Archaeological Internship at Antiochia: July 13 – 10 August, 2024

 

The collaborative research internship at Antiochia is intended to expose St. Olaf students to archaeological methodologies as well as the cultural heritage, the history, and field practices employed by ancient historians when studying ancient cultures. The 2023 season will focus on the Early Christian and Cilcian Pirate/Imperial Roman community at the site of Antiochia ad Cragum in Antalya province, southern Turkey. Historically, Antiochia with its harbor possibly served as one of the havens for the Cilician pirates who operated from these shores and preyed upon shipping and coastal communities of the eastern Mediterranean during the first half of the first century BCE. Pompey the Great ended the pirate scourge in 67 with a naval victory at nearby Korakesion (Alanya). No traces of Antiochia’s pirate past survive among the remains visible today. The emperor Caligula ceded control of Rough Cilicia to a client-king of Rome, Antiochos IV of Kommagene, for a brief period in CE 38 before summarily deposing him; Antiochus was then restored to power in CE 41 by Emperor Claudius.  He ruled continuously until CE 72, during which period he founded the city named after himself.  After Antiochus was removed by Vespasian in 72 CE, the city, along with the rest of Rough Cilicia, fell under direct Roman rule as part of the enlarged Province of Cilicia.  The city appears to have reached its greatest extent during the later Roman Empire, from the third century on.

Staff:

Dr. Michael Hoff, Antiochia Research Project Director and Primary Investigator (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)
Dr. Timothy Howe, Antiochia Research Project Director, Acropolis Project Director, and St. Olaf Internship Supervisor (St. Olaf College)
Dr. Rhys Townsend, Temple Project Director (Clark University)
Dr. Asena Kızılarslanoğlu, Ceramics Research Director (Kastamonu University, Turkey)
Dr. Frank Russell, Acropolis Project Associate Director (Transylvania University)
Dennis Murphy, Aqueduct Survey Director (NASA, Lockheed-Martin, retired)
Mary Howe, Acropolis Project Associate Director, St. Olaf Internship Co-Supervisor (St. Olaf College)

Internship Objectives:

The intern will demonstrate the ability to:

  1. Excavate, process and record archaeological material
  2. Prepare geo-referenced data for upload to Geographic Information System (GIS)
  3. Lay out an excavation unit
  4. Accurately draw artifacts and map architectural remains
  5. Clean, catalog, and preserve recovered artifacts
  6. Recognize ceramic typologies of the Eastern Mediterranean region
  7. Create publication quality photographic data

Assessment:

The internship will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

Good citizenship and active participation (25%).

  • interns must participate actively as responsible, self-starting members of the Acropolis research team. This means being on the site every day, doing lab work and and data entry, going on field trips, attending lectures, doing a weekly blog entry, taking part in discussions, doing some independent reading, and completing and assigned duties.

Site Blog (5%).

  • On a weekly basis, each intern will contribute to the official St Olaf Antiochia 2015 Field School Blog.  Contributions will contain both text and photos and will be professional in tone and content.  All contributions will be reviewed by Tim Howe for approval before final posting.

Field notebook, daily excavation update, and weekly site report (25%).

  • Each intern will keep a site notebook containing detailed notes describing, day by day, what has been found in the student’s unit; that is, what soils have been encountered, what features and artifacts identified, etc. Sample notebook entry
  • Each day, a different intern, selected by the leadership team, will provide a summary of previous work, based on the notebook about the excavation unit his or her research team is digging.
  • Each week, usually on Fridays, the entire excavation team will go around the site as a group and each intern will give a report based on the notebook about the excavation unit he or she is digging.

Final Field Practicum (25%).

  • The Field Practicum is an individual practical demonstration in which each intern performs field procedures including, but not limited to, identification of artifacts, identification of soils, and identification of features. The practicum will conclude with a 8 minute oral assessment and interpretation of the historical and cultural significance of artifacts and features in site. Practica will be held during the final week of excavation and should be seen as a summative experience.Site Report (20%) 
  • Each intern will write a final site report (5-7 pages) interpreting the historical context of the artefacts and features unearthed in his or her unit.  This paper will be formal in nature and will conform to all standard stylistic conventions regarding bibliography and citation.

Daily Work Schedule (M-F):

5:30 AM Depart from Dig House
6:00 AM Breakfast
6:30 AM Start of Work
10:00 AM Break
10:30 AM Return to Work
1:00 PM Lunch
2:00 PM Return to Dig House
4:00 PM Artifact Analysis, Processing, Interpretation and Lab Work
7:00 PM Dinner at Dig House
7:30 PM Discussion

Readings Before Arrival:

Contextual Background on Antiochia

Howe, T. “Between the Local and the Global: Intersectional Elites at Antiochia ad Cragum in Roman Rough Cilicia.” In H. Beck and S. Ager (eds.), Localism in the Hellenistic World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2024, 350-365

Hoff, M. et al. “Antiochia ad Cragum: Excavations at a Roman-era City in Western Rough Cilicia.” In S. Steadman and G. McMahon (eds.), The Archaeology of Anatolia, 201-227.  Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars 2015.

Hansen, M. H.. Polis: An Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-State, 33-61. Oxford: Oxford  University Press, 2006.

Sherwin-White, A. “Rome, Pamphylia and Cilicia, 133-70 B.C.” The Journal of Roman Studies 66 (1976): 1-14.

Speidel, M; “Early Roman Rule in Commagene.” In Heer und Herrschaft im Römischen Reich der Hohen Kaiserzeit, 563-580. Stuttgart 2009. 

Revell, L. “Living the Urban Ideal.” In Roman Imperialism and Local Identities, 40-79. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 

Foss, C. (2002) “Life in City and Country,” in C. Mango, ed., Oxford History of Byzantium, 71-95. Oxford.

