Seven Sleepers

This morning when I looked the vote was 9 to 1 that I should go to the Seven Sleepers! The one NO vote was someone here in the group who thought it wasn't worth getting up so early! Yesterday, the day of the trip the vote was 5 to 1 and so woke up early to go to the Seven Sleeper site. Ricky did too. It was a good thing to do. What I thought was going to be a quick and boring visit turned out to be pretty interesting. A specialist met us on the site and opened the lock so that we could get into the area that they don’t open to the public. He told us that the site was actually much older than they first thought it was. He showed us how the tombs were built under the ground of the church. All of them had been opened and robbed of the contents. He explained to us that this was the area that people came to see and the Seven Sleepers. We went under the floor and walked through a tunnel that visitors would have used. We also saw bushes with white rags tied to them. Pilgrims tied the rags on trees as prayers when they were visiting the site. Both Muslims and Christians know the story and think of it as a holy site.



We also visited a site called St. Luke’s Tomb. It was originally named St. Luke’s Tomb because the archaeologist who first found it in the 1800's saw a bull with a cross on it. This is St. Luke’s symbol and the shape of the site made it look like a tomb. As it turns out it had nothing at all to do with St. Luke. The archaeologist explained that when he did a thorough dig on this site in 2000-2004 and looked for things he found a water channel coming from up in the hills where there was an aqueduct. He also found other evidence that it was a fountain. He also found an area that he came to the conclusion was a closed area with a door that could be used as a refrigerator. He explained that he thought that this was a storage area that was kept cool by the water coming from the aqueduct. It could be closed up and people who came to Ephesus to sell meat could leave it in this storage area (actually a refrigerator!) temporarily. The thing that was amazing to me was that the site had a sign in front of it with totally wrong information! When the sign was put up they had realized that this was not a tomb, but the theory at the time was that it was a greco-roman ruin that was later made into a basilica. This is what the sign said. It sort of bothered me that the archaeologists knew new things, but had not changed the signs. The reason for this is that the archaeologists are not doing this work for tourists. They work really hard and after lots of time looking at the evidence they write scholarly works. They talk to each other about what they find, but rarely have the money or time to put up new signs.

A Change of Plans

This morning we were supposed to visit a shrine dedicated to the Seven Sleepers. This is a story, which can be found in many different languages and cultures. Georgia Frank, a professor from Colgate University in New York state lectured to us about it. Here is a short version of the story:

“Once there were seven young men who were supposed to make an offering to the emperor to worship him. Since they were Christians they did not want to make an offering to the emperor, so they went and hid in a cave. They brought some money with them and so they had a few coins. When they were in the cave already the Emperor’s workers found them and buried them alive in the cave. 200 years later they woke up and came out of the cave. Everything looked so different and now it was not bad to be a Christian. They were hungry and still had a few coins, so they gave a coin to a small boy who was passing by and asked him to buy them some bread and bring it back.

When the boy got to the bread shop the baker was astonished when he saw the coin. He told the boy that it was a very old coin and either he had found a treasure or stolen the money. If he didn’t want to be arrested he had to take the baker to where the “treasure” was and then the baker would not have the boy arrested. When they returned to the seven young men the baker was amazed and right away praised God for raising them from the dead! They built a shrine at the place and ever since then pilgrims have come there hoping and praying for miracles from God.”
There are versions of this story told in many different languages and in many different places. This morning we started by visiting so many different areas of the Ephesus archaeological site that by the time we got to the Seven Sleepers we were already late for lunch. The key that opened the lock to the area that only the archaeologist can get in was not working. So, here is a question for you. I have added a poll to the blog and I need your answer by the end of the day Wednesday. On Thursday the group is going to go back to the Seven Sleepers again at 7:30 am (very early!!) Do you think that I should get up and out to see that site or not? Do you have any curiosity about it?

We have been meeting experts in many fields and also archaeologists from the site at Ephesus. This is a picture of Candice. She is from Southern California and is here in Ephesus digging. I asked her why she became an archaeologist. She told me that there were many influences when she was young. She really liked Indiana Jones and thought what he did was cool. As a young girl she liked digging to look for archaeological finds and had a special site in her grandfather’s garden. She led her sisters on digs and they found things like arrowheads (this was in Texas). Later she was fascinated by myths. Have any of you read books by Richard Riordan? They are based on ancient myths. By the time she went to college she decided that what she wanted to be was an archaeologist and so she took classes and did field work to become one in college. She says it is hard work and that an archaeologist does not make a lot of money. In fact she may decide to do something different as a career in the future. So, I hope you will vote yes or no to let me know whether I should go to the Seven Sleeper’s trip on Thursday. Right now I am really tired of seeing sites like this and being hot. I plan to spend a restful afternoon at the hotel while the rest of the group goes to several different museums. I look forward to hearing from you!