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latin + diving = one career path
Tagged Under : archaeology, photo, travel
In the summer of 1998, I spent a few weeks traveling around Turkey with my mom. It’s really easy traveling in Turkey – the intercity bus system is very reliable. Western Turkey is full of ancient Greek ruins, and my mom had planned our route to hit the maximum number. We went to Pergamon and Ephesus and even Troy – it’s not known as the most exciting ruin to visit, but we had to take this picture. (Caption: Helen in Troy. Get it? Get it?)
So it was pretty cool to learn more about the region from Deborah Carlson, a National Geographic grantee who does underwater archaeology. There were two things her parents made her do as a kid: take Latin and learn to scuba dive. And now she’s studying a huge ancient marble column in 150 feet of water, in a shipwreck off the west coast of Turkey.
The story is pretty darn interesting, if I do say so myself. Read it here. Check out that beautiful picture – archaeologists have to move big things underwater very, very gently. How do they do it? They inflate a balloon with air. So clever!
photo credit: my mom, 1998
I can’t decide whether it’s a better story that (1) some scientists found an unused marble column under 150 feet of sea, or (2) your mom took you on an archaelogical tour of Turkey when you were, what, 20?
Heh. 22. It was after I lived in Norway – I made my way from Trondheim to Istanbul by plane, train, and ferry. I went to Pompeii earlier on the same trip. It was kind of an excellent summer, really.
i love the shadow of your mom taking the photo. and the date stamp. ah, film and early EXIF data.