{"id":3585,"date":"2025-08-10T13:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T18:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/?p=3585"},"modified":"2025-08-10T13:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T18:47:09","slug":"talking-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/2025\/08\/10\/talking-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This summer, I spent a month working at the site of Antiochia ad Cragum alongside excavators from other American universities and from Turkey. When the location of our dig site came up in conversations with my family and friends before leaving, more often than not I got a wince and some comment about how we\u2019d all surely melt on the dig site. To be sure, lifting rocks, carrying buckets, and pushing wheelbarrows wasn\u2019t exactly easy work, not least in the heat and humidity of coastal southern Turkey in August, and it required adaptation and perseverance on my part. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Our excavation also demanded soft skills like communication and teamwork. In a small trench, personal space is at a premium. You\u2019re forced to get along with the people you are working with, and to work out a rhythm of operation, emptying buckets of dirt and dumping wheelbarrows to keep everything running smoothly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In another sense, this program taught me the importance of communication &#8211; outside our group. The past month has been an excellent chance for me to work on my Turkish, and I\u2019ve made some great connections with Turkish people along the way. But even language fails sometimes and meanings are lost or misunderstood. As such, I\u2019ve practiced creative communication &#8211; question-asking, hand gestures, and careful listening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">While our program is organized through an American college with other American students, our interactions with locals, government officials, and Turkish university students on site have cultivated a sense of humility. We may be coming to study and work as archaeologists, but any sense of arrogance or superiority must be left behind; this is their country, and it\u2019s essential take into account how Turks understand the history and heritage of where they live when working there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I hope to continue my archaeological studies and field work, but the reflections and experiences I\u2019ve had as a visitor to Turkey this summer aren\u2019t just applicable to a potential career in archaeology &#8211; they extend far beyond in their impact and value.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This summer, I spent a month working at the site of Antiochia ad Cragum alongside excavators from other American universities and from Turkey. When the location of our dig site came up in conversations with my family and friends before leaving, more often than not I got a wince and some comment about how we\u2019d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5445,"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-3585","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-VP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3585","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\/5445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3586,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3585\/revisions\/3586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/antiochia2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}