Jens Notroff Profile picture
Apr 9, 2021 24 tweets 10 min read Read on X
Another day in the office? - Ever wondered what we’re doing on such an #excavation day out there in the field?

Here‘s a "Tale from a Tell", some little thread from the #archaeologist‘s field #journal and #sketchbook: Image
"4.30 o'clock. Ante meridiem. It's still dark outside, the dim light barely enough to distinguish a black thread from a white one: The muezzin just called the faithful to prayer and, probably unintentionally, the archaeologists to finally get up as well." Image
"Breakfast at such an early hour basically consists of not more than some strong tea, a slice of soft white flatbread (which will be rather dry within the hour), and a handful of olives ..." Image
"... taken in the quiet and still fresh morning air of the excavation house's courtyard in the light of setting stars and a single light bulb. Actually, it's too early for an honest breakfast too." Image
"On leaving the historic oriental brick-house in the old part of this eastern Anatolian town, everyone grabs a piece of equipment or provisions for the day to come and one after another heads through the narrow alleys towards the waiting mini bus and driver." Image
"As we arrive on this early Neolithic site, somewhere up in the mountains of southeastern Turkey, a pale moon is still hanging around a sky only slowly changing from black to blue." Image
"Groups of workmen arrived minutes before from a village down the hill. Dressed in coats and cardigans against the morning coolth, they're waiting for day's work to start while the bunch of students and scientists are collecting tools and instruments, equipment and journals." Image
"Gangs finding together following a long-established system: There's two diggers, one who shovels, and two basket-carriers. Always." Image
"Soon the air is filled with the sound of pickaxes and of chanting and laughing workmen. Soil is shifted, rocks are moved." Image
"Basket after basket of debris is brought out of the trenches. As the dust of history is slowly removed, the ancient remains are rising gradually: Boulders, slabs, and walls pulled back into present-daylight." Image
"And so business is going on. And on. The dusty work only interrupted by a short breakfast. Children from the nearby village are coming around, bringing their fathers and uncles and brothers food and some more water." Image
"Everyone's hungry  (and more lively ) by now, so this breakfast is a much more substantial and communicative matter than the sparse and mute one in the very morning." Image
"Over yet another tea (there's always tea, get used to it), over some cheese and flatbread, over tomatoes and cucumbers and olives, conversations are drifting around the table for half an hour of otiosity." Image
"Half an hour of lethargic rest in the shadows; the sun - not shy at all anymore - now showing its true nature, relentlessly burning down from a shimmering sky." Image
"Back in the dust soon the clanking of picks loosening dirt and rubble can be heard again. A group of visitors, marvelling at the site's sight, takes the chance to curiously quiz the archaeologists before returning to their air-conditioned busses." Image
"Workmen continue to dig; students are busily taking notes, picking out pieces of charcoal and fragments of flint tools and stone vessels from the excavated soil, collecting them in buckets and plastic bags - each labelled with date and information on their exact find spot." Image
"Dirt is sifted dry and wet (a rather dusty respectively muddy business); a steady flow of find material is coming towards provisional lab and office facilities in the excavation's 'headquarters' of construction containers and tents upon the next hill crest ..." Image
"After eight hours of digging, just when midday's heat is reaching its peak, everyone is happy to call it a (field) day. Bidding good bye, the crew of workmen is boarding tractors & trailers, leaving for that small village down the hill - dragging behind a dustcloud all the way." Image
"As the bus is slowly crawling down the dirt track everyone's trying to find a comfortable position, finally taking another short rest - legs stretched, the dusty hat pulled down over the eyes." Image
"Back in town, as we leave the car and head through heated-up narrow old-town alleys towards the excavation house, buckets and pieces of equipment in hand ..." Image
"The muezzin is calling the faithful to prayer again. Well, for the archaeologists it's lunchtime for now; the cook is already waiting." Image
"Of course the meal is not finished without the mandatory tea (you get the idea), so showers still have to wait for yet another 10 minutes or so. There's got to be time for that." Image
"But even now work isn't done for the day. The buckets brought back from site are emptied, the finds carefully cleaned and washed, sorted, and spread onto coarse screens to let them dry in the sun." Image
Thank you for coming to my illustrated TED talk. 😎😉

Enjoyed this little glimpse into my #IllustratedDiary of a #DayInTheField?

