It’s true, even though I was skeptical when they first told us it would soon happen: I can now tell the differences between soils. In fact, I’ve started noticing just how much I’ve picked up so far and learned. It makes sense that after a couple weeks of staring at dirt all day, I am now able to distinguish slight changes in color, texture, and consistency as I work my way down in centimeters of the narrow sliver between two walls next to the lime kiln and Roman bathhouse. Whenever I come across something hard that isn’t soil while digging, I am able to contemplate its material, shape, color, thickness, curvature, articulation, and if it has been “worked” with a pick, thus determining if it is pottery, architectural clay such as roof tile or floor, or tesserae from the nearby mosaic. To get an idea of what I mean, here are some of my journal entry excerpts from the past couple days: “Using the blunt end of the hand pick, a trowel, and small brush, I am slowly excavating the pit between one wall of trench 039 and the northern wall that extends and continues northwest. I am only able to dig up a centimeter or two at a time on the flat layer because of a plethora of small shallow rocks, possibly wall fill that fell. I extracted two medium sized ceramic water pipe pieces measuring 10.5 cm and 13 cm at the longest length across each from the eastern side of locus 010. The ceramic shows work done that would have helped seal pipes together using mortar, and it is not surprising to find next to the bathhouse. I’ve come across white dusty patches of limestone and mortar, which makes sense since we’re on the outside of the lime kiln. I found some small sherds of basic rough ware pottery, probably storage or cooking ceramic, since the inside matrix of the pottery is not fine but course, and therefore probably used for basic purposes. The middle section of the trench has a pocket of very dark red soil which may indicate ceramic fragments, and contrasts with the very crumbly, yellow surrounding soil, which indicates bedrock coming up soon underneath.” Overall, I’m really enjoying myself out here in Turkey, and am having a blast becoming more experienced as an archeologist on my first dig, thanks to the outstanding professors and T.A.’s!
