It’s been a couple of days since the end of the excavation and, now that I’m home from Turkey, I have had time to reflect on the experience. Nothing stands out in my mind more than being able to think back on how things were at the beginning of the dig, and by its end. Even though you could see your progress day by day, it was not until I looked back at all of my “diggy-holes” and Building 6 (the building I was working in) at the last day that I realized just how much dirt, rocks, brush, and rubble was removed. The place looked practically unrecognizable, where at first there was nothing but a hill covered in prickly bushes with some exposed rocks that suggested a building, there now was 2 buildings separated by a wall no one expected to be there in its place.
Furthermore, this astounding transformation also showed me a lot about archeology that I had never really thought about. You never think about how things in museums are found until you are looking for them yourself, every piece is found through blood, sweat, and tears of someone who probably had to dig through dirt and rocks as you did. Additionally, it surprised me how much of a guessing game everything is, each find used as a puzzle piece to figure out what is going on. And there is nothing more satisfying than when things start fitting together and finally make sense.
On a final note, I can’t overstate how much of an amazing opportunity this was. I originally found it through a click-baity email and at first I did not quite know what to expect but after a month working in Turkey, I have to say the whole archeological experience is really enticing and enriching. I learned a lot about history in this trip but going further, I also learned a lot in general. I honestly hope this opportunity is present next year, more people need to have it and if I could I would definitely do it again.