Raiders of the Lost Ships

9/2/09
Today the group met downstairs and we were off to a real life archaeological dig on the outskirts of Istanbul. It is here that an old Byzantine harbor has been discovered, and this site has been called perhaps the greatest marine archaeological discovery of all time. Back in Byzantine times, the walls of Constantinople extended less into the sea than they do currently. The harbor forms a kind of inlet on existing land, and this was only discovered when the city wanted to build a subway station near the water. We had to take a train to get to the area near the site, and when we arrived I could see a helicopter circling the dig. We peered down into the vast hole, and we could see different areas where city workers were currently constructing the subway station. It is a race against time for the more than 50 archaeologists in charge of the site, as they must hurry to excavate it before bulldozers fill in the area. All of the pottery, anphorae, and wooden planks from the dig are carefully documented, drawn, transported to an adjacent lab, and then reassembled for the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. This discovery is so vast and important, it will most likely get its own museum in the city. Adjacent to the property where the ships were found, 34 to date, there is evidence of pre-historic inhabitants on the peninsula that forms the existing city. Up until this dig, historians figured the earliest inhabitants of the area to be around 700 B.C. As we entered the covered site where a ship lay, half submerged, the skeleton sticking out of the ground, we could see that the wood of the ship was wet. Because of the type of mud that encases this dig, the archaeologists must keep the exposed wood in a wet medium at all times. In order to facilitate this, there are sprinklers all along the length of the tent that are run at nighttime. The exposed planks that we saw most likely date from the early 9th century and they exhibit exquisite Byzantine construction techniques. After the planks are extracted from the site and transported to the lab, which we saw later, they are analyzed using a laser technique which records all of the joints, fasteners, saw marks, and every other fine detail of the wood. It is quite a task and journey that these ships must take from the dig site to the museum. After the archaeological dig, the group headed to lunch, and I had the penne arrabiata, which has a very spicy sauce with it. Lunch took about 2 and a half hours, and then it was off to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, probably mostly made up of treasures stolen by the Ottoman Empire. It was interesting to walk in and see so many Greek sarcophagi and sculpture in one place. That was the whole first floor. Then came the artifacts from the ship site we had just visited, and a floor of Assyrian artifacts, and treasures from Troy. I saw some early cuneiform tablets from the 19th century BC, as well as many Anatolian tools from all different periods BC. The next floor were the artifacts from Palestine and Lebanon. On this floor was an inscription that originally was in the wall of Hezekiah’s tunnel in Jerusalem. It had been looted by the Ottomans most likely in the later 19th century. There were also many Palestinian statues and markers dating from the early centuries AD, as well as many pieces of jewelry. Unfortunately, we only had about 2 hours in the museum, and I would have liked to have seen more. After, we headed for our usual tea house to talk about some of the contemporary issues in Turkey that we have been exploring for the past few days. These include the prospect of a Kurdistan and all that entails, the PKK, the issues of migration in Istanbul, the dilemmas that arise when you live in a modern city with so much history, the Nationalist Party, as well as the Gulen Movement and their hidden agendas. During the next few days of our tour, we will be exploring the innards of the country, and will be doing so with a very nationalistic and touristic tour guide, who of course is paid to be the PR for a Turkey where there are few problems and which is always a great place to vacation. After debriefing a bit, we headed out on our own for dinner, and I had pasta again. This time penne with a little eggplant thrown in. We had an amazing view of both the Ayasofia and the Blue Mosque as the sun was setting and the call to prayer sounded, and Iftar, the breaking of the fast, began.