A few hours west of Rome, Italy, 1979.
The cool morning did nothing to hide the amount of work that still needed to be done, Cosima was sweating by the time she'd hiked across the field from the campsite to where they were excavating, a group of eight half-asleep, half-giddy students in tow. Camping on site, they toted their belongings and lunches with them. Flashlights in hand, hauling their gear. Through the fields and down through the excavation site, down into the dark of the half-excavated complex.
They make their way slowly back to the funeral chamber they'd spent the last week unearthing and settle down to work. Unwilling to wait for the prof, Cosima begins. A few other chambers had been excavated earlier by the French team, most of whom departed the site before they'd arrived. She switched on the electric lamps, adding light to the smallish darkened space in the tomb. There were no longer stakes marking the location of their squares - but they knew where they were supposed to be working.
Cosima walks around circling the small groups of students kneeling around their assigned areas, "OK guys, just take it really easy - it's possible we are getting pretty close to the burials. I don't want to see any skulls getting like smashed in by trowels." Slight laughter follows the phrase, but she knows they're paying attention. "Yeah. Graves. We know." Jason shoots back.
"A whole necropolis of tombs," Cosima corrects, "Probably family tombs from what we've seen so far. The French team found six individuals in the other chamber - and this one is bigger. Be careful."
"I wish we were digging at Ostia Antica." Karen groans, "Frescos, Roman archeology..."
"Public lavatories." Cosima supplies with a tilt of her head. Though she's never worked at Ostia Antica, she's read papers and poured over a small collection of photos. She'll go one weekend, she tells herself. When these 'kids' need less supervision, when damn Leekie will let her go...
"You just want to be closer to Rome." Jamie teases her back, pale bangs falling into her face as she leans forward, skin already tanned by the sun.
"Hey! We are close to Rome. Plus, Bronze age? Prehistory?" Cosima gestures more than she talks, her students obviously used to her unusual approach. She'd been their TA for the last 2 weeks of excavations. "This is amazing stuff, anyways remember save all sediment for screening in the buckets - we might get lucky."
She observes as her students slowly scrape levels of sediment with their trowels, using their brushes to gather it into dustpans and dump it unceremoniously into buckets. Archeology is slow, methodical or it's supposed to be. Cosima leans over Greg's shoulder observing his quick pace, the large amount of sediment he has already cleared from his probable grave.
"What?" He looks up at Cosima in frustration.
Cosima warns him,"Slow down a bit. Seriously? If you damage the skeletons there will be hell to pay. Dr. Leekie won't be happy. Dr. Villeneuve will have your hide."
"I can't understand a word Dr. Villeneuve says." A voice from behind her teases. Which one was it? Cosima has learnt their names, but is unsure for a moment who is trying to out-sass her.
"Yeah well - paleopathologist - way better at studying these bones than we are. And we share the site with the French team, or we did... You can't tell a healed fracture from Paget's disease." A few students snicker, others look at her stunned, trying to remember if they've ever heard of Paget's disease before.
"What if Dr. Leekie is wrong? What if it's not Etruscan?"
"We'll see what we find." Cosima shrugs, "Get to work, move over Rob, I'm digging here too." It's Scott who finally shifts with a smile to let her take her place and begin work. It's going to be a long day.
They're sweating horribly before noon, downing water as quickly as they can, "Okay, let's take lunch." Cosima announces, the group wearily following her out to the open field. They sit and eat, a few different conversations being had - but nothing extraordinary, or even relevant to the dig.
It's unusual, Cosima decides. Dr. Leekie is typically here supervising them before this - the area he's set aside for his own excavating remains untouched. They return to the dig, re-energized for the long hours of scraping back sediment.
When Dr. Leekie finally reappears, it's not with Dr. Villeneuve, instead Cosima finds herself staring at a lithe young woman with dyed blonde curls pulled back in a messy ponytail. Her trowel slips from her hand, and she cannot stop staring at the blonde, who is staring back at her just as distractedly as Dr. Leekie mutters to her. She's not even listening to what he's saying, or what her students are saying until Rob starts poking her arm drawing her attention back to reality.
"Cosima, I think I've found something." Scott fills in, waving a hand in an attempt to regain her attention. But Cosima is lost, lost in hazel eyes staring back at hers, at an impossibly familiar face with regarding her with a similar look of confusion. She takes note of the men's button up shirt, the long cream coloured linen pants, the wide brimmed hat clutched in the blonde's left hand. She's standing up and walking away from the dig before she realizes what she's doing.
