Hello from Alba Iulia, Romania!

After a mere 42 hours of travel, I arrived back in Transylvania on Thursday, July 13, to continue working on the collaborative project I began back in October.

Who doesn’t love waiting outside the beautiful Budapest airport at 1 am to catch an 8 hour van to south-western Transylvania?

After arriving, and fortifying myself with my favorite local fare with undue haste, I have launched into bioarchaeological data collection.

The American contingent of our team – consisting of myself, Dr. Colin Quinn (Hamilton College), and recent Appalachian State graduate Emilie Cobb – is here for three weeks doing some collections research with human remains from three Early Bronze Age sites that were excavated by our collaborator Dr. Horia Ciugudean. We’ve burrowed into the Muzeul Național al Unirii (National Museum of the Union), where we are greeted every day with an honest-to-goodness parade past our laboratory window:

I’ll post more soon about what we’re up to, as we’re on the cusp of launching a project blog.

However, in the meantime I feel the need to point out one of the endearing things about the Zona Tolstoi, the northern neighborhood we currently call home. Every morning, we have a 20-minute walk in to the museum, and when passing through a narrow alleyway to the side of a local café-bar, we are greeted with this wonderful street art:

I find it particularly appropriate given the nature of our research here. More soon – stay posted!