It Begins!

Entry posted by Neos Dionysos June 12, 2006

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If you are reading this I am most likely either finishing up packing or on a plane out of the country going to Turkey. Some of you, know this already but this is for everyone... as of 1pm Central Time I will flying out of O'Hare International headed to JFK, then from NYC to Istanbul, (Not Constantinople), (+4 awesome points to whomever gets the reference first), and I will not be returning until July 10th.

I am going, along with a professor of mine and about 9 other students, to work alongside my Prof's collegue on Galatian Hillforts from the Hellenistic period in and around the city of Ankara. We will be covering, something like 50km worth of sites and a couple he just found in Cappadocia to the East of Ankara. Surveying and a little excavation as well as mapping for GPS satalites everything we find, (sites and such since no maps exist to date). Once that is done, we will travel to the Ionian Coast and Ephesus, Halicarnisus, Sardis and other sites and then into Caria to see some rural areas my Prof knows which were visited and sieged by Alexander the Great. From there after so many days, we'll head north to Illium, (Troy), then spend the last days in Nova Roma, Constantinople, Istanbul or Isargrad, depending on how you wish to view/call it. I plan to have A LOT of pictures, (I can take up to 1280 LoL). So... all, wish me luck and safe passage. I do look forward to seeing some of the greatest Mosques in all of Islam and seeing the greatest Christian Church ever constructed, (the Hagia Sophia), back in the 530's.

I may or may not have some time on the internet, since for a while we will be based at Bilkent University outside Ankara, and I would assume they have access. Also I am not sure how I will be spending the 4th of July....so... I need to think of how to celebrate our nation's B-Day when I am on the otherside of the world.

I hope to come back and be able to write up something for UNRV on what was accomplished and learned on such an elusive people...

Well... back to finishing the last of my packing... Salve!

Phil