Daily log, Fri 4.Sep.2015

• Author: Michael Loy

Of film crews and cliff scrambling

We made a good start to the day, with 16 tracts walked before breaktime (07:00-09:15). Everyone was fairly quiet for the first leg of the day, I presume from End of Week Exhaustion, rather than any particular reason for low morale.

Team A this morning comprised Néhémie, Çağatay, Hazal, Birce and myself. (Anja, Cem and Toby worked as a small Team B).

Coming soon to an intensive survey near you…

As we munched our second breakfast, the film crew (led by Gerd Lamper) explained their plan to us for the shoot. They wanted to film us walking a tract as we came over the horizon - I still maintain that a suitable soundtrack for such a scene would be the ‘Indiana Jones’ theme song.

It took two takes of the tract to satisfy the camera man, then he took some close ups: Birce using her counter, and Néhémie taking some notes. Toby and Anja were then called over for their fifteen (/two?) minutes of fame, as they were interviewed on survey methodology. Meanwhile, the rest of us (the same team as before, plus Cem) got back to work and walked 10 more tracts before lunch break.

EXTREME tract walking

After a quick sandwich and an apple, Anja and Hazal left for the excavation house, and the rest of us got back onto the plateau for more tract walking. The first two tracts were simple, but 3143-3147 were taken on a curve around the hill’s slope. It took 45 minutes to stagger around the sheer and unforgiving hill, and what we lacked in sherd count we made up for in cuts and bruises from thorns!

Anja and Hazel were waiting with the van at the bottom of the hill (to rescue us) at 14:40.

In other news…

The weather on top of the plateau, while still characteristcally sunny and hot, was pleasantly breezy - the first cooling breeze I have experienced since arriving in Turkey this time last week.

It was an uneventful day in the dog department.

List of Tracts and POIs created

• 3114 - 3149