Real-Time Archaeology

Last Field Day

2009-06-26T00:02:00.002-05:00

Three days ago we spent our last day in the field. During the few days students will finish their photo journals, written journals, and GIS projects while staff write final season reports. Despite the loss of my luggage, two broken cell phones, a broken GPS unit, and an interesting geomorphologist I have had an excellent season. My competence in ArcGIS continues to grow and we collected a nice assemblage of Eastern Terra Sigillata pottery. Below I have posted a few pictures from our second annual soccer game against the kids of Guzelyayla. Like last year there was a sizeable turnout and like last year we lost but the game was much closer 10-7. Despite scoring 4 goals (5 if you count the one I scored on our own goal) and I did not almost cut my finger off (like last year), I still hate soccer! Note the wonderful gravel playing field, the random cars and tractor parked on the field, and the nice crowd. Thanks to everyone for a great season and see you next year.

The Karatepe of Azatiwatas by Kirstie Hudson

2009-06-22T03:14:00.007-05:00

After a long ride in the car with many stops at sites along the way we finally reached the site I’d read so much about but had done such poor justice to when I’d given my presentation Thursday. The road wound along beside the lake created by the damming of the Ceyhan River. I watched the forest go by listening to awesome dance music courtesy of our driver Mehmet. As we drove farther off the main road a castle appeared on the mountaintop a few miles from the road. The country grew more ruggedly beautiful as the journey went on and soon we reached a sign for the museum. We hurried because they were keeping it open for us and so we piled out and headed off along the trail.

There is nothing more amazing than seeing a site you’ve read about in person. There was no longer any question in my mind about whether or not I was going to be an archaeologist. Seeing what Professor, Doctor Halet Çambel had accomplished here was inspiring. The fortifications of the southern gate came into view and I thought if I breathed it would disappear. I felt a tingle run up my spine upon seeing the ancient words carved into the Orthostats that had been painstakingly reconstructed from scattered, badly damaged fragments. I reached out and traced one of the hieroglyphs. I had never been able to put the pictures from books into perspective, but being able to trace the words of a human being that had lived and worked nearly 2700 years before my time left me with many questions that have yet to be answered.

Moving on I saw my first Phoenician inscription carved into the statue of the Storm God. The thoughts racing through my mind were and still are difficult to express. The Phoenician was more human that the Luwian hieroglyphs and so clearly made for efficiency that I was left with a sensation of pride. Pride in the knowledge that these primarily commercial seafarers had, with these elegant carvings, helped breath life into the writing system I use today.

Progressing quickly we rushed on to the Northern Gate. There was deep sadness in me because I knew we had to hurry and I would likely miss some of the most amazing parts of the site. Walking down a steep path that wound down toward the Northern Gate I began attempting to reconstruct the fortress in my mind. Trying to picture people and buildings, ancient streets and livelihoods gone with only their foundations, pottery and inscriptions to mark their existence. This footprint of humanity had lain untouched for nearly 2500 years and now, I could see it in my mind as the Northern Gate came into view.

Here were the best preserved orthostats with the sphinxes and lions that guarded them. Carvings of Egyptian Bes and obvious Persian symbols mingled with traditional Hittite art to create a beautiful fusion. I stood gazing at them for a time, camera held limply in one hand, forgotten in my racing thoughts. I jolted back to reality as I remembered how little time we had here. I had friends take pictures of me with some of the orthostats and the lions that guarded the entrance. I marveled at the nearly perfect carvings and finally at the maybe 2 meter high walls that were the remains of what had been fortifications. Restored by the excavators they stood as tribute to what men could do when they used their minds to better their lives.
We headed down the trail back toward the museum and I paused to look back at the gate standing serenely in the forest as it had for countless centuries. Light slanted through the trees casting even light across the gate allowing me a glimpse of history I’d never experienced before. In that moment I realized how different reality was from what you read in a book. Reality was so much better.
Hurrying down the trail I caught up with the group and asked them to take a picture of me walking down the forest trail alone.

“and even in those places which were formerly feared,
where a man fears to walk the road,
so in my days a woman walks alone with her spindles.”
- from the Inscription of Azatiwatas at Karatepe

Info on me
Name: Kirstie Hudson
Major: Classics and Ancient Mediterranean studies, potential double with Information Science and Technology
Year: Rising Sophomore
Age: 19 on July 6th.

First post

2009-06-16T03:45:00.000-05:00

Hi all,
My name is Ben and I'm having a good time in Turkey. I'm a rising senior at PSU majoring in CAMS and Religious Studies. This is my first field work in archaeology and my first time in Anatolia. My classmates and instructors are a pleasure to work with and I have much to update my family and friends on back in the States. So far we have intensely surveyed two sites and visited many others. Otherwise, we are worked like slaves (just kidding, kind of). Either way the weather is wonderful and the early wake-ups have established an edifying regimen. Hopefully the good habits I am picking up here will translate back home, if I return alive. Tomorrow we will be heading to Nimrud Dag (spelled in a plethora of ways), and it should be an exciting time despite the 12 hour round-trip bus ride. A few of our finds have been of some significance but otherwise a good amount of my classmates enjoy collecting amorphous rocks instead of sherds so that we may all scrub and discard of them (haha). Oh, and we've found a bunch of turtles, packs of wild dogs, feral cats (as many as squirrels are numbered in State College), snakes, lizards, and various spiders. Until next time...

Nemrut Dag

2009-06-15T11:39:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we spent the day at Nemrut Dag. Nemrut Dag is one of my favorite archaeological sites. Built by Antiochus I Commagene during the first century B.C., the site sits atop Mount Nemrut. The monument served as a place of worship for Antiochus and a series of both western and eastern deities. The sites consists of a large tumulus, eastern and western terraces, and a large fire altar. Simply amazing! P.S. Sorry about the beard, going on 12 days without my bag!

Ancient Alexandria (Iskenderun) and GIS

2009-06-12T10:15:00.001-05:00

One of the primary goals of the 2009 Mopsos field season is to create topographic maps for a series of archaeological sites discovered during previous field seasons. Most of the sites are mapped by taking several hundred points with a Total Station and uploading the data into ArcGIS to create the map. The ancient city of Alexandria in modern Iskenderun must be mapped but modern development and urban sprawl have made Total Station mapping impossible. One of my tasks this year is to rectify a series of municipal maps to a Quickbird satellite image and digitize all the modern roads and contour lines of the ancient city. I have rectified all the municipal maps, digitized the roads, and, along with a student volunteer, have began the digitization of the contour lines. The whole process will take some time but in the end we will have a nice accurate map of ancient Alexandria.

Intro ashley style

2009-06-10T13:42:00.000-05:00

HELLO BLOGGERS!!! Or blog readers I never know who reads blogs, let alone what the reader wants to be called. You know you can never be too carful with those blogger types. Hey my name is Ashley Singletary, I will be a sophomore archaeological science /African American studies major next fall semester. I am here in turkey for Dr. Killebrew’s landscape archaeology Course as well as Dr. Hritz’s GIS course (for those who don’t know GIS= Geographic Information Systems). The Turkey landscape is amazing too bad I don’t know a lick of Turkish. I know I know before anyone says anything I’m learning little words here and there. Hopefully when I’m home I can continue learning the language, and come back fully charged and ready to rumble. Now that all of that introduction/small talk stuff is out of the way let’s talk about surveying. It’s not bad I could do without the waking up at 4 o’clock though. But being out in the field, looking through the sites, I feel like such a dork for saying this but hey I love it. The people here on the survey team are totally wicked. Because of all the recent happening in the fields the 4 girls in the group have already given each other nicknames. I’m sure the rest of the group will later introduce themselves, but just for the time being …. Nicole Tan is Thorns since she walked through a whole bush of them the other day. Tumbles is Kirstie Hudson self explanatory, Abby is the Navigator, I’m Black Arrow, and Joe is Gump as in Forest Gump, Chris and Ben didn’t get any names yet so I will keep you posted. Lately the group has been encountering the wildlife in the area by this I mean moths, turtles in the field, and now spiders! Yup I said it BIG ASS SPIDERS! Ask Brando aka Brandon he just had one in his bathroom! I will keep you guys posted on every fall, joke, and hilarious/historically moment. Peace

Hello!

2009-06-10T13:32:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! Hello from Turkey!! We’ve been here for one week and five days, and it’s been amazing so far.

My name is Nicole Tan, and I’m (going to be) a junior at Penn State University, studying Archaeological Sciences and Sociology. I heard about the study abroad to Turkey program way back in the first semester of my freshman year, when I took my freshman seminar with Dr. Killebrew. I couldn’t go that summer, but when I heard about it again last fall, I jumped on board!

For the past week or so, we’ve been surveying at Dutlu Tarla and Dagilbaz Höyük, two related sites near Iskenderun. We’ve been doing random samples of 10 meter squares and working on taking points with a total station in order to create a topographic map of both sites. One of the most exciting finds so far has been pottery slag at Dutlu Tarla, meaning they were making pottery at that site, and an Iron Age potsherd from the top of Dagilbaz.

I’m not going to talk about the total station. Suffice it to say that we made an offering to the god of technology two nights ago, and we’ll go from there.

So, I was working on washing pottery out on the balcony earlier. All the pottery we collect from the survey squares has to be soaked, washed, sorted, read, and either discarded or properly documented. Anyway, someone decided to collect a shoe along with the pottery from one square. When I find out who that was…

Right now a few of us are sitting in the classroom and talking about nicknames. I’m Thorns. :P

Well, nice chatting! If you’re my mom, dad, brother, sister, friend, or boyfriend, just wanted to let you know I miss you, but I’m going to bring back great pictures!

