So, as you may have heard once or twice on this site, Turkey is a pretty warm place. And it turns out that archaeological sites, at least ours, are pretty dirty. Each day as we all troop towards lunch at the end of the work day we all must look like we’ve just been rolling around in the dirt all morning. Which is almost true. Our first week on the site has been an adventure. We’re the first group to tackle the buildings on the acropolis, so our first few days were spent simply picking up brush and rocks and digging up roots and throwing them all over the side of the cliff. A couple days ago my team opened our first trench, in which we have been doing much of the same. We have found many roof and floor tiles within our trench, in addition to all of the dirt and rocks. I never thought that finding pieces of ancient buildings could become mundane, but it almost does. While in the last week I have learned many things about archaeology, the most important thing I think I’ve learned is how important it is to occasionally sit back and realize that I am digging in an ancient site, uncovering things that haven’t been seen in a millennium or two, and working with one of the best views you could possibly have while doing intense work, looking over the Mediterranean from atop a cliff on its edge. Man, we are lucky.
