Saturday, March 14, 2009

Terrace Houses






Merhaba everyone. (That means hello) Yesterday we went to the the Terrace Houses in Ephesus. Our very special guest was Hilke Thür, from Germany. (You can see a picture of us outseide the houses in the 4th picture. She has been working on these house for a very long time - Longer than I've been alive!

We got a special "backstage tour." We got to go into special places where other tourists couldn't go, but we were doing work while looking.

It was dusty, and some people had to overcome a fear of heights. I'm so proud of them for overcoming their fear. The rain stayed away until we were done with our tour.

I have one more day of information I need to post, but we leave for the airport really early in the morning. I'll try to get it done, but it might be later in the week since we fly for a very, very long time. I hope you understand.

Tom

Friday, March 13, 2009

Back in Ephesus

Hi everyone!
Everyone on the trip did their big presentations today, and they did a great job. All the hard work over the past few days really paid off. I'm going to ask them to post a little something about the research they did. However, they are taking tonight off to celebrate - almost like having a birthday party. I'm going to call it an early night and go to bed. We are meeting Hilke Thur tomorrow and visiting the terrace houses. It's going to be a good time!

Tom

P.S. This is a picture with me and some of the girls at lunch. They decided to get dressed up in costume. It was pretty fun.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Aphrodisus

We had a vary long travel day today. It was just over 2 hours each way. The view was really pretty though. We were able to see snow-capped mountains everywhere we looked.

We went to see Aphrodisus, which is a city with a temple to Aphrodite - the goddess of love. This city also had a special school to make statues. There were so many statues to see, and I can't put all of them up here.

We also saw the temple, the agora and the stadium. The stadium was so big. Dr. Knust took a picture with me there. We look so small in that big space. Jeri Katherine went for a fun in it. Then she stopped to take this picture with me. I like her funny face.

Tomorrow everyone gives presentations on the places they have been studying. I know they are worried, but I know they will do just fine. They have worked so hard trying to understand so much information. I'm really proud of them.

See you tomorrow!

Tom

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The great find

Hey kids!
I figured out how to put video on here. The sound isn't always the best, but I hope you'll forgive me. I hope you enjoy this - and I hope it works.

Tom

Paul and Thecla



Our last stop of the day was the Cave of Paul and Thecla. It was a really long way up a mountain. My legs got tired, so I got a piggy-back on Elizabeth's shoulders. She was real nice about helping me.

Professor Knust told us the story of Thecla. It was a real good story with fire, lions, wild animals and eels. Thecla really wanted to follow Paul and learn from him. She didn't take no for an answer, which got her into trouble quite a bit.
The first picture is me at the cave, and the second picture is looking down at Ephesus from the cave. The third picture is of Andrea and me with the picture (called a fresco) inside the cave. Then there's a picture of Paul and Thecla's mom. (The picture of Thecla is only half there. I don't know where the other part is.)

The last picture is us coming out of the cave. It was very dark in there. I got a little scared when I couldn't see my feathers in front of my eyes, but Kelly and Andrea stayed near by and didn't leave me. I was so glad I didn't get too scared because I would have missed out on this. It's nice to have people I can trust to help me when I get scared. I hope you have people like that too. Who are the people you talk to when you get scared?

I'm not real sure what we're doing tomorrow, but I'm sure it will be fun. Kelly needs to use the computer now, so I have to go. See you tomorrow - I hope you have a good day and night!

Tom

Temple to the Egyptian Gods





After the Artemis temple, we went to the Serapis. It's thought to be a temple to Egyptian gods. Lauren did a great talk for us about all the ways people have come to think it was for Egyptian gods. One way was how they used water. They used lots and lots of water at this temple, and water was a sacred part of Egyptian worship. Do you use water in your worship? How is it used? I usually think of baptism when I think of water in worship.

Lauren did a great job, and she even took a picture with me!

Temple of Artemis




Today was Elizabeth's turn to do a presentation, and she talked about the temple of Artemis. Did you know it's one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world? It's considered that because it's just so big there isn't even a word for it! It looked like it was about 3 or 4 football fields long. It used to be near the Aegean coastline, but the coast is further back now.

Another interesting thing about this temple is that it faces west. Most temples face east. That had me scratching my head. Elizabeth thinks it's because there was another place of worship here first, and they tried to blend the two religions to understand each other. It's kind of like trying to understand fractions, and then you are told to think about it like slices of pie. They aren't really the same thing, but it helps you understand something new.

Now, it's time to get ready for the hike!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Sardis


Today was Chris' presentation on the synagogue of Sardis. If he was nervous, it didn't show at all. I don't know how they do it. He had all this real good information about how the Jewish people worshiped in this place. When you look at the last two pictures you can see the influence of Rome again. It was pretty powerful.

