High Five...Pictures!

So because I've been so crap-tastic at updating the blog (I haven't even finished telling about the Mopsos survey, let alone talking about what I've been doing now at Kinet Hoyuk), I will finally bring you up to date in my narrative through a series of photos.

Let us begin.

The Mopsos group
(Back Row L-R: Muge {one of the Bilkent Grad Students}, Nicole {A fellow Crow Canyon High School Field School alum! Though, two years after me}, Joe, Brandon {Penn State PhD student}, Ashley, Moi, Sandra {She writes grants for the project. Honestly, don't know why she was with us}. Front Row L-R: Kirstie, Chris, Ben, Binnyurhamin {Our Rep}, Prof Killebrew, Tour Guide for this field trip, Silvia {Graphic Artist/Illistrator}, Prof Hritz)

I forgot to mention another reacurring theme of the survey (Actually my whole time in Turkey), encounters with the local wildlife!

These two snakes had made their home, burrowed underground in a burnt portion of field, about 12-15 ft in front of where we had set up the total station that day to take coordinates. They were very long (at least two feet each) and they kept popping out of the ground and slithering closer and closer to us. We cut field work a half hour short that day.

Yeah. That's a tarantula. These furry friends would crawl down from the ivy on the outside of the monastery. They'd try to find some place warm to curl up for the night such as a stairwell, a shower or a bed. You know just the usual nooks and crannies.


I also had the great fortune of having a scorpion siting.

Mind you it was very tiny (as in the the size of my pinkie).

I think the grand total was something a long the lines of 14 tortoises/turtles seen while out doing our survey. Inexplicably, we gave them all Spanish sounding names (Zeus, Diego, Consuela, Juan etc). This one's name was originally Fernando or Fransisco. However, as Muge decided to keep this 'lil guy as a present for her grandmother's garden his official name became, Eduardo Vedder Alexander Esteban Junior.

On now to GIS fun!

To give a better idea of what this mapping program is all about here is what I had to do for my final project:This map encompasses the southern half of the overall survey area for the Mopsos Project. Just as a FYI, those blue dots that you see in the center portion of the map, near to the coast, are the sites that we surveyed throughout the month. We covered 20 known sites or 196 known sites. That number grows every year. But back to my point:

This map is just a scanned version of the 1950's hardcopy map. Why even bother with a 1950's map, you ask? Because no one has bothered to update it since then, this was the last detailed map made of this area. So for our final project, to test our GIS skills and help out the project, my classmates and I were given portions of the map to digitize (ie trace over all the roards and waterways; mark all settlements, hills be they natural or artificial, wells etc). In this way if a change has occurred between an element on the map and today's landscape the change can be easily made. My portion is the approximately the red squared off portion. So it went from the above map to this:

All the new elements that you see in the Legend were added by your's truly. This is the product of 18+ hours of tedious tracing, map reading and computer nonesense. It maketh my eyes bleedeth.

This is a moment in our 4:30PM-Dinner time part of our schedule...POTTERY WASHING! Also, on most field work days one student and a staff member would stay back (So during the 5AM-1:30PM portion of the schedule). The staff person would do paper work, the student would scrub ceramics til his or her hands bled. Well, not quite that long but we were very pruney at the end of washing.

Washing pottery on the balconies of the monastery overlooking Iskenderun.
(L-R: Kirstie, Joe, Chris, Ashley and Nicole)

That long table in the upper right hand corner of the picture is the pottery sorting area.

After pottery was scrubbed clean and dried, we would lay out the pottery according to type.

Rims, handles, bases, body sherds roof tiles and rocks were the general categories, but sub groups could be created if the sorter found it necessary (Painted, decorated etc). Prof Killebrew would then go through everything and discard the non-diagnostic (ie uninteresting) pieces, but all ways take note of how many were found, the time period(s) that pottery collection encompassed etc.

