Now I’d like to take the time to fully elaborate what I’m doing ‘job-wise’ in Turkey. I hope those at home don’t think that I spend ALL my time on the beach, for my purpose thus far has been to endure intensive manual labor in the name of academia. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I’m doing, but doing what I’m doing requires both physical and mental effort (the daily walking of the Fayette golf course prepared me for such a feat). Every day I wake up at 5 and shuffle into the one of the two janky, yet extremely dependable, transport vans at around 5:30. We arrive on site at Antiochia ad Cragum at around 5:45 and eat breakfast for about 30 minutes. That is when the gloves come on, for I enter my homely little trench on Antiochia’s Acropolis (specifically unit 2-B). For those who don’t know what an acropolis is, an Acropolis is a highly elevated citadel-like structure that overlooks Ancient Greek towns. In my trench, everyday thus far, I come face to face with an uncountable number of rocks and roots that need pulling, lifting, and tossing. This is when I get out my trusty trowel and level out the area (scooping the soil into a dust pan then depositing it in a pail and then tossing it over the side of the acropolis). I pull all roots regardless of there girth until they give way and lift up soil. Sometimes my efforts are sadly in vain. This is when I unsheathe the gardening tool that will get me what I want. I pull up rocks after articulating their edges ( archaeologists work DOWN so no artifacts that might be lying in a close proximity shift or break during the removal of the rock). Don’t worry, I won’t run out rocks to haul anytime soon. I will continue to do this until I reach another soil layer, which I will then record in my trust notebook; in my notebook I take measurements on the locus’s width, length, and elevation. I then sketch my work area (for those who might come after me to work on the locus). Sometimes I find pottery. When this happens, I determine (with the help of my unit supervisor) what kind of pottery it is and then I deposit it in its proper plastic bag. Fancy. Sometimes I find glass, which is a much rarer event. This goes in a separate bag. We all take a break At 10 and continue work for another 3 hours until 1. Now it is lunchtime; a topic that I will definitely cover in the future. Each work day is filled with stress and hope; stress when I find another rock on top of a rock that took 30 minutes to articulate; hope when I look at my trench and imagine a beautiful floor and the artifacts sitting there underneath the 1.5 meters of rubble. Every day is both a learning experience and a workout; it is this excitement to solve the unknown that keeps me intrigued whenever I plunge my trowel into the loamy soil beneath my feet. Nobody really knows what my unit’s purpose was during antiquity, but I will find the truth!
