Longing to Go Deeper

I have walked around in excavated ruins, I have seen them, but I have never met those who dig them up, nor have I seen how they do it.

What is archaeology?

What is a relic?

What lies hidden beneath the soil, and what is a fossil?

How did it all come to be, and why do we need (want) to study it?

A huge number of questions arise.

I sit on a stone and scrape gravel with a small shovel. Buckets fill up quickly, and they are heavy. The frequent drizzle adds to the burden. The men carry them, groaning. They give us smaller containers—time and space shift. I feel as if I am in another place, wordless, deep in thought, full of questions.

It is fascinating to look at time – the ages that appear in the soil layer by layer. Something crumbles, something glimmers, and something smells different, harsh, and cold.

It drizzles again, and we examine the findings gathered into our pockets: stones of different colors, some glassy and yellow, resembling amber but not quite. Something porous and white, with a few fossils. Beneath the gravel layer lies something finer, and below that, even finer sand.

We touch, smell, taste, and sense. We describe with reason, we guess, and surmise. It is all connected to our story - who we are, who was here before us, when it was… Sensing, it is our only key, and of course, the gravels in the soil. Looking with second attention, building the link to the ancient times before us. Training.

My hands are tired, as are my back and thigh muscles. I feel alive, every part of my body makes itself known.

Every meal is a gift that is waiting for us to take a pause. The days pass quickly.

Every nightly rain makes our work harder, water washing gravel back onto the already revealed rock patterns. The men begin building a shelter.

For two days, men are busy building, and the buzzing sound of the drill echoes back. The roof is finished, the weather has turned into the dreamt-in fair sky, and our time in Saareküla comes to an end.

A local fisherman gives us minced fish to take with us, and we set out on the road home.

This other world, these experiences and discoveries are filled with desire – to continue, to see further, deeper, and to understand clearly how and why it all began.

Kristiina

29.08.2025