Good nights’ sleep. Woke up refreshed and ready to go. Met my man Salih at the door, after a hefty buffet breakfast. Salih is the taxi driver who drove me to the hotel last night. We made a deal: he will drive me every day back and forth for a reasonable price. I was relieved to not to have to drive myself in crazy Konya traffic.. He’s very flexible and sweet and is grateful to have the work.

 He’s always talkative, informative, and articulate about many political and religious issues. His wife is “covered” he says but that’s her choice, and has nothing to do with him. He thinks all religions are equal and people should respect each other. He’s fasting now - which means no drink or food until sundown, which, in August, is 8:30 pm. He says he finds fasting refreshing and renewing. 

The drive to Çatalhöyük takes about 45 minutes. Salih says he avoids the highway and takes the short cut. It’s kind of an adventurous road with lots of farms, chickens and cows crossing roads, and motorcyles whizzing by, driven by mad men with no helmets. This morning there was a small child sitting on the handle of a motorcycle. No helmet.

Çatalhöyük is truly in the middle of nowhere. Höyük means hill - and Çatal means fork. I think what’s meant is that a fork cuts two large hills. It wasn’t until the early sixties that it was discovered that these hills, and many more across Anatolia, cover pre-historic cities. Mellaart, a German archeologist first discovered Çatal in 1963 but then got in trouble with the govermnment for some smuggling issue - he was banned from digging and the site was closed. In 1993, English archeologist, Ian Hodder, finally got permission to dig again. It’s his visionary method and archaeological philosophy that drives the excavation today.

Of course you notice that I’m using the British spelling of the word archaeology - it’s not because I’m pretentious. It’s because my mentor, the eminent Ruth Tringham, took a digital red pen and corrected every instance of the word on a proposal I wrote. It’s the correct way, she said. I’m grateful to her for that and for many other intellectual and inspirational gifts. 

The scientists take a site tour each week to discuss the previous week's work. This was quite informative but also sometimes difficult to grasp. Overall I had a great day.  Here are a few more photos:

The Neolithics of Çatalhöyük  buried their dead inside their houses - often several individuals side by side or on top of each other. One of the many mysteries of Çatalhöyük. More on that later.
Below, two burials.

Noon departure from Boston. Sad to say good-bye to my beautiful John. A three hour layaway at JFK and then a 9.5 hour flight to Istanbul. Religiously (and somewhat skeptically) took my homeopathic remedy for jet lag: No Jet Lag. This flight was uneventful (chatted with my seat-mate, an apparently well known clothing designer who travels all around the world promoting his line) and had a bulkhead seat. Yey. I slept! (with help)

As soon as I landed in Istanbul I was struck by the incongruity of the Turkish character. The country continues to become modernized - everything is clean, new, up to date - the airport is beautiful, well kept and modern. And while most of the people you encounter are westernized and forward thinking, there is a huge segment of the population that’s just not taken the leap. It is interesting to observe and sometimes very surprising. 

On my one hour flight to Konya I was seated next to a young woman. Blond (perhaps naturally, perhaps not), lovely smile and very polite and kind. Extremely approachable. We struck up a conversation. She lives in Konya, she’s married with a young daughter. The conversation inevitably turned to religion - she’s religious, is fasting during the month of ramadan. She asked me about my religious background and was rather shocked that I didn’t have one. I said my mother was raised Christian, my father a Muslim, and that religion had never been an issue in my home. She found this very difficult to grasp. She she asked me what I thought about the Muslim religion - or any religion - I said I respect peoples’ faith. This seemed to abate her a bit. But me being me,  I had to add that I had a slight problem - or questions - with women covering up so much - especially in the last decade or so. Under the current right-leaning regme, this has increasingly become the social norm. I assumed that since she was uncovered, with short sleeves, an open mind, this wouldn’t be such a delicate subject to bring up. She looked at me with almost sad eyes: I thought you respected peoples’ faith she said. 

Now  a whole dissertation could probably be written about this little exchange. About what the head-scarf and the variations of the muslim “covering” of women signifies to me (subservience, oppression, powerlessness, giving up of identity) and what it means to her (freedom of expression.) At any rate this conversation then took a pause. I made lots of small talk about how adorable her daughter must be - and god bless her - and so on. She then asked me: are you married. Now this is a question many of us gay men often must carefully navigate. I could’ve said yes - since John and I, for all intents and purposes are married. And left it at that and see what she asks next, if anything. Or I could’ve said “no” and that could be the end. And even though I didn’t think this through in my head, the right thing seemed to be to tell the truth. So I said, no. My male partner and I have been together for over thirty years but haven’t discussed marriage just yet. 

WELL

First she seemed unfazed - like this was a most ordinary revelation. A moment later she said: I’ve never had a gay friend before. And I replied: well now you do. She looked away. By this time we had exchanged email addresses and  were now in full descent. She looked at me and said I feel sick. What’s the matter I said - she said my ears are popping and my stomach  is queazy. We didn’t talk much after that. Once we landed she grabbed her bag and got in front of me. She rather pushed people out of the way to get ahead. When someone said something like - are you alright, “I miss my daughter” she shrieked, never said another word to me, and disappeared into the crowd. 

Took a cab to the Dedemen Hotel where Çatalhöyük had reserved a room for me. All the expected amenities: air condition, wifi, and a pool. Fell to bed and got a good nights' sleep. No jet lag!!

Konya is a fairly large city about an hour away from Çatalhöyük. The word is pronounced something like Chatalheuyuek; it means forked hill. Or a road forking around a hill - something like that. I’ll stay at the Dedeman hotel in Konya. I’m told it’s air-conditioned and has wi-fi and maybe even a pool. I will drive back and forth each day. My mother thinks I should hire a driver. She’s probably right but I’m hesitant.

The home of the mystic poet Rumi, Konya is one of the most religiously conservative cities in Türkiye. I passed through one afternoon back in 2007, when I was researching my play, CRY OF THE REED, that takes in Konya. I visited the Rumi museum and the mosque. Turks don’t think of Rumi as the romantic mystic most westerners think him to be. For them, he’s a profoundly religious figure.

What I didn’t realize when I made these plans was that I was going in the middle of Ramadan, the holy month of Islam. Now this is going to be interesting. During ramadan, observant muslims fast between sun-rise and sun-down. Here is what wikipedia has to say:

Ramadan is a time of spiritual reflection and worship. Muslims are expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam and to avoid obscene and irreligious sights and sounds. Sexual intercourse among spouses is allowed after one has ended the daily fast. During fasting, intercourse is prohibited as well as eating and drinking, and resistance of all temptations is encouraged. Purity of both thoughts and actions is important. The act of fasting is said to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the soul and free it from harmful impurities. Ramadan also teaches Muslims to practice self-discipline, self-control,[17] sacrifice, and empathy for those who are less fortunate; thus encouraging actions of generosity and charity. It becomes compulsory for Muslims to start fasting when they reach puberty,

This means I’ll have to store food away so I don’t go hungry. It will be interesting to see how the western archaeologists handle ramadan. How will the Turkish workers at the site handle it in the sweltering heat of August?