I have learned quite a bit over these past four weeks, and not just about one thing. I feel like I’ve had the opportunity to grow in so may capacities, whether that’s as an archaeologist, or just as a young person exploring the world by myself for the first time. I learned pretty quickly that archaeology is a team sport. It is truly impossible to accomplish anything without relying on the opinions and insight of your peers. Especially once we got placed in our units, I was really excited to track our progress and see how much better we were doing by the end of the month. Although there was definitely some frustration at times, given that there were sometimes up to 9 people working in our unit, we were working so much more cohesively overall by this last week. We were generally on the same page about our goals and tasks, we were much faster and more skilled at things like completing passes, and we could communicate well about things that needed adjusting or more work on. On another, lighter note I learned very recently that you cannot rely on your roommates to set alarms for themselves on the chance that you accidentally shut off your alarm instead of snoozing it (we may or may not have almost missed the bus on the last day).
This may be because it happened so recently but I think my most memorable experience on site was the last couple of days. We were in a mad dash trying to finish excavating the room we were working on, and it was a bit chaotic. We were of course still doing our best to be careful and methodical, but we ended up finding so many things at the last minute that it was crazy. First we found an intact ceramic pipe, which was super cool, then we found a prepared surface a bit above the level that we were expecting and a pretty wild burn layer to go with it, then we found a new wall that ended up not being a wall at all, then we found a feature consisting of a circular pattern of stones that we still don’t know the purpose of; basically, it was insane. This room we are working on still has so many secrets to unveil, and it is exciting to think about what else we may find there, or what hypotheses new data may reveal to us.
Being at Antiochia has definitely changed my perspective archaeology as a discipline. Seeing the working parts that make a dig like this work in motion was a very eye-opening experience for me. All of the background work that has to be done to allow us to put our heads down and focus on the excavation at hand is really incredible. Similarly, all of the work that has to be done by archaeologists/archaeological students outside of the dig site was really cool to witness. Things like the pottery washing and all of the knowledge that Asena can glean from her studies of that pottery, as well as the bones and coins in the lab. I was lucky enough to be able to participate in one of these side quests with my pursuit of photogrammetry, and continuing to practice and learn about its uses and limitations has allowed me to think about different paths that I could take within the field.
I have absolutely loved being on this trip, even if there were some ups and downs at times. I have found new friends and new passions, and I would recommend this trip to anyone who is interested in seriously pursuing archaeology. Some advice I would give to anyone wanting to come work at Antiochia ad Cragum is do your research! Archaeology is sometimes not exactly what you’d expect. It is hard work, and it requires a lot of manual labor, but at the end of the day this is part of the fun. The work you do is so fulfilling and you will learn so much by doing it. Also, leave some room in your suitcases on the way here! You’re going to want to bring so much stuff back home, even more than you might throw out after the dig is over.
On that note, it’s almost time for me to fly out! See you next year Turkey!