On Friday, I experienced my very first soil change. Before that, in the outer storeroom of the Great Baths I’ve been excavating, we had been working to remove one very substantial layer of soil that had been intentionally placed there all at one time. Likely when the baths were transformed into a new use due to the shifting needs in the community. Having reached a new context where our floor now sits flush with the hallway leading to the main chambers of the bath, our next objective involves removing a partition between the storeroom and the hallway. This will allow us to deepen our excavation to match the floor level of the adjacent room.
Despite not experiencing the same amount of soil changes as some of my peers working on other locations on site, we had still been finding a few very interesting finds. Throughout the layer of soil, we had uncovered two very large pieces of burnt wood and an incredible amount of charcoal scattered around the room. Each of the larger chunks were found at slightly different depths. These beams(?) have been incredibly fascinating and incredibly frustrating when trying to interpret. Originally, I was under the impression that the wood was once part of the ceiling of the storeroom that burned down and collapsed. Next, after examining where we were finding the ash/charcoal deposits, I thought the wood may have been a tree that burned alongside the room and eventually fell into it. Now that we have found the second large piece of wood at a different depth, my theory has changed once again. I think the wood may have been fuel for the neighboring caldarium (hot room) of the bath and was simply used as a tool to level the floor. There is no evidence that the wood burned while lying on the floor of the storeroom, and we are finding no burnt pottery sherds or bones around the wood. Additionally, at the time, “garbage” was frequently used to level out the floors of buildings. This might not be the most exciting theory and can certainly change if/when we find more evidence to support another theory instead.
In this upcoming week, St. Olaf students will be reassigned to a (likely) new location where we will be digging for the rest of our stay in Gazipaşa. Due to this, I really have no idea what to expect! The excavation at the Great Baths is an emergency excavation and thus tends to move more quickly and is documented differently. If I move over to the Acropolis, I will have to adapt to new leadership, learn what the heck a Munsel soil color is, and finally start contributing to an official site notebook. My biggest goal is to continue to challenge myself and to learn as much as I can. As I’m about to leave the Great Baths and head back to join Cait and Audrey back at the Acropolis, I also want to make sure I really thank Yunus, Cem, and everyone else I have been working with for how much they taught me and for being so lovely and helpful to me despite me knowing virtually nothing when I showed up in the middle of their excavation a few weeks ago.
If I were to start to focus on one aspect of archaeology right now, I would definitely lean into my biology education and focus on bones, preferably human. As I was quite sick last week, I had to take a few days off from digging and instead got the chance to work in the bone lab. Working with Emily, Megan, and Erin was such an amazing experience! I learned so much in such a short amount of time and had a really good time doing it. While there, I was sorting bone fragments from cremated individuals into categories based on where the fragments were once located in the body. Doing this has me excited to eventually take Anatomy and Physiology at St. Olaf when I have the chance! I already have some hands-on experience now!