Turkey is hot. This isn’t exactly news to most people, but as someone used to relatively cool New Jersey summers, the Mediterranean climate takes some getting used to. Despite the heat, this has been an amazing first week as part of the Archeological Field School.
I spent much of this first week working on the Upper Acropolis, which is located on the top of a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. Since this portion of the site has never previously been excavated, we spent the first several days clearing brush and hauling rocks. The ancient buildings had collapsed, leaving a jumble of stones which needed to be removed in order to analyze the interiors of the buildings. The work was hard and the heat certainly didn’t help, but we made good progress and the site should be ready for excavation sometime this week. Compared to the first day, the Upper Acropolis is now unrecognizable. The outlines of walls and buildings grow more apparent every day. It’s very exciting.
While our work this week was more manual labor that archaeology, there were several exciting artifact finds. As we learned what to look for, roof tiles, ceramic pieces, and chunks of amphora became regular finds across the Upper Acropolis. The two most exciting finds were a loom weight, which is a donut shaped rock, and a slab with a cross chiseled on one side. The cross comes from the Byzantine era, and while our research involves earlier time periods, it was nevertheless exciting to find evidence of ancient civilizations.
Finding artifacts is special and the food here is great, but my favorite part of turkey so far might be the view from our dig site on the Acropolis. From our vantage point on the cliff, we can see far down the coast in both directions and on clear days the cliffs of Cyprus are just visible to the south. Cut into the hillsides leading down to the sea are terraced rows of banana trees, and the coastline itself has beautiful rocky coves that I would love to explore someday. It’s an incredible view. When the sun seems too hot, I remind myself to look around and appreciate the opportunity to work in such an amazing place.
Till next time,
Nick Bowlin