Still No Luggage

2009-06-07T05:00:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately when I flew from Cyprus to Athens, Istanbul, and then Hatay my bag was lost along the way. At the Hatay airport I was assured by the baggage claim person that my luggage would arrive in Hatay at 5:00 pm the next day. After a follow-up phone call, I was told that it did not make that flight but would be on the 12:00 am flight. Now I just heard that they have no idea when or if it will arrive. Although it is a little annoying being without clothes, bathroom essentials, and various electrical (GPS and camera) cords, I really wish I could go out in the field. A pair of shorts, a dirty t-shirt, and sandals are not the ideal attire for survey in Turkey. So for the last few days I have been rectifying maps and writing up the GIS final. I sure hope that bag comes soon.

Welcome

2009-06-06T04:40:00.001-05:00

Welcome everyone to the 2009 season of the Mopsos Survey Project. My name is Brandon Olson. I am a PhD candidate at Penn State University and this is my second year with the Mopsos Survey. We will have several blog contributors this year offering perspectives and thoughts from their experiences during the field season. Enjoy!

Turkey Recruitment Flyer

2008-10-08T11:25:00.000-05:00

Mopsos Survey Project 2009

2008-09-26T13:12:00.001-05:00

The dates for the Mopsos Survey have been finalized (May 28-June 25th). I have been asked to help with recruitment for next year. For anyone who may be interested please visit the Penn State study abroad website for Turkey at: http://www.outreach.psu.edu/summerabroad/study-turkey/ The project offers several courses including landscape archaeology, advanced landscape archaeology, GIS for archaeologists, and there are opportunities for independent studies. Course and project fees will be finalized soon and posted on the study abroad website. I recommend the project for anyone interested in archaeology (beginner or graduate student), GIS, or traveling. Please email me at bro118@psu.edu for any and all questions.

A Post from the Prodigal Blogger

2008-07-29T10:49:00.003-05:00

I have been incommunicado for the vast majority of this field season. That is partly due to the immense shame Brandon et al. have instilled in me by being extremely proficient bloggers. It is also due to the fact that I spent the majority of my time doing GIS work in the lab, and to be honest, we are trying to attract more readers, not bore them to tears.

However, since the end of the 2008 field season, I have been steadily making my way northwards in a zigzagging pattern to reach my flight leaving Istanbul on August 4th. I will post an entry for each new stop along the way.

The remaining members of the Mopsos Project parted ways early in the morning on June 27th in Adana. Mike, Muge and Dr. Scham left around 2:30 in the morning from the Osta Hotel and Amanda and Dr. Killebrew departed a few hours later. I woke up around 7 AM that morning to find myself alone in Turkey. Thankfully, Muge and Volkan had prepared me for making my way in a Turkish world.

My goal for that day was Konya. Most of what I could tell you about Konya is not much more than you could find on Wikipedia. I was going primarily for its proximity to Çatal Höyük--one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. Çatal Höyük, located about an hour away from Konya, is known primarily as one of the earliest cases of human sedentism and permanent architecture in the world. It is also the site where the well-known archaeologist Ian Hodder has conducted much of his work.

Konya itself is known mainly in the West as the birthplace of the Mevlevi Order of Sufic Islam (aka "whirling dervishes"). Again, Wikipedia can provide more information than I possibly could. However, I must say that I found comfort in one of the Mevlana's most famous sayings as I explored the city:

Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderer, idolater, worshiper of fire,
Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come, and come yet again.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Next up: Göreme

Mopsos Survey 2008 Comes to an End

2008-07-24T14:23:00.002-05:00

Today marked the end of the Mopsos Survey season. Students continue to frantically finish their journals and photo databases while staff enter last minute data and complete their field reports. To bring the season to a proper conclusion we had a barbeque. The basketball, football, and grilled meat marked the perfect end to a great season. For the record, however, it is never a good idea to play basketball and football with a broken rib! Below I have posted pictures of the festivities. I now let you ponder what is going on with Thad’s hand in the basketball picture. I was right there and could not figure it out. Thanks for the great season everyone, see you next year.

Last Day of Survey

2008-07-22T22:46:00.002-05:00

Today was our last survey day of the season, and our first act this morning was to survey a höyük site with a dense concentration of pottery that covered the summit and the northeastern area of the hill.I was tasked with marking the edge of the site with a GPS; I found myself walking downhill though thick lime orchards, looking (for what seemed a very long time) in vain for the edge of the site. I kept finding ceramic roof tiles, handles to vessels, even a large fragment of a pithos – tough meets classy, friends. This concentration eventually visibly thinned about 200 m northeast from the base of the hill, and came to an abrupt end in a school yard and some buildings. I also headed west, and found the site dropped off a lot sooner. We also found a number of sherds of medieval and Ottoman pottery, types we have not found a great deal of during this survey, surprisingly. These sherds have a distinctive green glaze, still attractive after hundreds of years. The local man who owns the land at the top of the höyük said that he has found many examples of this style of pottery there. We also learned today from the same man that much soil quarrying has gone on in this location. This is an agricultural practice where large amounts of soil are excavated from the area and shipped to other, less fertile areas. You can imagine what disconcerting implications this has for archaeology, especially surface survey. We got the impression that it may not have been to areas too far from the höyük site, but still, it seems that the archaeological record in the area could be quite mixed up.

We later visited a site located near the remains of a Roman aqueduct, on foothills overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the Amanus Mountains.

This site was huge; we were not able to sample nearly the entire area today, but we still found a great number of roof tiles, and also a large amount of fineware, among other ceramic remains. It was not a bad setting to wrap up the season in, either. Hasta la vista, Cilicia.

Project Slowly Winding Down

2008-07-21T04:36:00.001-05:00

Today several students stayed back from the field to work on assignments and personal projects. Jeff worked on his photo database, field journal, and GIS work on hydrography. Andrea also worked on her photo database and field journal and then marked pottery. Thad continues to work on his research paper while Juan spent the majority of the day marking pottery. I spent the day putting the final touches on my GIS project. Below I have posted the project report.

After consultation with Pete I decided to work on a GIS project in the Payas River area. Starting with the Quad maps, contour maps, Corona images, and aerial photographs I determined that the Quad maps and Corona images would be the best sources for my project. The goal of the project is to use the Quad maps and Corona images to create a survey methodology for the Payas River, the proposed location of the Battle of Issus. The best way to prove or disprove the Payas River battlefield thesis is through pedestrian survey with a well-designed methodology.

According to the classical sources the length of the Issus battlefield was 2.4 kilometers from the coast to the foot of the Amanus Mountains. Furthermore, the sources note that Alexander marched from Myiandros to the battlefield in a day and fought the next. There are three major rivers north of Myriandros and southeast of Issus, which scholars have noted as the battlefield site. If one accepts the classical narratives, the battlefield must be within a day’s walking distance from Myriandros and measure (now or in the past) 2.4 kilometers from the coast to the mountains. According to the geomorphologist the Payas River, which today measures 4 kilometers in width, measured 2.4 kilometers in antiquity and was the site for the great battle.

I began my GIS project by georeferencing the Quad maps with the Corona images. This essentially aligned the two images. I then set the Quad maps at 60% transparency so the modern development depicted on the Quad maps could be seen on the Corona images. I then created a feature class where I could draw the current coastline. With the current coastline in place I copied the line and moved it 1.6 kilometers inland so that it would represent a projected ancient coastline. Given the arbitrary nature of the ancient coastline projection I added a 200 meter buffer line on both sides. The GIS map depicts the projected ancient coastline with a buffer zone, modern coastline, modern development that would restrict certain areas to survey, and the Payas River.

Using the measuring tool I determined that the site of Myriandros is approximately 22 miles from the Payas River. The two remaining contenders are further north of the Payas River, which suggests that if the classical sources are correct and the site of Myriandros was correctly identified the Payas River appears to be the most likely site for the infamous battle. To further support the Payas River battlefield theory a survey must be conducted on both sides of the proposed ancient coastline. If the Payas River was the ancient Pinarus there should not be pre-Classical material west of the proposed ancient coastline. If there is material, however, the Payas River cannot have hosted the Battle of Issus.

Beach Day at Arsuz

2008-07-20T13:13:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we spent our free day in Arsuz. Since it was our first day off, we spent the majority of our time either at the beach or one of the many fine restaurants. There was one rule, no archaeology talk. Needless to say most of us are archaeology dorks and the rule was broken a few times. The highlight of the trip was the two tackle football games on the beach. The locals looked at us in utter disbelief but we did convince a few to play. Below I have posted a picture of our group at the wonderful beach.

A small group spent the day in the Payas area north of Iskenderun. Depending on which theory one ascribes to, the Payas River was the location of the infamous Battle of Issus. At the battle Alexander the Great routed the massive Persian army on his way through Anatolia. Our geomorphologist has written an article arguing for the Payas River as the location for the battle. Today was more of a reconnaissance day rather than archaeological survey. We observed the geology of the river system and the archaeological sites in the area. As it currently stands the distance from the coast to the foot of the Amanus Mountains by way of the Payas River is approximately 4 kilometers. According to the classical sources the width of the Issus battlefield (from the coast to the foot of the mountains by way of the Pinarus River) was 2.6 kilometers. Our geomorphologist argues that in the last 2300 years the coastline at the mouth of the Payas River receded 1.4 kilometers. Our brief observation of the current coast, however, yielded a sizeable Late Roman/Byzantine site with a visible foundation. This throws a little doubt on the argument that the Payas River was the ancient Pinarus and thus the battlefield site. One of the site directors questioned how the site could be there if the coastline receded 1.4 kilometers over the last two millennia. One would expect the late Roman site (say 600 A.D. as a conservative estimation for the coastal site) to be situated further from the coast. Below I have posted pictures of the Payas River showing the significant modern development of the Iskenderun Bay.

