9/24/09

The highlights from this week include some really weird stuff. First, we went to a 'farm' to visit a local sheik, he is the tribal leader of a group of 6 million kurdish people. He raises ostriches, yes, ostriches. they are really ugly in person. i mean, you've seen them at the zoo and they are weird looking but at least they are pampered at the zoo. here, they are just ugly. apparently, one ostrich egg serves 14 people. it's crazy. then he took us out to dinner at this crazy resturaunt which is HUGE. i mean HUGE and in the middle of nowhere. it's not like middle of nowhere podunksville, it's like middle of nowhere, literally nothing around for miles but farmland and small villages. its lush and green and made all of marble. they have a huge swimming pool that is filled to the brim. the inside is a round room all decked out in tacky marble with pillars all the way around. everyone was teasing we should have the wedding there as its probably cheaper than in america. at any rate it was an experience.

the rest of the week has been pretty much as usual. it was the eid, which is the end of ramadan so we had a quiet few days with no workmen because they were all out celebrating with their families. i of course got sick to fill my time in the off days ;) but i'm feeling much better now, thanks for asking. the cook, Abu Ashur, has been taking care of me and getting me green tea and making special food. yesterday i went out to work on the survey that i'm doing and i ended up collecting so much pottery that i had to call the driver to come pick us up. so it's been a productive few days. i'm out of here in 2 days so this will be this year's last update probably. i'll catch you all on the flipside, and all you in buffalo who are reading this, i'll probably see you when i get back. thanks for tuning in...

9/18/09
Well another week's gone by and it was filled with lots and lots of work. i've been working on the J2 materials and also beginning my survey. I'm pretty much exhausted from working 11 hour days, 6 days a week for 2.5 months. I don't have much energy to write a lot this week.

As i said, i've been working on the survey a little. This entails me and an assistant, Rodee, going out to the fields and collecting pottery for 2.5 hours every morning. It's fun to get out of the house and it's nice to be away from the tell, even if its only 400 meters away. The first day we worked for 5 hours but realized quickly that once the sun really comes up it's too hot to be bending over picking up sherds and so we started only working mornings. The first days we also ambitiously carried all our collected pottery back with us. But after seeing us struggling up the hill with all our stuff, the driver took pity on us and he now comes and picks us up 10 minutes before breakfast, even if its just to drive us up the hill. it's really nice of him. After breakfast i work inside on the computer. Then after lunch I work on analyzing the materials from the survey. So far I have only very preliminary results but all in all its beginning to take shape.

we had two outings this week. first, we went to the local mosque, which is a small mudbrick building with a little crescent on top. we went to hear one of our workmen who sings the call to prayer. it was the most unassuming structure i've ever been in. it was nice though to get a glimpse of the village life that we don't normally experience.

our next outing was to a local 'resort' where they built a 1.4 million dollar building and swimming pool in the middle of miles and miles and miles of farmland. it's gaudy and huge. we were invited to dinner by a local sheik of one of the tribes. he was quite talkative and his nephew proposed marriage to my friend Hiba. so yeah, it was an interesting evening. first he showed us his farm where he raises ostriches among other things. Let me tell you, the syrian ostriches are pretty dirty and pretty weird looking. its still unclear what he does with the ostriches, possibly sells the eggs and the meat.

at any rate, that's all i got this week, sorry its not more engaging but i'll be home in 10 days to fill you all in on the details in person with pictures and charades.

citadel in aleppo

me at the top of the citadel (typical tourist)

me in Sergilla

9/12/09
So this week I spent traveling to Aleppo and some nearby sites and also working like crazy at the site. It's nearing the end of the season for me (although some people are staying on until mid-october) so i'm getting crazy trying to finish everything before the end. The vacation was nice and i enjoyed it but i spent some of it worrying about the work i have to do. now i'm back at the site and doing two different projects - trying to set up my own project doing a survey and also finishing the publication for J2.

