Look Up, Look Down: Into A Hole Full Of Rubble

A couple of days ago, I looked down quite unexpectedly, and it pleased me no end. Some of you may have noticed that 99% of my entries for travelwithintent’s weekly Look Up, Look Down photo challenge are of the ‘Look Up’ variety.

So, here is how it happened: I was on my way home from buying some yoghurt from the local supermarket, when I walked past a skip tucked away in a side street in the middle of town, in which my pal Rafa was trampling around in. When I asked what it was all about, he promptly dragged me into the dark and dingy building behind.

He’s an archaeologist, working on a dig with a handful of colleagues. I had heard about that project, because I’d met up for a hearty breakfast with some of the crew that very morning, and I noted that they were even dustier than usual…

That’s Rafa’s brother down there, getting his hands dirty. The bucket behind him contains assorted crumblings of questionable provenance, to be given a good scrub down later in the office.

That ‘wall’ in the back is a compounded pile of rubble, with total height/depth of about 14 metres. (They know this from other digs carried out in the area). So far, they’ve dug out about three metres. The top of it dates to around 500 A.D., and the bottom to 500 B.C. Toledo is essentially a city built on its own debris.

As you can see in the above pic, the lower part of the exposed wall is very dark in colour, which indicates that this layer is composed of the wreckage of buildings that burnt down hundreds of years ago.

In the pic below, Rafa is holding out an item (out of focus, sorry!) they’d unearthed right before I came ambling along. It’s a weight that was once attached to a Roman loom.

You can see, there’s a hole on the side of the weight, through which the string was passed.

OK, you can all LOOK UP again now. Here’s a swirly lantern that dangles high up above the street from an arch right next to the cathedral:

Next week, I’m hoping for skulls and thigh bones. Dig, Rafa, dig!!!