Living and working in Turkey for a month has been probably one of the most interesting, unique, and influential experiences of my life. I learned more than I imagined I would about myself, Turkish culture, the history of the area and yes, archaeology as well. After working at an archaeological site, I cannot stress enough how important programs like this are for anyone studying history, classics, or museum studies. It is one thing to read about daily life in the ancient world and try to picture where and how people lived, and another thing entirely to see and touch what those people saw and touched. I’ve done plenty of reading, but working on this site made what I read about more real and more understandable. Washing pottery, for me at least, was a strangely intimate chore. I was handling something that had last been used by someone thousands of years ago. Looking at a picture of a lamp used to light an ancient home is easy and forgettable. Digging for and finding a lamp, however, forces you to recognize the object for what it is and think about the significance of what you’ve found in the context of the place where you found it. It is one thing to mindlessly store as much information in one’s head as possible, and another to use that information to ask questions and formulate hypotheses. I spent this month thinking.
It is also important to me that the program took place in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country with a unique blend of western and eastern culture. Living with and befriending people of a different religious and cultural background from my own only helped to broaden my understanding of the world we live in and the other people with whom we share this world. I found that Turkey is not so different from the U.S., and it has become like another home for me.
If I had to give any advice for anyone thinking about archaeology, I would say it is not for the narrow minded or for the lazy. Archaeology is hard work, and if you aren’t willing to do your part you won’t get the full value from the experience. This particular program forced me to depend on a variety of people, and it would have been impossible to get anything done if we hadn’t been willing to work together.
I would just like to end this last blog post by saying thank you to Professor Howe and our TAs, Lizzy, Kirby and Anna for teaching us as much as they did and making this experience what it was.