Category Archives: Uncategorized

I just wanted to share a photograph from Kemalettin who took a moment out of his busy work schedule to appreciate the colorful arrangement of tags and boxes awaiting his attention. We use the colored tags to prioritize our finds … Continue reading →

The University of Cambridge just released a press release about some of our on-going research spearheaded by John MacGinnis and recently published in the Cambridge Archaeology Journal. The link to the press release is here. This element of our research focuses … Continue reading →

Normally archaeology is like a marathon; slow and steady progress and lots of repetive tasks which require stamina and time. This season we have a goal to process 828 tomato crates full of pottery (the tomato crate is a standard … Continue reading →

One of our conservators, Yvonne Helmholz, has made a potential interesting discovery during the routine cleaning of an artifact destined for the study collection at the Diyarbakir Museum. The artifact is a flat bone plaque, roughly rectangular in shape. It … Continue reading →

Check out the new banner at the top of the page. This is a panaramic shot that Willis took of Bismil at night. One day shortly after we arrived in Turkey, six of us retired in the evening for some refreshments on the rooftop … Continue reading →

Our last digging season ended in a whirlwind of activity and I’ve been meaning to go back and finish off the last 2013 blog entries for months… and here it is 2014 already! As I told you last season, the … Continue reading →

I was asked via email how many field seasons we have done at Ziyaret Tepe and why the Turkish government is building a dam that will destroy so many ancient sites. Both are good questions so I thought I would … Continue reading →

At the end of each season, we take a series of final photographs which document the results of the digging. This picture shows the workmen, Dirk, and his team sweeping the trenches in Operation N in preparation for final photographs. … Continue reading →

A small frit figurine of the god Bes, identified by Willis, came out of the grave from operation M. Only a fraction of an inch high, the figurine was pierced to be suspended on a fine thread. It was found in … Continue reading →

The excavation of the large building in Operation M took a very interesting and exciting turn on Wednesday when Kemalettin discovered a burial under the earlier of two floors in the large building in Operation M. The burial, officially labelled … Continue reading →