As Sundays are our days off at the project I had the privilege of spending yesterday touring Hattusa the ancient Hittite capital. The Hittites were a people who, at their zenith, ruled most of Anatolia and controlled lands stretching South and East to border with Egypt's New Kingdom. The city itself is immense covering a wide area high in the mountains overlooking the fertile plain below. The site is very interesting with a great temple, large rock shrine and impressive if ineffective defensive structures.
I was somewhat disappointed with te extent of the tour and look forward to returning there sometime in August and making an entire day of it. As I am returning it was easy to turn down the proffered wares of the many merchants sited there selling stone carvings of Hittite reliefs and symbols, though others in my group bartered with them for these pieces one of the team who had been here lsat year endured a steady stream of abuse having paid full price (75 Lira) for a carving while one member of the team this year purchased one of similar size and quality for twenty Lira, he did not even try this year.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Remember That Time in Turkey?...
While in Cappadocia last weekend I and the rest of my group visited something called a Hamam a Turkish bath. These bathes are descendants of Roman bathes and visiting one was one of the highlights of my trip so far. The basic premise of the Bath is that you disrobe and then cover yourself with a specific kind of towel (which has a name in Turkish but i cannot recall it) and then enter a very hot room and lay down on very hot marble floors, puring cold water on yourself when you get too hot, there is also a sauna adjacent to said room the wall of which is so hot I'm fairly sure it hissed when i pressed my back against it. After you have sweated enough in this room and your skin has sufficiently softened you sit and wait for one of the attendants to call you on, he slaps you quite hard on the back (I do not know why but he did it to everyone) then washes you quite thoroughly ( I was amazed at the amount of filth he removed, though working in feilds for six hours a day every day may have had something to do with that) and then massages you before throwing startlingly cold water at you and sending you off to change and luxuriate in the sensation of being utterly absolutely clean. After a short tea service we were done, and I must say it is one of the highlights of my trip so far.
Cappadocia and the Surronding Environs
Last weekend all of the fields walkers and a few of the team leaders took a trip to Cappadocia, this is an area of Eastern Central Turkey famed for its landscape (if you have seen a postcard of Turkey and it does not have Istanbul on it, it probably shows Cappadocia). The area is a large plain surrounded by volcanoes which erupted some time ago and covered the entire area with a layer of volcanic rock called tufa, this rock is amazingly soft so when people began to inhabit the area rather than build houses above the ground they instead carved into the rock itself which had been eroded into spires and mouds and canyons by wind and water by this time. People still live in similar odings boring rooms and halls into the rock itself, they are even sold as normal homes (providing they are outside of a historical site) and you can even buy an uncarved spire and carve it yourself (something that is now added to my dream homes list). While there we visited dozens of ancient churchs carved into the rock and even an entire city beneath the surface. It went eight levels down (well eleven really but only eight were open to the public) and at some points I had to completely double over to fit myself into the sometimes small tunnels between rooms. They estimate some hundreds of people ould have lived there.
Cappadocia is also where we visited a carpet workshop and got to see how Turkish carpets are made and even to help a little (though i'm sure we were only slowing the workers down with our clumsy fingers) We were then brought into a carpet show room and given a number of drinks and then shown at least a hundred in carpets which layered the floor by the end of the session the salesman showed us everything from simple kalims to silk carpets worth around 10,000 USD. I then made the questionable decision of purchasing a carpet myself, perhaps it was the two turkish coffees I had had by then (I have taken quite a fondness to it).
On the last night in Cappadocia we went to a rather touristy dinner and a show with Whirling Dervishs performing a ceremony in the beginning and then folk-dancing followed by belly-dancing Feliz, Turkish member of our team had previously taught us a popular Turkish dance often done at weddings so when the dancers began grabbing people from the audience we fit right in. It was a fun night during which i tried both Raki, the traditional Turkish liquor which tastes something like black liquorice and Istanblue, a Turkish vodka which tastes something like Raki.
