The option of doing a archeological internship, despite not planning and currently studying Archaeology as a professional career can be random to some people in their own professions. But for me as a future Anthropologist, I beg to differ. Even though their weren’t any internships around my career (as far as I know) during my time at St. Olaf College, I found this internship interesting as it involves with an historical siting of an ancient city dating back more than 2500 years ago ruled by the Roman Empire that brought my attention to apply. As much I was excited and nervous to be excavating in another country that I have never been and also never been outside of the US before, I was pleasantly surprised how much enjoyment I felt during my time in Turkey. Despite having to dig 7:00am through 1:00pm from Monday to Friday for 4 weeks, I have more than enough time enjoying myself and experiencing the unique culture Turkey has to offer during my time there. That of course had to do with talking to the locals, walking around town and shopping local shops, eating and drinking turkish delicacies, and of course understanding the difference but similarities between today’s society and society 2500 years ago.
If you didn’t know about the ancient city I was excavating during my time in Turkey, let me recap from what I know so far. According to research, the city, Antiochia, was founded around 170 BC. The city was named after Antiochos the IV and became the Kommagean capital for the Kommagean Kingdom (An Iranian dynasty with Greek influence also I think) until it became the Roman Capital for the Roman Empire (fun fact: Hadrian, the son of the Roman Emperor Trajan which the name can be refer to the Trojan Horse which I don’t think it has a connection between them) once ruled over the capital until his death. Now, to keep this short, the city had some ups and downs during its time. For example, the people of Antiochia one time have to build walls to keep any Cillian Pirates out of their city after the city was nearly destroyed by an ambush of bandits (most likely those pirates I think) or when Antiochia at that time were the primary producer of passion wine that was ship all around the Empire. In all seriousness, this city was one of the cities that started to acknowledge Christianity as a religion during the 1st century and was a hot spot for any travelers traveling around the Mediterranean Ocean. As much this sounds interesting but also important into modern day society on how we interact, I must pointed out most people didn’t know as this historical site started during the late 1990s or early 2000s. Which this is where the archeologist comes in, beginning with the University of Nebraska kick starting the excavation and now collaborating with other universities inside and outside Turkey to excavate this site brings somewhat a start to actually be working with other people outside of my main hometown chicago to figure and dig out any artifacts or evidence of civilization in Antiochia.
The main part of the site me and my colleagues from St. Olaf College were excavating is up at a mountain called the Acropolis. Their, we focus on leveling down (as in digging down) each possible room for each group to dig any artifacts that we believed used to stand a residence building. During the excavation of leveling down each rooms, my group first thought of a possible closed wall arrowing down our unit until finding out it was a fake wall and the real wall was just a medium sized squared wall on the left North East. To keep this short, me and my group had found tons of pottery (used for eating/cleaning/storing), glass (used for drinking/decorating), animals and possibly human bones, 2 or 3 pieces of Marble, and (so far) 2 coins written in latin so far (which one is bronze and the other silver). As far as what we been thinking about what kind of room was used for is up for discussion as I can remember. However, what I found interesting when analyzing and digging up artifacts more than 2500 years ago in our unit is how humanity still holds up with items, currency, and possible animals as pets from then and now despite being different in their own uniquely ways. In short, this experience of learning more about this civilization of an ancient city dating back more than 2500 years ago really had bring me into an attachment as a Anthropologist on how human society evolved overtime into some uniquely identical or different.