First, about Aleppo. It was a great trip. I went with Lorenzo and Julianna. ON friday we went with the cook, Abu Ashur, to his house in Tell Tamir where he lives. He drove us there and then gave us dinner and took us out to a local resturant where they are showing Bab el Harra on a large screen. What is Bab el Harra you ask? It's a tv drama set during the french occupation of Damascus that only shows during Ramadan. It's on every night during Ramadan for just one month and literally everyone was watching it. Turns out not just in Tell Tamir but also in Aleppo where it was showing on projector screens in all the restuarants. So we stayed the night and in the morning Abu Ashur put us on the bus to Aleppo. It's always an unusual experience riding the bus in syria, although this trip was relatively uneventful with the main entertainment being an arabic movie playing of which the only thing i understood was a bunch of women regifting an ugly set of sheets wrapped in polka dot paper.

Once we arrived in Aleppo, at a bus station 10km from the city center we managed to negotiate a cab to take us to the part of town where there are some cheaper hotels. Did i mention we didn't make a hotel reservation? Fortunately, the cab wasn't too outrageous and we managed to find a place at the first hotel we stopped in. It was even clean. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find something to eat, which, as it turns out, is not an easy task in Aleppo during Ramadan. So fatigued from our travels and our attempts at finding food we pretty much collapsed until we went out to dinner at the base of the Aleppo citadel. It is really beautiful and in traditonal tacky Syrian manner they have multicolored lights that reflect on the bridge and so we sat and ate and drank for 2 hours, watched some of Bab el Harra before heading home. We spent the next day exploring the citadel and the main souq (market) where it seemed that everyone had a relative who lived in America (if they were talking to me) or Italy (if they were talking to Lorenzo) or Germany (if they were talking to Julianna). Many many "where you froms?" followed us as we walked through the souq. We didn't end up buying anything but mostly just enjoyed the beauty and bustle of the market. The evening we spent exploring the "new city" of Aleppo which is a warren of small stone paved streets in the Christian quarter. We had a delicious dinner with an oud player playing and ate the traditional dish of Aleppo, cherry kebab. It was quite the day and really an experience. We had a private tour of the "museum of popular history" which was a strange ammelioration of random historic things from the ottoman period stored in a beautifully renovated old house including a secret corridor that supposedly led straight to the citadel (take with grain of salt). All in all lots of fun.

The next day we rented a private taxi and ventured out of the city to visit the famous archaeological site of Ebla and then one of the so-called "dead-cities" of Syria. It was lots of fun and the team at Ebla gave us a private tour (in their ancient jeep) and invited us to their excavation house for lunch. All Italians but very friendly and welcoming. We proceeded on to the dead city of Sergilla which can not be explained in words. There are ruins with huge stone buildings still standing you can walk amongst the streets and see the city. It was amazing and if I ever get a chance I'd love to visit all the rest of them. I'll try and post a picture but they don't do it justice.

The next day we spent some time in the souq and then took a bus back to Qamishli. This can only be described as an experience. We didn't have reservations (of course) and found a very sketchy bus company at the station who promised a direct trip to Qamishli but I should have known better, by direct trip they mean direct via a bus change in another city. But at any rate, we arrived home safe and sound if a little later than anticipated.

The rest of the week i've spent working hard in the field and at the computer really trying my best to put together something for my project and do a good job with what i'm working on. I'm looking forward to coming home and can't wait to see everyone.

This week's special shout out goes to my little brother Ben who just turned 20 to whom I say = sucker, you still aren't old enough to drink! love you.

9/4/09
So I didn't make it to the internet yesteday afternoon. We had a visitors from three other archaeological sites for a tour and then we had a big dinner and a big party so we didn't go to Qamishli. it was kind of nice though because we got to speak with some other people and we had good food and beer. It was kind of fun to give a tour of my excavation to some people and give me a chance to sort of appreciate all the work i did this season so far. Tonight we are leaving for a few days off. I'm headed to Aleppo with Julianna (German) and Lorenzo (Italian) for 3 days. It should be a great time, i've never been to Aleppo so this is my chance to check it out and see what there is to see. It is supposed to be beautiful with one of the oldest souq's (market) in the world. Apparently they specialize in olive oil soap so I've got to check it out.

