the ancient site of Kerkenes and the rebirth of a geology dream. [part I]

Damn you, rocks!
Or, rather, damn you people who can be enthused and curious about rocks and introduce me to things i've never seen before!

Or, perhaps, just damn you rocks and interesting people and interesting places.

This weekend I had the chance to go out and see the site where I'll be working this summer--Kerkenes Dag [kerkenes daah; Kerkenes Mountain]. Kerkenes is located just outside the town of Sorgun, about 4 hours drive east of Ankara, and is associated with a small village of approximately 200 families. Kerkenes Dag is yet another Hittite site [and quite an important one at that] and has been under excavation for approximately 15 years. The project is currently headed by METU Professor of Settlement Archaeology Geoff Summers and will eventually be taken over by the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago.

Geoff's wife, Francoise [a METU professor in Archaeology], is also involved with Kerkenes but from a different perspective--she is interested in energy efficient housing and about 3 years ago began the Kerkenes EcoCenter. Consequently, current building at the Kerkenes field station is an energy experiment--running on solar; organic gardens; solar cooking; energy efficient building materials, etc. It's an interesting and quite successful project that has incorporated many village residents. She also runs architecture "field camps," bringing in students from METU. One of her students, Mustafa [a very dedicated student--doesn't talk much, is very serious, quite different from a lot of the kids here...then again, he's actually from Cyprus], came with us this weekend and next weekend she'll be bringing 35 students to investigate and work on the current building projects--a new sample depot and research center; additional housing.

Geoff is British and Francoise is Mauritian. They have two daughters who each speak at least three languages perfectly--Turkish, English, and French. This weekend his youngest daughter [who will be starting at a French university in the autumn], Pamela, came out to the site as well because her childhood friend in the village was getting married. Their lives have drifted apart significantly in content but they've remained good friends. I mean, Pam is going to university next year and her friend...she'll probably have a kid or two. It'll be interesting to see what happens to them in the future.

Well, ok, that's a little superfluous background. Not what we're here for. So, on to the trip! [Just a warning...it's gonna be a long and relatively boring entry, which will be followed by the second half on some other day.]


DAY 1: Friday April 13th, 2007

Geoff and Francoise had room in the Land Rover for the ride up, so I didn't have to catch the bus. That was cool, saved me 18YTL and got me a nice basic geology/archeology lesson from Geoff on the way up [he's archeology, but knows some geology of the region]. We left around 1:30; departure was supposed to be at 12:30 but the late start gave me the opportunity to see Geoff and Francoise's house on campus. It's a mess with all sorts of stuff they've picked up on their travels, plants, and 5 massive guinea pigs. The guinea pigs belong to their older daughter, but she's gone to university so Geoff's taken over. They have all these pipes set up so the guinea pigs can go to different cages both inside and outside the house. I can't tell you how shocked I was when I saw it...it was pretty intricate and the guinea pigs were seriously huge. The Summers are a much too interesting people!

The ride up was relatively nondescript, other than the super cool rocks. At some point we stopped at the Yebitas cement factory. Yebitas used to be a big funding source for the Kerkenes projects, but the state of that funding is in question now that the company was sold to the Portugese. At Yebitas we met with a young fella who, let me tell you, had to have been on speed. He talked so fast, smiled so much, ran around like a crazy goose, and flipped his pencil maniacally...when he was talking to people on the phone that pencil went flying all over the room. But, he was nice and quite helpful, getting Francoise some donated cement. We'll see what happens with the bigger funding issue sometime later. It was interesting sitting in on the transaction and conversation, though. No skirting the issues here, that's for sure!

Yebitas was about an hour outside of Sorgun and it was 4:30 by the time we got back on the road. Unfortunately, as per usual, I really had to pee at that point. And then the brake light started flashing. That was...not so cool. But, we made it ok...even stopping in Sorgun for bread after some hilarious quibbling between the drivers.

sidenote #1: I've never seen such quibbling in my life! Not even in my family of professional quarrelers. Geoff and Francoise are champions! It's funny but also generally constructive, I think.

When we arrived in Kerkenes, village people [ha. ha.] came to meet us...and Francoise went straight to work. [She's crazy! Works constantly, juggles forty-five things at once, speaks three languages, and is really absorbed/in love with what she does. I have a lot of respect for her.] Geoff and I looked on as she directed her companions and he gave me a little background on the EcoCenter project.

Then it was just too cold and I had to wait inside.

sidenote #2: It's too bad it was so cold...can I tell you how cold it was? No, I can't. It was that cold. So cold that every unoccupied moment was spent surrounding a small, but remarkable, wood-burning furnace. I had to sleep in long-underwear, sweatpants, three layers of top + sweatshirt, and gloves. And, unfortunately, it appears I lost my fleece headband sometime last week, so I had to wear my fuzzy Siberia hat around...which generally scared most of the villagers half to death. A reasonable reaction, I'd say. Heck, if I saw my face in a fuzzy crazy hat like that I'd want to run and bury myself under my bed, too! Plus, we're talking about a group of people who hadn't seen a car until, what was it? 1930s?, when a German fellow drove in. But, who cares about the cold, right? To everyone's surprise, especially my own, I somehow managed to survive it.

Eventually, we had dinner--it's hard to pull Francoise away from her work--and then we sat around the furnace and talked awhile until Pamela and her friends arrived. Geoff has had such an amazing run of field work--hiking around Iran, Ethiopia, Kenya, living in the middle of nowhere. He's got such interesting stories. In Kenya, he worked in the Bush...with no rangers! Just walked out there and made lots of noise hoping that it would dispel any creatures from gobbling him up. In Kruger you'd be shot (probably by a ranger for that matter), or perhaps consumed, if you got out of the car and walked into the Bush alone! Heck man, I can't even imagine doing that...since the walk we took with the ranger in Kruger there's no way in hell mizell you'd catch me hanging out in the Bush looking at ancient human relics. Ok, that's a big fat lie--I'd totally go for that thrill. But, I'd still be scared.

