M. Willis Monroe

Soas was looking particularly nice on Friday. I had my last classes this week. Now it’s just revision until the exams. I think if I really get down into my books It might actually come out ok.

On Friday I went to the British Museum and took pictures of the Black Obelisk and of the panel on the Obelisk that shows Jehu. I then added these to the wikipedia articles. It felt like a productive edit.

Next week on Monday I’m starting the Roman dig in Surrey. It should be a lot of fun; I’m really looking forward to it. Oh and Scott gave me a book of Wordsworth “The Earliest Years” which I’m just getting into.

Today was another productive day. Got all my work done in the morning and then did a bunch of gardening to Peter. We planted a lot of flowers in little clumps around the garden, and also made a small vegetable patch (just lettuce and cress). I checked on things later and the slugs have really come back in force. The shells seem to do nothing to stop them. I think our next plan is a beer trap.

I’m feeling really overwhelmed by revision and arrangements for this summer. Not getting the Jordan program has really put a downer on my mood. But I guess there’s nothing I can do except try the best on my exams and apply again next year. I’d love it if I could get to Megiddo, I just have to get a doctor’s good health note into the program, and hopefully they’ll accept me. I don’t usually get stressed out about things. I think this year now I’ve gotten stressed out twice I guess it’s good because it means I’m working near my limit which is the best I can do.

My plans for after exams are looking really cool so far. Liz might come to visit right after exams. Then I’m heading to Italy to stay with Lucia for a while then meeting my mom in Genoa and then we’re going to Paris together and seeing some friends nearby. Then I might head up to Holland see Friesland with Liz again. Then it’s back to London for Sarah’s birthday/goodbye bash. And then hopefully Cader Idris again with Jon. It’s a busy couple of weeks but lots of friends and traveling so it should be fun. Here’s to all the plans working out. So far the only definite part (i.e. bought the ticket) is that I’m flying to Italy on the 21st to see Lucia and then meeting up with my mom afterwards.

This morning I cooked myself a nice fry-up of an egg and some spinach and mushrooms with a bit of cheese. It’s a nice change from my normal cereal. After breakfast I got straight to work and managed to get a lot of translating done today. I did all I said I would do and perhaps this evening I’ll even do extra to get ahead for tomorrow.

I went out back to check on my flowers and it turns out they’re being devoured by slugs. I bought some crushed shells homebase and picked every single slug off the plants (there were tons, all on the undersides of the leaves) and made a little fence of crushed shells around the pansies… hopefully this will keep the slugs at bay. Tomorrow I’m going to go out and check again for slugs and pick more off.

After lunch Peter, Karl and I went over to the park and threw a baseball around for a while. I didn’t have a glove so my hands hurting a bit now from the catching. Afterwards we went to homebase where I picked up the slug stuff and we bought more flowers and some vegetable seeds. Peter and I are going to plant some of them tomorrow. We also went into the brick section and discussed various ways of building a grill in the back. I might go pick up the bricks tomorrow we calculated for the optimal arrangement it would be 3 pounds 50 for all the bricks. I’ll put up a photo of our nice grill once it’s been constructed.

Today was a long day. A lot of things were depressing me; I have too much work, stuff for the summer is complicated, still sorta hung up on Gillian. I spent pretty much all day in the library translating Akkadian. I saw Sam briefly and we talked for a bit and he lent me an archaeology book and I showed him some photos from Turkey.

However tonight after dinner I was making myself a cup of tea when Berit texted me saying that she had heard rumor of a secret Sonic Youth gig. So I hightailed it to the venue. Turns out it was Thurston Moore and his band but still it was amazing. It was just the upper floor of a small pub. Not too many people there as it wasn’t advertised, lots of hipsters. It was exactly the kind of music I needed to hear to destress.

I just got home and I think I’m going to hit the sack, I’m really tired. I still haven’t heard anything from the Jordan program so I can only assume the worst. They said they’d let people know if they were accepted on the 24th, and I guess they’ll let you know if you weren’t accepted later : (.

Last week I managed to sit down and get a lot of work done. Thursday I went down to the Institude of Archaeology to check if a paper of mine had been graded (I didn’t find it). Friday I spent the whole day in the SOAS library translating the annals of Ashurbanipal. The new expansion is really amazing to work in. The desks are just the right height and the huge glass windows give you ample light.

I planted some pansies in our garden. Once this rain goes away I’ll go to Homebase and get some more flowers for the garden. I did some work for Scott over the weekend, and went to Quaker meeting today.

I spoke with my Mom about plans for the end of May. It looks like I’ll go to Italy to see Lucia after my exams and then meet my Mom in Italy at a conference she’s attending. Then we’ll both fly back to London and she’ll spend a little time here. I should hear about the program in Jordan soon.