Even though it got to be about 90 degrees or more (plus humidity) everyday while working in the field, I would always wear longs and longs, my super swank shades and my super awesome fedora (Yeah that's right. It's not just any type of hat and it's my shout out to Henry Jones Jr *coughnamethatmoviecough*)

Out in the field working hard, hardly working.

CLOSE UP. Haters, step back. A look this good can only be imitated, never duplicated.

Life on the Mopsos Project was not all work no play...just very little of it.

During our free time we'd often shoot hoops with some of the local Turkish kids. This picture is after we got pulled into a soccer that lasted 3 1/2 hours. Can you find me (Hint: I'm the hottest hot mess out of everyone)?

We also took field trips to places such as:

Nemrut Dagh


Karatepe


Tarsus

And that friends and family is the rest of my world-wind wrap up of my time on the Mopsos Survey Project. Next up will be my time spent here at Kinet. And hopefully that will be posted BEFORE I make back stateside (fingers crossed).

Over and out.

Love,
~Abby~

More on Mopsos

What a very strange couple of weeks it has been. I'm now on my second project for the summer and have actually been here for a week and a half. Wow. Let me say it again, I'm REALLY crappy at this blogging thing. Let's rewind to my first project (Mopsos) and then I'll spring ahead to what I am doing now.

When I last wrote I had just given you a list of the main players I had been working with on the Mopsos Project. Two people who I tragically left out but without whom we would not have been able to accomplish anything are, Muge and Evren. This dynamic duo are students (Well alumni in Muge's case as she graduated last month), at Bilkent University in Ankara. This school is particularly cool because not only is it known to have the best archaeological department in Turkey, but the whole school's curriculum (Every department for Undergrad, Graduate, MA, PhD etc) is taught in English. So both speak English extremely well, and of course Turkish.

I need to interject for a moment. It should be known that the "theme" of my time here in Turkey besides being about archaeology, has been about technological difficulties (This will make sense as I continue my narrative). We now resume your very delayed update.

The monastery that was our home base, is located in a small village called Guzelyayla, in the hills over looking the Bay of Iskenderun as well as the city the Bay is named for. Those first four to five days upon arriving in Turkey, however, were spent getting an introduction at blazing speed of GIS and what the Mopsos project was all about, not our location.

(View from the monastery at dawn for pottery washing. More on that later, but you can just make out the bay and the city in the distance, through the fog, to the left of the picture.)

So, I actually did not set foot outside the monastery until our Turkish Ministry Representative joined us. The Rep is key to keep projects running because all foreign archaeological excavations/projects have to be supervised by a Rep from the Turkish government, and no fieldwork can begin until two things happen: 1) the Rep gives us the thumbs up and 2) all foreign participants get a residency permit.

Us foreigners on the project were working under research permits (As opposed to tourist permits) and because we're also in Turkey for an extended period of time we had to register with the regional police department in Antakya, to get our residency permits. So the day after our Rep arrived we made the trek to Antakya. There we gave the police copies of our passports and our address at the monastery, so they could find us just in case***. Once we got all of our paper work sorted out, the following day we were able to start the fieldwork.

Fieldwork days (Which were just about everyday) went like this:
4:15-4:45 AM Wake up
5:00 AM On the van to head out to the field
6:00-6:30 AM Depending on how far we had to travel begin fieldwork
9:00 AM Breakfast
1:00-1:30 PM Stop fieldwork and head back to the monastery
2:00-2:30 Lunch time
Free time til 4:30 PM
4:30-7:00 PM GIS lesson or landscape archaeology lecture or pottery washing/sorting/labeling/cataloging
7:00 PM Dinner time
Free time the rest of the evening/paperwork catch up time.

