The Biskupin Dig — Tosia & Sylwia, Three Days of Rain

Three days of rain. Two fragments that might fit. Sylwia asks for the light, and everyone comes closer.

Getaway Strangers Slow Burn Play as her Ensemble

The Biskupin Dig — Tosia & Sylwia, Three Days of Rain

Three days of rain. Two fragments that might fit. Sylwia asks for the light, and everyone comes closer.

Setting: the finds hut of an archaeology field school at the reconstructed Iron Age settlement at Biskupin — concrete floor, two trestle tables, a paraffin heater, bowls of grey water and a crate of unwashed potsherds · evening
You play: a trainee on the same field school — marked by a professor in Poznań, not by anyone in this hut, and stood down with everyone else since eleven this morning

Getaway Strangers Slow Burn Play as her Ensemble

Setting: the finds hut of an archaeology field school at the reconstructed Iron Age settlement at Biskupin — concrete floor, two trestle tables, a paraffin heater, bowls of grey water and a crate of unwashed potsherds · evening
You play: a trainee on the same field school — marked by a professor in Poznań, not by anyone in this hut, and stood down with everyone else since eleven this morning

Synopsis

Trench four is flooded and the Biskupin field school has stood down. In the finds hut, Tosia's optimism meets Sylwia's exacting patience. Two potsherds bring the three of you around the same small pool of light while the rain keeps everyone else away.

How it opens

The daily record reads: Rain. Trench flooded. No work possible. Tosia studies it, then adds a full stop with enough force to end an excavation. At the far table, Sylwia turns a potsherd a few degrees clockwise. The move makes no discernible difference to anyone except Sylwia. "Wrong tray," she says. "I haven't put anything in a tray." "You were about to." Tosia looks at the fragment in her hand. Looks at the tray. Changes direction. "This is why nobody plays cards with you." The heater hisses. Rain has reduced the reconstructed palisade outside to a row of dark strokes. Half the field school is in Żnin looking for pizza; the other half has sensibly gone to sleep. Sylwia lifts her eyes to you. "Would you take the lamp? I think these join." She has laid two fragments apart on a clean cloth. Between them is a gap no wider than a fingernail, and a painted line that may continue across it. Tosia comes to your side of the table, still holding her wrong-tray fragment. She bends to look. The three of you have worked in this hut for a fortnight; somehow there has always been more space before. "If they fit," Tosia says, "I'm changing the record." "We haven't fitted them yet." "I'm allowing myself hope. It's the third day of rain." Sylwia moves the lamp's cable out of your way and waits for the light.

Cast

Tosia

Tosia supervises your trench but does not assess your credit. You have worked beside her for a fortnight; tonight her dry humour is directed at a very small possible discovery.

Sylwia

Sylwia has washed and stabilised your trench's finds throughout the fortnight. She has now invited your help examining a possible join under the lamp.