Stories and Legends

2008-07-17T21:35:00.000-05:00

Hello all -

Thad Olson here – your guest blogger for a day. I'm a 2nd year grad student in the history department at Penn State. This is my first archaeological experience, and one of my favorite parts of the experience has been hearing the wealth of stories and legends related to us by the people we have met. The richness of the religious and mythical landscape here is fascinating.

Many of the stories we have heard have come from old men we meet in coffee shops when we stop for breakfast. We've learned to ask if there are any old men in town who know the old stories well. We've had a lot of success with this, and thought we would share some of our favorite stories with you.

Most of the stories we've encountered have related to huyuks (earth mounds) on which we've found ancient artifacts. They often center on a treasure buried in the hill long ago, and some kind of guardian creature or being who protects the treasure. It is interesting to note that the villiagers have similar ideas about the mounds that we do – there's buried treasure to be found!

Here's a selection of the stories we've encountered thus far:

1) At Tell al-Abd, a steep high hill which contained Bronze age pottery, a local man named Nihat told us that before the time of Alexander the Great, the local people had buried precious and magical weapons in the hill. Since the weapons were buried, a giant has protected the hill and the weapons as a guardian spirit.
2) At UcGulluk, a small hill near town which contained Bronze Age through Roman material, Nihat told us that a magical rooster guards the hill. He believes the rooster may be guarding a treasure. The magical rooster used to crow about 4AM, but it has not been seen for about 20 years. Many of the older people in town claim to have seen the rooster prior to 20 years ago.
3) Near UcGulluk, Nihat and another villiager Sezai lead us to a small stream, which they believe has healing powers. The spring has been mostly covered with dirt by the villiagers, as its water is not good for the olive trees growing nearby. Nihat and Sezai believe the spring cures skin diseases.
4) Nihat also pointed out another hill near the sacred spring, which he says is guarded by a magic goat. Around 1000 years ago, people buried weapons on that hill, and now the goat guards the hill.
5) Another hill near UcGulluk, which we did not see, was reported by Nihat and Sezai to be guarded by a woman with the lower body of a snake.
6) In the town of Mandenli, a man named Ali showed us a classical site on a hill near town. A modern cemetary is located on the top of the hill, and many members of Ali's family were buried there. According to Ali, a magic rooster has also appeared at this site. During the lifetime of Ali's father (who died in 1990), an Imam came to sleep on the hill and try to discern the reason for its holy nature, but was unable to understand what made the site holy. In addition to the rooster, from under the tomb of Ali's uncle, a spring now moistens the ground, which Ali believes to be a miracle. At the same site, 2 years ago, a light appeared in the sky during a wedding, which Ali believes to have been a miracle.
7) In the town of Beykoyu, an 84 year old man named Çemil told us a story about a huyuk near his house, upon which we found Bronze Age pottery. A few hundred years ago, a man named Abdul found a door into the hillside with light coming out. Inside the doorway was a woman with two dogs. Slipping into the doorway, the man was able to steal a silver bowl, which was very heavy, before the woman ordered the dogs to attack. He just managed to slip out before the door slammed shut behind him. Çemil claimed to have seen this bowl himself. Some time ago, the bowl was sold to a man from a town near Iskenderun.

My own studies at Penn State have focused a lot on early Roman and Italian religious systems, and listening to the amazing stories we've encountered here have given me something of a new appreciation for early twentieth century scholars like James Frazier and W. Warde-Fowler, who tried to use then-current anthropological theories to explain the emergence of religion. Warde-Fowler in particular wrote a lot about the emergence of early Roman religion in terms of vaguely understood spirits or powers known as numen. Warde-Fowler thought about these numen as protective powers often tied to specific places, some of which eventually developed into the well-known dieties of the classical Roman pantheon. The stories we are hearing in Turkey seem like they could fit very nicely into what Warde-Fowler was saying about the development of early Roman religion. Today, most students of classical polytheism have rejected the anthropological models of religious development proposed by Warde-Fowler and his generation. There are many reasons for this, but three important ones are that 1) archaeological evidence became increasingly available which could be used to test these theories (they didn't hold up well) 2) Anglophone scholars became increasingly aware that German scholarship had long since passed them by (and in fact, had never really adopted English anthropological models) 3) It was realized that there was really no evidence at all to support the elaborate theories created by Warde-Fowler and his successors. Today, scholers such as John Scheid, Mary Beard and others are increasingly returning to the use of anthropological models to explain the emergence of Roman religion, but todays scholars are much more cautious in their approach and much less speculative. I suppose all of this is a reminder to use the utmost caution in utilizing a comparative methodology in your research. On another level, though, hearing stories like these has been personally very useful as a reminder that my own preconceptions can get in the way of understanding others, both ancient and modern. And despite the fact that Warde-Fowler is today seen as quite out of style, I do think there is some insight into early religion to be gained by reflecting on these old stories from the villiages.

Ancient Kiln Site

2008-07-16T07:52:00.004-05:00

Today we surveyed around Beykelu, a little way inland from where we were yesterday. Many of the sites we visited were sites that were observed in 19^th-century travel narratives but never surveyed. The first site was a höyük that had some recent disturbance to its surface when the town dug irrigation channels. The construction resulted in many artifacts being brought up to the surface on an otherwise unplowed hilltop. The majority of our finds there were Bronze Age and Iron Age potsherds, periods which typically do not have such high artifact densities on the surface. We conducted an extensive survey of the hilltop and slopes (several of which were plowed), dividing the entire area into 7 quadrants total and bagging the finds for each quadrant separately. In my experience, many of these earlier sites have very few artifacts on the surface, and those that are on the surface tend to be worn-down body sherds that are not very helpful for dating or any other diagnostic analysis. This site, however, had an overwhelming presence of diagnostic pieces such as bases, handles, and rims, along with some decorated sherds. Other interesting finds were multiple stones that were worn down in the middle, as you can see below, indicating that they had been used as grinding stones.

Perhaps the most interesting find, however, was a few bitrified sherds, which have a yellowish sheen on their outer surface as a result of being overfired in the kiln. Now since this area of Cilicia was known in Roman times as a major center for pottery production, kiln sites have been a consideration in the back of our minds since we got here, so the discovery of these sherds was pretty exciting. In the same area we also found ceramic slag, which is overfired clay, so it definitely seems like we found an ancient kiln site on the top of this höyük.

We surveyed several other sites today as well, one of which had a huge white stone that legend says sits atop a pile of gold. It turns out this stone was part of an ancient olive press, so unless those infamous Cilician pirates and bandits buried their plunder under an old olive press, I’m not so optimistic about the veracity of this tale. For more on the olive press, you can check out Brandon Olson’s blog at http://historicalarchaeologyintheancientmediterranean.typepad.com. We met several locals who seemed very squeamish about letting us poke around too much, so our time at some of the sites was relatively brief. One of our local guides was even armed with a giant rifle, apparently for hunting wild boar in the hills and mountains.

2008-07-14T10:55:00.000-05:00

Survey continued today around the small village of Ucgulluk. We have focused on the area’s many huyuks and documented several archaeological sites. Two of the more interesting sites, from my perspective, from today were the looted tombs and a large tunnel, which probably functioned as an ancient mine. The area with the looted tombs was a sad sight. Several sarcophagi fragments, roof tiles, and pottery littered the hilltop and fields below. The disheartening part was the half a dozen looter holes dug right into the graves. Looting of archaeological sites has been an issue forever but the evidence we discovered today was all very recent. A small dirt trail was constructed across the site, which likely uncovered the tombs. Once uncovered, the looters pillaged the site.

One of the local farmers notified us of a large cave outside of the village. We were able to locate and document it. A few of us were more than happy to do a little exploring but because we did not have a flashlight we could not go too far. The walls were clearly cut but the function of the tunnel remains unclear. Below I have posted pictures of the pillaged tomb site and Mike, Andrea, and I in the cave.

Field trip to Urfa

2008-07-13T14:33:00.004-05:00

On Friday night we returned from an overnight field trip to southeastern Turkey. We left Thursday afternoon to drive to Urfa (ancient Edessa and the supposed birthplace of the prophet Abraham). The drive was about 6 hours, so we were forced to find ways to occupy ourselves. Below you will see one of our favorite bus trip pastimes – drawing on the faces of those who dared to fall asleep. Brandon started it all by drawing on Mike’s face, so then I drew on Brandon. He had no idea until we stopped at a restaurant for drinks and the waiters started laughing at him.

The restaurant was on the banks of the Euphrates River, one of the most important rivers in ancient Near Eastern history. The Euphrates, along with the Tigris River to the east, formed the borders of ancient Mesopotamia and was vital to many ancient empires, including the Babylonians and Assyrians. Several of the students decided to take a swim in the freezing waters of the Euphrates on our way east and/or on our way back, and it was incredibly refreshing in the extreme heat.

After arriving in Urfa late on Thursday night, we made a quick stop by Abraham’s Pond (below) and the Church of St. John the Baptist, as well as Urfa Castle.

We then ate dinner in one of the two restaurants in the entire city that serve alcohol since the Muslim population there tends to be quite conservative. Friday morning we ventured to the archaeological museum, which brags to hold the oldest monumental architecture in human history, a statue dating to the tenth millennium BC.

We also had the fortune to visit a rescue excavation in the old city center where they had stumbled upon a 5^th-6^th century AD structure while extending the sewer system. The complex is a huge building with many large and ornate mosaics. They uncovered one for us which depicted four Amazon queens hunting wild beasts, and the detail and precision was remarkable. We then journeyed on to a site about an hour away from the city called Gobekli Tepe, which some have suggested was the Garden of Eden. Amanda will be posting a blog with more details on this site.

