The Real Stuff

Just a quick photo update to match some of the stories that I brushed through in the last post.

Exploring the churches in the caves of Ilhara Valley

The cave frescoes are incredible. Some of them were horribly marred by graffiti.

Cave Hotel in Cappadocia!

Early Christian church with red painting decorations

Pots grow on trees in Cappadocia

Watching a master potter at work at a pottery factory

A real archaeologist! Catalhuyuk.

View more pictures from the Village here, and from Cappadocia here. 

After all these crazy adventures we are finally settling down for a little bit. For the next two weeks our class will be digging into a site in Gazipaca. The site is called Antiochia ad Cragum and is run by a professor at the University of Nebraska. We are adding a number of students to our group, including people from University of Nebraska and Clark University. They range from undergrads to PhD candidates to professors. Tomorrow morning we start at 5:30 am and will work until 1 pm with a few breaks. That'll be the schedule for the weekdays. Luckily our weekends and evenings are free. We were invited back to the village for a wedding this weekend. My fingers are crossed. It isn't every day that you are invited to a HUGE (500+ invitations sent out) traditional Turkish wedding in a rural village.

These past few weeks have been so much fun. We've been running around pretending to be "real" archaeologists, when in actuality we were basically college versions of little children playing in a playground. Unfortunately climbing up hills and crawling through caves isn't the daily life of an archaeologist. Over the next two weeks we'll get a taste of what the real stuff is like. It should be interesting. The weather here is hot and humid, unlike any of the other places in Turkey we've visited so far. The heat and dirt and long hours are going to be another adventure to say the least. Before tomorrow morning I have to finish writing my midterm... Some habits never die, even in Turkey.

The beach is 20 minutes away from me for the next 2 weeks. Check out the wipe out over the pink bucket.