Historical Archaeology in the Ancient Mediterranean

Mopsos Survey 2008: A Personal Assessment

At the beginning of each field season I set a few goals in order to gage whether each season was a success.  In a previous post I listed my goals for the Mopsos Survey as: become proficient enough in GIS to create maps for my votive offering project and get a handle on the Roman pottery from the survey to determine if I want to take it on for a subsequent publication.  With the help of Pete van Rossum I now feel comfortable enough to create maps for certain research projects.  The Issus project was a huge success and I plan to incorporate GIS in the future.

After speaking with the Mopsos site directors I now have a clear research goal for the Roman pottery from Cilicia.  For the next year or two I will take on the Hellenistic through early Roman finewares (up to the first century A.D.).  I will create a ceramic typological analysis of the fineware, which will be published in a separate chapter in the site’s monograph.  It is a great opportunity for me professionally and I look forward to the challenge.  Therefore I am happy to report that both the Cyprus and Turkey field seasons as resounding successes.  The next three days I will be sightseeing in Istanbul and unable to blog.  Be back in a few days.

Mopsos Survey 2008 Comes to an End

Today marked the end of the Mopsos Survey season.  Students continue to frantically finish their journals and photo databases while staff enter last minute data and complete their field reports.  To bring the season to a proper conclusion we had a barbeque.  The basketball, football, and grilled meat marked the perfect end to a great season.  For the record, however, it is never a good idea to play basketball and football with a broken rib as the last picture of me wincing will attest.  Below I have posted pictures of the festivities.  I now let you ponder what is going on with Thad’s hand in the basketball picture.  I was right there and could not figure it out.

   

Another Day Back in the Lab

Today I finished my Issus GIS project.  The rest of the team continues to work on their journals, photo databases, and GIS projects.  Ben, Amanda, and I will present a poster at this year’s ASOR meeting in Boston.  We have a pretty good idea of the poster’s layout and content.  In the next few days I will discuss our plans.  Tomorrow is our last day of lab work and Jeff, Andrea, and I leave for Istanbul on Friday.  In the next three days students will post their final impressions of the Mopsos Survey at www.realtimearchaeology.blogspot.com and I highly suggest checking it out.  I will post my final Mopsos blog entry, on both the Mopsos and my personal blog, on Friday.  Below I have posted a print screen image of my GIS project on the Battle of Issus.

Two More Days

Today was the last day of survey. For the next two days people will be washing pottery, labelling pottery, drawing, doing GIS work, packing things up, and finishing their assignments. Since I opted to stay back and sort pottery today, I do not have anything new to report. For a description of today's events in the field please visit the Mopsos Survey blog at www.realtimearchaeology.blogspot.com For now I leave you with an assortment of facts from www.chucknorrisfacts.com

Chuck Norris can lick his elbows at the same time.

Bigfoot takes pictures of Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris is allowed to talk about Fight Club.

Chuck Norris can unscramble an egg.

When there is a fire you stop, drop, and roll. When there is a Chuck Norris you stop, drop, and die.

Chuck Norris can dribble a football.

When Chuck Norris talks everybody listens and dies.

Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.

When the boogeyman goes to sleep he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Archeologists unearthed an old english dictionary dating back to 1236.  It defined "victim" as one who has encountered Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris does not sleep, he waits.

Project Slowly Winding Down

Today several students stayed back from the field to work on assignments and personal projects.  Jeff worked on his photo database, field journal, and GIS work on hydrography.  Andrea also worked on her photo database and field journal and then marked pottery.  Thad continues to work on his research paper while Juan spent the majority of the day marking pottery.  I spent the day putting the final touches on my GIS project.  Below I have posted the project report.

After consultation with Pete I decided to work on a GIS project in the Payas River area.  Starting with the Quad maps, contour maps, Corona images, and aerial photographs I determined that the Quad maps and Corona images would be the best sources for my project.  The goal of the project is to use the Quad maps and Corona images to create a survey methodology for the Payas River, the proposed location of the Battle of Issus.  The best way to prove or disprove the Payas River battlefield thesis is through pedestrian survey with a well-designed methodology.

According to the classical sources the length of the Issus battlefield was 2.4 kilometers from the coast to the foot of the Amanus Mountains.  Furthermore, the sources note that Alexander marched from Myiandros to the battlefield in a day and fought the next.  There are three major rivers north of Myriandros and southeast of Issus, which scholars have noted as the battlefield site.  If one accepts the classical narratives, the battlefield must be within a day’s walking distance from Myriandros and measure (now or in the past) 2.4 kilometers from the coast to the mountains.  According to the geomorphologist the Payas River, which today measures 4 kilometers in width, measured 2.4 kilometers in antiquity and was the site for the great battle. 

I began my GIS project by georeferencing the Quad maps with the Corona images.  This essentially aligned the two images.  I then set the Quad maps at 60% transparency so the modern development depicted on the Quad maps could be seen on the Corona images.  I then created a feature class where I could draw the current coastline.  With the current coastline in place I copied the line and moved it 1.6 kilometers inland so that it would represent a projected ancient coastline.  Given the arbitrary nature of the ancient coastline projection I added a 200 meter buffer line on both sides.  The GIS map depicts the projected ancient coastline with a buffer zone, modern coastline, modern development that would restrict certain areas to survey, and the Payas River. 