Cappadocia is also where we visited a carpet workshop and got to see how Turkish carpets are made and even to help a little (though i'm sure we were only slowing the workers down with our clumsy fingers) We were then brought into a carpet show room and given a number of drinks and then shown at least a hundred in carpets which layered the floor by the end of the session the salesman showed us everything from simple kalims to silk carpets worth around 10,000 USD. I then made the questionable decision of purchasing a carpet myself, perhaps it was the two turkish coffees I had had by then (I have taken quite a fondness to it).
On the last night in Cappadocia we went to a rather touristy dinner and a show with Whirling Dervishs performing a ceremony in the beginning and then folk-dancing followed by belly-dancing Feliz, Turkish member of our team had previously taught us a popular Turkish dance often done at weddings so when the dancers began grabbing people from the audience we fit right in. It was a fun night during which i tried both Raki, the traditional Turkish liquor which tastes something like black liquorice and Istanblue, a Turkish vodka which tastes something like Raki.
Feild Walking For the Uninitiated
Perhaps some of you have been wondering what it is exactly that I am doing here in Turkey? No? Well it is not exactly the most exciting thing in the world so I suppose I don't blame you. But anyways, what I do is something called feild walking the job is what it sounds like: walking, through fields. Simply put a bunch of people line up along the edge of a field each one 15m from the last and begin to walk at a perpendicular angle to the edge of said field. Each 15m they stop and record what they have found in that area. Fascinating is it not? This goes on for six hours from 6am until nooon when we head home for lunch and we cover, on average twenty some feilds ranging in size from fields a lone person can walk in a few minutes to fields over half a kilometer long.
The most exciting part of this is of course the artifacts that are found, these consist mostly of pottery. Pieces of pottery are called sherds (not shards, sherds) and can be of many different types the most common type is a body sherd that is a peice of the pot from any section other than the rim the base or the handle these are left on the ground unless decorated or otherwise unique as their eight would drag us down and they provide no diagnostic information anyways. Those that do provide diagnostic information, that is to say a rim base or handle are kept and brought back to base to be cleaned (With a toothbrush) weeded (some stones still manage to get by us) and marked (with a steel-tip pen) and then drawn. Lithics (stones) are also found most commonly chipped stone blades, cores from which the blades were chipped, or ground stone which was carved for use in a building. These are some of my favorite finds as the blades can be beutiful translucent stone of varying colors. An obsidian blade was found last week and casued quite a stir as the nearest source of smoky-gray obsidian is on the Western coast of Turkey some 8-hours drive West of here.
While I participate in all of the jobs above I have been selected to draw pottery along with another student, I would like to say it is because of my artistic skill but in truth I am merely competent and was trained on the first day before the pottery experts were too busy to train new people. I do enjoy it though and I have heard that the pottery expert (Top Five in the mediterranean and the est in her own field, very big in pottery circles) said that I was very good so hopefully I will have a chance to work with her again someday. When drawing I take the piece record it as faithfully as I am able and then extrapolate what the pot would have look like as much as the piece allows me to.
So that is an overly drawn out account of my job here at Mecitozu, "walking along feilds and then drawing what I find" would perhaps have sufficed but where would the fun be in that?
The most exciting part of this is of course the artifacts that are found, these consist mostly of pottery. Pieces of pottery are called sherds (not shards, sherds) and can be of many different types the most common type is a body sherd that is a peice of the pot from any section other than the rim the base or the handle these are left on the ground unless decorated or otherwise unique as their eight would drag us down and they provide no diagnostic information anyways. Those that do provide diagnostic information, that is to say a rim base or handle are kept and brought back to base to be cleaned (With a toothbrush) weeded (some stones still manage to get by us) and marked (with a steel-tip pen) and then drawn. Lithics (stones) are also found most commonly chipped stone blades, cores from which the blades were chipped, or ground stone which was carved for use in a building. These are some of my favorite finds as the blades can be beutiful translucent stone of varying colors. An obsidian blade was found last week and casued quite a stir as the nearest source of smoky-gray obsidian is on the Western coast of Turkey some 8-hours drive West of here.
