Last week the team was boosted with the arrival of Jonathan Pilgrim from England. Jonathan is just finishing a gap year before heading off to university, and comes to Ziyaret Tepe having worked teaching English in a school in Uganda, followed by some travelling in the Far East. Jonathan has quickly proved himself an invaluable member of the team and a quick learner – mastering the total station, helping with the resistivity survey, working on the database, and excavating.
Here Jonathan is excavating a pit in the Bronze Palace on the citadel mound. Next week he will be descending to the lower town to work in the newly commenced Operation U. Jonathan has taken the long working days, intense heat, and varied requests for his time and energy in stride. In the afternoon shifts Jonathan has been working on processing ceramics: weighing, counting, sorting by type and fabric – not necessarily the most glamorous aspect of archaeology but a vital part of the scientific process.
When he returns to England, Jonathan will be starting an undergraduate degree at the University of Durham in Human Geography.
