Now that we have settled in again in Germany, work continues on our excavation project. Even if we don’t work in the field right now, there is a lot to do! While we digitalize all of our documentation – next to our handwritten documents we have to sort photos and digitalize drawings – we are already preparing for our next campaign in the summer of next year. Hopefully of course Covid-19 will be somewhat under control by that time, so that a campaign under normal circumstance can resume.

In the meanwhile we will be working from our home base in Münster: the building of the Forschungsstelle Asia Minor. Here we have commodities for most of our team members in Münster, and we are working in all the different areas. Under normal circumstances it is also a place for our project meetings, as well as for different group activities such as enjoying a nice summer evening on the balcony or a group dinner etc. Due to Covid-19 this is of course not possible at the moment, however the rooms are still filled with people. While all this is happening, the regular semester in Münster started again this week, which means that all of our team, be it students, PHDs or Professors, will be hard at work combining the research for the Doliche project with their regular university work. A lot of them using the extra room of the Forschungsstelle as study rooms.

Of course an increase in Covid-19 cases in Germany means that most of this will be done via Zoom, as is the case with our regular project meetings. Luckily the amount of room here in the Forschungsstelle allows for an even spread of people among the rooms, so that a normal workflow can be sustained as much as possible. We will keep you updated here on our progress and the work we do while we are not in the field. However – as we said in the beginning of this blogproject – not in the same frequency as we would while in Turkey.

We wish you all a nice start into the November and to all the German readers a successful start into the new winter term. And most importantly stay safe and healthy during this second wave of Covid!

by Fynn Riepe

Keep Updated: