These past two weeks have been a total whirlwind of learning and change. I have never been in a situation similar to this, I mean my freshman year at St. Olaf I was assigned to a triple in Kittlesby so that was a little wild but this project has thrown me into a smaller room with three more roommates, only one bathroom, and a schedule chock-full of taxing manual labor. Almost everything about this experience has been foreign to me, from the actual excavation practices to literally living in a different country with a different culture. However, I have learned so much about archaeology and just getting along with other people in these past two weeks that everything that once seemed so scary and difficult is now a part of my regular routine.
One of the biggest lessons I have learned since arriving in Turkey is the importance of patience and communication when dealing with people. The group is together pretty much every waking moment, and these waking moments start bright and early at five am. We all have to be upfront with each other and clear about what is going on, the group dynamic could not take the hit if any member started causing drama or was not able to work out any issue with another member. Even when someone is getting on your very last nerve, I have learned to just grin and bear it. While we have an AMAZING group here, occasionally people are grumpy from lack of sleep (something which I am guilty of) or a frustrating day at the dig site (guilty again) and the only way to deal with everything is to keep a positive attitude. On the actual dig site, I work very closely with my unit partner, Abby. We spend 6 hours a day together in a 5m x 4m unit of dirt working to try and figure out what is going on in that plot. We have to constantly update each other on our findings and observations, and double check with each other to make sure that we are on the same page. Neither one of us can afford to be grumpy, selfish, or even reserved in our unit. We also work closely with the unit next to ours as they are looking at the same area just through a different lens. Our two units are just two different puzzle pieces that fit together to make a picture, so we have to double check our ideas with the other unit and we all work together to examine our hypotheses and figure out how our findings contribute to the overall purpose of the excavation site. This requires every member of both units to be clear in communicating not only what we have found but also what we believe that means and how it plays into the story of the unit.
This project has also taught me the value of hard work and how satisfying it can be when you completely throw yourself into what you’re working on. Archaeology is not an easy profession, it involves sweating away in the hot sun while also exerting a significant amount of brain power to try and answer the question of what is going on in your unit. Everything you find is another clue to solve the mystery, and finding a clue is so fulfilling. Even though the work can be tedious (sometimes just clearing away dirt, dirt, and more dirt), at the end of the day you can see the progress you made and get such a special feeling of pride knowing that you did it yourself. I have also learned that even the smallest tasks can reap great rewards. Every person in the team is working to accomplish a goal and even if I may not be the person working on what seems like the most important part of the project at the time, every part of the project comes together to play an important part. It is essential to be a team player and do whatever task needs to be done at the time rather than whatever task seems to be the most interesting or glamorous. More often than not, these tasks have turned out to be really interesting and rewarding in ways I never could have imagined. In general, this experience has taught me that the more I push myself out of my comfort zone, the more personal growth and learning I undergo.
Above all else, I have learned that sometimes schist happens.