Using the measuring tool I determined that the site of Myriandros is approximately 22 miles from the Payas River.  The two remaining contenders are further north of the Payas River, which suggests that if the classical sources are correct and the site of Myriandros was correctly identified the Payas River appears to be the most likely site for the infamous battle.  To further support the Payas River battlefield theory a survey must be conducted on both sides of the proposed ancient coastline.  If the Payas River was the ancient Pinarus there should not be pre-Classical material west of the proposed ancient coastline.  If there is material, however, the Payas River cannot have hosted the Battle of Issus.       

Beach Day at Arsuz

Yesterday we spent our free day in Arsuz. Since it was our first day off, we spent the majority of our time either at the beach or one of the many fine restaurants. There was one rule, no archaeology talk. Needless to say most of us are archaeology dorks and the rule was broken a few times. The highlight of the trip was the two tackle football games on the beach. The locals looked at us in utter disbelief but we did convince a few to play. Below I have posted a picture of our group at the wonderful beach.

A small group spent the day in the Payas area north of Iskenderun. Depending on which theory one ascribes to, the Payas River was the location of the infamous Battle of Issus. At the battle Alexander the Great routed the massive Persian army on his way through Anatolia. Our geomorphologist has written an article arguing for the Payas River as the location for the battle. Today was more of a reconnaissance day rather than archaeological survey. We observed the geology of the river system and the archaeological sites in the area. As it currently stands the distance from the coast to the foot of the Amanus Mountains by way of the Payas River is approximately 4 kilometers. According to the classical sources the width of the Issus battlefield (from the coast to the foot of the mountains by way of the Pinarus River) was 2.6 kilometers. Our geomorphologist argues that in the last 2300 years the coastline at the mouth of the Payas River receded 1.4 kilometers. Our brief observation of the current coast, however, yielded a sizeable Late Roman/Byzantine site with a visible foundation. This throws a little doubt on the argument that the Payas River was the ancient Pinarus and thus the battlefield site. One of the site directors questioned how the site could be there if the coastline receded 1.4 kilometers over the last two millennia. One would expect the late Roman site (say 600 A.D. as a conservative estimation for the coastal site) to be situated further from the coast. Below I have posted pictures of the Payas River showing the significant modern development of the Iskenderun Bay.

 

First Day Off

Just a short post today.  I spent the morning doing GIS work and marking pottery.  This afternoon a bunch of us are going to Arsuz for our first day off.  We are going to hang out on the beach, play some football, and recharge our batteries.  Sorry there will be no post tomorrow but I will be back on Sunday.

A Day with the Mayor of Arsuz

This morning we spent five hours surveying and the rest of the day with the mayor of Arsuz.  Although we did survey a large Byzantine site with an early church, the rendezvous with the mayor was far more interesting.  Apparently he is the first Christian mayor in Turkey and is a member of one of the more prominent families in the area.  After a majority of the group first met with him, he took us around the city to tour the local Orthodox Church.  The church dates to the late eighteenth century and has several antiquities “decorating” the courtyard.  After the church tour the mayor took us out to lunch and talked about his family and the Arsuz area.  I have to admit the meeting with the mayor was a nice break from the scorching Turkish heat.

As a side note during our conversations with locals we heard many local folktales regarding archaeological sites in the area.  For a great discussion of these stories see Thad Olson’s post at realtimearchaeology.blogspot.com

Olive Oil Production in the Amanus Mountains

Today’s survey was centered in and around the small village of Beykelu. The goal was to identify and collect a representative artifact assemblage from sites mentioned in nineteenth-century traveler’s narratives of the area. The site descriptions offered in the narratives are pretty vague and usually present basic descriptions of the archaeological material. Identifying, publishing, and studying these sites are an important facet to the research goals of the Mopsos Survey. The narratives also give us an indication as to where archaeological sites are in the area.

The more interesting find today was a Byzantine period site containing tools for olive oil production. In the middle of an apricot orchard in the foothills of the Amanus Mountains was a large press stone and corner stone with grooves cut in to hold wooden beams (see pictures below). The sheer size of the press stone suggests commercial production. Interestingly the associated artifacts do not clearly reflect olive oil production. The standard assemblage of roof tiles, coarseware pottery, and a small amount of finewares alludes, to me at least, a modest farmstead not a major production site. Luckily the olive press stones were still in situ, which allowed us to better interpret the function of the site. I have posted pictures of the survey landscape, the wooden beam stone, and the press stone. For another perspective of today’s survey visit: www.realtimearchaeology.blogspot.com

 

Another Day Back at the Ranch

I spent my day at the monastery sorting pottery. Artifact analysis is an essential task of every archaeological project. The bulk of artifact analysis occurs during study seasons but in preparation for a study season several tasks must be accomplished beforehand. All artifacts must be washed, sorted to classify artifact groups and ceramic types, read to decide what pieces are to be drawn and kept for a study collection, labeled to give each saved artifact a unique number for cataloguing, and (ideally) drawn and photographed. That way when it comes time for a study season one can immediately begin intensive artifact analysis for publication. All the preliminary artifact analysis occurs each day during the survey lab and when selected people are chose to work while others survey. Tomorrow I will be back in the field and have more fun and exciting adventures.