While I participate in all of the jobs above I have been selected to draw pottery along with another student, I would like to say it is because of my artistic skill but in truth I am merely competent and was trained on the first day before the pottery experts were too busy to train new people. I do enjoy it though and I have heard that the pottery expert (Top Five in the mediterranean and the est in her own field, very big in pottery circles) said that I was very good so hopefully I will have a chance to work with her again someday. When drawing I take the piece record it as faithfully as I am able and then extrapolate what the pot would have look like as much as the piece allows me to.
So that is an overly drawn out account of my job here at Mecitozu, "walking along feilds and then drawing what I find" would perhaps have sufficed but where would the fun be in that?
How To Dress Like an Old Turkish Man: A Guide.
In short follow the same path as me. Upon arriving in Turkey (and after leaving the airport) I found that everything here is dirt cheap. Food, taxis, water, everything so when I noticed that many of the older men here (especially in the more rural areas) wear a certain type of hat I decided that I would purchuse one both to blend in and because they are fantastic hats. I went today to buy one and spent at least an hour in the shop chatting with the owner his son daughter and uncle (who is a policeman from Ankara) over coke which he had his son run across the street and buy. After this had finished we went upstairs and I selected a hat after another conversation of perhaps equal length with just his son and daughter i bought the hat. For 5 lira. That is about 3 dollars Canaduan and it is a fairly nice hat that I would expect to spend at least twenty on in Canada. Anyways the family that owns the shop is very nice the owner's son Omar has just finished school and now works full-time for his father whom he describes as "unique" though I think eccentric would e more colloquial and he certainly lives up to that description. We here at the project suspect that the owner (whose name unfortunatly i cannot recall) wants to marry his son off to Lizzie one of the girls on the project. We also suspected that a local man wanted to marry his daughter off to one of the males as he asked a number of them there age and seemed rather pleased to find one who was 19 (It was not me though I suppose i would fall into that category as well).
Before I leave I also intend to get a vest custom tailored for me (at the price of 30 Lira perhaps 24 Canadian) which is also a common garment for a gentlemen who is puching on in his years. So I suppose that by the time I leave I truly will dress like an old Turkish man.
Before I leave I also intend to get a vest custom tailored for me (at the price of 30 Lira perhaps 24 Canadian) which is also a common garment for a gentlemen who is puching on in his years. So I suppose that by the time I leave I truly will dress like an old Turkish man.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Chai and Other Matters
With today's instant communication cheap and fast travel and globalizing economies one would think that all of the cultures of the world would begin to confrom to one ideal. I was under the impression that this was, to one degree or another, the case before I made this trip. With McDonalds the world over and a KFC within sight of the Gaza pyramids how could I not? But I have found to my great pleasure that the culture here in Turkey is both different from my own and exceptional in its own right, despite the fact that Burger Kings dot Istanbul and Coke is available everywhere.
There are the obvious differences of course that mainly follow from Turkey being a Muslim state. Many of the women wear headresses and long dresses and mosques stand on each street corner calling the faithful to prayer five times a day. But having lived in rural Turkey for a short time I have noticed more subtle variations in the culture. First and foremost is the friendliness of the people despite the fact that I cannot speak more than a dozen words of Turkish they always stop to converese in one manner or another with me. This point was made most clear to me on my last two days in the field. My team's survey area had taken us to the very edge of the village where pepole were constantly taking an intereset in our activites children followed us through several fields and farmers always came to talk with us when we were near their homes. On one occasion yesterday we were asked in for Chai, a strong tea drunk cut with water and sugar. The man who did not speak a word of English ushered us into his yard and lay out several carpetes for us to sit on, shortly thereafter the farmer's wife (I presume) came out bearing Chai for all eight of us. She began to pour hot water into one glass, swirled it about and then poured it from that glass into the next until all of them had been rinsed then she filled each cup half full of chai and topped them up with hot water from the larger of the two huge teapots she carried stacked one atop the other. I thought it was very kind of them to treat us so, there were even biscuits on the tea trays, but then they began to bring out the food: a great platter of bread, then a bowl of goat cheese and one of parsley or perhaps cilantro to go on the cheese then a delicious sweet bread and then a bowl of fresh picked apricots and sweet peppers, all from their own garden. We sat there for an hour and a half eatting and trying out best to converse with the man and his wife who were soon joined by several older men and women as well as their daughter (once again an assumption).
