Saturday 28 April
It was a busy day on the barge today, full of scandal, drama and mutiny on the high seas. Spirits were lifted because all the sandbags had been dropped into the sea, so everyone as looking forward to a leisurely day, lazing around on the barge, getting a tan. Of course, this was not to be. Another barrel was pulled up from the deep dark depths of the ocean, giving the conservation team lots to do, running around handing toothbrushes to anyone who stopped for long enough to clean bits of barrel and speculating on the fragments of text we could see on the lids.The pieces then came through to be catalogued, photographed and conserved until they can be reburied.
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| Liesel Gentelli | Pilodyn test by Vicki Richards and Ian MacLeod on a cask stave (photo by Jen Rodrigues) | Andy Viduka working on the X-ray imaging equipment (photo by Ian MacLeod) |
I had the privilege of working with the talented and devilishly handsome (what? webmaster comment) Andy Viduka and the x-ray machine all day, working on a single piece of bone found in association with the barrels and making a 3 dimensional x-ray image. Very exciting to be able to do all of this on site! I also helped to show Amelia and Maddy around the x-ray. When Andy goes away next week it will be up to us to look after things in the blue sea container. The divers worked hard on sand bags and excavation until the day ended early due to poor weather, an excellent opportunity to have a pre-briefing briefing at the local pub!
by Liesel Gentelli Honours student La Trobe University Victoria
