The Baklava Battle

Overall things are going well at the site. I am making decent progress in my trench and have been told by my supervisors that I'm doing a good job. The area isn't too complicated yet. I have a wall, which we removed this week to get to a lower level, and now I have another wall which I started work on today. Both of my walls are made of mudbrick with stone foundations, at least the one. The rest of my trench is fairly blah because I am working through layers of fill (dirt) before I get to levels where actual activities took place.

I have been getting along well with my workers and am improving my Turkish daily. Things were going well until yesterday where there was an incident concerning baklava. I basically said all of my workers couldn't stop working at once to eat baklava (it was to celebrate the birth of one of their nephews), but that they could take turns eating it. They had a break an hour earlier and I didn't want them to stop working. There is a little more to it, but that's the situation in a nutshell. It set off a storm of anger and my workers stopped talking to me for the rest of the day. I apologized at the end of the day for the misunderstanding and they said it was fine, but only one worker talked to me the entire day today.

Things have been stressful in the trench for other reasons too. I was given a new assistant who is Turkish. Things were pretty good the first day. His translations were helpful and we got a lot of work done. That was the highlight of his work career though. He has overslept twice in four days and shows up an hour+ late to the site. He also talks a lot, which slows work down and he doesn't do anything unless I ask him to. Between him and my young workers (4 are 21 or younger), I am essentially babysitting the entire day. Alas. Luckily there is only one day left this week and then I am free. Hopefully this weekend will give them some time to relax.

On a high note, I had a great time this past weekend. I went into Antakya with some of the Turkish folks and we walked around for the entire day. We started off by going to the Antakya Museum which has some amazing mosaics! Wow! The color and detail of these were phenomenal! While these were the highlights, there were some other interesting pieces and some cool things from our site on display as well.

While in the city, we walked around the bazaar, some of the old city with amazing architecture, and some various religious structures. We had kofte wraps (seasoned meat) for lunch and kunefe, a very sweet dessert made with cheese, sugar, and a shredded wheat-like subsistence topped with ice cream, for a snack. It was really great to get out of the compound; I was starting to pace like a lion daily. I've loaded some photos of the day on Facebook, so check them out! (Also, I've updated photos from my life at the site -- see previous blog entry for link).

Even though things have been a bit rough this week, I am still really happy to be here. There are a lot of interesting personalities and various ages at the site/dighouse which keeps things fresh daily. I'll try to write again soon. I'm likely going to a few other archaeological sites this weekend, so I'll have more photos soon! :)

Life as a Square...

Made it to my site without trouble. The 14 hour bus ride was not very enjoyable (a baby cried most of the way, we were stopped in the middle of the night by the Jandarma = military police, had a little girl throw up behind me for several hours, etc.). When I arrived at the bus station, I called my site director, Murat, and he came to pick me up.

Currently, I am living in the dig "compound" as it is called. Wow! So comfortable compared to the last time I was in Turkey! We have several buildings inside a security fence including the dorms, conservation rooms, work rooms, etc. Quite posh! The highlight of all of this though is the fact that we have western toilets! I almost jumped up and down with delight when I saw these glorious features. I was sharing a room with two other girls, but there was a bed shortage so I volunteered to sleep up on the roof (something I'd been asking my director if I could do for a while because my room was so hot I was only sleeping a few hours a night).

There are a fair number of people here. Majority are grad students and specialists, but there are a few undergrads too. It is really enjoyable to be with an older bunch on an excavation as opposed to being with inexperienced groups as I have done in the past. Everyone here is pretty nice, so that's not an issue. A lot of the girls here talk non-stop, so I have been preferring to hang out with one of the Turkish archaeologists and an Italian one who are both about my age. As a result of this, not only is my Turkish improving, but my Italian as well!

I can't believe how much Turkish I know already. Completely mind-blowing how quickly the brain adjusts when it is needed. My workers have taught me a lot too, which is also helpful. Speaking of working in the field...

I was made the supervisor of a trench! Normally they are square in shape, but the area I'm working in is a bit strange, so we had to readjust it to be 6x10 instead of 8x8. There are a lot of responsibilities and a lot of material to keep track of, but I feel like I'm doing alright with it. I even have my own assistant, actually, I will have two soon, plus five local Turkish workers. My workers are great! Most are pretty young, so they are pretty talkative and like to joke with me when I can understand or find someone to translate my answers back to them, haha! Even with the language barrier and my uncertainty in what I'm doing, life in my square is going pretty well!

We celebrated the 4th of July last night since we have to work Sunday morning. MmmMmm good! We BBQ'ed on the grill, had chips, watermelon, different types of meat, and plenty of vodka with juice, haha! The night was really relaxing and it has been great having Saturday off to do nothing. I slept on the roof for the first time last night too --- so much better! We have been having strong winds lately too, so it stayed really cool.

Alright, enough of my blathering for now. Here is a link to my photos. There aren't too many yet, but I'll try to get some of the compound and some more of the site as work continues.