The last day of the Dig finally arrived.

We had dug through the Iron Age and were rapidly digging into Bronze Age. Bronze tools, a blue glass bead, shell bracelets had all been found and catalogued with new finds all around us, and there was still another 3-6 feet to be dug through.

I was still spending all my time in the Pit while ex-Marine did whatever was asked of him. He had now learned to say: “Good Morning”, and “Is there a problem?” along with “No Problem” in Thai. What a linguist…and the little Thai women were still hoping I’d come to an unfortunate end so they could come to America with him.

Mr. Desirable

By now, I had earned some trust (they knew that the bones and pots were safe) and was given a digging spot in Dr. Warrachai Wiriyaromp’s square ( the site recorder for drawings). “Mr. War’s” square was always my favorite. The nicest, most polite and appreciative person – it was an honor to work with him and watch him draw.

Mr. "War" concocting magical drawings in the "Origins of Ankor" pit, Thailand

Sample of his work

Mr. War let me work on a partially exposed skeleton that was going to be photographed when it was cleaned up enough. “Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” He gave me some of his precious dental picks to work with (they are always iin short supply) and I started “picking” away. Most of the arm and some fingers were exposed, but the wrist was still under quite a bit of dirt.

HOURS later, a little bit of white started poking through the dirt…now I went even slower knowing “something” was there. I picked…and picked…and there it was….a SHELL BRACELET…still on the wrist! I screamed, “Mr. War, Mr. War…look what I found!” He nonchalantly strolled over, looked and said, “Oh, you have found a shell bracelet. But don’t tell Charles or anyone or they won’t let you finish cleaning it.”

It took a good hour more to expose the bracelet without breaking off the wrist, and I was so proud of the finished project that it’s surprising I didn’t float out of the pit!

brushing off an intact wrist with bracelets on it, Earthwatch dig in Thailand

Read more tomorrow…..