Sticker Bushes are the Enemy

Coming to Turkey with a cold wrecking havoc in your body is not the most ideal way to start off your trip, but my time here has been amazing so far with my cold only being a slight annoyance. Although, I am sure my roommates would prefer the coughing from the top bunk...

Plants vs Archaeologists

I knew it would be messy business clearing the underbrush of the dig site. Where there’s any hint of soil, something has to grow. And I signed up to cut down or dig up whatever I’m told to. They tell you about the prickly bushes, their thick roots, etc. But what they...

Being sick

I arrived in Gazipaşa on Sunday, after having spent a few days in Turkey before hand. On Monday, we had our first day of work. We pulled weeds. Nothing but weeding. I was literally dripping sweat, but other than the constant dampness and the pain in my limbs, I was...

Experiences so far.

As the week draws to a close, I think that archeology in Turkey has turned out to be a lot more than it at first appears. Preconceptions and syllabuses are simply not enough to describe the detail, strategy, and sweat that goes into our excavations on the acropolis....

Rock Stock and Two Smoking Picks

This first week in Turkey was first in many regards. It marked the first week of digging on the site doing academic work fundamentally unlike any other work that I had done before. It was my first week in Turkey, a country of which I have little more than a cursory...

The end

It’s been a couple of days since the end of the excavation and, now that I’m home from Turkey, I have had time to reflect on the experience. Nothing stands out in my mind more than being able to think back on how things were at the beginning of the dig, and by its...