Timmy in Turkey [and other random countries]: Grown-up sandboxes

Archaeology is called a destructive science. Yukiko talked about it on the first day of class as we sat on the upper floor of a restaurant in Istanbul, but it didn't fully register in my head. I made a mental note of it and glossed over the term. My first day of digging, I was horribly nervous.

Early morning tour.

We started our first day at the 5:30 call. I tried to set my phone as an alarm, but that failed and I ended up being one of the last ones on the bus. After our breakfast Rhys, one of the directors, led us on a tour of the site.

Blocks from the temple

Antiochia ad Cragum is the site of a third century Imperial temple in ancient Rough Cilica. The two directors believe that the site was used by Cilician pirates, Romans, and later the Byzantines. We got to see various parts of the roughly 5.5 square mile site including the gymnasium and a columnated street lined with structures that they believe are shops. The main project of the site right now is to figure out a way to reconstruct the Greek temple. Our session consists of a variety of students from engineers to classic majors.

Josh saves us from a scorpion.

I ws assigned to trench 009 with Jeremy, a rising junior from UC Berkeley. Neither of us really had any idea of what to do, and our instructions weren’t entirely clear. Basically we were handed a bucket of tools and a clipboard for notes with forms for different loci and told to go. Luckily Yukiko helped in guiding us through different parts. When we started digging we were so nervous. Moving dirt is one thing, but it takes on a whole new meaning when you are trying not to break pottery pieces or dirt clumps and trying to distinguish which rock pieces are important sherds and which are just rocks. Also trying to maintain a straight profile and watch out for mortar and all different sings that we didn’t even know about. Luckily Yukiko was able to show us the ropes and made us feel about digging away without being horribly careful. She told us about times she’s dug through pits and things without realizing what she was digging through. She gave us a few tips and since day one we’ve gotten a lot better at things. We don’t freak out every time a rock falls out of place and our trench stays clean, well brushed, and semi-leveled.


I got a lesson on Survey Archaeology and used the outdated gizmo to help measure elevation for a topographical map.

Our pottery jug handle

As far as artifacts go, we’ve only uncovered a few important things: a coin from the Byzantine era and a jug handle. We've stumbled on a lot of roof tiles and random pottery sherds, but so far we've just moved a lot of dirt. Yukiko is really good at helping us identify different soil levels, and we are trying to piece together how the erosion and tumble came about by looking at how the layers of soil are stacked and start and stop at different places.

Coin!

This week has been a great introduction into Archaeology and I can't believe that we only have a week and a day left. The work is exhausting, but so rewarding when you come across something. At the top of the temple, a few other students are working on uncovering a burial. The engineering team also brought a burrowscope and starting digging in with it to try and fault a vault that they believe is under the temple.