The 3rd picture of a Roman bath. They didn't get to take a bath all alone - nope they had to share with many, many people. I'm sure glad I get one by myself. I don't think they'd let me use bubbles.

I'm off to bed to get ready for another day. Dr. Walters said it would be shorter. I hope so my feet hurt! Good night!

Tom

Smyrna




Smyrna was a place I had been wanting to see. I remember seeing its name in the Bible, so it was real cool to be in the space. We got to go underground where some of the workshops are. Not all agoras had a lower level for workshops. You can see in the 3rd picture what it looked like in there.

In the 4th picture there's a carving of a boat. Do you see it? You have to use your imagination a little bit to see it because it's not all there. The oldest that can be is from 178 AD. That's almost 2000 years old! There are some carvings that are even older, but we couldn't see them. There are people called archaeologists who are working to make sure bad things to happen to those pictures. I can't wait to see what they figure out about them - but I'm going to have to be very patient because it will take about 4 years for them to do that. It takes a very long time to protect the picture and try to figure out what it all means. How old will you be in 4 years?


The last picture is my favorite of this place. I finally got a picture with our professor. I know there was somebody else who was looking forward to seeing this picture too!

Tom

Claros



This was our first stop today, and ti was really windy - I thought I was going to lose all my tail feathers! When we got there we saw it rained so much that everything was under water, but the water didn't stop us! Nope, we went as far as we could to see this place. They say people came to this place to get a fortune told, but they call it an oracle. (It rhymes with popsicle) It's not quite as big as the one Krista showed us yesterday, but it sure looked pretty big to me.

My friend, Jennifer, is standing next to one of the big statues. That statue's name is Artemis. She looks like she's three grown-ups tall! I heard from someone else in the group that the Greek gods were always made to look bigger than people. When people saw these statues they would know that this was a special place... just like when I go to church and see the cross up front.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Miletus


This was the last stop of the day... thank goodness. We are so tired by now.

The first picture is of me with a city map. If the picture had moved left, you would see the harbor where the book of Acts talks about how Paul leaves for Rome. In the background is a part of the Agora - it's fancy name for a place where people gather to do lots of things. It's kind of like a shopping mall, but they did more than shop there. They also talked politics and did different types of work. We'll see another agora later in the week.

The next picture of the Aegean Sea on our way to Miletus. It was real pretty. We were able to see the island of Samos. It didn't show up in my pictures. I was a little sad about that.

The 3rd picture is of the theater. There were some really neat carvings in the seats. Each carving said who owned the seats - it's kind of like having season tickets to a football or baseball game. This theater was really, really tall. The steps were so big I had to take a piggy back ride from Kelly.

The last picture is another picture of the agora. Ahhh... now it's time for bed. Kelly let me stay up a little later to get this done, but we have a long day tomorrow. See you then!

Tom



We've seen some really neat places, but this temple was HUGE!!! WOW! In the first picture you can see how tall the column is. I was laying down on the ground to take this one. In the second one is my new friend, Myrtle the Turkish Turtle. He really wanted some food to eat, but Kelly said we needed to get going, so I said goodbye to Myrtle.

Andrea took a picture with me on a fallen column on the North West corner of the temple.

Then the group asked me to take a picture of everyone on the steps. They said it reminded them of their lecture hall back at school. I think they called it B-19.

The last picture is of Krista and me. Krista gave a wonderful talk about this temple dedicated to Apollo. There are only two bigger than this one - and we get to see one of them later this week. Krista was really happy when she finished her talk - I think she was a little scared to talk to so many people, but she did a real good job.

Priene





This is the beautiful ancient city of Priene; the first of our sites today, and the weather was amazing. The first picture is of the temple to Athena. It was a pretty big thing to see... even if it had only one row of columns up.

The next two pictures are of a Jewish house church. In the first you can see a menorah carved into the stone. In the second picture you see a big hole in the ground. It's called an apse, and it looks like a half-circle. That was where the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, was kept safe. Both the Menorah and the Torah are used by Jews today. In fact, they are very sacred (or special) objects.

The 4th picture looks over the countryside of Priene. Well, it's countryside now. Back when this city was populated over 2000 years ago, all that farm land was the Agean Sea. Yes, it came right up to the city! There was a river that flowed into the sea, but it had alot of silt in it. Silt is a very soft dirt that rivers carry. The Mississippi River carries silt into the Gulf of Mexico. What happens if the silt doesn't move? It starts to make more land. Much of New Orleans is built on land that was made from years and years of silt. Well, in Priene, the silt created land that blocked the river from flowing into the sea. Over many, many years, the sea moved back because it wasn't getting new water to keep it as big.

Here's the nice thing about all this - that ground is really good for growing things now!

The last picture is a map of how Priene used to look back when it was used as a city by the Romans.