A couple of days ago I was lying in my room semi-napping when I heard the assistant director of the excavation come in and say “In five minutes, we learn about the stones. Tell everyone.” A few minutes later, one of the women staying in the other room came in and repeated to my roommates and I, “In five minutes, we learn about the stones.” I had no idea what this meant, but I dragged myself groggily from my bed and five minutes later went outside, where a truck was driving away and people were walking towards the building. It was too late, the stones had already gone.
I was completely unsure whether or not I had dreamed the whole sequence, but apparently it was real: were were to learn about the concrete markers were are going to use to more permanently mark the spaces were were marking with our bodies yesterday.
Today, I spent the morning watching other people dig holes. A good part of this I spent sitting on a chair in the shade in the village, where some very nice ladies gave me Turkish coffee, and children taught me some Turkish. “Sonliarda oturiyorum”: “I am sitting in the chair.” Hopefully I’ll get a picture of this on Flickr soon. The holes were for the concrete markers, the mysterious “stones” of the other day, and I did do about 15 minutes or so of work on that process.
This is awesome! Doesn’t it feel good to finally be doing the thing you want to, even if it ends up being completely different from what you expected? Looking forward to more pictures…
Yeah, it is! In archaeology as in life, nothing every turns out the way you think it’s going to.