My first field school to the Philippines was amazing! I learned so much about Archaeology from the people and the artifacts that we found. One of the most exciting finds that I personally helped uncover was at the Sibaltan Elementary school site where I uncovered a child's burial. I learned to look at not only the skeleton itself but the orientation of it and the contexts in which it was found to determine all that we could from it. The bones were not laid out nicely but disturbed, perhaps from roots since there were some present and there were lots of beads around the pelvic area and feet. The amount of pottery that we kept finding in the trenches and the caves were astounding to me, I didn't expect to find so much all the time. Something that was unexpected about field Archaeology was how much precision was involved; with the setting up of the trench and recording contexts. I liked how we excavated by context, it made you think about the sediments differently and a part of the Archaeology. The communities that we were digging in seemed to respond warmly to our arrival and the reasons why we were there. Because we made sure to include the locals and inform them of our plans they were very inviting. They genuinely seemed interested in what we were finding and wanted to learn more. I learned that Archaeology is more than just finding artifacts, it's piecing together the past and learning about the current culture that lives there now. Making the connections with people and developing relationships is very important in doing Archaeology so that cultures can be represented well and truthfully. I had the most amazing experience of my life educationally and personally and recommend that everyone should take the opportunity to go on a field school!
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