Nevett, L.  and B. Bergamann (2012), “Housing and Households,” in Alcock and Osborne, Classical Archaeology, 207-248.

Utterhoeven, I. “A change of appearance. Urban housing in Asia Minor during the sixth century.” In Jacobs and Elton, Asia Minor in the Long Sixth   Century, Oxford (2019): 9-23. 

Archaeological Methods, Ethics and Techniques

M. Millet, (2012), “What is Classical Archaeology?” in Alcock and Osborne, Classical Archaeology, 30-50.

McGill, D., C. Colwell-Chanthaphonah and J. Hollowell. (2012) “Archaeological Ethics.” In R. Chadwick (ed.), Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, Second Edition, volume 1, 179-88, San Diego: Academic Press.

H. Shafer, (2009) “The Goals of Archaeological Excavation, ” T. R. Hester et al., Field Methods in Archaeology, 5-20

T. R. Hester et al., (2009), Field Methods in Archaeology, 69-112.

T. R. Hester et al., (2009), Field Methods in Archaeology, 235-252.

Discussions and Practica:

Discussions  happen in the evening, after the 7:30 pm dinner at the Dig House and will be no longer that one hour. All Practica will take place on site, during work hours.  Please note: all discussions, presentations, site tours and practica are mandatory. Note Further: all readings must be completed before the practicum or discussion to which they have been assigned.

WEEK ONE

Friday, 12 July, ARRIVAL

Saturday 13 July
rest day

Sunday, 14 July: no meals at the Dig House
rest day

WEEK TWO

 Monday 15 July

Catch up on Readings Day

Field Trip:  Selinous 5 pm

Tuesday, 16 July

Practicum

“Measurements, Record-keeping, Notebooks and Locus Sheets,”

“Tools, Techniques and Trenches,”

Review T. R. Hester et al., (2009), Field Methods in Archaeology, 59-112

Post Dinner Discussion:
“Settled Landscapes: Humans, Plants and Animals,”

L. Foxhall M. Jones and H. Forbes (2012), “Human Ecology and the Classical Landscape,” in Alcock and Osborne, Classical Archaeology, 91-121.

O. Rackham and A. T. Grove (2003), “Introduction: Ruined Landscapes and the Question of Desertification,” in O Rackham and A. T. Grove, The Nature of Mediterranean Europe: An Ecological History, 8-24.

Wednesday 17 July

Practicum
“Soils, Stones and Stratigraphy,”

Review: T. R. Hester et al., (2009), Field Methods in Archaeology,235-252.

Thursday, 18 July

Daily Work

Friday, 19 July

Daily Work

Site Tour 

Group Swim at “Pirate Cove”

Saturday, 20 July  Field Trip: Gazipasa Highland Festival 

Sunday, 21 July Free Day: no meals at the Dig House

WEEK THREE

Monday, 22 July

Post Dinner Discussion
“Housing and Houses, Roman Style,”

Özgenel, L. “Public Use and Privacy in Late Antique Houses in Asia Minor: The Architecture of Spacial Control. In L. Lavan et al., eds. From Palaces to Shops, Vol 3.2: 239-281. Leiden, Brill: 2007.

Uvtterhoeven, I. “Splendid Luxury. Representation and Display in the Roman and Late Antique Urban Elite Houses of Asia Minor.” In I. Uvtterhoeven and A. Ricci, eds., The Palimpsest of the House, 123-146. Istanbul: Koç University Press, 2022.

Tuesday, 23 July

Daily Work

Wednesday, 24 July

Daily Work
Practicum
“Excavating objects: pottery, coins, walls and wall-like features,”

Thursday, 25 July

Ministry Workshop
No excavation work

Friday, 26 July

Daily Work

Site Tour 

Group Swim at “Pirate Cove”

Saturday, 27 July: Free Day: lunch (1.00) and dinner (7.00) at the Dig House

Sunday, 28 July: Free Day: no meals at the Dig House

WEEK FOUR

Monday, 29 July

Daily Work

Post Dinner Discussion
“Mediterranean Geology and Seismology,”

M.D. Higgins and R. A. Higgins (1996), “The Geologic Background,”and“The Geologic History of   the Mediterranean,” in Higgins and  Higgins, Geological Companion to Greece and the Aegean, 1-25

       L. Mordechai (2024). “Historical Seismology,” in A. Izdebski and J. Preiser-Kapeller, eds. A Companion to the Environmental History of       
Byzantium. Leiden: Brill, 162-78.

Tuesday, 30 July

Daily Work

Wednesday, 31 July 

Daily Work

Thursday, 1 Aug

Daily Work

Friday, 2 Aug

Daily Work

Site Tour

Group Swim at “Pirate Cove”

Saturday, 3 August Field Trip: Sapadere Canyon

Sunday, 4 August  Free Day

WEEK FIVE

Monday, 5 August

Daily Work

Post Dinner Discussion
“Ancient and Modern: the politics of archaeology,”

M. Shanks (1996), “Archaeology, Classics and Contemporary Culture,” in Shanks, Classical Archaeology, 167-180.
Gur, A. (2011), in Gur, “Political Excavations of the Anatolian Past: Nationalism and Archaeology in Turkey,” Controlling the Past, Owning the Future: The Political Uses of Archaeology in the Middle East, 1-38

Tuesday, 6 August

Daily Work

Wednesday, 7 August

Daily Work

Post Dinner Discussion
“Drawing Conclusions—so you worked on a dig in Turkey…. What can you do with that?”

Thursday,  8 August

Daily Work

Friday, 9 August

Daily Work

Site Tour

Group Swim at “Pirate Cove”

Saturday, 10 DEPARTURE