of fractures). Each group had to present their finds after a certain period. I definitely enjoyed it. Zooarchaeology is an exciting field that I hope to be able to become more familiar with.

After lunch, we went straight to a renovated convent in Cuzco. The included picture is one I took of the convent. More will be on facebook. This convent is unique, in that it was renovated by 18-20 year old teens! They've done some pretty fantastic work. Also, the convent is used as a school for local cusqueña teens, who learn various trades; Specifically: stonework, woodwork, and how to restore paintings. We saw examples of excellent craftsmanship by these teens. There were stone pillars that were nearly exact replicas of the original pillars from the Convent!
Also, an exciting part of this trip was that we learned that we (my group) will be able to learn some of these crafts too! I haven't decided what I'd like to work on yet. I'm torn between the woodwork and 16th painting restoration. I'll let you know what I decide to learn.

Then, we returned to the villa and had a Ceramics lecture. A local researcher, Jose, came by with samples of Inca ceramics that had been excavated, and we spent some time perusing the different types of ceramic styles.
Dinner followed shortly, and then several of went to the local club, Mythology, to dance. El fin.
And that was my Friday.