This week, we finished our days of field survey. From that point, Linda and my time in China for this year quickly has drawn toward conclusion. Our final days of survey for this season were a bit atypical, as we covered the rapidly urbanizing area around the port town of Lanshan. Our team covered all the open areas that we could, including a large zone where they apparently have been making salt by evaporating sea water for millennia. In the earthen salt pans, where the water is evaporated, leaving the salt, we not only found lots of fragments of porcelains from the last centuries but also some Zhou and Han era pottery sherds.

Once the days of field survey were completed, we turned our attentions to washing the artifacts that we gathered during the survey and analyzing (and dating in a relative sense) the artifacts from these collections. Of course, we had to make sure that the mud-caked ceramic pieces that we grabbed in the field were indeed what we thought they were and not broken pieces of contemporary pottery or roof tiles. Then, selected ancient artifacts were photographed to provide a record and reference, while all of the chronological information (which time periods were represented in each collection) that we could derive from the study of the artifacts was transferred to our maps. This information is the key to providing the picture of settlement pattern change over the centuries that our investigation is focused on. Over these past days, we also planned where we aim to survey in 2006 and which maps we will have to purchase in preparation for next year.

Being in Rizhao during the daylight hours during the last few days provided us a chance to check out some of the restaurants in the neighborhood of our hotel and to appreciate the view from our room window. This view provides a striking microcosm of the quick pace of urbanization in this coastal area with row upon row of recently constructed low-rises visible from our higher vantage. One small, family-run restaurant was discovered after 7 PM one evening, while roaming the neighborhood in search of a place for supper. It featured Southwest (e.g., Szechuan) China style food. We enjoy the food in this regional style (especially after being here for awhile) as it features chili peppers more heavily than the saltier food that is more typical in Shandong Province and northeast China. As many of you may already know, regional styles of Chinese cooking are diverse, and the average person from each region of this country is very much attached to the style of cuisine that they are most familiar with. So much so that when my colleagues from Shandong have gone down to the Three Gorges area to help on the archaeology salvage studies there, they always bring their own Shandong chefs to prepare familiar repasts.

Tomorrow, with the work for this year drawing to a close, we will begin the long trek back to Chicago, reversing the multi-step journey that we made just more than a month ago. We have begunn to pack and tomorrow at 6 AM we will leave by cab for the airport in Qing Dao, which is up the Shandong coast. With the end of our 2005 journey approaching, we would like to express our appreciation to all of you who have followed these dispatches this season as well as in past years.

The word of the day is "yan," which when spoken in the third tone means 'salt.'