We had hoped to have time after Gobekli Tepe to visit Harran, noteworthy among other things for its place along Abraham’s journey to the Promised Land and as the site of the triumvir Crassus’ murder in 53 BC. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for the extra leg of the journey and instead took an hour to wander through Urfa’s beautiful bazaar, where there were sold beautiful textiles, aromatic spices, and glistening jewelry.

We returned to Guzelyayla on Friday evening, tired and energized from more face-drawing and Euphrates-swimming adventures. It isn’t every day that you get to journey into southeastern Turkey and see archaeological sites off of the normal tourist track, so we were all very thrilled.

7-12-08 Juan Höyük, Fire, and Roman Graves

2008-07-12T07:16:00.007-05:00

Today, local villagers took us to sites they knew of in the area of Arsuz. The first site they showed us was a höyük (tel) with Roman, Hellenistic, Persian, and even Early Bronze ceramic remains lying on the surface. Much of the earlier material had been washed down from the top of the höyük, and we found most of the oldest sherds around the base of the mound. The höyük also featured a cut about 2 m high along one of its sides in which we saw large sherds in situ:

Juan was on fire today; he kept finding impressive fragments, so we named the site "Juan Höyük." Here he is beside the cut, holding up the handle to a vessel:

Juan also came close to literally being on fire - the villagers later took us to a site where natural gas is emitted from the ground, fueling a constant flame. The rock itself seems to burn:

We do not know what the lifespan of such phenomena is, but if this were burning already in ancient times, this site may have been a religous sanctuary or a ritual area, since the ancients were likely to have interpreted this fire as a divine manifestation. At least some ancient activity is attested here, from the ceramic material we collected, most of which is apparently Hellenistic.

Another site worthy of mention was an area containing Roman period graves. Apparently this site has previously been excavated, but it has since been looted and severely damaged:

Very little material would have been visible on the surface, but the looted pits still contained some remains. Here is a fragment of one of the ceramic coffins:

The bones of one of the occupants of this tomb are now exposed to the air:

The last site the villagers showed us was a natural spring, which they claimed is able to cure skin diseases. I, unfortunately lacking skin diseases, was unable to test this claim.

A Day and a Half in Eastern Turkey

2008-07-11T14:11:00.001-05:00

Yesterday at 11:00 am the Mopsos team boarded a bus for Sanliurfa. The drive was a little long, a touch over six hours each way, but we entertained ourselves. Our journey took us through the Turkish countryside and across the Euphrates River. We stopped in Beracik on the Euphrates and had Turkish tea and coffee. It took little time for Juan and I to strip of our shirts and shoes and dive right in. The water was incredibly cold but completely worth it. On the way back Jeff, Andrea, Amanda, Juan, and I all jumped in. After tea, coffee, and ice cream we boarded the bus and made it to Sanliurfa.
Despite the 125 degree heat from the previous day, we took in as many sites as possible. The first was Abraham’s Pool, which according to the Biblical tradition is the place where Abraham was saved from the Assyrian king Nimrod. Today it is a small lake with many fish. The second major site was Gobekli Tepe, which boasts the world’s oldest monumental architecture. Sandra Scham, a Mopsos Survey staff member, will be writing an article about the site in an upcoming issue of Archaeology magazine. The third and final major stop was Kapali Carsi, a large bazaar dating to the Ottoman period. The bazaar was full of locally produced goods including spices, scarves, other textiles, and various fruits and vegetables. A great time was had by all.

Off to Eastern Turkey

2008-07-10T02:21:00.000-05:00

Just a short post today. The next two days are free from survey while we take a trip to Gobekli Tepe. The site is in eastern Turkey and will entail a six-hour bus ride on way. I have been told that it is truly a once and a life-time opportunity to see the site. So I will make sure and write all about it tomorrow, provided that I have access to the Internet. In preparation for our long journey the students had a social hour last night where many pictures were taken. Below I have posted a group picture. (Bottom from left to right) Andrea Gatzke, Thad Olson, me (Brandon Olson), and Jeff Herrick. (Top from left to right) Pete van Rossum, Volkan, Amanda Iacobelli, Muge, Mike, Serene (our Turkish rep), and Juan Tebes.

Meet Jeff

2008-07-09T15:33:00.000-05:00

My name is Jeff Herrick and in the fall I will begin my second year studying Roman history in the MA/Ph.D. program in Ancient History at Penn State. I received a B.A. in History, with a minor in Classical Studies, from the University of Colorado. As an undergrad, I was wowed by the stories some of my professors told about their archaeological work in Turkey, and I have since grown more and more fascinated with the history and archaeology of Anatolia. This is my first time participating in an archaeologically expedition, and I jumped at the chance to participate in the Mopsos Landscape Archaeology Project, both for my own interest in the region, and because the Mopsos project, as an archaeological field school, is an excellent opportunity for me to both gain a firsthand understanding of archaeological theory and methodology.

The focus of the Project accords well with my specific research interests, as well, since I am focusing on the adoption of Roman culture in the Eastern provinces, and Turkey has not disappointed. Each day we find a great deal of ancient ceramic sherds: roof tiles, fragments of amphorae and pithoi (shipping and storage jars), fine wares, much of it from the Roman period, simply lying exposed on the ground, even in the locals’ backyards! It is stunning to realize that this material has simply been lying here for millenia, waiting to be picked up. When the data from this expedition is interpreted and presented in a coherent framework, it may tell us a great deal about the spread of Roman cultural practices, and the consumption of luxuries such as Italian wine. Even beyond the Roman material, today I found a sherd of pottery with a painted geometric design indicating that it probably dates to the Iron Age. Turkey is amazing.

Meet Andrea

2008-07-08T12:24:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. My name is Andrea and I am one of the novice members of this years Mopsos team. I just finished my second year at Penn State, completing my M.A. work right before leaving for this survey. My interests are Roman social history, particularly in the late Republic and Augustan period, and I am hoping to focus on Anatolia (Turkey) in my research, though which region precisely is still up for debate. That is a big reason why I am here this summer – to get an understanding of Anatolia, its geography, its culture, its environment, everything. It has been great over the last 10 days or so to see this area that I have read so much about and understand where the authors were coming from. My other main reason for participating in this survey of the Cilician plain is so that I may gain a better understanding of archaeology – how it works, how to interpret it, how I can use it – for my own research. I am primarily a historian and have very little archaeological background, but I fully recognize the important role that archaeology has in the understanding of ancient history. While there are some questions better answered by texts, other questions are more easily answered through the archaeological record, and I want to be able to access both sides of that historical coin. Before coming here my only archaeological experience was excavating for a week at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center near Cortez, CO, so this is my first field survey and my first archaeological work in the Mediterranean. I will try to keep you all posted on my experiences here as a first-time surveyor. For now, I will tell you that I am gradually gaining a better eye for the types of pottery pieces that we want to collect for analysis (rims, handles, bases, painted sherds, etc.). So far my most exciting finds have been several pieces of mosaic, a piece of an oil lamp, a glass base, and the survey’s first coin (never mind that it dates to 1964...). I will update you again in a few days, hopefully as a more experienced and knowledgeable surveyor.

Field Trip Day: Zincirli, Karatepe, Anazarbus and Hierapolis-Kastabala

2008-07-07T14:45:00.002-05:00

We left base camp this morning at 6:30 am for Zincirli, Karatepe, Anazarbus, and Kastabala and returned at 9:15 pm. Needless to say it was a long day but well worth it. Our first stop was Zincirli, a Late Bronze Age and Neolithic site in upper Cilicia. The Chicago team heading up excavations do not arrive until July 15th so there was little to see at the site.

The next stop on our journey was the late eight through ninth-century Hittite site of Karatepe. The orthostat reliefs were amazing as they depicted various motifs such as the Tree of Life, religious scenes (see picture below), animals, soldiers, boats, and many others. Jeff Herrick and I crouched down in front of a large statue of Ba’al while Juan Tebes did his best Ba’al impression (see picture below).

The last two stops were particularly interesting for the Romanists. The site of Kastabala provided great entertainment. The site itself was breath taking. The remains of a Crusader/Armenian castle, a bath, a theater, a colonnade, and several archaeological features are well preserved. When Jeff Herrick, Thad Olson, Andrea Gatzke, and I explored the theater we entered an arched hallway. I entered first and was admiring the tumble at the back when all of a sudden I spooked a bat. It flew by me and I yelled “bat.” Jeff was right behind me and Thad was behind him. Funny enough Thad had his camera ready and took a picture. We have been laughing at Jeff’s expression for the better part of six hours. Luckily my back was turned and the camera did not preserve the look on my face.

The last stop was Anazarbus. It too preserved the remains of another Crusader/Armenian castle, a bath, churches, a theater, a colonnade, an aqueduct, a fortification wall, and much more. The highlight of the trip was the difficult hike to the castle. The view down to the Roman remains was my favorite. No matter what happens the rest of the season, my Turkey trip was worthwhile based on this one day of field trips. Below I have posted pictures of an orthostat from Karatepe, Juan’s best Ba’al impression, me on top of the Kastabala castle (it was really windy), Jeff’s priceless expression, the plain of Anazarbus with Roman material, and the Anazarbus castle.

Brandon Olson: Penn State University

2008-07-06T11:37:00.000-05:00

My name is Brandon Olson and this is my first year with the Mopsos Survey. I am a PhD candidate at Penn State in the Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies program. I have been asked to oversee the operations of this blog for the 2008 season and I gladly obliged. Over the next few days other contributors will provide personal introductions where they will describe their academic interests and explain why they decided to come to Turkey this year. After the initial introductions I anticipate this blog serving, as it did last year, as a public medium where contributors can discuss issues such as the daily grind of an archaeological survey, interesting finds, personal experiences, learning experiences, and their overall interpretations and opinions of what they are doing and why. That said I would like to provide my introduction.