As I mentioned probably three times before, surveying for our project involved two primary forms of data collection: Coordinates taken for mapping and surface collection of pottery. To take coordinates we used hand-held GPS units, and primarily (in theory) a total station unit. A total station is a device that allows you to do two things: give you "real world coordinates" of you location (this is opposed to creating your own grid system to find your location on a map), as well as measure topography. Okay, I think I'm getting too technical. You know those guys in construction companies who wander highways with one guy looking through a device mounted on a tripod, at another guy x number of feet away with a pole to take measurements? That's a total station.

The problem with ours however was just about EVERYTHING. The total station was rented here in Turkey, but as Prof Hritz was going to be the one operating the machine we asked for it to be programmed in English. It came in Turkish. Then it would miscalculate coordinates. Then it would say were were in the southern hemisphere when we obviously were not. So the first, oh, week was lost on the mapping side of things because the Total Station was cracked out.

It was eventually discovered, after a good two weeks of dealing with these problems, that the over lying problem that caused most of our troubles was that the device was programed in gradians. Turkey apparently has an extra 40 degrees that know one told us about.

We also had three computer system crashes, one virus contracted, one computer fry in a power surge(Mine FYI. RIP my Mac *tear*), an iPod crash (Mine, too), a flash drive stop working, and two cell phones blocked by the Turkish government (Oh yeah one of those were mine as well), just to give you an idea of some of the other technological problems the team incurred. The technology Gods have not been kind to us (of me) this trip.

On the pottery collection side, things went pretty smoothly so long as the GPS units were working (We started the month with five functional GPS' we ended the month with two). Working in pairs, once we were at an identified site (A place already listed as having archaeological remains), we would get a series of coordinates. Using the GPS units we would walk out to one of the corrdinates, then we would collect all the pottery/artifacts within 10 meters of our point. Later that pottery would be washed, dried, sorted, cataloged and labeled.

We did other types of collections and did more besides work but *sigh* another post that has gotten too long. To be continued.

Love,
~Abby~

***Which they did. Eight-ish days into the project two Doctors from the ministry of health hunted all the people that traveled on MY flight from JFK to Istanbul (Which included two of my fellow students and a Professor) to give us a five day dose of a Turkish Tamiflu equivalent. Some poor sole apparently flew in the same tin can as us and exposed us to Swine Flu.***

A post that doesn't suck and actually gives information about what my summer is all about

Let me preface this post by saying I'm SO sorry for the psycho babble that I posted earlier. I was a little cracked on too little sleep when I wrote that last post. I tried to clean it up so that it at least makes a little bit of sense, so if you feel compelled to skim it may make more sense this time.

Hokay, as I said in the earlier post (I think) I'm going to be in Turkey for a grand total of 2 1/2 months (May 28th-August 12). During which time I'm going to be involved in two projects, though not mutually exclusive from one another.

The first leg of my stay (the one I am curently on and wrapping up in less than a week) is an archaeological survey course through Penn State. The course involves doing work on the Mopsos Project but while the course and the credits I get are from Penn State, the Mopsos Project is not a Penn State project. The Mopsos Project is the brain child of the other excavation/archaeological Project I'll be doing after this course (So, in less than a week). That other project is called Kinet Hoyuk.

Kinet Hoyük (affectionately known as Kinet), is a very long standing excavation (About 15 years), that's primary purpose is not only to excavate sites but to also give a stratographic time line of occupation around the Bay of Iskenderun. The archaeological record has determined that there has possibly been some kind of settlement in the area dating as far back as the early bronze age (3000BC). But due to crazy governmental crackdowns on the issuing of permits to do an excavation (Let alone a non-Turkish one), new projects that involve breaking ground don't happen much. Causing potential archaeological sites to be destroyed from development, agriculture or just the elements.