Find the whole story, "A-Digging on a Tell", over there on 👉@Medium.

jens2go.medium.com/a-digging-on-a…

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More from @jens2go

Aug 5
Buried with an aurochs and, among other animals, canid and marten bones - the fascinating case of a 12,000 y/o early #Neolithic burial reported from #ÇemkaHöyük in Türkiye's 🇹🇷 Upper Tigris Basin - interpreted as possible "#shaman":

via @Newsweeknewsweek.com/prehistoric-sk…
Original study:

E. Kodaş et al., A “shaman” burial from the PPNA settlement of Çemka Höyük, Upper Tigris Basin, Turkiye, L'Anthropologie in press (corrected proof 9 July 2024). 🔐

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Which adds nicely to the few other rather similar "#ShamanBurials" known, like e.g. the #Natufian one from #HilazonTachtit in a small cave in northern Israel, about the same age:

pnas.org/doi/full/10.10…
Image
Read 11 tweets
Dec 9, 2022
Genuinely digging the idea of #GraphicAbstracts, I was totally game than @lauradietrich_ asked if I could help with a visualisation of her latest #research concerning #Neolithic #querns and #FoodProcessing

So, here we go: "Reading Saddle Querns", a short introduction. Infographic illustrating, in the form of a flowchart beginni
Now you're curious about what this research is about, aren't you? 😉

Here's a joint article with some insight into what the #querns from early #Neolithic #GobekliTepe can tell us:

journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
Still want to read more?

Well, good news: @lauradietrich_ has published a whole book on "#PlantFood Processing Tools at Early Neolithic #GöbekliTepe" in the meantime.

Available online and #OpenAccess via @Archaeopress here: archaeopress.com Book cover of Laura Dietrich's "Plant Food Processing T
Read 4 tweets
Dec 9, 2022
Also this! I mean, seriously: What's going on here at #Lascaux? #BirdOnAStick 😉
(Forgot to alt-text the image, so here we go: Photo of the so-called shaft scene in Lascaux Cave showing a bison, a man lying in front of it, and a a bird-figure on a stick underneath. There's an additional line at the man's feet and another one crossing the bison's back.)
For those interested: The "bird on a stick" has been discussed as possibly representing a #SpearThrower. Drawing of a man throwing a spear with the help of a spear-t
Read 4 tweets
Dec 8, 2022
How ongoing research is increasing the available corpus (and our understanding) of Pre-Pottery #Neolithic #iconography.

Just a little #archaeology 🧵 on why this is really fascinating. 😉

@DrKillgrove reporting on new finds from #Sayburc in SE Turkey for @LiveScience: Screenshot of a Live Scienc...
Original report ("The #Sayburç reliefs: a narrative scene from the #Neolithic") by E. Özdoğan in @AntiquityJ 96(390), 2022:

cambridge.org/core/journals/…
Of course, the phallus-flashing guy gets all the headlines.

Well, it *is* quite a picturesque scene - one fitting #Neolithic iconographic conventions in the region & an apparently strong focus on male depictions (here's e.g. a comparable image from contemporary #GobekliTepe). Drawing of a 40 cm high scu...
Read 25 tweets
Nov 23, 2022
Maybe fuelled by recent claims that #Neolithic hunters were too "simple" and thus not capable of cultural achievements, there seems to be a misunderstanding about the "#pottery" part in #PrePotteryNeolithic (PPN).

They actually *did* use vessels. Just other vessels.

A short 🧵: Illustration of a Neolithic house with a woman sitting on th
Well known and clearly associated with #PrePotteryNeolithic contexts are e.g. #StoneVessels from different places like #KörtikTepe in Turkey or #JerfElAhmar and #TellAbr in Syria as well as (often fragmented though) many more related sites (including Göbekli Tepe by the way). Photo of two stone vessels, bowl-like with perforations at t
Bringing up the #GöbekliTepe fragments since they illustrate why finding complete vessels is comparably rare: the material was too valuable to not re-use it.

@lauradietrich_, @odietrich_, & myself discussed the "afterlife" of such #StoneVessels here:

jensnotroff.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/ii.20_… Plate with drawings of three stone vessel fragments, apparen
Read 15 tweets
Jul 10, 2022
"Look Klaus Bey, that stone's got ears!"

Sometimes, starting excavations in a new area, you only got a vague idea about what's really waiting below topsoil.

This is how innocent the now famous so-called #TotemPole from #GöbekliTepe peeked out upon its very first appearance.
Oliver put together a nice little thread here telling how the story of this discovery continued on after that first glimpse:
This find (calling it a #CompositeSculpture may be the more appropriate archaeological terminology) is of special interest since it represents a special type of early #Neolithic sculpture in the region also known from other sites:
Read 5 tweets

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