In 2003 I earned a Bachelor’s degree in anthropology/archaeology from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. In 2004 I earned a Master’s degree in European Historical Archaeology focusing on antiquity from the University of Sheffield in Sheffield, England. After completing the program I became interested in utilizing history within archaeology. I realized that in order to do this I required formal training in history. So in 2007 I earned a Master’s degree in history from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Now I am at Penn State studying both the history and archaeology of the Roman Empire.

I decided to participate in the Mopsos Survey to, above all, enhance my archaeological training in the eastern Mediterranean. For the last three years I have worked in southern Cyprus with the Pyla Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP). Although I have worked with four other projects in the U.S. and Britain, PKAP really provided me with the fundamental archaeological training in a Mediterranean context. I hope to utilize this training while I am in Turkey. For each field season I try to set a few goals. Since this is my first year here I have yet to have a solid research design. Therefore my two goals for this season are simple. I hope to become proficient enough in GIS (ArcGIS) to make basic maps essential for my research and become more familiar with Roman pottery forms to better prepare me for working with the material next year.

The goal of this blog now is to provide posts daily but long days, internet issues, and fatigue may cause periodic lapses. I do maintain a personal blog, which I will on occasion double publish with this one. All the material, however, will be Mopsos Survey specific. Any comments or suggestions are always welcome.

Brandon Olson

The 2008 Season Begins

2008-07-03T05:46:00.003-05:00

We are back in Guzelyalya for a second summer with some familiar and some new faces. Unfortunately, Jeff Rop decided that he could find more productive ways to become a textually oriented Classical historian than tramp through fennel-choked fields. Nevertheless, Amanda and I have returned to Hatay with our knowledge of Turkish more or less intact and our lust for bags full of ancient pottery unsated.

We hope that the posts on Real-Time Archaeology this year will be more informative and more timely. I feel confident in promising an upgrade in content delivery because we are appointing a new blog master, Brandon Olsen, a fellow Mopsos Expedition surveyor who is also a legitimate blogging pro. I will let him tell you about himself later, once Amanda and I can figure out how to get him access.

Interesting Finds Part I

2007-07-28T12:51:00.000-05:00

This season, more than fifteen new sites were discovered in the Cilician plain. Most of these probably consisted of small farmsteads, manifested archaeologically by a dense concentration of ceramic wares distributed across the modern landscape in relatively limited surface areas. Once in a while, however, we stumbled upon significantly larger sites with seemingly more functional attributes. One of these was designated Site 161. This site was located on a hill slope and covered an area of ca. two and a half hectares. The first sign of the site came when we began stumbling upon an increasing amount of pottery sherds. Recently planted olive trees had caused the earth to be disturbed and a plethora of artifacts to rise to the surface. While a number of us were getting excited about the vast amounts of handles and bases that we were finding, Dr. Killebrew stumbled upon a number of large ashlar blocks a little further down the hill. The following picture shows a few of us standing on the remains of these monumental building blocks.

Further down the hill, we discovered the remains of another monumental building. In the picture below, you can discern two perpendicular walls, probably forming the corner of a room. Nearby villagers had directed us toward this area. They claimed that there used to be a Church in this area and that they had often stumbled upon mosaic fragments.

Although we found no mosaics, we stumbled upon three large chamber tombs cut into the natural bedrock. In the picture below you can see Pete crawling into one of these.

The next picture is a great shot of Rachel, crawling into the tomb head first.

As you can tell, this was no easy feat, but we were all too excited to turn down the challenge. Each tomb was constructed in a similar way. Three niches were carved into the bedrock inside the tomb: one on each side and one at the back. The following three pictures feature these little chambers:

From left to right: Dan, Pete, Rachel and Kathleen. Nothing like spending some quality time amongst friends in an ancient tomb...

...or perhaps a romantic evening... (Dan and Amanda)

Of course, creepy crawlies are a given in this kind of environment. Witness the horror/amusement at the sight of a VERY large and multicolored spider.

Our investigations however, were not all fun and games. Most of these tombs had probably been looted and very few artifacts were found within them. In one of the tombs we came across a number of bones.
In the picture below, Rachel is holding a skull fragment in her right hand and a vertebrae fragment in her left.
Our dear Müge, the only one who could stand upright in one of our largest tombs:

In addition to these finds, several other features were encountered, including a wine press, a possible ashlar quarry, two column shafts, and a column base. Most of the pottery collected from the site seems to date from the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. This site may have consisted of a religious complex, including a Church, an administrative building, and agricultural dependencies. In my next post, I will share our discovery of an ancient canal system associated with the ancient site of Alexandretta, founded by Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE.

Cheers!

Amanda*

Termessos

2007-07-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

I wish I could tell you guys how many days ago we were in Antalya, but our trek from Hatay to Istanbul has been one gigantic whirlwind. I can recall that on our first full day in Antalya, we hired a driver to take us out to the ancient site of Termessos, of which Wikipedia provides a good summary.

Termessos is located about 30 kilometers north of Antalya in the midst of the Taurus Mountains. The site has not been systematically excavated, so the date of its earliest settlement is unclear. However, Termessos first entered the historical record in the 4th century BCE as it defied Alexander the Great, and was occuppied until its abandonment in the 5th century CE.

The picture below shows a view from the site.

We had heard that Termessos was spectacular, but there is no way to be prepared. On the trail from the parking lot to the site proper, I stopped to take a picture of this wall which was one of the oldest, most intact in situ wall I had ever seen.

Little did I know what else lay in store. The majority of this post is simply pictures of amazingly preserved structures that have survived for nearly 1500 years.

I have also included several pictures with members of our group to show the scale of some of these remains. Especially in North American archaeology, we are lucky to find the remains of post holes, and here, there are walls still several meters high.

The following pictures are from the gymnasium/bath complex of the city.

Termessos is famous for having a theater with one of the Classical world's best views. I guess I got a little carried away with it myself and forgot to get a good overall picture of the theater. However, the first picture below was taken from the back row towards the stage, with the enormous mountain towering in the background.

Another advantage Termessos has over a site like Ephesusm which is probably as equally well preserved, is that visitors can go anywhere they feel capable of. This is Amanda and Jeff sitting on the top of the wall at the back of the stage.

The scale in this next picture is difficult to discern, but this is a big passageway which runs under the theater seats to the stage.

By this time in our hike, our mistake in neglecting to bring along water started catching up with us. Fortunately, we had already seen some of the most spectacular ruins on the mountain. However, the path down to the parking lot took us through the necropolis. There were several plain sarcophagi which were passed up in exchange for quicker hydration. However, there were a few more elaborate tombs cut into the rock as pictured below.

That brings us to the end of Termessos. I think I speak for at least Jeff, Amanda, and myself in designating Termessos the most impressive site we have seen on this trip so far.

A typical afternoon in the lab

2007-07-24T11:31:00.000-05:00

When we return from the field, the artifacts we collected while surveying have to be processed for study. As you might guess, after a few hundreds or thousands of years of existence, our pottery sherds are not exactly very clean. The first order of business is therefore to clean all artifacts to facilitate the identication and conservation process. Witness two enthousiastic pottery washers in the picture below.

The artifacts are then laid out to dry in seperate baskets. Each basket of artifacts is carefully labeled according to provenience. It is extremely important to conserve this organization. Without it, archaeologists would not be able to reconstruct the context within which the artifacts were found and their historical significance. The next step is to sort the artifacts. As you may gather from the two following pictures, artifacts are laid out on a table and organized.

Before going too far, let me take a step back and devote a few lines to the wonderful world of pottery. As Jeff mentioned in his blog, pottery constitutes the great majority of our finds, and this is true of most archaeological projects. While ceramic fragments may seem banal to many, they have great value to an archaeologist. Not only can they provide a means of dating a site, they can also supply a large amount of cultural information. For example, non-local pottery can point to the existence of trade; differences in local assemblages may betray dıfferent cultural practıces; a large number of coarseware and storage container fragments scattered throughout a small area may indicate a small farmstead rather than an elite or public building. Oftentimes, the majority of finds are undiagnostic, meaning that the appearance of the sherd does not provide enough clues to make any secure judgments as to its date or function. Diagnostic sherds include decorated pieces (painted or molded), rims, handles, bases, and any unusual fragments. These are diagnostic because they often enable us to recognize what kind of vessel is being observed and to place the find within a ceramic cultural and chronological typology.

Sorting the pottery on the table is a preliminary organizational step. Sherds are sorted according to whether they are body fragments, rim fragments, decorated pieces...etc.

Once this is accomplished, the experts swoop in and catalogue which time periods seem to be represented in a site's artifact assemblage. The picture below shows our two directors on the left, Dr. Ann Killebrew and Dr. Gunnar Lehman, laboring over the finds from one of our tell sites (blogpost upcoming!).

After the pottery reading, each artifact is marked with a fine black marker. The information includes the field season number, the site or collection unit number, and the individual sherd number. This system, though tedious, prevents any future confusion as to the provenience of the artifact in question. Below is a picture of Rachel, Florence, Lauren, and Amanda (from left to right) patiently marking pottery fragments. If you don't enjoy this type of detailed work, make sure you don't tell your field director that you have good handwriting!

The penultimate stage consists of drawing selected artifacts before they are bagged and placed into storage. Since the artifacts are not allowed to leave Turkey it is important to collect as much information as possible about a season's finds in order to be be able to perform analytical work in the intervening time. Of course, drawings are also important for publication purposes.

In the next post, we will give you a taste of some of our more exciting finds. As a teaser, I will mention an all time favorite: tombs... (and yes, bones too).

Cheers!

Amanda*

A Typical Day in the Field...

