We started our Turkey adventure this week exhausted from our travels, but very excited to get to work. After a little a bit of sleep we headed out to the dig site. We started the work day with a tour of the site where we learned the various areas where we would be working over the next few weeks. Most of us were assigned to the acropolis on top of a hill over looking the sea. The acropolis had not yet been excavated at all, so we spent most of this week working on clearing rocks and debris out of the area to get ready for excavation. This mostly consisted of throwing rocks and branches over the side of the cliff.
Part way through the first day I went down the hill to work with Mary, Andrea and Nick in their trench. They were working on uncovering a lime pit that had formed outside of a lime kiln. I spent the next day and a half helping find the edges of this pit, which we think might have been formed as debris was racked out of the kiln leaving behind a soft, mortar like deposit. Mixed in with the ashy soil above the lime were things like burnt rock and clay, and even bits of charcoal.
The last day I spent back on top of the hill helping with the final preparations for the site before we set up trenches. We cleared out more rocks and roots, and I helped clear off the side of the foundation of the largest room in order to make the structure more clear for pictures people will be taking later. By the end we had the site mostly cleared away and ready to set up trenches on Monday. We all are very excited to start doing more direct and detailed work.