WOW!! I can’t believe this will be my last time sitting in Roby’s with a delicious caffeinated beverage working on an OFFICIAL ACARP blog post. But no more reminiscing, time to get to it or else no doubt Boss Lady will bring out her whackin’ stick.
- What advice would you offer future participants?
Since I didn’t know that this would end up being a blog post question, I’ve actually been working here and there on putting together my own list of advice for future St. Olaf archaeologists, especially because I know a lot of my friends are interested in applying. Here is what I have on my Google Doc so far:
- Buy hand soap and towels, because they don’t have any at the dorms
- Don’t bring clothes that you’re not comfortable sweating in! Even cute/casual clothes for hanging out around Gazipasa will be sweated in, especially if you’re out and about during the daytime
- Our suggestions: tank tops, big LOOSE clothing, shorts that won’t chafe, comfy sandals
- You can definitely buy cheap and very cute clothes (including swimsuits!) here in town – head to Sali Pizari or Waikiki downtown
- If you want to do fun stuff on the weekends, try to plan on either the earlier morning or the later afternoon-evening, at least for the walking-around part – it will be way cooler!
- After your first few days at the dig site, when you blow your nose your snot will come out brown/black. Don’t be scared! This is normal
- Monkey Burger (about a 5-10 minute walk from the hotel) serves some great burgers/pizzas/appetizers if you’re missing American food
- Roby’s Coffeehouse (3 minute walk from the hotel) has great drinks and pastries, as well as FREE WIFI! This is the classic meeting spot for weekend breakfasts, working on readings, etc.
Password: robyscoffeehouse
2. Why you would (or would not) participate in another archaeological excavation?
I think that one of the most important parts of this experience for me is that it has helped refine and focus what aspects of archaeology I’m the most interested in and even what career(s) I may want to pursue in the future. Now I understand that my passion definitely lies in the realm of public archaeology and/or cultural heritage management/law. I definitely don’t think that working hands-on on another excavation is out of the picture, but if I were to work on a project relating to ACARP or another site, I think I would want it to surround those fields in particular. Still though, the physical aspect of excavation was (surprisingly?) a lot of fun and very very rewarding, so I by no means regret my decision to dig in the dirt for a month!
3. What you’ve learned (one honest academic answer; one funny, witty, but appropriate answer).
One (honest, academic) thing that I’ve learned during my time working at Antiochia ad Cragum is the sheer number of constantly moving parts that make an archaeological project run (and make it successful). Living and working with the members of ACARP has really made me appreciate how many hours of not only on-site manual labor, but intellectual labor and fine detail work are expended by so many different people within different areas of expertise. Archaeology is not just digging around in the dirt and then going home (even though sometimes it feels like it). There is a massive amount of largely unseen data entry, illustration, cleaning, photography, conservation, sorting, organizing, labelling, and more to ensure that every artifact and piece of data we acquire finds its place in the project.
One (funny, witty, but appropriate) thing I’ve learned is that in Turkey, our bus drivers are the kings of the roads and that every single traffic rule is a suggestion, not a law. I have seen Musafir almost run a man off a cliff and I have listened to Erbay blast the same two songs on repeat as he changes lanes every 15 seconds. I took selfies with Hasan. I do not trust any individual in the world to deliver me safely to a location more than I trust Turkish bus drivers.
4. Your most memorable experience here working on our research project.
I can’t think of any one single experience that stands out as the MOST memorable right now. I feel like there are too many to choose from, especially since I had a lot of first experiences here (i.e. swimming in the Mediterranean, seeing Pirate’s Cove for the first time, holding my first ever piece of pottery that I found by myself, etc). Instead, I’ll just say that I will forever have ingrained into my memory the feeling of carrying a bucket down my little path to the wheelbarrow, dumping it out, coming back up past 6A and hearing their (usually 80s or early 2000s) music blasting and possibly seeing them do a little dance, and finally making it back to my unit and resuming whatever strange conversation I was having with my 6B comrades. I made that trek so so so many times over the past month, and I feel like I’ll have those steps and the feeling of the sun and the humidity and the sound of four different speakers memorized forever.
5. How our project has changed your perspective, for example, on you and your life/career goals, on Turkey, or on being an archaeologist, or on being a “first witness” to historical material, or on being a college student abroad.
One way in which this trip has changed my perspective is that I now feel way more confident in myself as a student, worker, and traveler in a foreign country. I’ve always wanted to travel around the world someday for my job, but at the same time I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty shy and sometimes self-doubting person. However, traveling here has made me so much more confident in my ability to navigate completely foreign environments and situations. I’ve been met with some surprising and unfamiliar conundrums in my time here, but I’ve also surprised myself with how I’ve been able to react with a decisiveness and confidence that I’ve never really felt before. It’s kind of funny since it’s only been one month, but in a lot of ways I really do feel like more of an “adult” rather than a clueless student (which I definitely still am).