2007-07-19T00:55:00.002-05:00

Starts at 4:30am, when we stumble out of bed for a small breakfast – for me, usually a cup of orange juice. We then pack our gear and our second breakfast into the vans and leave our residence at 5:00 for whichever field or hill our glorious leaders have chosen to survey that day.

By 5:15, we have hopefully arrived. The first thing we then do is bum around while our aforementioned leaders decide exactly where we are going to survey. Often we take this opportunity to sit down and catch a nice view of the Turkish countryside:

The early morning on-site meeting must take place because our aerial (well, actually satellite) photos for this region are rather out of date and the fields have changed considerably, owing mostly to a large population increase in and around Iskenderun over the last few decades. Furthermore, we never know which fields will be plowed, planted, or completely overgrown and must adjust our survey coverage accordingly. In a perfect world, the areas surveyed would be chosen according to some highly statistical and very scientific formula, but here this is rather difficult.

In any case, once the field(s) has been chosen we spread apart in preparation for our survey. Distances between walkers vary depending on the width of the field and the size of the survey team, but generally our spread is between 10 and 30 meters.

When everyone is ready, we begin to walk. Surveying is not complicated: each surveyor tries to walk in a straight line, maintaining a consistent distance from those spread to his or her left and right, all the while searching the ground nearby for (most commonly) pottery sherds, roof tiles, or other evidence of ancient human activity. The best terrain for surveying is the plowed field, although we walk through almost anything. This includes the dread fennel – if you look closely in the first picture, you can see Kathleen’s red cap.

Amanda will have a post up soon documenting some of our more impressive finds, but here are a few pictures of some discoveries thus far:

A grindstone:

A small bit of Byzantine mosaic:

When the density of sherds becomes higher than just a few scattered here and there, the team regroups and searches the area, which is called a Site according to this project’s terminology. Here, we bag the pottery found in a separate collection and record the site’s boundaries (never an exact science), among other things. Often, the former is done by forming up in a much tighter line and walking across the site, picking up as many sherds as we see while one person searches for the site perimeter. The most common type of site that we’ve found thus far is the farmstead/villa, but in our survey area we also have a few tells:

Here is Pete marking the boundaries of a farmstead site with his handy GPS. As you see, these sites leave little in the way of structural remains:

After the GPS points are taken, it’s important to take notes describing what the points actually mark:

Here is one example of a tell – note the unnatural shape of the hill, especially its flat top, and the terracing on the lower part of the slope:

Occasionally we do a preliminary pottery sorting in the field. Most of the time, we only keep what are known as diagnostic sherds. That is, handles, rims, bases, and decorated pieces which allow ceramics experts (such as our glorious leaders) to identify the time period in which they were made and used:

Here is a small portion of the pottery found over the course of one day, once it has been washed and sorted:

We pause for breakfast at 9:30, and by this point we are already tired, sweaty, dirty, and hungry, as Rachel is here:

Although the plan is for a 30 minute break, we are usually a bit slower than that. At any rate, once we have eaten we pack up and head back out into the field for another two hours. When on survey, everyone must make sure to constantly drink water in order to avoid dehydration. I myself generally drink at least 3 liters, plus whatever juice there is available at breakfast, and as a team we bring out around 24 1.5 liter bottles of water each day. We finish at noon, when the sun is out in full force and the heat is almost unbearable. After lunch at 12:30, we have a few hours for siesta and then do work in the pottery lab – but that’s the subject of a future post.

2007-07-15T09:24:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, we all piled into our trusty dolmuşes and headed east.

Our first stop was Tilman Hoyuk, a site located only a few kilometers from Zincirli which we visited a couple of days earlier.

The preservation at Tilman Hoyuk is astonishing. Below is a picture of the site as it looks today. This portion of the site has not been excavated or conserved at all, yet you can still see several stone blocks left standing in place at doorway thresholds.

Our next stop was Yesemek, on which Amanda gave a short presentation. In the past, Yesemek was a stone quarrying and stone working site. Archaeologists working there have found statues representing nearly every stage of production from extraction to near completion. The picture below shows a representative portion of the site, which was covered in half finished status of all sorts of subjects. I believe these are sphinxes.

These three statues are of ancient twin mountain gods.

The actual quarry was further up the mountain. As intrepid archaeologists we just had to go all the way to the top. The picture below shows what the ancient quarry looks like. It is not very much like our modern day quarries which can eat away entire mountains, but more of an opportunistic exploitation of readily available material. If you look closely at the rock in the center of the picture, you can see that it was left after someone had already started carving.

Finally, for your own edification, this is what Yesemek looks like from the top of the mountain. If you squint and look in the parking lot, you can see one of our vans.

Next, we stopped in the city of Kilis to look briefly at some Ottoman architecture.

Following this, we left to go to the famous ancient city of Karchemish. This site nowadays straddles the Turkey-Syrian border at an international crossing, and is inaccessible to civilians. However, when we were asking for directions in the neighboring village, we met a local man who took us to a cemetery which overlooks the site. Due to the sensitivity of the site, though, we still refrained from taking pictures. It seems like this is one site you will have to come to Turkey to see for yourselves.

When we were on the road to Karchemish, we made a pit stop at a tiny village. Out of all the things I have seen on this trip so far, the architecture in this village tops the list. It is one thing to see an illustration of a mudbrick house from millennia ago, but it is another to see an inhabited one in person.

After thirteen grueling hours of travel in a hot dolmuş, we finally arrived in Birecik. Here is a picture of the group eating kebabs on the banks of the Euphrates River.

The next day, we started with a tour of Birecik. The next several pictures are of the old city walls, some of which have been since turned into habitations.

While we were looking at these walls, we just happened to run into the one man in probably the entire province who finds old houses to turn into museums. He took us to one late Ottoman house he was currently working on refurbishing. The first picture shows the house from the outside. It is the two stories above the shop.

Its entrance is on the next street over shown below.

The next several pictures come from inside the house.

These next pictures were taken from the ruins of a fortification that overlooked the city of Birecik. This first one shows some of the remaining walls with the Euphrates flowing by in the back ground.
This is the older part of Birecik as seen from the ruins of the castle.

After Birecik, we traveled the site of ancient Seleucia, nowadays known as Zeugma. Below is a picture of most of what there is to see there. The damming of the Euphrates River just downstream from the site has caused significant portions of it to be lost beneath the waves of the new lake.
However, archaeologists did manage to execute a few salvage excavations before the waters literally washed over them. They found at Zeugma incredibly well preserved mosaics, which are now stored at Gaziantep Museum which claims to be the world’s largest mosaic museum. Below is a picture from the museum. To the left is a bronze statue of Mars which is close to life-size for a sense of scales

That is all from me for now. Look out for posts from Amanda and Jeff about the status of our survey in the field.

Antakya, Part II

2007-07-02T08:25:00.000-05:00

Hello everybody,

We have been having an amazingly busy past couple of weeks. There is so much to tell about what we have been discovering on our surveys. However, I promised a part two to our Antakya coverage. Also, since we have now moved down into the city of Iskenderun and will have more access to the internet, consider this the first step to our catching up.

I believe I left off with our visit to Tayinat and Alalakh. From those two sites, we departed for the city of Antakya (ancient Antioch). Our first stop in Antakya was St. Peter’s Cave, which supposedly housed Peter’s church during his time in the city. We managed to be there on the annual celebration of St. Peter’s birthday. It was a surprisingly small gathering, but nice. We did not know much about the celebration either before or after, but I can report hearing prayers and speeches in Turkish, Italian, and Hebrew, among others.

Below is a picture of the proceedings. The cave is located behind the constructed façade on the bottom left of the picture. Just in front of the cave is the lectern.

While Dr. Killebrew and a few others went to run errands in the city, the rest of us decided to climb the mountain above the cave. Out of all the pictures I took that day, none of them managed to actually have a full view of that particular mountain. However, below is a picture of the mountain right next door as we approached the festival.

On the way up the mountain, we came across the following carving.
The local tradition says that this is a representation of Charon, the boatman who takes the dead across the River Styx. However, in truth, it most likely is a representation of 2nd Century CE king Antiochus Epiphanes. He is actually not supposed to be the veiled figure, but is standing on that figure’s right shoulder. You can see most easily his shoulders and neck on the stone separated from the main head by a fissure or crack.

This is a picture of Antakya from the top of the mountain.

Following our hike, we headed into downtown Antakya for their mosaic museum. Below are a few pictures representing only a fraction of all the mosaics displayed there. When looking at these pictures, keep in mind that these gigantic mosaics are all made out of tesserae about a centimeter across.

That was it for that particular day. However, a few days later, we returned to Antakya to get our residency permits. Below is a picture of one of the main drags in town.

Stay tuned for more posts as we get them ready.

Tarsus and Kinet Höyük

2007-07-02T08:04:00.000-05:00

At 6.15 am on Saturday June 29th, we hopped into our two trusty minivans, armed with water, food, and the naïve hope that today might not be as hot as yesterday, and headed toward the city of Tarsus. Located approximately 40 km southwest of Adana on the Mediterranean coast, Tarsus is most famous for hosting Marc Antony and Cleopatra’s first encounter, as well as for being the hometown of St. Paul. Perhaps less known are the strategically significant Cilician gates that lie north of the city and boast the passage of many famous historical figures including Cyrus the Younger, Alexander the Great, and Pompey. Yet, as Ben was sure to remind us during his presentation, the history of Tarsus is much older than popular memories may suggest.

