After my first week in Türkiye and working at Antiochia ad Cragum, there are many things that I feel I can already reflect on. I have always wanted to be an archaeologist, for as long as I can remember. A real-life Indiana Jones, I would tell everyone! I think something that I was the most hesitant about was, what if I hated archaeology? What if my dream is my worst nightmare? Everyone always says that this first week is the hardest, and it will get easier. I sure hope it does, I like the work, but the hardest part so far has to be the heat and humidity. I have never felt so gross in my life, but I know that everything that I am working for is very worth every ounce of effort. I can’t believe I get to live such a dream in Turkey, on a site full of history. It is so nice being able to learn about something that is right in front of me, something that I can feel with my own hands, somewhere I can visualize people living a very, very long time ago. I really enjoy finding every piece and thinking about where and when it came from. I am really excited to see through ANS 9, as that was the unit I worked on the first day, and I am curious about what we may learn from it as we continue to dig down. What kind of artifacts will we uncover?
Throughout most of my time on site, I try my best to maintain a positive attitude, I find that helps. Physically, I can do everything that we are tasked with: wheelbarrowing, lifting heavy rocks, pulling out giant one-hundred-year-old roots, but the hardest part again is the heat that comes with the flow of sweat dripping from my face for six hours. The first day we spent on site, we worked by carrying heavy rocks and clearing thorny brush off a hill that overlooks the units our group is working on. It was so physically and mentally exhausting clearing away material that seems to respawn every ten seconds, but I powered through because the only thing on my mind was eating lunch and taking a really long, cold shower immediately after. It has only been one week, and I feel like I have learned so much since day one. Everything seems to be falling into place, as the processes taken are making more and more sense as the days progress.
When I imagined myself in Türkiye a month ago, there were a lot of things I wasn’t too sure about. What was the dig house like? How would I understand Turkish? What would the work days look like? Who were my roommates? There were a ton of unknowns, but now that I am here and settled in with a routine, I feel more confident about living here for a month. I still struggle with reading Turkish, but Google Translate is really great! Everyone here is so kind, and they seem curious about getting to know us. There is certainly a lot of walking, and the heat does make it really hard to go farther than twenty minutes, but I have loved exploring the city and discovering delicious restaurants, and visiting Konrad’s, of course! The beach a mile from the dig house has to be one of my highlights so far, it was beautiful, and the little restaurant there had amazing food. Overall, I like it here, sure, it was a bit of an adjustment, but I am so impressed by how hard-working and kind everyone is.