Questions from Wisconsin

I got these questions from students in Wisconsin. Next time you ask questions send me a picture to represent you (if you don't want me to post a real picture of your class you can send your logo or something) and I will post it!

QUESTION Have you seen anything valuable yet?
MY ANSWER What is your definition of something valuable? I have seen lots of things that are extremely valuable to me like the mud baths in Pamukkale and all of the different and interesting people. But I think that you probably mean valuable like being worth a lot of money. Most of what I have seen looks like rocks and rubble to me, but to an archaeologist even a broken pot piece is valuable. The early archaeologists only wanted to find complete pots and big things like statues. They threw away anything that did not look interesting. Now archaeologists keep just about everything they can identify. When they do find something that is valuable it is moved to a museum so that it doesn’t get stolen from the archaeological site. I was amazed to hear that even big blogs of stone that are carved are stolen. Does this picture look like it is valuable? At the end of the post I will put a picture of what it looked like after it was cleaned up!

QUESTION Who build the theater and terrace houses?
MY ANSWER People in the first century (that is up to year 100) built the theater and the terrace houses. Actually, slaves probably did the building. You can see that there are huge stones, so it really took a lot of workers to move them and put them in the right places. Very rich people could hire artists to paint the walls or to carve statues and make mosaics on the floor. It is easier to find evidence of what the rich people did. We know that very rich people owned two of the seven terrace houses by other evidence. We think that many slaves just slept on the floor in their master’s back rooms. They probably didn’t own much.

QUESTION Why can you hear in the theater when there are no microphones?
MY ANSWER The theater has amazing acoustics. The way it is built the sound on the stage in the front goes up and out so that the audience can hear. Here is an experiment that you can do. First stand in a line and have someone stand several yards away from you and talk in a normal voice. Can everyone hear? Now do the same thing only instead of a line have everyone stand in a semi-circle around the person who is talking. Is it better?

The reason that this works is that sounds come in waves through the air (like in cartoons coming out of a speaker. As the sound travels it gets quieter. In a curved theater the sound is trapped and can only go up from the central stage. It is amazing that someone can stand on the stage and still be heard by people in the last row! Here is a picture of a performance of an opera in one of these theaters called Epidaurus (this one is in Greece).

And now for the valuable item that looked like something to throw away. When it is carefully cleaned by an expert it looks like this:

The Terrace Houses

In the mornings we walk through the archaeological site. It is very hot and we all wear hats and bring water to drink. Here is a picture of me with my hat and with Ricky Raccoon. He belongs to the son of a friend of mine who is here. You might see him again in other pictures!

One of the things found in Ephesus that is amazing is called the terrace houses. These are 6 or 7 houses that were built on a slope of a hillside. Because of an earthquake the houses were covered with dirt and preserved over the centuries. Archaeologists found painted walls and lots of furniture and other items that people used.

After they were uncovered, the houses started to deteriorate. To protect them archaeologists built a structure over them and glass pathways for visitors to walk on. Since we were being guided through the slope house by the director of the excavation we were allowed to go off of the glass pathways and actually into the rooms.

The wall painting and mosaics on the floors were amazing. Actual people lived in these houses and you can begin to see what life really might have been like. This is an example of the way a bathroom was constructed. The floor was raised so that heat and plumbing could go below the floor.

Archaeologists have found many examples of graffiti on the walls. How do you think that got here? What would happen if you wrote on your wall? In one of the rooms there is writing that looks like a shopping list with food items and their prices listed. Other graffiti looks like drawings of gladiators fighting. Did these people have different ideas about writing on walls?

We also saw other amazing parts of the archaeological site. Near the terrace houses is the Celsus Library. It has been reconstructed so that you can see how fantastic it was. It once held thousands of scrolls.

Here is a picture of the ancient theater in Ephesus. It seated approximately 17,000-25,000 people! We walked way to the top and sat down. Without microphones you can hear the people that are singing or talking on the stage area.

If you are following I really am hoping that you will ask questions to guide me in what to take pictures of and what to talk about. What in the pictures today are you curious about? Do you want me to ask questions to the experts that I am traveling with?


We saw this sign when we were walking out of the theater: