It’s tough to try to summarize a month’s worth of work in a few paragraphs, but nonetheless that’s what we’ve been trying to do with this blog. The innumerable daily challenges and excitements would be impossible for any one person to catalogue entirely, so hopefully we, as a group, have been able to capture our time here at Antiochia ad Cragum.
For me, personally, this month in Antiochia has demanded one thing beyond all else. It has beat into me the absolute necessity of being prepared for anything. It has also, laughably, taught me the absolute impossibility of that same task. Antiochia has called for everything from a camera to a paintbrush to a pickaxe in the span of a few minutes. The only constant has been the level of labor it demands from everyone here on site. And so, since 5:00 am on July 16th, we have worked to meet that demand.
On that first day, upon reaching the summit of the acropolis upon which I would spend a good portion of my summer, I was struck by the immensity of the task before us. Today, as I walked through our trenches, I was struck by the same feeling of untapped potential. That’s not to say that we have made incredible progress. Antiochia has revealed much more than I anticipated, but we have barely scratched the surface. This sense of potential is built into the nature of our archeology where every meter of soil poses as many questions as it answers and every trench hints at the possibilities in its walls. Antiochia offers as much as you are willing to give it, but it will never cease to hold back a few secrets for itself.
For my part, I hope to come back with a new pair of gloves and the same sense of potential centimeters beneath my feet.
