I have adapted more to all the physical work we have to do; on the first day, I think a lot of us got back to the rooms and we all just showered and knocked out because we were so tired. After a few days, I got more used to the work and the days went by faster so I wasn’t as tuckered out. I’m not sure if I necessarily feel stronger but I have noticed my arm muscles are a bit more visible now than they were before and I feel like I am able to carry more things and carry heavier things now. My interests in archaeology have changed a little; archaeology requires a lot of patience that I had never thought about. I thought that a lot of what we would be finding would be right under the surface and that we wouldn’t be going down that far but as I experienced last week; we have to do a lot of the deep digging ourselves, the artifacts won’t just come up to the surface for us.
My perceptions have changed on what I thought certain things would be like. It became much clearer when I explained the work we are doing to my dad and he asked how the building we are working on and the whole site have become buried by dirt and the area overgrown with plants. With Professor Howe’s explanation, it is really amazing how so many things can change and what stays the same; areas that were buildings are now overgrown by forests and forested ravines and cliffsides that have not changed. Thinking of how Antiochia was a living city once –now left to ruins and buried remains– makes me think of what places like my home city will look like in 2000 years. Will my childhood home still be around? Will it look the same? It’s an interesting thing to think about. It also makes me wonder what the residents of Antiochia thought about when they thought about their futures and the future of their city. Did they think that Antiochia would be buried the way it is now? So many questions about the past and the future; it is a curious thing.