On Saturday, March 31, the Department of Archaeology held a workshop for students from the BLIS, METU, Tevfik Fikret and TED high schools. The workshop lasted all day and was conducted by Dr. İlgi Gerçek, Dr. Olivier Henry and Dr. Dominique Tezgör with the help of student assistants from the department. The workshop comprised five different exercises: “Artifact Analysis,” “Stratigraphy,” “Conservation Lab,” “Archaeology and Technology” and a “Cuneiform Tablet Workshop.”
After a brief introductory lecture on archaeology by Dr. Gerçek, the students were first asked to analyze pairs of modern and ancient objects and share their theories on the objects’ function, use and contexts. After the object analysis, students were introduced to the concept of stratigraphy by “excavating” through cloth layers in a plastic bin, finding and recording objects. In the following activity, students were asked to restore broken objects. After the lunch break, Dr. Henry introduced the students to the use of drones in archaeology. Finally, Dr. Gerçek gave a brief lecture about cuneiform script and taught the students how to shape their own clay tablets and write in cuneiform.
The workshop gave high school students interested in the subject an opportunity to “practice” archaeology and become more familiar with the field. They met professional archaelogists and were able to ask questions to both instructors and students from the department. At the end of the day, all of the students expressed their pleasure at having been able to participate in the workshop.