So, basically, he's one pretty cool guy.

Pamela et al. arrived--bright eyed, bushy tailed, wearing sandals and no coats--around 11 o'clock. The wedding they were going to was a village wedding...which means it started on Thursday and lasted until Sunday, so they went for an hour after getting to the site. The wedding had a small band whose drummer was particularly excited to be alive and let us know, making the entire valley ring with bangs and booms for the entirety of the weekend. It was...hard to read. ha. No, it was nice and seemed like a lot of fun...though I can imagine the bride and groom probably died of fatigue by the end of it all. That's a shame.

After the clan of lively 19-somethings left, Geoff and I talked for about an hour more before hitting the sack. It was freezing buuuuut...I slept for the first time in 3 months!!!! It was fantastic.



Day Two--Part I: Saturday April 14th, 2007

The plan was to start early. Of course, the plan never works out. I was up at 6:45 and sat beside the now cold furnace, reading and grumbling about the cold. Let me say, until that moment when Karamehmet relit the furnace I don't think I ever really knew what being thankful meant.

Mustafa got up soon after me and immediately got to work...bloody dedicated kid, that one is. Eventually Geoff and Francoise got up. The plan was to head up to the site, but Francoise had to pick up the demirci [daymeerjee, steel worker] so Geoff took me around his gardens and showed me the rocks he picked up in and around the site. When Francoise got back breakfast was had and the day really began...

It was a beautiful morning--chilly but sunny--and a perfect day for walking around Kerkenes. Geoff drove us kids up to the site in the Land Rover [the thing's a beast] and Pam et al. took off. Geoff gave me a nice personalized tour of the site, outlining what he believed about the site/story/geologic possibilities and pointing out all sorts of different archaeological and geological aspects.

We started at the walls--made of lichen covered granite that forms the primary building foundations of the site. Like Hattusa, buildings were made of wood [Black Pine]. In fact, Geoff believes the site was burned--on purpose--to stop enemies from gaining a useful site. Evidence of this is pretty prolific, from burned wood to ash-stained rocks to actual melted rocks.















We walked up to the Kale [kaalay, castle]--a relic of later Byzantine occupation of the site--and Geoff found some pottery. He said that pottery is everywhere but decorated pottery was harder to find. To our amazement, just after he said that, I looked down and found a piece of pottery [about 3in x 2in], decorated with blue, yellow, and green images. Talk about thrilling! I expect it will never happen again. Granted, there is pottery absolutely everywhere in Kerkenes and surrounding areas. Big place for the Hittites and Byzantines, you know.

As we walked around the kale, Geoff pointed out some features and we looked at the landscape. He outlined the geology of the area and spoke an epic image for me of what the place likely looked/how it was traversed.

We then walked down to the gate. We walked through and I saw a number of well-rounded rocks, which I commented on. Geoff chuckled and then I turned around. O.M.G.

My pictures don't do the wall justice. I'll take better one's later in the season. But, my goodness. They are tall--and were likely much taller before--and beautiful. The rocks were beautifully carved and fitted [the tool marks are pretty obvious on the refuse], and the walls were beautifully excavated. When they found the wall they never expected it to be as tall as it is. They had no idea what they were getting themselves in to. The gray line you see--that's ash staining, indication of burning--and there was a lot more when they started the excavation. It's mostly been cleaned now. The building rocks themselves were pretty cool, too...filled with all sorts of weird fossils. [left, toolmarks; right, fossils]














Then we moved to the palace complex where the current excavation is focused. Again, gorgeous. The stonework was just outstanding. And this big circle? There was a huge tree trunk here, acting as a support pillar and holding things up. Geoff says that they've found so much more than they ever expected--the walls, statuary, ornaments, pottery. It's a much different place than Hattusa...but I can see why Geoff and Francoise and everyone else love it and work so hard to get the funding to keep at it.


An interesting/funny/gross story: On the way to the palace complex, we stopped by a water reservoir. Here, I was given this little gem from Geoff...

"That's what all the blood stains in the back of the Land Rover are from. I came up here one time and there were a couple of men and some women bleeding themselves, with leeches all over their bodies. They asked if I could give them a drive back down to the village because they were weak from the blood loss and couldn't walk. We had to lay the women in the back. They couldn't even sit up. When we got down to the village they got out of the car. The trunk was covered in blood."

He's talking about the same leeches that they sell in Ankara and Istanbul for $1.25 million.

Aaaand moving on...























Pam et al. were ready to go, so we began our trek back down. Geoff drove the Land Rover in to Sorgun so he could get the brakes checked. It was a nice day, so the other kids and I opted to hike back down the hill. The wedding was in full swing, the valley was ringing as we walked. [pictures are too small to be particularly nice, but they are quite nice if you click on them]



When we got back down it was still early and a bit cold, so we spent the rest of the time before lunch wrapped around cups of coffee soaking in the sun and watching the cows come back in from the fields. Most families in the village have one or two cows, for milk, and they are herded as a community. So, they all come in to the village and boys set themselves up to herd them down the road. The noise of the event is a very bizarre, but great, sound.


And here you go, a little gift for you champs that made it this far: that's me, in our coffee drinking phase--cold, unshowered, overall nasty. And, next to it, just a picture I happen to like. The conclusion to the weekend will come soon enough...bum bum buuuuuum. Hang in there kids.