I'm an archaeologist, who's been working in excavations in Italy, Greece and Turkey - my work area is on architecture but any question is welcome also I work on Classic Greece, Hellenistic and Roman ages

@kaia_ I was shocked when Turkish government decided to use it as a mosque again. I know Turkish people, most of them don't respect history and historical sites, building etc. must be protected 24/7 or someone will vandalize it for sure. And it already started I saw pictures of people putting their shoes on 500 years old marbles or praying on 400 years of wooden platforms. I hope they don't ruin those frescos. In my opinion even visitation must be limited because whenever I saw it has restoration or reconstruction works going on. So this means building itself or the things inside got problems that can't be solved easily. But now it's filled with people 5 times a day. I respect their religion I hope they respect the history.

If we take it as a building on architecture side. It was the biggest building of it's time. And believed to be a miracle and for a long time no such building constructed. It still has an amazing acoustic. It's definitely a sign of greatness for Roman Empire. (I call Roman Empire because that's what they called themselves, the word Byzantine is actually used later by historians to distinguish them or used Eastern Roman Empire). Eventually marked as center of the world and probably built for that purpose as well and they did bring several monuments to Constantinopolis to show it and they put them next to it inside hippodrome now called Sultan Ahmed Square. 2 of them is still there the Obelisk of Thutmose III from Egypt and Serpent Column from Delphi which is a monument made after the Persian-Greek wars. This serpent column is the important one because religious and prophecy activities in Delphi was already banned but it was the center of the world with this monument they wanted to validate that Constantinopolis is now the center of the world. Column's body is still on the square and it had 3 serpent heads, unfortunately 2 of them are lost and 1 of them is in Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

@kaia_ probably religious government needs religious decisions to stay strong i guess

i'm pretty sure I'd choose being a Gorgon - Medusa always fascinates me

@Get-off-my-hotspot-richard Well, for a real archaeologist who of course loves his/her job, even finding a fragment of ceramic might have same effects. If you ask me no I've never encountered a mummy or never worked in Egypt but once when I was doing my internship we found a 2.2 meter sculpture which is dated to early Roman Empire era. If we compare that was our mummified child. We took care of it, cleaned, studied even guarded at nights for at least a month before moving it to the near museum. Believe me some even cried when we got seperated. I didn't cry but it was a very emotional moment.

If you're interested I'd recommend books written by arcaheologists. Not historians and not art historians. Most of them are not objective and full of false data just like the internet.

@Gennyyy it's really hard to find coins on excavations especially if the site is excavated for years, main reason is they're metals and throughout time nations melt them and re-issue them, for me found only one in 10 years - if that was a pun i didn't understand sorry

@Max256 for me I love archaeology. Field work, digging is amazing to me. Never got bored. For me the boring part is drawing ceramic pieces by hand. God it really sucks. After 4-5 pieces it becomes so boring I just want to leave Because we need to draw then as precise as we can even a single 1/10 milimeter mistake could make us draw it again. Also for me because I'm colorblind distinguishing colors of ceramics is impossible and I need help every single time. And because I'm working on architecture and got good drawing skills If I'm available people always want me on ceramic drawing and sometimes it's impossible to say no

@marzipan in my opinion summer and autumn is the best time to visit especially September because of the natural beauty of the country and the weather, especially for the islands. Mainstream places for visit are Athens, Crete, Rhodes, Santorini etc. But for me I'd recommend Samos, Mykonos, Thessaloniki, Kalambaka which has site Meteora which is one of my favorite places to visit, Patras, Paros and Naxos.

@Max256 by ceramic drawing i meant we find ceramics as whole or as fragments but all must the drawn by hand on a paper for archives and catalogs both digital and physical. Also you don't have to do it as I've told before my expertise is architecture but sometimes people are so overhelmed and needs help because most common findings are ceramic fragments. For example if we find a structure maybe we find a statue or some statue fragments but maybe 200-300 pieces of ceramic fragments could be found.

@sarah_the_magpie didn't expect this for EU it's 48 for US it's 15

hi there

i'm pretty sure I'd choose being a Gorgon - Medusa always fascinates me

while working on excavations I keep diaries about what we do and find - at the end I add what I did and felt

Woodkid - I Love You
I hope you enjoy it if you listen of course

hi welcome i'm new here too been 3-4 weeks

@kaia_ who knows maybe i'm pursuing a career as a lecturer and to become a professor is my goal i'm an assistant right now.

Listening and playing music
Cooking
Archaeology

@kaia_ thanks for the kind words it really is like that and I love it but right now archaeology is mostly about having fights and arguments with local goverments and their ideologies. And sometimes it gets you to point of hating your job. Just like everything money and investment involve in.

Once i had the oppurtunity to climb to a high point for research - it's the largest amphitheatre ever built - it's a magnificent site which shows the power and wealth of Roman Empire