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Re:(meteorobs) obs. LANMA July 10/11 1999 off topic



Marco Langbroek wrote:

>> Due to my current busy job as a field archaeologist, I have
>> had no opportunity to observe after January 17/18...

..and then Lew Gramer wrote..:

> >I was fascinated to hear about your true profession, Marco! I am
> >sorry to say I hadn't picked up on the fact prior to this. Maybe
> >I need to read my WGNs (IMO quarterly journal) more closely? :)
> >
> >How often are you in the field during each year - and how many
> >of your field trips are to "meteor-friendly" places like the
> >high dry deserts or mountains?
> >
> >Sorry that this is off-topic, but Marco is such a fixture, and
> >field archaeology so exotic, I thought others might enjoy it.
> >
> >Lew

Hello Lew,

This indeed is 'off topic' so I'll try to keep it short. Currently, I am in 
the field every day: I have a 6 month contract with the Municipal 
Archaeological Service of Rotterdam (major city in the western coastal 
area of the Netherlands) that lasts untill October. We are conducting a 
series of field surveys trying to discover (by taking (by handpower!) 
drilling cores down to 5 meters below surface, and by some limited 
surface surveying and 
test-trenching) sites buried beneath the soil of some large future house 
construction areas. Where I am currently working (Berkel en Rodenrijs 
municipality, close to Rotterdam) we expect sites to be present from the 
late stone age (say 3000 bc) to Roman times (say 50bc to 200 ad). That 
is not my true speciality although I have had a general education in 
Northwest European late prehistory; my speciality is the earliest and 
middle stone age (about 2.5 million years ago to say 150 000 years ago); the 
very first stone tools in Africa and Eurasia, like handaxes etc. The 
tools made by such creatures as for example Neandertal Man and Homo 
erectus. The oldest tools I dug up (in Boxgrove, England, at a 
UCL-English Heritage excavation in 1996) so far were 
stone tools and mammal bones (perhaps partly hunted animals) dating to 
the Cromer period, about 0.5 million years ago, at a site where in 
previous years they also found hominid remains. The Boxgrove site is one of 
the oldest and most spectacular preserved in Europe, situated in a deep 
quarry in the friendly hilly landscape of Sussex.
In November, I will start a PhD study at Leiden University where 
I graduated in October last year on a topic regarding my true speciality.
That will perhaps bring me to 'meteor-friendly' places like the 
French Dordogne where Leiden University runs one of her field projects. So 
far, my archeological field trips brought me to Scandinavia, England, 
Germany and France (and the Netherlands of course) but usually I have 
little time and energy left for serious observing sessions during 
fieldwork (which is physically rather tough and thus exhausting work; 
nevertheless, I obtained a few hours on meteors from the Cagny site in 
the French Somme Valley in July '93, and from Denmark in September '94). 
The plans are such that my PhD includes prolonged visits to institutes in 
England and Germany and perhaps Israel; that might provide some 
opportunity for 'meteor friendly' activities. Africa is another place I 
want to visit for field work some day, but I reckon that will be after my 
PhD.

- Marco

PS: Yes, I do wear a 'Indiana Jones' hat in the field...; No, I do not dig 
up Dino bones...; And neither did I ever find gold so far.
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