WOW! It’s already our third work week in Turkey as well as my 900th trip to Roby’s. I feel like in just two full weeks at the dig site, I’ve already learned so much, and changed and grown as an archaeologist and a student.
First of all, I have genuinely enjoyed the physical challenge of archaeological work. I guess I understand why archaeologists are seen as big buff adventurers, because many of the daily tasks on a site take a considerable amount of physical strength. At first I was really frustrated about not being able to carry as many buckets or lift as heavy of rocks as some of my friends. I felt like I should have trained more for the trip, and it was a little embarrassing to be one of the physically weaker people in the group. But after the first week or so, two things changed. Firstly, I accepted that my contributions to my unit were enough, and that just because I’m not lifting massive boulders doesn’t mean I’m not pulling my weight. Annika reminded me that “pulling your weight” means exactly that — pulling YOUR weight. Secondly, I genuinely feel like I’ve gotten a lot stronger and more physically capable in just a couple weeks! For example, during the first week a trip down the hill with the wheelbarrow would pretty much take me out, and I would have to rest and drink water afterwards. Today (Monday the 31st), I took down what I think is more wheelbarrows than ever and still felt energized after making it back to the top of the hill.
I also feel that my intellectual interests have developed and come further into clarity over the past few weeks. I’ve noticed that I’m always the most interested when someone is talking about the politics of archaeology, whether that’s the international relations/governmental aspect of it, the policing/looting aspect, or the cultural heritage management/legal aspect. Some people might think that that’s the least interesting part of it all, but I like learning about those kinds of controversies and the different complex layers that are always there in the background. Boss Lady Audrey was telling 6B today about her plans to get a law degree so she can eventually do cultural heritage law, and I thought that was a super intriguing idea that aligns with a lot of my interests.
As for Antiochia itself, I feel like I’ve retained the same joy for finding random everyday objects that I had from the very beginning. For every interesting pottery shard or piece of glass we find, I like to imagine what someone might have done with it back when there were lots of people living at the Acropolis. Today, somebody found a very cute pottery shard with a design of thin, wavy lines. It was very distinct from a lot of the other, plainer pieces we’ve found, so for fun I imagined what I would put in that pot if it were mine (I was thinking maybe honey or olive oil because of the liquid-ish design). I also feel like the more time I spend in Turkey in general, the more I like to imagine Antiochia as a predecessor to the modern area around it. Not necessarily in the “kinship heritage” type way that’s described in Week 5’s readings, but more so in the way where people are always kind of the same. We found a lot of bones today (as per usual), and I imagined somebody leading their goats around the hill in the same way that I saw a woman taking her goats out to the field on the way to the Highland Festival on Saturday.