Today in the feild we were asked in for chai several times but had to refuse as politly as we could ecause of the amount of work we had yet to do. Even after our refusals the farmers brought out some food for us. One gave us a bucket of the most delicious raspberries any of us had ever had and another gave us a bag of some small plum like fruit which I could not identify ut happily eat three of.
The differences in my own culture and the one here go on and on of course varying from things like erratic and sometimes nervewracking driving to the call to prayer echoing from the nearby mosque each morning and listing them all would take far longer than I am willing to spend, but it is a great comfort to know that in this modern world some cultural distinctions still exist.
There are the obvious differences of course that mainly follow from Turkey being a Muslim state. Many of the women wear headresses and long dresses and mosques stand on each street corner calling the faithful to prayer five times a day. But having lived in rural Turkey for a short time I have noticed more subtle variations in the culture. First and foremost is the friendliness of the people despite the fact that I cannot speak more than a dozen words of Turkish they always stop to converese in one manner or another with me. This point was made most clear to me on my last two days in the field. My team's survey area had taken us to the very edge of the village where pepole were constantly taking an intereset in our activites children followed us through several fields and farmers always came to talk with us when we were near their homes. On one occasion yesterday we were asked in for Chai, a strong tea drunk cut with water and sugar. The man who did not speak a word of English ushered us into his yard and lay out several carpetes for us to sit on, shortly thereafter the farmer's wife (I presume) came out bearing Chai for all eight of us. She began to pour hot water into one glass, swirled it about and then poured it from that glass into the next until all of them had been rinsed then she filled each cup half full of chai and topped them up with hot water from the larger of the two huge teapots she carried stacked one atop the other. I thought it was very kind of them to treat us so, there were even biscuits on the tea trays, but then they began to bring out the food: a great platter of bread, then a bowl of goat cheese and one of parsley or perhaps cilantro to go on the cheese then a delicious sweet bread and then a bowl of fresh picked apricots and sweet peppers, all from their own garden. We sat there for an hour and a half eatting and trying out best to converse with the man and his wife who were soon joined by several older men and women as well as their daughter (once again an assumption).
Today in the feild we were asked in for chai several times but had to refuse as politly as we could ecause of the amount of work we had yet to do. Even after our refusals the farmers brought out some food for us. One gave us a bucket of the most delicious raspberries any of us had ever had and another gave us a bag of some small plum like fruit which I could not identify ut happily eat three of.
The differences in my own culture and the one here go on and on of course varying from things like erratic and sometimes nervewracking driving to the call to prayer echoing from the nearby mosque each morning and listing them all would take far longer than I am willing to spend, but it is a great comfort to know that in this modern world some cultural distinctions still exist.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Connection
Well we finally got the internet working here at the project headquarters so I am able to update. I have not been doing a great deal of work the past couple of days, mostly cards and clue, in French which makes it twice as awesome (and Clue is pretty awesome to begin with). Today was our first day of field walking but we got rained out before too long so all I found was a roof tile. The project headquarters is a great place to stay the food is fantastic and regular and the accomadations are comfortable if simple.
The town is very interesintg there are a number of old Ottoman buildings and a large Byzantine greek inscription in the town square. The people are very friendly and try to be helpful even with the presence of a significant language barrier. Everyone in town is interested in the project and we attract attention no matter where we go, children especially are interested in us and they often drop by the headquarters in the evening to play sports. A child no older than eight schooled me at basketball and I have not even tried to join in the games of football.
The culture shock is not overwhelming but it is very noticable the mosques of the town issue the call to prayer five times a day summoning all of the local faithful to prayers.