Not much has happened at the site since last week's update. We are busy saying goodbye to people as most of the excavation team members have left, with the exception of the area supervisors (like me) who are staying on for the remaining portion of the study season. It's kind of nice to have quiet dinners and we have a more relaxed atmosphere but it's sad to see people leaving and know that I'm still here for another 3.5 weeks. But on the other hand it's only 3.5 weeks and I'm really going to try and get started on my dissertation project and i'm sure time will fly and I won't get nearly as much done as I hope. I really want to make sure I have enough data to really get started this year.

We had a little party this week (when aren't we having a party?) in honor of the west bathroom/east bathroom rivalry. The west bathroom always hosts a fancy party in their bathroom (yes, in the bathroom) while the east bathroomers host a counter-party in the sherd yard where we can see them parade past. In the end we all end up together and head off into the sunset (or just dinner) together. This year Sammer, a guy from the Department of Antiquities was here with his son, Noor. Noor and I became friends last year when we had dinner in Tell Tamir together. He likes cameras and he likes goofing around. I also like goofing around so it's a good fit. We had fun taking pictures and throwing stones over the wall. He was kind enough to share his icecream with me (although i already had my own ice cream, but you don't question syrian generosity) and we played video games on my cell phone. He is really high energy and pretty much wore me out. I'll try and post a picture of the two of us from the party, he even sported a little tie.

Tonight we are leaving with the cook, Abu Assur, to go to his house overnight and then we are taking the bus from his city, Tell Tamir, to Aleppo. He says its a better, shorter bus ride so it should be nice. Plus, of course, it is always fun to stay with people instead of in hotels. Last year we all went to visit him and ate in his resturant, which was also fun. He really spoils us with the food. I'm not getting any skinnier this year (and of course it would happen in the year when i'm going to want to fit in a wedding dress...).

Next week's update should be full of pictures and details of adventures in Aleppos so stay tuned...

director's cocktail hour on the patio with Bill, also originally from Buffalo

8/27/09

it's getting to be that point in the season where i miss everything about home. i've been away long enough that it's almost like I forget that I ever lived anywhere else. We had chicken wings for dinner the other night, not chicken wings in the buffalo sense, but chicken wings in the literal sense. Our cook deep fried them with breading I think. They weren't so bad but man did they make me miss home, wishing for some hot sauce, a cold beer and my friends and family to eat wings at the bar with. (ironically, anthony was at the bar eating wings with my best friend just this week). At any rate, I was dreaming about what a package from home would look like if I could will it across the ocean here to the desert. First, american coffee. I miss coffee. I brought some Tim Horton's here with me but it won't last the whole season and it's not the same as running around the corner for a cup or even luxuriating over my hot pot of coffee in the morning. Here we drink tea in the morning, yellow lipton tea. I sometimes make coffee in the afternoon, when I can really savor it instead of in the morning when it is just a struggle to get your mind working and functioning. Now that the excavations are over and it's getting later into the year with the sun coming up later we actually start work later. At 5:30. We work 10.5 hour days now and so it's actually just as grueling as when we started at 5. I'm working on finishing up the J2 excavation materials so it is ready for someone to tidy it up and publish it in the winter. As soon as I finish with J2 I'm going to begin working on the outer city project, which I think I already mentioned. I am going to do a trial survey project and see what happens. I'm hoping that this will pan out into a dissertation topic but you never know with these things and I feel like I'm tempting fate by even mentioning it here on the blog.

