It’s studying abroad, Indiana Jones-style.

Welcome to Summer Digs, UCLA’s summer 2008 blog by students and faculty traveling worldwide for archaeology, with an autumn encore in Egypt.

UCLA’s archaeology institute and its study abroad office teamed up in the summer of 2008 to send students to field digs around the world. In October and November, students also blogged about their experiences excavating a town in Egypt. Over the summer, they excavated mummies in Chile’s Atacama Desert, combed the jungle near the remains of an Indian village in Panama, and mapped ancient graves in Albania. Bruins, some of their field advisers and students joining the digs from other colleges sent back dispatches about their adventures. The Summer Digs blog features their travel notes here, thanks to the collaboration among the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA’s International Education Office, UCLA Magazine and UCLA Today.

• Read more about the program in this article or in the program descriptions,
• peruse the press release,
• hear two perspectives from a previous summer in Chile,
• or jump straight to the blog postings.

Among the posts from Egypt:

• The students send back video from a demonstration of traditional pottery making in the village of El-Nazla.
• UCLA student Charlene Collazzi tells the story of the day she overslept and had to walk all 7 kilometers to the dig site — and why she hardly minded at all.



• The Fayum field school students go bone collecting in this video.
• Inspector Mostafa Saief celebrates getting to know archaeologists from another culture, and sends back a panoramic view of Karanis.
• A second video from the field school gives a glimpse of what it’s like to walk through ancient Egyptian ruins.
• Adel Saad Mondy gives the first Egyptian perspective on the dig, posting in both English and Arabic.



• UCLA student Mallory Ditchey describes meeting her Egyptian field partner.
• The Fayum field school sends back their first video, offering a glimpse of Egypt.
• UCLA anthropology major Babak Aminitehrani admires the pyramids and the sphinx, and describes the dig house and living tents.

Among the posts from the original Summer Digs:

• UCLA’s Vanessa Muros describes the find of a belt buckle, possibly Ottoman, in Albania (pictured).
• Albania is a long way from an American supermarket. UCLA’s Lyssa Stapleton writes about the food she misses and the new food she loves. She also sends back a recipe for her favorite local dinner, a classic Albanian dish called Imam Bajalldi.
• Some of UCLA’s archaeologists in Canada (Lily Roberts and Anthony Graesch) write about how the Stó:lō people have stories linked to countless local landmarks that turn the landscape in a history book and cultural guide.
• UCLA’s Vanessa Muros in Albania takes a break from ancient archaeology to explore the nearby communist-era bunkers, complete with diagrams describing how to attack.



• UCLA professor and archaeologist Ran Boytner explains the origin of Chile’s La Tirana Festival (pictured).
• Bees and buffalo are part of the daily dig scene in Catalina, writes UCLA anthropology student Mike de Vera.
• In Chile, UCLA student Evelyn Rubio writes in about analyzing mummies, and about witnessing the role of children in a local funeral service.
• Not everyone on the Albania program knows the language, and their Albanian colleagues don’t all know English. It makes for a fun, if muddled, good time, writes UCLA student Jamie Aprile.
• UCLA’s Ran Boytner discusses finding a thousand-year-old mummified mouse in Chile, and how it could help determine whether human mummies were locals or immigrants.
• Erika Varady from Kansas State University learns about the “real” archaeologist’s toolkit while mapping prehistoric sites in Catalina.
• UCLA student Kerry Pusey in Peru tries a local delicacy: guinea pig.



• UCLA’s Ran Boytner sends a photo from Chile of the ancient petroglyphs, or rock art carvings, that his students are identifying and documenting (pictured).
• Three students in Chile share the tale of how a set of gymnastic rings helped their archaeological group bond with skeptical locals.
• UCLA student Lily Henry Roberts learned to use a machete and build an outhouse in Canada.