{"id":2783,"date":"2022-09-05T15:39:57","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T20:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/?p=2783"},"modified":"2022-09-05T15:39:57","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T20:39:57","slug":"week-4-final-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/2022\/09\/05\/week-4-final-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 4: Final thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

From what I experienced in Turkey over this past month, archaeology revolves pretty heavily around adaptation. In terms of the physical site, the structure we were excavating had gone through many stages in its long life. We think it started out as a house, burned down, was rebuilt, was reconstructed a bit to be used as a sheep corral, and who knows what happened from there. We think it burned multiple times, but the floors show evidence that people adapted the structure to make it usable again. It was adapted by the user to fit the circumstances and to accommodate whatever it was needed for, and finding evidence of that adaptation was really interesting. In terms of forming theories, all of our theories were and still are working theories\u2013 we adapted our ideas with every new bit of information we found to form the most accurate theory possible. Back to the fire idea, we thought there may have only been one fire until we found a second burn layer in another unit; we adapted our theory to say \u201chey, maybe there were multiple fires.\u201d A revision to a theory was never really a discouraging\u00a0 thing; we all kept an open mind and understood that our theories would have to be adapted\u2013 that\u2019s part of the process of good archaeology. Finally, in terms of working together, we had to do some pretty serious personal adapting to work as a team. I mentioned this in my last post but I want to reiterate: adaptation is a crucial part of teamwork, and teamwork is a crucial part of archaeology, from what I\u2019ve experienced. We had to adapt to a new country, a new schedule, a new kind of work, new people, and an overall new experience, which wasn\u2019t easy or simple. Like the prickly old oak brush we had on site, we had to adapt to thrive and grow, which I\u2019d say we did a pretty good job of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While I had at least one memorable experience everyday, I\u2019d narrow my <\/span>most <\/span><\/i>memorable down to two standouts. The first was an impromptu dance break on the way to the highland games. The \u201chighland games\u201d was essentially a suped-up county fair; there were tons of vendors with amazing food or handmade goods, carnival games, and camels, all on top of a mountain\u2013 it was awesome. We\u2019re about \u00be of the way up this mountain when our bus stops and pulls over to the side of the road. The doors open and we hop out to see a breathtaking view of the mountain range and the valley below. We\u2019re all taking pictures and carrying on when all of a sudden, music starts coming from one of the buses. We turn around to see the bus driver and one or two Turkish students busting a move. It isn’t but a few seconds until more join in\u2013 Rahmi and Aisha are the first to jump in, naturally\u2013 and then more and more until everyone is dancing and laughing and having a fabulous, carefree time. I\u2019m not sure how long we danced, but it didn’t matter\u2013 it was total joy and I was glad to be a part of it. The second most memorable experience for me was seeing the new growth on the oak we cleared at the beginning of the month. We spent our first week on site clearing hundreds of years worth of plant growth that had built up on our structure. It obviously wasn\u2019t easy, but we had most of the brush, which was mostly low-growing holm oak, cut down to the ground after a few days. By the end of the month, though, the same plants that we had cut practically down to the root were sprouting new little dark-red growths. Tim pointed it out on our last day of work, and I had to stop, stare, and appreciate the life that was growing out of practically nothing. Those plants have been there since before our site was inhabited, and have adapted to survive centuries of humans and harsh climate conditions. Man, who was I to think that our chainsaws and pick axes would be enough to kill them? And how many hundreds of times had they gone through that same process; cut down, regrowing, cut down again, and on and on? It was a humbling thought, and reminded me that, no matter how much power we think we have over nature, nature will always win. Go, plants, go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of advice for future interns, I\u2019d recommend studying the site beforehand. It will be nice to have a general idea of the story of the site before you start working on it, because that will help contextualize the project and will make it easier to understand what it is you\u2019re working on and why you\u2019re working on it. I\u2019d also recommend you pack multiple\u2013 more than two\u2013 pairs of <\/span>thick <\/b>work pants, as well as some thicker long-sleeve shirts. That first week of work is mostly clearing and cleaning up, and it\u2019ll be death by 1000 cuts from the brush and rock if you\u2019re not covered (speaking from painful experience.) It\u2019ll probably get hot wearing long pants and shirts, but it\u2019ll be worth it, especially the first week. Next, do yourself a favor and try all the food at meals. I\u2019d say I was unfamiliar with a majority of the food served, but I tried everything and absolutely loved almost all of it. Sure, there will be some foods that might not be your favorite and that\u2019s fine, but do give everything a shot. Also, make it a point to show appreciation for the women who make the meals. They are kind, caring people who put a great deal of time and effort into making sure we\u2019re taken care of. Lastly, spend time doing fun things with your teammates as often as possible. Whether that be going to the beach, going out for dinner and drinks, or just sitting out on the patio playing cards and eating cookies\u2013 whatever it is, make it a priority to have fun and spend quality time with your teammates outside of work. This internship isn\u2019t easy by any stretch, but good friends and good fun will make it that much more enjoyable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m really grateful for this experience because it taught me a great deal about myself, about archaeology, and about what I might want for my future. It made me realize that archaeology might not be the path I want to pursue. I have a great respect for the field and, honestly, I just think it\u2019s super cool; but I found myself being pulled more toward the ecology component\u2013i.e. the soil and plant life in our unit\u2013 as well as the anthropology component\u2013 thinking about the cultural traditions behind the physical artifacts. I recognize that both ecology and anthropology are important parts of archaeology, and it was awesome to experience the interconnectedness of different fields in archaeology. This internship made me realize, though,\u00a0 that I might be interested in focusing on ecology or anthropology more individually rather than as a component of archaeology. It also reinforced my interest in studying abroad\u2013 man, I\u2019m already ready to get back on a plane and go study somewhere else. It was definitely hard to be working and studying halfway across the world for a month, but my goodness was it worth it. This last month in Turkey was the experience of a lifetime. It was beautiful, challenging, uncomfortable, and exhilarating, and I\u2019m so very grateful to have had the opportunity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From what I experienced in Turkey over this past month, archaeology revolves pretty heavily around adaptation. In terms of the physical site, the structure we were excavating had gone through many stages in its long life. We think it started out as a house, burned down, was rebuilt, was reconstructed a bit to be used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Iz8A-IT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2787,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783\/revisions\/2787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}