Life is life.
November 15, 2008
For many years I’ve been going to Turkey to work on an archaeological excavation at a place called Gordion. Gordion was the capital of the Phrygian kingdom and at one point Midas (yes, King Midas of the golden touch) was the ruler. The excavation is sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Museum. I first went there in 1989 as a student when I was training to become a conservator at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. The Gordion Project, and the people who are part of it, have become part of my life, and many are family to me. One man, Muammer Bektöre, started working for the dig at about age ten. He worked for the dig for the rest of his life. He passed away about two years ago. Here’s a photo of Mumu, as he as known.
Mumu at his garden, summer 2006.
Mumu didn’t speak great English, and my Turkish is awful but we shared a lot over the years. One of the best things I’ve learned by going to Turkey is that if two people want to communicate, they will. And some times it’s easier when you don’t share a language because what you care enough to strive to say, really means something. You can’t hide so much.
The Gordion Project has been going on for over 50 years. I’ve been going there for 20. Lately, a number of people I’ve known because of the project have passed on. Some of the people were elderly and so it wasn’t unexpected; others were just suddenly gone. Mumu had a saying that he would use to comment on the things that happen, both good and bad. It seems especially appropriate these days — “life is life”.
This blog is a random collection of thoughts about people I know, places I’ve been and things that interest me. I am a conservator who works with archaeological and ethnographic artifacts and the people who care about them. It’s a good life.
January 28, 2010 at 10:22 pm
[...] Those of you who have been following this blog are probably wondering why I never really talk about the big issues here. ”Come on woman! You are living in Iraq! Give us the low-down on the unstable political situation, and starving refugees, and scary Islamic terrorists, and the horrors of war!” But the thing is, that’s not what life is about here. It’s not like they show you on TV. It’s about people going to work every day. And kids riding their bikes on the street. And chatting with people about the heat and having insider jokes about the things you see and do each day. (Soon after I took this photograph I picked up some scrap wire and gave it to our driver, which cracked him up, because he tried to hang a mirror for me earlier this week, and we didn’t have any wire in the house.) It’s seeing and sharing bits of beauty as you go through the day (my bits just happen to be other people’s junk). I don’t mean to say that those other awful things weren’t here and don’t happen. But what I want you to know is, that’s not what it is now. Because, you know, life is life. [...]