This past week has been largely uneventful, I'm just plodding along finishing up my work, fixing all the errors in documentation that inevitably crop up working 10 hour days in the hot sun. Last thursday night I went to Hiba's house again for dinner which was nice. Her family is great and they fed me until I was so stuffed I could barely eat anything more, then they gave me beer until I almost missed the bus back to the site! Hiba's gone to Damascus now to take her master's exams so she won't be back for a few weeks. We have a few days off coming up, from the 5-9th of September and some people are going to Turkey but I don't know what I'm going to do. I was going to try and meet Hiba in Aleppo, which is supposedly beautiful and I've never visited, but now she isn't sure if her exams will be over in time. We'll see. Now that we are in the study portion of the season we find we have a little more energy for fun and so last thursday we threw a small party in our bathroom (don't ask, it's tradition) with a little kiddie pool and lots of water and lots of vodka. It was a fun time although I must admit I was pretty tired and didn't stay long. It's still fun though and after 2 months in the field you really need some fun, even if it mostly consists of wearing your bathing suit to a party in the bathroom. I spent all day friday just relaxing and sleeping. I read a whole book and just enjoyed the day off. I really needed the time to catch up on sleep and just not think about anything. On saturday we had our final tell tour with the directors where we go to everyone's excavation unit and analyze what has happened over the course of the season. It was kind of fun this year although in retrospect, compared to the other units, my area was by far the least interesting. I won't sum up the results here because they are still unpublished and it's not my place to announce it to the world but it's been neat and I really enjoyed the excavations. The rest of the week was consumed by computer work and went by surprisingly fast. On Monday night we had a formal cocktail hour on the director's patio, where everyone wore shirts and ties and dresses. It was fun and its nice to get out of the same clothes you wear everyday and put something else on. And then, just last night we had 'karaoke' night where Massimo played guitar accompainment for anyone who wanted to sing a little. By the end it was mostly a sing-a-long but just goes to show that you never out grow the summer camp mentality, all that was missing was the campfire. It's fun to see people in another light, besides just a bunch of researchers and stuffy phds, even the director sang.

I suppose the biggest news here is that we have fired the washer woman in favor of an automatic washing machine. yes, that's right, automatic washing machine. it is installed in our bathroom and i haven't had the privilege of using it yet. I kind of feel sad because I found the laundry service to be one of the small luxuries that made the field seem nice. One thing that is done for me in the field that I don't get at home (kind of like the cook). We'll see how it turns out, maybe my clothes will last longer now that they aren't boiled once a week by the laundry lady. We shall see.

I thought I didn't have much to write this week but looking back this entry has gotten long I guess. I'm missing everyone and I was really sad to have missed my cousin Lindsay's wedding and I would just like to give her a shout out here and say I am so happy for you and Roy and I'm wishing you all the best, now and for always.

this week was the last week of excavation. from here out we're having a study season to make sure all the documentation for the season is in order. Today I just reached my halfway point. 40 days until I arrive back in the U.S of A. I can think a few people I can't wait to see :) This season has been pretty good so far with some interesting work and i've been really busy as I am sort of directing my own area this season. For those of you who know me well you know I like to be in charge so it works well when i'm left to my own devices. Right now i'm sorting through all my shortcomings as a unit director and doing my best to correct all the holes i've accidentally left in the documentation. I have a little notebook that i keep in the breast pocket of my shirt during the excavation, much like all the old men in Syria have in the breast pockets of their galabia's (their man dresses). I take it out and jot things down while i'm out in the field trying to do my best to remember everything. We also have an official binder where we keep all the official documentation and measurements but soemtimes my little notebook is more handy so i have to doublecheck and make sure everything gets done and now, more than anything, that it all gets entered to the computer before we leave. what i really need is one of those industrial computers that are designed for rural villages that i can take into the field. that way i could skip the data entry copying from the notebook to the computer. could be cool. maybe i'll try and write a grant to get some sponsorship.

Last week thursday night we had our annual Mozan costume party. The theme was gods and goddesses and so I went as cupid. Everyone here is always teasing me about how I am so happy and in love so I thought it was fitting. I managed to rig up a skirt as a dress, turned my costume from 2 years ago (1920s flapper) into some wings and bought a little bow and arrow set. It worked out pretty well. There were some really cute costumes including a guy with some Mozan 10 commandments all related to our work and some ancient Mesopotamian gods. We had a lot of fun although I'll admit I wasn't in much of a party mood but rather was just exhausted. Everyone slept late on Friday and there was debris from the party all over the house, bits of costumes here and there. I spent most of the day reading and relaxing and it was nice.

On saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday we worked in the field. Because my area is composed almost entirely of thin floors it has been very slow to excavate. we haven't moved nearly as much dirt as the other excavation areas, in fact we probably only removed 1/10 of what some of the areas did but it was much more detailed. On the last 2 days we were sure we weren't going to finish so i went to the field in the afternoon with the workmen as well. It was two 10 hour days in a row and i was feeling beat. fortunately on Wednesday they let us sleep in until 6:30 before starting our work on the computers. My workmen brought candy on the last day and they are really very sweet. We ended up having so much candy. One of the other workmen from another area brought candy around for everyone and told us all that he brought candy for everyone not because it was the last day but because he finally had a daughter. he was happy because he already had 2 boys. I saw one of his kids 2 years ago and he was adorable with these huge brown eyes. My workmen have been really great this year and i had no complainers. I'm going to miss them now that i'm working here in the house. I am looking forward to my work in the outer city and hopefully I will be able to wrap up all my work from the J2 excavations in the next week or so and really dedicate my time to this other project although we'll see how it turns out. The farmer is probably less than thrilled to have me tramping all over his watermelons, although i got to say, we are less than thrilled with the illegal water pump he installed on our power line which causes our power to go on and off about 5 times an hour. Fortunately the powers that be finally brought a new transformer to the nearby village and it has helped somewhat so now we only have the normal amount of power outages (about 3 a day). It's not so bad because we have a generator to power our computers when we are working so we don't have to worry about losing data. I brought a laptop but the battery doesn't really work and even if it did work any battery you bring here gets fried by the irregular electicity current anyways.

Today I'm off to Qamishli again. My friend Hiba left Mozan this week because she has her exams in Damascus but she is still in Qamishli until tomorrow so she invited me over for dinner. Should be nice then we are having a little party back at the site because some people are leaving. We usually throw a party in our bathroom which is the furthest point in the house from the director's room. We have a little toy pool that we sometimes fill up as a joke and put it in the middle of the bathroom. We'll see how it goes, this year's group is kind of low key. I'm glad to hear that people are enjoying the blog and I do love the emails even if I don't get enough time at the internet to always reply personally. I've been having Anthony post my blog entries because the internet here is a little cantankerous and doesn't always like me uploading info, especially pictures. until next week...

8.13.09

coming at you with my weekly update. this week has been fairly uneventful. Just plugging along doing my work and sort of moving at a slow pace. My goal in the excavation was to expose this pinkish colored floor all in front of the staircase where i am working and then make a deeper sounding in a smaller area but it took longer than expected. the reason for exposing this whole floor was because it might have been the floor associated with the moment of construction of the monumental staircase but now it is almost certain this is not the case so i kind of wasted a lot of time (not that it was my idea to expose the whole thing...). But at least now we are finished with that and are going to go down in just one area and hopefully achieve some of our goals for dating the staircase. We only have 4 more days of excavation though and so we are unsure if we will actually make it. The rest of the season is going to be dedicated to preparing the materials we excavated for publication.

The most exciting thing that happened to me this week was a trip to the outer city. The high mound here is quite large and all the excavations take place on it but in antiquity the area immediately around the high mound would have also been part of the city and we think there is a city wall further out surrounding the area. Of course now the whole area is covered with farms but in one area a farmer found a bunch of stones and some nice pottery so i got to go out and take a look to see where it was all from. Hopefully the directors (with my help) are going to write up something for publication about the outer city. It was really neat though to see the site from a different viewpoint and to experience the outer city. It was kind of funny because i went with the site guard, Mohammed Omo, who of course only speaks arabic and then a german girl, Juliana, who only kind of speaks English and then we met with the farmer, who only speaks arabic. We were quite a site as we walked all over his field looking for the places where he removed the stones and the places where he says he found the most pottery. Of course now it is all covered in plants and you can't see a thing but Mohammed Omo was certain he could show us the exact spot. The farmer was interested in me because he told me that his seeds for his watermelon come from American and he says that are the best around (or at least i think that's what he said). And sure enough his watermelons look just like american watermelons although i'm not sure how many varieties of watermelons there are. He also grows cotton and I will admit i'd never seen cotton growing before and it's strange because it looks like just flowering plants and you can barely see the little pods where the cotton is. I'm excited though to do the little survey of the area and get a chance to branch out from working on the tell.

Tonight is our big party that we have every year. It always has a theme and this year the theme is gods and goddesses so everyone is dressing up as different ancient gods and goddesses. I haven't quite decided on my costume yet but i'll be sure to post a picture next week if it is internet-appropriate ;)

Sorry this post is so short. I don't have much time this week because we are going to Qamishli early to buy our costumes for the party before tonight.