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~