A long journey out.
Flying to the field is much different than flying on a holiday. For one thing, I have a lot more luggage than a trip to visit friends, with all of the equipment and supplies taking up far more room than clothes or personal items. While I can buy almost anything in a modern city like Erbil, I often bring specific items for work that are hard to find – like Sharpies – as well as technical equipment like magnetic gradiometers and Munsell colorcharts. I left home with five bags of gear and supplies, and I expect to return home with about the same amount, having swapped supplies and consumables for bags full of samples to be sent to specialist laboratories.
My itinerary this year took me to Philadelphia from Cleveland (the closest large airport to Akron), and then on a 12.5 hour flight to Doha in Qatar, and finally a third leg straight to Erbil. Having seen a lot of airports in my travels, it takes something special to stand out and the Doha Airport certainly makes the effort. I’m not sure if this is a real or a fake forest immediately adjacent to my gate for Erbil, but one could almost believe for a moment that you were in a botanical gardens, not sitting at gate C27.
Anyway, the flight was uneventful although my fifth bag – the gradiometer – raised some eyebrows and some questions as I was leaving the airport, and the machine was ultimately detained at the airport by security. I had two letters of permission to bring in the equipment from the Antiquities and Heritage authorities, but some other documents from the Directorate could not be located by airport security in their own files, so for the next few days, the gradiometer was stuck at Erbil airport (don’t worry, I got it back!) while calls and arrangements were made for its release.
I was met at the airport by Jason, and two of his team members who had also just arrived in Erbil, and their driver. Bapir whisked us away to the house where the EPAS team was staying for the season in the Ankawa district. Even though it was late by the time we got to the house, there was lots of action on the streets of the quickly-expanding city. Given the high mid-day temperatures, people stay inside during the early afternoon as much as possible and, after sunset, the restaurants and shops open up again for business. Below is a typical street scene in Erbil. I took this photo only a minute’s walk from the house.
Step One complete – get to Erbil with all the gear!