Excavations by Hetty Goldman in 1935 revealed a history of several thousand years, harkening back to the Neolithic period (ca. 10,000 BCE). The continuity of habitation in this area is no surprise. Tarsus, whose very name reaches back to the Hittite period (ie. Tarsa), was located in an extremely favorable location. In Jeff’s words, the settlement was “situated on a river in a fertile plain along the Mediterranean Sea, and controlled a strategically vital entrance to the Cilician plain, itself an important crossroads of the Orient and the Occident.” Hittites, Romans, Byzantines, Armenians, and Ottomans are but a few of many cultures that took control of the city at various times in history. The picture below, illustrating a Roman road and adjoining structures excavated in the very center of town, is a powerful reminder of the wealth of archaeology that lies sealed under the bustling streets of modern Tarsus.

After an enjoyable picnic in a local park, we made our way to our second destination. The site of Kinet Höyük is especially important within the context of our survey since it is the only excavated settlement in our target region. As such, this site provides us with a basic regional sequence of material culture with which to contextualize our finds, both chronologically and culturally. Marie-Henriette Gates of Bilkent University, Ankara, the director of the excavation and a member of our survey team, was kind enough to give us a detailed tour of this incredible site, whose remains span the third millennium BCE through to the medieval period. Although the name Kinet Höyük may not evoke much at first, some readers may recognize the name of Issos, the famous site where Alexander the Great opposed the Persian King Darius in battle for the second and penultimate time. Research indicates that Kinet Hoyuk was once known as ancient Issos. The picture below illustrates part of the remains of the fourth century BCE Persian settlement that Alexander and his troops would have looked upon after their victory over King Darius.

You may notice that the excavation trench also contains a number of round features. These are Medieval pits dating to the 13th-14th centuries. More specifically, they are robbing trenches, dug into earlier settlement levels with the intent of stealing stone building materials for reuse. The following picture features the remains of a much earlier settlement level dating to the Hittite New Kingdom (ca.1500-1200 BCE).

The picture above shows the remains of a very peculiar find. Excavators came upon this hollow tunnel that appears to have run under the settlement foundations and to have been too small and narrow for a person to crawl into. The nearby discovery of what appears to be a clay pipeline may point to its function as a sewer system.

This last picture is a good example of archaeological stratigraphy. The vertical dirt wall illustrates various layers of occupation. Particularly interesting is the thick layer above the stone remains towards which Dr. Gates is pointing. This level shows the remains of the Iron Age “occupation”. The quotation marks are relevant here because the excavators are still unsure as to the character of the site at this period. No structural remains have been found and artifacts suggest random trash disposal rather than regular habitation. Dr. Gates also informed that whereas previous occupants consumed great quantities of fish, no such faunal remains were found in Iron Age strata. This change in the cultural and physical aspect is especially interesting in view of the events that marked the end of the Bronze Age (ca.1200 BCE) throughout the Mediterranean. At this time, the ancient Mediterranean world suffered a crisis which caused the disintegration of many state-level societies, including the Hittites, and the weakening of great powers such as Egypt. The exact causes of this crisis are still the subject of active research, but scholars generally agree that it occurred as a result of a gradual process of decline involving disruptions in trading mechanisms, destructions (human and natural), and widespread abandonments.

The Kinet Höyük team is performing its last season of fieldwork after 15 years of excavation. In the coming years, material from the site will be further studied and interpreted, a process which we hope will yield more answers to so many interesting questions.

To finish this blog post, here are a few more pictures featuring other sites we visited. Below is the interior of a recently renovated Armenian Church. The last picture shows the exterior part of the Adana Museum, with a beautıful Mosque in the background.

On Tuesday we begin our first day of survey work... we'll keep you updated!!!

Amanda*

Antakya, part I

2007-06-29T07:41:00.000-05:00

Today we are on a field trip, and this marks the first time we have left our monastery for any significant period of time.

We headed down to the heart of Hatay province where we visited the sites of Alalakh and Tayinat. First we stopped by their dig houses as pictured below.

This is their lab.

This is a view of the Amuq plain from Tayinat. The mountains on the right are in Turkey, while those on the left are in Syria.

Alalakh from Tayinat.

Tayinat is just visible in the distance in this view across Alalakh.

This is an Iron Age structure found at Tayinat. Notice the outlines of unfired mud bricks especially apparent on the right side of the structure.

For those interested in the history of archaeology, this is Leonard Woolley's dig house at Alalakh.

We have more pictures from the city of Antakya itself. However, time runs short. I promise more pictures soon.

Ben

Sometimes getting there is less than half the fun

2007-06-24T13:21:00.000-05:00

It was around our second hour (of three) of sitting in the plane on the runway at JFK airport when we realized our trip was going to take a lot longer than we had planned.

36 hours later, we arrived at our lodgings just outside İskenderun. In between, we missed our connection flight in London, then in turn missed our 7pm connection flight in İstanbul. In London, however, thanks to some quick thinking we arranged to take the first flight (7am) out of İstanbul. Events conspired against us (again) there, too, as Turkish Air managed to not actually book us on the 7am flight. So we waited until 11am and, after a layover of about 10 hours, we took the 1 hour and 15 minute flight to Adana. From there it was but a short taxi ride to our fantastic Catholic resort.

We, by the way, were the three proprietors of this blog and two undergraduate students from PSU, Brendon and Dan. Witness Amanda's photographic genius:

All is not bad, thankfully. Our lodgings are excellent (far better than is usual for archaeological expeditions), everyone here is very nice, the food is great, and the view is great. A few pictures:

Finally, a photo of some of our group:

That's it for now, I'm rushed for time. We will update in a few days.

Visas Received

2007-06-18T10:56:00.000-05:00

A week or so ago, we all Fed Exed our passports to Sandra Scham, a fellow survey participant who lives in northwestern Washington, DC. She took them to the Turkish Embassy in DC in order to get our entry and transit visas.

Fortunately for Dr. Killebrew and unfortunately for those of us who would not mind seeing Cyprus, this bureaucratic hurdle was cleared easily. Sandra has mailed the passports back, and hopefully everyone will receive them before their flights leave.

Here's what a Turkish research visa looks like.

An Update on Our Progress

2007-04-22T17:33:00.000-05:00

While we all anxiously await for Amanda's historic summary, the three of us thought you might like to hear about our travel preparations.

Over a month ago, we filled out the paperwork needed by the Turkish government to grant us research visas, which it did. However, because the Turkish government strictly regulates foreign access to their nation, we will need to send our passports to the Turkish embassy in Washington DC in the weeks just before we leave. If for some reason there is a hitch in this process, we will need travel to Nicosia on Cyprus to obtain the visas. Although this could potentially become a headache for Dr. Killebrew, no complaints will appear on this blog.

Amanda, Jeff and I purchased our tickets from STA on the Penn State campus, which turned out to be our cheapest option. We will be flying out of New York on British Airways with a layover in London. From London we will fly to Istanbul on Turkish Air.

While the travel agent was getting Jeff and Amanda's tickets, the flight from New York to London sold out. Although I may get lonely, I will be on the British Airways flight on the same route leaving twenty minutes earlier.

Once in Istanbul, we will catch our final flight to Adana. Our plane touches down in Adana at 9:20 local time, which is seven hours earlier than Eastern Standard Time. By then we will have been travelling for 19 hours and 50 minutes.

From Adana, Dr. Killebrew will arrange some form of transportation to Iskenderun which is about two hours away.

Look forward to more travelling information after we submit our passports to the embassy.

Ben

Aegean Archaeology in the News

2007-03-26T19:49:00.000-05:00

While Amanda is preparing our next post, I thought I would share an article from the New York Times on the Philistines. Some scholars think the Old Testament bad guys may have originated in Cilicia, and at the least there is some evidence of a cultural connection between Late Bronze Age Cilicians and Philistine colonists. Exploring the nature and extent of this connection is one of the ultimate aims of Dr. Killebrew, our survey director. A little teaser:

In recent years, excavations in Israel established that the Philistines had fine pottery, handsome architecture and cosmopolitan tastes. If anything, they were more refined than the shepherds and farmers in the nearby hills, the Israelites, who slandered them in biblical chapter and verse and rendered their name a synonym for boorish, uncultured people.
Archaeologists have now found that not only were Philistines cultured, they were also literate when they arrived, presumably from the region of the Aegean Sea, and settled the coast of ancient Palestine around 1200 B. C.
At the ruins of a Philistine seaport at Ashkelon in Israel, excavators examined 19 ceramic pieces and determined that their painted inscriptions represent a form of writing. Some of the pots and storage jars were inscribed elsewhere, probably in Cyprus and Crete, and taken to Ashkelon by early settlers. Of special importance, one of the jars was made from local clay, meaning Philistine scribes were presumably at work in their new home.

Turkey from the Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age

2007-03-09T11:27:00.000-05:00

We have decided to kick off this blog with a brief overview of the Turkish archaeological record. As an anthropological archaeologist focusing primarily on prehistoric cultures, I have taken on the task of surveying the majority of Turkey’s prehistory from the Paleolithic up through the Early Bronze Age.

One of the benefits of starting the documentation of the project this early in the game is that visitors to this blog will witness, and also hopefully come to appreciate, all the steps in the archaeological process. These historical summaries represent the earliest attempts archaeologists make towards getting a handle on the relevant research that has already been conducted. As our familiarity with this literature grows, we will refine and add to the narrative presented in these first posts.

I have found Martha Sharp Joukowsky’s book Early Turkey: Anatolian Archaeology from Prehistory through the Lydian Period an adequate introduction to Turkish prehistory. Unless stated otherwise, this book is the source for the information contained in this post. The archaeologically recognized time periods (e.g. Paleolithic, Early Bronze Age, etc.) with a more detailed focus on Cilician sites when possible will provide the structure for this post. In addition I will provide a brief description of a few of the more well-known Turkish sites.

