Hey everyone, sorry it's been so long since my last post! It's been a rough and busy month or so. In this post I'll talk about my new classes, as well as what has happened and what will be happening this semester.
The end of the semester break finally came, and with the start of the new semester I had to quickly remember how to be a student again. Classes started off with a bang, and it is a lot of work. This semester actually has fewer classes and class meetings, but the amount of work required has increased. This semester we have a number of papers and research projects to conduct, and they require a lot of time in the library.
This semester I am taking six separate courses. Three of them are new, and three are continued from last semester. Classical Daily Life in the Holy Land, Economy and Administration in Judah, and Ancient Greek Language are all continuing from last semester. My new courses are Pottery Typology, Archaeological Science Methods, and Intro to the History of the Ancient Near East. The Intro to History course is your typical history class on the archaeology, history and discovery of the ancient cultures of the Near East, focusing on the development of civilization and the big empires like Egypt, Assyria and Babylon. Pottery Typology is a good hands-on overview of pottery creation and types found in the region, and is a necessity for all archaeologists who want to work in the field. The class is going through the different styles of pottery and how things changed from period to period during ancient history. The Archaeological Sciences course gives brief insight into the different scientific methods utilized by archaeologists to analyze the remains and material discovered on excavations. The topic covers everything from absolute dating techniques, such as Carbon-14 dating, to archaeozoology. Anything that requires a specialist and necessitates the use of a laboratory is a special branch of archaeology, and we are learning the basics of it. The class is very interesting and gives us a look at some of the techniques that we often see and read about, but rarely fully understand.
All of these courses, both old and new, require an increased amount of work. We are reading multiple articles for each class, as well as doing our own personal research to further our knowledge for our upcoming papers. In addition, several of the classes from last semester also require large research assignments, and we are working on those as well. Overall I'm spending more time in the library than ever. But that is what is expected, and I'm not complaining. It's the life of a graduate student, and I knew what I was doing.
The beginning of the semester hasn't been all work and no play, however. I have managed to sneak in a bit of fun here and there. I took a day trip to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to see some of their new history exhibits. In the last few months two new exhibitions, one on Egyptian control of region and the other on the Roman emperor Hadrian, have opened up, and our professors have told us multiple times that they were worth seeing. So one day when I didn't have class I decided to take a trip and see them. They were very interesting, and definitely worth seeing. The Egyptian exhibit was especially fascinating, as it presented a lot of material (including pottery and small finds) that we had learned about and dealt with in detail last semester during our courses. Even some of the material on display was familiar, either because it was so famous and we had to read about it, or it came from the shelves in our classroom at Tel Aviv University. I was also happy to see that the halls were full of people who looked very interested in seeing the material.
I also led a small group of friends on a tour of Akko recently. This was the second time I showed people around my former home, and this tour was just as successful as the first. I always enjoy sharing what I know about new places, and I think I do a decent job making it accessible to people not as obsessed with history and archaeology as I am! I've also helped some friends plan their own travels and tours. On more than one occasion it's been recommended that I found a tour guide company, since everyone has been so pleased with my recommendations and planning! If working as an archaeologist doesn't work out, maybe I'll consider it!
In the upcoming weeks and months I will continue to be busy reading, researching, and writing. There are several trips and tours planned with the archaeology department, and I'm looking forward to them. Keep your eyes open for my posts in the future. One of the locations is very familiar to me. Can you guess where I'll be going for a third time this year?!
No comments:
Post a Comment