To say that my time in Turkey has been a learning experience would be an understatement. There has been a constant influx of knowledge since my arrival, both academic and personal in nature. My academic growth is fairly easy to pin down. I came into this with very little practical knowledge of archaeology. In only two weeks of digging, I’ve learned how to do a Munsell soil test, how to use a dumpy level, how to properly level a unit, and how to identify pottery, bones, glass, and metal. I’ve also learned a lot about the local history and geography, which has helped a lot in deducing the context of our finds.<\/p>\n
I didn’t realize how much of an exact science archaeology was before coming here. I really love that, as interns, we’re actually being taught what to do and how to do it. The volunteers from other schools generally aren’t doing any of the technical work, which is both surprising and disappointing. One of the girls I’ve been talking to said she’s done four different digs but has never once been taught to use a dumpy level. I also haven’t spoken to any volunteers who have gotten to do a Munsell test. It seems like their only responsibility is to dig, and they are afforded very few chances to actually learn about the profession itself. It’s also cool that we get to write in the official notebooks. Most of the volunteers didn’t even know that official notebooks were a thing, as all of that is taken care of by their supervisors. I’m extremely grateful that we actually have the opportunity to build these different skills, and I hope the program will eventually allow the volunteers to do the same.<\/p>\n
After gaining some real experience, I find the way that archaeology is portrayed in pop culture is especially funny. I’ve always been a really big fan of the Tomb Raider games, and while I always knew they were extremely<\/em> inaccurate, I didn’t realize just how comically off the mark they were, even ignoring all of the fantastical elements. It’s obviously understandable, as digging carefully in the dirt wouldn’t exactly make for riveting gameplay, but it is extremely funny to imagine Lara Croft defeating Set and then whipping out a Munsell soil book to see if she needs to open a new locus. However, I can’t say I’m upset that the actual profession is considerably calmer. As cool as it would be to find a fully intact tomb, I am not at all confident in my ability to take down a T-Rex with my (non-existent) acrobatic skills.<\/p>\n Speaking of personal skills, I’ve gained a lot more insight into my physical and mental limits. My stamina and endurance have definitely increased, as the walk to the city center becomes less taxing every time I do it. I am quite restricted in what I can do physically because of a knee injury, so my time on site involves less rock-lifting and wheelbarrow-pushing than everyone else, but I still try to do what I can in my unit. However, I would argue that my mental limits have been pushed much further. The archaeological process is like a puzzle. For everything we find, we try to figure out what it is, where it came from, and how it ended up where it ended up. I’ve gotten far more confident in making those kinds of hypotheses, and I’ve noticed that I’m a lot more willing to speak up than I was at the start.<\/p>\n My social limits have also been pushed to the max. I am not a people person in the slightest, and socializing can be quite draining for me. I always have so much to say during class discussions that I sometimes forget how bad I am at casual conversation, especially with people outside of my usual friend group. I often feel bad for being so quiet in my unit, but I really do enjoy listening to people talk, and I have been speaking progressively more often as we continue to dig together. Even though I sometimes miss my solitude, I’ve enjoyed getting to know everyone, and I think this trip has been (and will continue to be) a great opportunity to step out of my social comfort zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To say that my time in Turkey has been a learning experience would be an understatement. There has been a constant influx of knowledge since my arrival, both academic and personal in nature. My academic growth is fairly easy to pin down. I came into this with very little practical knowledge of archaeology. In only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5277,"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-3246","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-Qm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3246","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\/5277"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3253,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3246\/revisions\/3253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}