There is so much that I could tell those who will participate in the future. One thing that I found to be super important is to always have a snack to eat at çay time. Buying these snacks will entail a quick trip to a convenience store with some particular favorites being either Bim or Migros Jets. Migros Jets has the fabled Fellas bars, which I am almost certain Patrick will mention in his blog post as they have become a particular favorite of his. A Fellas bar has a lot of protein and the curious property of not melting even after being out in the heat all day. Another snack that I am fond of is a jar of peanut butter and some bread. I recommend using the peanut butter on the bread we get at breakfast as well to spice it up. The brand I used was Master Nut and it can be found at A101. I also highly recommend buying juice boxes to bring to çay time, as the juice is super good here and I found myself getting a little tired of drinking mostly water interspersed with some çay. Also I highly recommend Roby’s as it is super close to the Dig House and has great coffee and pastries. Be warned though, the Dig House does not have fridges in the rooms, so do not bring supplies for the ranch expecting to be able to keep the ranch in the fridge like a certain someone, Jade, on this trip.
Another piece of advice would be to go out and make friends. The people are what help to make this experience worth it. While I do like to hermit myself away in order to keep somewhat sane, I really pushed myself to go out and experience what Gazipasa has to offer especially with others. Don’t be afraid to reach out to others, even those not from St. Olaf to hang out with as it will lead to memorable experiences! I have made so many great friends from this experience that I hope to run into in the future. I have also learned so much from other people both about archeology and not, so definitely make sure to spend time outside and not just in your room. I would also recommend going to Pirate’s Cove and climbing Selinus at least once. If you are worried about climbing up a mountain, make sure to leave with plenty of time, but I think it was worth even just to say you’ve done it. As a warning, Pirate’s Cove also has a pretty steep climb so be prepared for that, but it is gorgeous and the water is super refreshing after a long day of digging. Do Selinus towards the evening though because it will be hot and humid all day long.
I would like to participate in another archaeological excavation at some point in the future. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed digging in the dirt for some ancient artifacts early in the morning. Maybe this year’s session was just really lucky, but everyone was finding really cool features or finds and it was really cool to be a part of that process. I learned so much about archaeology and I find myself wanting to learn more. I think that if this internship lasted another month, I would still be enjoying it just as much. I am excited to go back home and sleep in my own bed, but I could definitely handle another four weeks of this work, or at least I think I can.
One thing I’ve learned is how little is sure in the field of archeology. This has been a running theme across pretty much all of the sites that are being excavated. This uncertainty runs throughout the archeological process. For example, if you suspect a rock, what you usually do is dig around it until you are as sure as possible it is not something important. So much of archeology is making a guess and then learning that your guess might not be correct. Being wrong is something that I often try really hard to avoid, so it was really interesting to be involved in something where being wrong is commonplace and a part of the process. Another thing that I’ve had great fun in learning was some Turkish words. Taş was a particularly favorite word, particularly during pottery washing. There was nothing quite like yelling taş, every time we found a rock instead of a pottery piece. I’ve also slowly grown in my Turkish vocabulary and I hopefully will continue to learn even more. I guess that would be another practical piece of advice. Learning Turkish before coming will be super helpful and I wish I had kept up better with Duolingo before coming here.
The most memorable experience or one very memorable experience for me was when my hypothesis about our unit having more walls than just the known wall turned out to be right. After spending the first week mainly digging through the topsoil, it was really rewarding to be able to start doing the actual excavating part. It was when the excavating part started that I broached the question of what if we had a wall running along the south sidewall. Initially some people told me that there would pretty much be no chance of it. However, Declan and Jade were both staunch supporters of my theory and we were all proven correct when we happened to find not just one wall but two walls. This has probably been the most excited I have ever been for walls. So for those of you coming in the future, prepare for some unexpected excitement over what is usually super ordinary.