January 7, 2016
I went to the hummingbird gallery one last time to watch all of the hummingbirds since it was raining and not a good morning for birding. After breakfast, we drove to Palmar Sur. We stayed at a hostel, Cenecoop, where all of the girls were in one room (that's 22 girls with three showers, if you were wondering). We had class after dinner. An archaeologist, Francisco, came to speak about the archaeological site that we would be visiting the next day. He discussed the Pre-Columbian chiefdom settlements with stone spheres and the steps to get a UNESCO World Heritage nomination. Finca 6 (archaeological site) is now a world heritage site, a very exclusive list. The other half of our class we talked about some of readings. One of the main topics we discussed were baseline forests. A question that really stuck with me was: are there any baseline forests left? Are there any untouched, pristine forests? Personally, I don't believe there are. No matter how big or small the impact, humanity has and always will have an influence, good or bad, on the Earth. There is an idea of a new era that has become widespread, because humans have changed the world in such a short amount of time since the Industrial Revolution, called the Anthropocene. We only have one Earth and it doesn't seem like that many people care about it (alright, rant over).
January 8, 2016
In the morning, we visited the Finca 6 site with Francisco. There are stone spheres all over the site. There is a lot of different ideas as to what they might represent, whether it be celestial or hierarchical. The site also showed a new form of archaeology where they excavate a site, document what is found, and replace it to the way it was before excavation. This is thought to protect the site. I find archaeology very interesting, I would never be able to do it though. There is just to much uncertainty around it. You may have a very good idea of what occurred there and what it represents but you'll never be completely sure. It is a lot of not knowing.
I went to the hummingbird gallery one last time to watch all of the hummingbirds since it was raining and not a good morning for birding. After breakfast, we drove to Palmar Sur. We stayed at a hostel, Cenecoop, where all of the girls were in one room (that's 22 girls with three showers, if you were wondering). We had class after dinner. An archaeologist, Francisco, came to speak about the archaeological site that we would be visiting the next day. He discussed the Pre-Columbian chiefdom settlements with stone spheres and the steps to get a UNESCO World Heritage nomination. Finca 6 (archaeological site) is now a world heritage site, a very exclusive list. The other half of our class we talked about some of readings. One of the main topics we discussed were baseline forests. A question that really stuck with me was: are there any baseline forests left? Are there any untouched, pristine forests? Personally, I don't believe there are. No matter how big or small the impact, humanity has and always will have an influence, good or bad, on the Earth. There is an idea of a new era that has become widespread, because humans have changed the world in such a short amount of time since the Industrial Revolution, called the Anthropocene. We only have one Earth and it doesn't seem like that many people care about it (alright, rant over).
January 8, 2016
In the morning, we visited the Finca 6 site with Francisco. There are stone spheres all over the site. There is a lot of different ideas as to what they might represent, whether it be celestial or hierarchical. The site also showed a new form of archaeology where they excavate a site, document what is found, and replace it to the way it was before excavation. This is thought to protect the site. I find archaeology very interesting, I would never be able to do it though. There is just to much uncertainty around it. You may have a very good idea of what occurred there and what it represents but you'll never be completely sure. It is a lot of not knowing.