The bus system is as good as had been led to believe, we were given ice cream on the bus before it had even left and the service was reminicint of an airplane. Speacking of which the plane rides to Frankfurt and subsequently Ankara were confortable and even omewhat luxerious with hot towels and free drinks, i was even bumped up to first class for the trip from Frankfurt to Ankara because i and an American were made to wait in line for an hour or so before being helped. After striking up a conversation with him i discovered that he too was traveling to Turkey on an archeaological project somewhat East of our own and pleasently spent a plae ride with him and one of his colleagues discussing our respective programs. I would love to relate some more detailed stories but as the computer is shared they will have to wait for later.
P.S. I did not have any jetlag, told you so.
The town is very interesintg there are a number of old Ottoman buildings and a large Byzantine greek inscription in the town square. The people are very friendly and try to be helpful even with the presence of a significant language barrier. Everyone in town is interested in the project and we attract attention no matter where we go, children especially are interested in us and they often drop by the headquarters in the evening to play sports. A child no older than eight schooled me at basketball and I have not even tried to join in the games of football.
The culture shock is not overwhelming but it is very noticable the mosques of the town issue the call to prayer five times a day summoning all of the local faithful to prayers.
The bus system is as good as had been led to believe, we were given ice cream on the bus before it had even left and the service was reminicint of an airplane. Speacking of which the plane rides to Frankfurt and subsequently Ankara were confortable and even omewhat luxerious with hot towels and free drinks, i was even bumped up to first class for the trip from Frankfurt to Ankara because i and an American were made to wait in line for an hour or so before being helped. After striking up a conversation with him i discovered that he too was traveling to Turkey on an archeaological project somewhat East of our own and pleasently spent a plae ride with him and one of his colleagues discussing our respective programs. I would love to relate some more detailed stories but as the computer is shared they will have to wait for later.
P.S. I did not have any jetlag, told you so.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
And Whither Then?
It is the morning of my flight to Ankara and this is the last dawn I will see in Canada for two months I have packed my somewhat ridiculous looking backpack with everything I think that I will need over those two months and have left behind no less than seven objects which I will quickly find obligatory and have taken no less than eleven which I will never remove from my backpack. Nonetheless I am near as ready as I will ever be to go, I'm sure that I will miss Calgary and Canada when I have gone but right now it is hard to think of anything other than my trip. Some of that may be because it seems to be the only thing I have talked about for the last two months whether from everyone else forcing the subject or my own obsession with it every conversation I have seems to lean in that direction and I'm sure that for some time after my trip it is all I will talk about for quite some time.Perhaps my favorite part of the trip is tha fact that for the second month I have no idea what city or even what country I will be in. The first month I will be in Ankara Avkat and surrounding locales but whither then? I cannot say.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
There and Not Quite Back Again
So Hello... This blog is made to document my trip to Turkey I will leave on the 8th of July 2009 and return to Toronto on the 4th of September 2009. I will not have access to the internet continueslly thoughout my trip but Iw ill update this as often as I can.
I leave for Ankara Turkey tomorrow at 1:05 PM and fly for twenty-one hours (including the layover in Frankfurt) thus I will arrive at 3:00 AM Turkish time. As I arrive two days before most of the students do I will be arriving shortly before John Haldon (An Archaeology prof. from Princeton) so I will wait for two more hours at the airport and meet him then head to the British Institute at Ankara's Hostel a short distance away and stay there for two nights.
So... yeah hanging out with a Princeton Professor who is the head of the project I am working on will be nerve wracking to say the least. And the absurdly long flight will not help my already inept social skills.
For the flight I got a book of Zombie short stories with one written by Neil Gaimen!
I leave for Ankara Turkey tomorrow at 1:05 PM and fly for twenty-one hours (including the layover in Frankfurt) thus I will arrive at 3:00 AM Turkish time. As I arrive two days before most of the students do I will be arriving shortly before John Haldon (An Archaeology prof. from Princeton) so I will wait for two more hours at the airport and meet him then head to the British Institute at Ankara's Hostel a short distance away and stay there for two nights.
So... yeah hanging out with a Princeton Professor who is the head of the project I am working on will be nerve wracking to say the least. And the absurdly long flight will not help my already inept social skills.
For the flight I got a book of Zombie short stories with one written by Neil Gaimen!
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