Yet with the exception of the small area that Kinet occupies and excavates, the Bay of Iskenderun is largely a) unexcavated and b) not mapped to show detailed topographic info or archaeological details. Thus the people who created Kinet started the Mopsos Project 6ish years ago. It's sole purpose is to find, collect and map possible archaeological areas and compare that current information to whatever earlier work had been done. So for example, an archaeologist by the name on Veronica Seton-Williams did some general surveys of this Bay area back in the 1950s (Basic mapping of towns, roads, and rivers and noted likely sites). However, drastic changes have occurred to many of these areas in everything from population increases to changes in towns name's. So we try to find these old mapped areas and update the information inaddition to providing new info at a place and surrounding areas. Compile that with the sites that are added to the running list from tips from locals, reading of satllite images, and areas that have been noted in earlier years of the Mopsos Project but have never gotten around to survey before, let's just say that we've got a lot going on.

But just who are these "we" that I speak of? They are various (And varying) characters. The two, primary players are Professors Ann Killebrew and Carrie Hritz. Killebrew is the director of the program this year (And in years past). She's most familiar with this area and it's past and present occupational patterns. She lectures on Landscape archaeology (Which is all about learning what you can from an area that you can't excavate in) and general aspects of the Project and it's goals. She's the one who ultimatly decides where we will be surveying.

Hritz is the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) professor. She shows us how to make different types of maps (depending on the information you want to portray and is at hand), and how to do things, such as a 2-D satellite picture and make it a map. She's the one incharge of consolidating all the infomation we collect (Be it the concentration of pottery sherd scatter or GPS corrdinates) and turning is into a usable, and publishable format.

The student aspect of the team is comprised of six undergrad Penn State students and...me. One maybe the loneliest number but because Penn State is so FREAKIN huge, nobody really knew each other going in to the program. So the break down is four girls (Me, Nicole, Kirstie, and Ashley) and three boys (Ben, Chris and Joe), ranging from ages 18 to 22.

There is much more to say about the mentioned and rest of the team members and how I've been spending my days, however, that's all you get for now. I got some serious pottery washing to do tomorrow, rather 2 1/2 hrs from now (our days start on the early side).

Cheers and Love to all,
~Abby~

In the summer time...again

Cripes this is embarrassing. It has only almost been...A YEAR since I last posted. So let me give you lovelies the 411 of what I'm doing right now and then, in a later update I'll catch ya'll up to what I've been up to this year (or two by the next time I post).

This archaeology bug is still something that I have not quite been able to shake, so before I decide to devote some significant schooling time to pursuing this profession I've decided to partake in and archaeological survey course through Penn State. So right now I am sitting in the conference/classroom area in a monestary/Christian retreat, in a little village over looking the Bay of Iskenderun in Eastern Turkey. Unlike the archaeological excavations that I have done in the past this project is a) far more intensive academically and b) not an excavation at al.

So just what am I doing? Well, let me tell you:
Turkey is situated in an area that in ancient times used to be known as Asia Minor, and if you can recall into the deep dark recesses of your mind, you may remember that MANY civilizations have occupied this region. Everyone it seems from the Hittites to the Persians occupied Turkey at some point in time. Because of this long standing occupation (that continues to day), there are LOTS of archaeological sites to be found and excavated. However, to excavate one must aquire a permit from the Turkish government. But, it is almost impossible to get one. The best that can be done, in most and my project's case, is get the "OK" from the Turkish government to survey possible areas of interest (aka likely to be an archaeological site).

Surveying usually involves making very detailed topographical maps of an area, collecting artifacts that lie on the surface, and bringing in various specialists the "read" the topography on maps and at actual sites. In the hopes that sometime down the line an intensive excavation to the area can be done.

So from May 28 until June 26, I'll be dashing throughout fields and over hills taking coordinates or picking up pottery

After June 26 I move on to phase two of my Turkish summer, whereby I will participate in one of the few foreign excavations happening in the area. This project get a loophole to my earlier "it's almost impossible to get and excavation permit" statement because this project has been operational for the better part of a decade.

So that's it for now. Again, I'll give particulars on what I've been up to this year and what I've been up to since I got to Turkey two weeks ago, but later. Now I must sleep as I am going to be up in 3 hours.

Cheers and Love,
~Abby~