Fun at Çatalhöyük!

Thursday July 22, 2010

So I have been at the Çatalhöyük site since last Monday (11 days) and not a whole lot has happened! Life on site is fairly quiet as there is not much to do. The living and research compound is a series of lab rooms, dorms, kitchen and site museum organized around a central courtyard. This compound is situated in between the West and East mounts so we are literally in the middle of the archaeological landscape. Yesterday I took a walk around the East mount and it is actually quite large. It is hard to believe there is at least 10,000 years of human history buried under the ground!

My research is going well and I have far exceeded what Prof. Carter (aka Stringy as he is known on site) thought I would be able to get done. I think he was expecting me to be able to analyze about 700-1000 pieces and to date I have done about 8000! There is also a 2 day conference that is being hosted at Çatalhöyük on Sat-Sun with famous scholars from all over the world. As Çatalhöyük was first thought to be a goddess worshiping society and Goddess worshipers still flock to the site as a pilgrimage centre the topic of the conference is religion and spirituality and how that fits/should fit within archaeology and science. I am extremely interested in this topic so I am incredibly lucky to be able to be here to participate!

You will all be glad to hear as well that I am trying my best to be social and keep my hermit tendencies to a minimum! Most people on site are very nice and are fun to sit and chat with. There are also themed parties once every Thursday and some of the team gets together and builds a big wooden structure by the bar that they then light on fire and it becomes the bonfire. Last week was a Story Book themed party where everyone was suppose to dress up as their favourite story character. Although she is not my favourite story character I went as Jasmine from Aladdin because I had turquoise clothing. The bonfire structure was a big tower with a cardboard Rapunzel at the top. They made her hair out of straw and they used that to light the tower on fire to kick off the party. The party was a lot of fun but may have finally convinced me to give up large quantity party drinking forever after a very unfortunate night of drunken embarrassment! There is another party tonight, themed Gods and Goddesses!

On Fridays we also get to travel into Konya (the big city in this area) and spend time in the city or at the 5 star, very swanky Dedeman hotel! They let us use their internet as well as their pool and gym facilities. The pool is outstanding! They also have relaxation rooms, sauna and mini Turkish baths. I was extremely hung over last Friday but I intend to enjoy it to the fullest this week!

I will be leaving for Ankara on Monday morning with Carter. From Ankara (the capital of Turkey) we will be meeting Dan and Kyle (Carter’s colleague and student) and we will all be flying to Van in Eastern Turkey for about 5 days. And the adventure continues!