Soccer and Mulberries in Yassihoyuk

Keeping up two blogs is so time consuming. My days here at the site are quite full, and there just isn't enough time to keep up two blogs. So here is a link to the other blog, the one for the Gordion Excavations Objects Conservation laboratory.

http://gordionconservation.blogspot.com/2011/06/soccer-and-mulberries-in-yassihoyuk.html

Gordion Dig House and Yassihoyuk

The Gordion dig house.

I am staying at the dig house, located in the Yassihoyuk, the ancient city of Gordium. The house is a quaint wooden structure with mud brick/plaster walls. There are 7 bedrooms in the house, and most of the rooms are shared between 3-4 people. There is a long tradition of villagers who work at the house. The original cook and house manager started when he was a young teen and has recently passed. The current house manager began working here in his teens, and currently, his 16 year old nephew, Arda, is being trained on house and kitchen duties.

By bed at the Gordion dig house.

While the house is rustic, we do have modern bathrooms and showers, which are located in a separate structure. Our meals are prepared by the house staff, and our laundry is sent out twice a week. Since Gordion Excavations has been around for so long, there are many traditions that give life here a wonderful sense of charm. For instance, everyone meets 5 times a day, for the 4 meals (breakfast, second breakfast, afternoon tea, and dinner) and for cocktail hour, which occurs right before dinner. Arda rings a bell when each meal is ready. Several of us work at the museum and tomb, so Ken, the director, brings second breakfast to us everyday. Many people have been working together at Gordion for double digit years, giving it a family-like atmosphere.

Ankara

My sojourn begins in Ankara, the capital of Turkey that is located in the center of the country. I had packed for an extremely warm summer, but it was raining my first day here. I had a day or so to myself, before my supervisor joins me. I spent an afternoon at Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemel Ataturk. Ataturk was an Ottoman army officer who lead the Turkish War of Independence and became the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, which was established in 1922.

The architecture is a mixture of ancient and modern influences, with the buildings constructed of travertine and marble. The closed tomb is made of marble (a bit of a disappointment, I was hoping for a Lenin or Mao-style tomb), and the accompanying museum is a collection of Ataturk's belongings, paintings, dioramas, musical scores, sound effects, and photographs, with the primary subject being the War of Independence and Turkish nationalism and cultural reform. Being American, I am always struck by how Europe was affected and shaped by the World Wars. I highly recommend Anitkabir for history buffs.

As for interesting cultural tidbits - I think I really stand out. Perhaps it is my imagination, but I'm pretty sure a whole family (the kids were pretty fresh, the teenage girl had streaks in her hair and one of the boys had a lightening bolt buzzed in his 'do) were staring and pointing at me. The kids kept on surrounding me in the museum, in fact, groups of schoolchildren were continuously surrounding me, smiling and giving me high fives. One Japanese lady, who was married to a Russian, was so excited to see another Asian that she insisted on taking a picture with me. Unfortunately, I do not speak Japanese, Russian, or Turkish, so I have no clue what anyone is saying. People come up to me and our interaction consists of sign language, incomprehension, and confused looks. All is well, I am quite content pretending that only nice thing are being said.

The conservation laboratory at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.

Angie Elliot, my supervisor, joined me in Ankara for a visit to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, where we visited the conservation laboratories and looked at some wall painting fragments that were being rehoused. The museum is near the old part of Ankara, which is filled with quaint wooden houses with mud plastered walls, cobbled streets, and wonderful little shops and vendors. We came across a cobbler, Sultan El Yapimi Deri Urunler, who makes hand-made, historic Ottoman shoes. I am seriously considering a purchase next week, during my day off.




I will leave you with a picture taken during our exploration of the older part of Ankara, where a street is lined with stalls full of wool. We discovered a surprise on top of a bag of wool!

My first blog and the harrowing flight to Turkey

This is my very first post on my very first blog. I will try hard to be interesting, but I make no promises. There is a call to prayer as I am writing this; it happens throughout the day, and is actually quite beautiful.

As you have probably gathered from the title, I am in Turkey. Why am I in Turkey? Well, I will be spending a couple of months here, with the majority of my time spent at Gordion Excavations, an archaeological site located in Central Anatolia. http://sites.museum.upenn.edu/gordion/

I will be working in the Objects Conservation Lab at Gordion. This is my first experience at a site, as well as my first trip to Turkey, so I am very excited.

The start to my trip was rather hectic. My relatively short layovers (there were three) were spent getting new boarding passes and going through multiple security checks. This, coupled with delays in New York due to bad weather, meant I missed my flight from Istanbul to Ankara. Luckily I was able to hop onto a later flight.

Note to travelers: Many airports in Turkey are not capable of handling customs, which is completed in Istanbul. Therefore, be ready for long lines right when you land, so incorporate enough time in your layover.

A few other people also missed the same flight. Turkish Airlines decided to make things interesting by double booking the seats, which was unnecessary, since the flight was hardly full. I was early to board, so I, along with several other passengers, played musical airplane seats for a solid 30 minutes before a flight attendant finally directed us to new seats.

Although I was able to take a later flight to Ankara, my checked luggage apparently did not join me. Perhaps it was enjoying the stay in Istanbul, had some Turkish coffee, maybe a glass of raki, and just didn't feel like moving on to Ankara. Luckily my bag finally continued on its journey and was delivered to my hotel.

Not the most enjoyable flight, to say the least. The concierge said that lost luggage is delivered to the hotel at least 2-3 times per week. That being said, the actual flights were great! Over 30 movies to choose from, and boy does Turkish Airlines knows how to feed you. I even got a full meal on the 1 hour flight to Ankara.

I will be in Ankara for a couple of days, visiting a couple of museums and getting a residence permit. Then onto Gordion!