During the ten previous years of our collaborative survey project, we have carried out the fieldwork sometime between late November and mid-January in all but one prior season (1998). Because of the intensive use of farmland in the Rizhao area, we have reasoned that it would be best to wait until after the fall harvest in order to have a better chance to see the ground surface (and so find visible artifacts). In addition, we endeavor to create as little concern/angst among the local farmers as possible as we tromp through their fields. The drawback of our usual schedule is that it is often cold, sometimes even downright frigid in late December and January, and when you are outside all day a blustery wind can slice right through you.

This year, because our time here began with the conference, we have been surveying in late October and early November. Even at this earlier time, most of the summer crops (corn, potatoes, peanuts) were already out of the fields when we started. It has not been unusual to see drying grains laid out on streets and roads, as farmers look for any flat space despite the motorized vehicles that whiz by. On a personal level, it sure has been a delight to survey on the balmy days of an unusually warm fall. About half the time this season, I have not even taken my coat with me in the morning. And even when I have brought it out, I barely have worn it, leaving it in our driver's cab as I walk about in a fleece pullover or just shirt sleeves. Some days have been in essence too warm, creating dense pea soup fog (especially thick in the morning) with the convergence of the warm air over the land and cooler air from the sea.

We continue to find many sites, although most have been on the small side. We have been walking over a narrow coastal basin that runs from craggy low mountains to the sandy coast. We have recovered surface potsherds, indicating past occupations, from settings as diverse as vegetable gardens that are adjacent to modern villages to shrimp ponds that have been constructed near the sea coast. And also from recently planted wheat fields to the right-of-way of a new expressway (built after we started this study) that cuts through this rural setting.

Today was an especially enjoyable day because we found one of the largest and most interesting sites that we have recovered this year. Based on field assessments, several phases of pottery were collected on the ground surface of this locale on alluvial soil, but the most prevalent ceramics seem to have been the thin cord-marked wares of the Western Zhou era (almost three thousand years old). In the cut of a stream channel at the edge of the site, we noted an ancient Zhou-era feature composed of ashy sediments. A survey day with gorgeous weather and an important site is hard to beat.

As often happens, while we were surveying some local people asked us what we were doing and even they then begin to help us look for potsherds for our collections. In conversation, it came out that these villagers had seen us on local television (we have been featured on Rizhao stations various times over the years, including several days of coverage during the recent conference). This was actually the second time in the past few days that a local villager had recognized us from the television, something which is hard to get accustomed to, but perhaps it does allow us to appear just a bit less strange and foreign.

The word of the day is "gao su gong lu," which means 'expressway.' On its own, "gong lu" means 'highway.' "Gong" refers to 'public,' while "lu" connotes 'road.' "Gao" is the word for 'high' and "su" means 'speed.' So, collectively we have 'high speed public road' or the 'expressway.'