Within the broader discipline of anthropology, the period encompassing the earliest development of anatomically modern humans and our closest relatives is called the Paleolithic (Greek for “old stone”). This period extends from around 2,000,000 years ago to around 13,000 years ago. The Paleolithic is further subdivided into the Upper (2,000,000—120,000 Before Present), the Middle (300,000—30,000 BP), and the Lower (30,000—13,000BP). Despite such a long expanse of time (1.9 million years), archaeologists and hominid paleontologists know relatively little about this period, which in turn leaves plenty of room for contentious speculation.

In general, the recovery of stone tools provides the primary marker of this period. Archaeologists found the earliest evidence for human existence in Turkey at the site of Yarımburgaz near İstanbul, which dates to between 700,000 and 350,000 years ago. Yarımburgaz contained over 1200 stone tools and the butchered remains of several animals ranging from rabbits to wild bovids.

During the Middle Paleolithic, Turkey witnessed the arrival of Homo sapiens neanderthalis around 60,000 BP and Homo sapiens sapiens (anatomically modern humans) around 40,000 BP. The evolutionary relationship of these two species or subspecies currently constitutes a hot debate and could possibly change several times before we even arrive in Turkey.

Wrapping up the Paleolithic, the caves at Karain and Beldibi near Turkey’s southwest coast have produced some of Turkey’s earliest cave paintings and rock carvings of men and animals dating to the Upper Paleolithic.

The next period is called the Mesolithic (Greek for “middle stone”) or Epipaleolithic which lasts from around 12,000—8,000 BCE. Archaeologists know very little about the Turkish Mesolithic at this point. However it is apparent that stone tools became more and more specialized, a trend which began in the Lower Paleolithic.

During the Mesolithic, the glaciers of the latest ice age began to retreat. This led to a slow, yet steady, environmental change. Around the same time, the human population of Turkey began a transition from hunting and gathering toward a more settled, horticultural lifestyle, which wild variants of barley, emmer, einkorn, deer, cattle, pig, gazelle and goat supported.

Whatever the precise relationships between changing environmental conditions and human behavior, these developments set the stage for the Neolithic Revolution, which many archaeologists consider to be one of the most significant events in human history. The Neolithic (unsurprisingly Greek for “new stone”) lasted from 10,000—5500 BCE.

By around 9000 BCE, the area around the Taurus Mountains south to the Mediterranean had taken on its present climate, making the region much more hospitable to humans. Archaeologists divide the Neolithic period into the earlier Prepottery Neolithic (PPN) and the later Pottery Neolithic (PN), divisions which Mesopotamian and Levant archaeologists have similarly applied. However, the Turkish PPN differed from these other areas by possessing intense sedentism but with little to no reliance on domesticates.

Located in eastern Turkey along a tributary to the Tigris River, the site of Çayönü Tepe (tepe is Turkish for “hill”), dating to around 9000 BCE, represents the first evidence of wattle and daub architecture in Turkey, and the earliest use of metal tools anywhere (at least by the time of the publication of Joukowsky’s book). In addition, archaeologists have recovered evidence for the initial stages of the domestication of flora and fauna.

The PN period witnessed the development of Çatal Höyük (höyük is the Turkish word for “Tel”) one of the most well-known sites in the field of archaeology. Located on the Konya Plain just to the northeast of the Cilician plain, Çatal Höyük is the largest Neolithic site found anywhere in the Middle East. Aside from its size and status as a proto-city, Çatal Höyük is also notable due to the evidence found there for the elaboration of ritual behavior.

On the Cilician plain, the sites of Tarsus and Mersin begin to provide us with information more specifically relevant to our upcoming survey. The earliest levels of Mersin (Yümük Tepe in Turkish) date to around 6000 BCE. It is a 12 acre mound which provides a record for the transition from foraging to cultivation and the earliest evidence that sheep, goat, cattle, and pigs had been domesticated and butchered. Ceramics found at Tarsus (Gözlü Kule in Turkish) link the site to Mersin, but a high water table prevents the detailed exploration of earlier levels. Artifacts found at Mersin and Tarsus demonstrate more interaction with Syria and Mesopotamia than to closer sites in Anatolia—a trait which will come to characterize Cilicia for the ensuing millenia.

The Chalcolithic period (Greek for “copper stone”) from 5500—3000 BCE followed the Neolithic. An increase in the use of metal characterizes this period, but stone tools still predominated. New forms of ceramics and new architectural features such as fortifications begin to appear. Settlement studies provide evidence for population growth and stylistic changes suggest migrations into Turkey from Thrace and Iran.

On the Cilician plain, Mersin and Tarsus continue to show links to Syria and the Mesopotamian Halaf, Ubaid, and Uruk cultures. At around 4500 BCE, Mersin’s ceramic styles change dramatically which may mark the arrival of a new population which also brought copper tools with them. After about 4400 BCE, the residents of Mersin began gearing their architecture more towards defense by constructing thick outer walls built with an accompanying glacis, which is a slope leading down from the outer fortifications. Inside the settlement, excavators exposed at least three major monuments. By the end of the Chalcolithic period, archaeological evidence indicates that a group from the Konya plain (where Çatal Höyük is located) migrated to Cilicia.

The Early Bronze Age (3000—1900 BCE) is the last period this post will cover. Unsurprisingly, this period is marked by the widespread replacement of stone tools with bronze, which is an alloy of tin and copper. However, several other technological innovations occurred during this period: the plow, the sailing ship, and both the horizontal and vertical wheel.

Around 2300 to 2200 BCE urbanization began to take hold in Turkey. This led to the emergence of the urban city-state with its reliance on agriculture, a specialized labor force. It has been hypothesized that Mesopotamian and Aegean demand for Anatolian mineral resources spurred the urbanization process. This demand would have led to the spread of trade networks and a growing interdependence between city-states.

Also around 2300 BCE, a wave of destruction spread across Turkey and the larger Middle East, but hit particularly hard on the Konya plain, in Cilicia and in the Anatolian southwest. The resulting period of rebuilding led to the development of a larger sociopolitical entity consisting of unified city-states in the southwest, but also the abandonment of other long-occupied sites.

During the Early Bronze Age Turkey’s most famous site, Troy, was established. At its founding around 2950 BCE, little to distinguished Troy from other Turkish sites aside from its commanding location on the Dardanelles. Presently, Troy is located several kilometers from the water, but coastal morphology studies have revealed that during the Early Bronze Age the coast was much closer.

Down on the Cilician plain, Tarsus and Mersin experienced the same wave of destruction described above. However, the developing city-states there maintained greater autonomy than those in the southwest. In addition, the region continued to show a greater affiliation to cultures in the east as opposed to the rest of Turkey.

This brings us to the conclusion of my portion of our “quick” survey of Turkish and Cilician history. Amanda will pick up next time beginning with the Middle Bronze Age.

Ben

Inaugural Post

2007-02-25T19:43:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Real-Time Archaeology!

Our names are Amanda Iacobelli, Jeff Rop, and Ben Bradshaw. We are all graduate students studying ancient history and/or archaeology at the Pennsylvania State University. From June 22-July 20 of 2007, we will be participating in an archaeological field survey under the direction of Dr. Ann Killebrew. The survey will take place in part of the Cilician Plain in southeastern Turkey.

This blog is an attempt to document our experiences before, during, and after the archaeological survey. While in the field we intend to update the blog at least every other day with pictures, comments on daily life in the field, and short topical essays on relevant subjects such as field techniques and the potential historical significance of our finds. Until then, we will be posting historical summaries of the cultures that populated and crossed paths in this area, as well as practical information regarding the preparatory steps involved in organizing and participating in an archaeological expedition. Once the field work is done, we expect to maintain the blog, posting with an eye toward the 2008 field season.

Our intention here is to cater to a wide audience, including the general public, archaeology students, and professional scholars. We will be blogging both from academic and personal perspectives, so that our readers will have a sense of what life is like on an archaeological field survey, what techniques are used to map out a previously unsurveyed region (with the objective of eventually choosing a specific site to excavate), and how interested students and non-professionals can themselves participate in archaeological field work. We also hope that this site will serve as a sort of real-time repository of information as the archaeological project progresses (hence the title of the blog), giving scholars bits of pre-publication data and illustrating for the general public how that data is collected, compiled, and eventually (if all goes well) published.

The nature of the survey team and the area to be studied lends itself particularly well to a blog project such as ours. First, the team includes both New (represented primarily by Dr. Ken Hirth) and Old World (Dr. Killebrew) archeologists. They will be working together, integrating two similar but distinctive approaches to data collection and analysis. The methods utilized will range from simple field-walking techniques and landscape survey to Global Positioning Satellite and Geographical Information Systems technologies.

Second, the specific area being studied has not been previously explored by archaeologists yet is burgeoning with historical significance. The Cilician plain has truly been a crossroads for ancient civilizations of the east and west from the Neolithic period, particularly at neighboring Tarsus and Mersin (circa 7800 years Before Present), onward. The area has witnessed and harbored important nations and events. To name a few: Cilicia may have been home to the mysterious Sea Peoples (conceivably proto-Philistines) at the close of the Bronze Age; a battleground for armies of Alexander the Great and the Persian King Darius III; and a settlement for the infamous Cilician pirates, who threatened Roman trade in the Mediterranean and were defeated by Pompeius Magnus (see future posts for further illumination on these, and other, historical topics). A preliminary survey in our target locus has already, in fact, presented a promising array of data on a number of cultures dating from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period.

This blog, then, is an attempt to shed light on the full history of an archaeological project from its inception to its conclusion (bearing in mind that the work will never, truly, be concluded). We will record, in the public eye, the process of planning a project, undertaking a field survey, site selection and excavation, and ultimately the publication of its findings. At the risk of sounding rather presumptuous, we envision our work here as a unique way of contributing to the long-established effort to make scholarly research more accessible and more immediate to the general public.

Stay tuned.

-Jeff, Amanda, and Ben