I’ve been baking a lot of pizza’s recently. Today for lunch I made a really nice very thin one with spinach, mushrooms and mozerella.

This weekend I took the bus up to Oxford to see Chris on Friday. I slept over and the next day we went up to Peter’s to have a little Easter celebration. Chris under the tutelage of his father Michael Roaf drove up to Peter’s. He was quite good at it too! After Peter’s we both took the bus back to London and went out seperate ways.

I bought an trowel this weekend; I’m pretty excited. I have this dig in May and it should be pretty fun. It’s definitely a start to something. I debated for a while whether to get the typical British archaeologist trowel or the American style, I opted for the former rather than the later.

This is Karum Kanesh an Old Assyrian trading complex on the edge of a proto-Hittite city near the modern city of Kayseri.

The lovely town of Goreme right after sun down. Straight ahead is the small bus station.

The tomb of the poet Rumi in Konya. It’s a popular pilgrimage site. The whole complex is amazingly beautiful.

Team Beshiktash lining up on the field before their match against Ankaragucu.

Mehmet, Gulistan, Hasan, Merve (Hasan’s girlfriend).

More photos can be found on my flickr page.

Yesterday I woke up earlier then I expected and couldn’t get back to sleep so I packed my stuff and headed to the center of the village to catch a bus for Aksaray. Once in Aksaray I went to the old bus station to catch another dolmuş for the village of Yeşilova. When I arrived at the town center a fellow passenger was kind enough to point me in the right direction to find Acem-Hüyük. Overall it wasn’t spectacular but intersting none the less.

I did the journey in reverse and got a bus from the Aksaray bus station to Ankara and then arrived back home at four thirty in the afternoon. Tomorrow my plan is to stop by the British Institute for Archaeology in Ankara and join up as member and then peruse their library for site reports on the various places I’ve seen. Then I have to figure out how I’m going to get to/visit Gordion and Hattuşa this weekend.

I’m in Göreme right now. It’s one of my favorite Turkish towns. Set right in the heart of Cappadocia it’s circled with beautiful scenery. I’m staying at an o.k. hotel. The bathroom door is just a foot shorter then it needs to be and I’ve hit my head hard three times already.

Yesterday I woke up early in Konya and hoped on a mini-bus for Çumra when I got there the Mayor’s secretary made me a cup of a tea and called a cab to take me to Çatal-Hüyük. Once I got there the cab-driver, site guard and I walked around the mound seeing all the various excevations. It was great to finally see this site that i’ve studied so often.

Once I got back from Çumra I visited the tomb of Rumi in Konya. I was just about the only foreigner there everyone else was on pilgramage there. The complex has a wonderful air about it and the inside is beautiful. After Rumi’s tomb I got my bag from the hotel and took the tram out to the Otogar and jumped on a bus for Göreme. I got here late last night and checked into my hotel.

This morning I got up early again and headed to the center of the village to catch a bus for Kayseri. Once I got there I walked around until I found the tiny Archaeology museum and saw their small collection. On the way out I asked the keeper of the collection how I could get to Kültepe. He gave me great directions of which bus to catch and where to get off etc… So I set off and caught the bus to Bünyan. Half way there I got off on the side of the road and walked two kilometers away from the road and found my self and Kültepe Kanesh. The remains at the karum there are amazing. I jumped the fence to get in and had twenty minutes or so to wander around before the guard came and sold me a ticket and then escorted me around the rest of the site including the citadel (which isn’t as cool). I headed back out the main road and flagged down a bus coming back from Bünyan for Kayseri. There I got on another bus to head back to Göreme.

Tomorrow I think I’ll get up early and catch a bus to Aksaray where I’ll try and get a taxi to take me to Acem-Hüyük and then head back to Ankara from Aksaray.

Oh yeah the title comes from a board at Kültepe, on the citadel there’s a palace and the sign read “…destroyed by a violet configuration…” I assume they meant “violent conflagration” but I liked the idea of being destroyed by a “violet configuration”.

Today I went to Anit Kabir; Ataturk’s Mausoleum. It’s pretty impressive. I went with the specific purpose of trying to document how Hittite inspired it was and I think I found a lot of stuff. The whole site glorifies Attaturk. It’s really quite amazing.

This evening Hasan got me tickets to see Beşiktaş play Ankaragücü here in Ankara. He works from the latter translating for their brazilian players. The game was great, I’d never seen Beşiktaş play before. If I end up spending a significant time back in New England I’m going to make a point of going to see lots of New England revolution games, I really love watching soccer especially live!

Tomorrow I’m catching a bus to Konya spending the night there and then I’m on to Cappadocia for two nights and then back to Ankara. I want to see Çatal Hüyük near Konya and some other sites around Cappadocia.