Oman Photos

So, originally I was supposed to be back home by now. However, there's been a little change of plans. A few weeks ago, we heard that a construction company was planning on building a resort on a beach near Muscat; unfortunately, this beach had multiple archaeological sites on it. In Oman, as in many countries, major construction projects are required by law to investigate and document archaeological sites before they are destroyed in the process of building. There was a slight scandal around this project, as the company may or may not have attempted to get out of this requirement; whether or not they are actually guilty of doing so, the onus was on them to prove their good faith by doing an unusually good job of it. These types of projects are usually done by contract firm archaeologists, but because of the circumstances, the company hired us, an academic team. And now I'll be in Oman for another couple of weeks, until early April. The benefit is that we're being paid to do this- and quite a lot of money, especially compared to my regular grad student stipend. They're also putting us up in a hotel, which is pretty neat, but the really cool part is that we're working literally right on an absolutely gorgeous beach. You can see why someone would want to build a resort there.

( Photos beneath the cut )