The final week of the project saw the completion of all of the necessary tasks, but it required concentrated effort on the part of everybody and very long workdays. Excavation continued through Tuesday, when the final investigation was completed. Backfilling was over at mid-day on Wednesday – and seven of the men went out that afternoon. The entire staff worked hard to ensure that all of the bone was washed and dried by Thursday evening, repeatedly moving the screens if rain threatened. Gluing, drawing, and processing continued through late Thursday, as did photographs of all of the objects. It was not until 8 PM on Thursday that Amy had all of the artifacts ready to go out to the Institute of Archaeology – and the bulk of them were delivered to Belmopan later that evening (at least before midnight). Sometime after 9 PM, we had a traditional bonfire in the middle of camp and everyone said “goodbye” to Caracol in their own way. On Friday morning, everyone was up at the crack of dawn and out of the site before 7 AM for the long bumpy ride to Cayo; the condition of the road meant that the trip took 2.5 hours (some years it has been possible to drive this distance in 1 hour). On Friday afternoon we had our end of season lunch with the Institute of Archaeology in the San Ignacio Hotel – and on Saturday morning we flew first to Miami and then back to Orlando, getting to our residence after 10 PM. Our 28th field season was done.

Drying bone in the Caracol camp.

Processing artifacts for the Institute of Archaeology.

Stucco decorated cylinder with punctate decoration from Dos Aguadas tomb.

 

Polychrome bowl from the Dos Aguadas tomb.

 

Bichrome cylinder with specular hematite slip from the Dos Aguadas tomb.

 

The 2012 Caracol staff.