"Cosima? Cosima?" She vaguely notices Scott repeating her name as she walks towards Dr. Leekie and the young woman she finds it difficult to keep her eyes off of.
Leekie addresses her, "Ah, Cosima, Dr. Villeneuve had to leave us temporarily, here is his master's student, she'll be replacing him until further notice. Probably the rest of our dig." "Delphine Cormier." The young woman fills in her own name, extending a hand for Cosima to shake.
"Cosima." She responds, wiping her sweaty hand off on her oversized button up to meet Delphine's own. She doesn't quite want to let go of Delphine's hand, but doesn't want to draw too much attention.
"So we'll see how our Etruscan warrior king's burial works out. Now at least we have another set of hands."
"You want to push your theory?" Cosima addresses Dr. Leekie, "That's fine, but show - don't tell. Where's the proof? We haven't found any yet."
"We're in the necropolis." Leekie waves his hands around, "There has to be a reason for it. I know, you subscribe to processual archeology, you've told me about it."
"It looks like family tombs." Cosima shrugs, "Beyond that? Hard to say. Show, don't tell."
"Yet." Leekie reaffirms, "Cosima would you help get Delphine comfortable? Introduce her around?"
"Sure." Cosima answers, happily waving for Delphine to follow her.
"Have you worked on other digs in Europe?" Delphine addresses her once she's made the few steps over to where the students are working. Her eyes regard her with a strange curiosity, and something bridging on... awe.
"Nope. This is my first old world dig." Cosima grins, looking over Delphine again, she can't stop smiling, she doesn't know how to stop the strange lightness she feels. "And we have 8 undergraduate students with us - there are other teams, coming in and out, working in other areas... were you here earlier with the French team?"
"Cosima. I've definitely found something." Scott's voice is suddenly clear once again.
Yellowed bone peeks out from soil, what looks like skull. Suture lines clearly visible on the front.
"It's a skull." Delphine smiles confirming, glancing over at Cosima who's grinning back.
"Yup. Definitely found something. Scotty, take and nice and easy though, get your brush."
"Looks like we've found the burials." Dr. Leekie nods his head, "Alright Scott I want you to stay here, keep excavating - Cosima and Delphine will join you - least until we find another burial.
Delphine drops to her knees next to the burial near instantly, pulling out her own trowel and brush. Cosima takes a moment to look around - if this is the first burial where are the others? The far wall? Would they be feet to feet? Parallel? Supine or flexed? What would the grave goods look like? Not Roman certainly... but...
Other students stand up and crane over her to have a look, a mix of jealousy and curiosity. Before Leekie shoos them back to their areas, they know this room is too large to contain just one.
"Is that a fracture?" Leekie leans over Delphine's shoulder, his hand ghosting along the slight opening in the exposed bone. "Have we found our warrior?" He looks over to Cosima, who cannot resist the urge to roll her eyes. Not at his words, or the unveiled interest in Delphine, she notices miserably. Old pervert, Cosima thinks to herself, he's got to be in his 50s.
"Might be," Delphine begins gently, "It looks more like a metopic suture that never fully fused. Rare - but not a fracture." Delphine looks considering, "I won't know for sure until we finish excavating the burial."
"Good. Happy to have you on, especially after my second TA bailed on us. Week before field school and he decides he just won't go."
Leekie doesn't know, Cosima confirms, not why. Not about her. Not about any of it. And it has to stay that way. She knows about Leekie. Happily he's never hit on her, or cared for her much at all apart from her work. She'd gotten this job on the recommendation of her thesis supervisor - a colleague of Leekie's who knows too well why Leekie has trouble hanging on to his TAs... And it's not like she's not out... but... she needs this job. Needs this experience for her master's degree starting this fall... She can't risk it, though she's sure most of the students know.
Even when Delphine stops working for a moment, glancing up at her, she holds to it. Not here, not now.
"Cosima?"
Cosima turns to her own name, in Delphine's gorgeous accent, fuck. She feels herself swoon slightly, pushing it back down she responds, "Yes?"
"Aren't you going to join us?" Delphine shifts over to make more room.
"Yeah. Of course." Cosima smiles, picking up her trowel, "Let's see how much of the rest of this guy we can unearth."