June 28, 29 - Gaziantep
Huh, now there's an unexpected microcosm.
Anyways, this has been a day and a half about chilling out after 2 really intense weeks that were supposed to be a chill-out from the 6 weeks at the dig :). Gaziantep is a good place to do it: it's way more modern than the rest of Southeastern Turkey,
the big classics nerd draw is in an air conditioned museum, the hotels are nice, and the food is amazing. I have eaten more baklava in the last 2 days than in the last 5 years put together. And I plan on more in the morning...I also enjoyed probably the finest shish kebab ever here (if you love meat get yourself to this place now):
This is definitely a foodie town.
This is also definitely a history nerd town; the museum houses the finest collection of mosaics in the world (!) all from the site of Zeugma. Writers on late antiquity like Peter Brown talk a lot about the expressiveness, esp. in the almond eyes, of the art of Anatolia, Phrygia, and Ionia, and it really is breathtaking. For a classics nerd this museum is a protracted visual orgasm.
tomorrow I'm going to Aleppo in Syria...where, ostensibly, I will find out all sorts of amazing connections between Egyptian and Syrian medieval monastic art :)