Roman Road and Hittite Ruins

Last Sunday we went on a day trip to an ancient Roman road, a Hittite museum, and bought a hand woven rug from a woman's co-op in the middle of nowhere.

The pictures are not in order today.  I just can't bring myself to fight with the computer to load them in a way that makes chronological sense, so bear with me and just know that I'm also trying to keep up with my NaNoWriMo as well as keep my blog up to date.

This little treasure is from the Hittite Ruins that we visited.  I don't know how great the picture is on your computer, but the first panel on the left is writing, and the following panels to the right are pictures (pictographs?) of warriors and a ship.  At the end you can see a lion that is guarding the entrance to the upper part of the building.  The Hittite Ruins were the second stop we made that day.

Can you name this type of Roman Capital?  You are correct if you guessed it was a "Corinthian" capital.  Not that we can see the whole thing, but the flourishes that look like leaves are a dead give away for this time period.  The leaves are actually called acanthus leaves and you can read up on Roman Column styles HERE.

Like every good Roman Road, it needed a destination.  Our Roman Road lead us to an amphitheater.  We spent some time walking around and seeing how well our voices were projected to the far reaches of the area.  The seats were not anymore uncomfortable than the bleachers at school are.  In fact, one of the people on the trip made the comment that the stone bleachers had more booty room than the bleachers at school have.  I must agree.  I found that the stone bleachers are much deeper than your typical basketball court bleacher is today.

This is one of the stone Hittite kitties.  The lion motif is everywhere.  This one has his tongue sticking out through his teeth, and it kind of reminds me of how Comma sticks out her tongue when she is sitting around guarding me as well.

This last one is of Adam on the Roman Road.  You can see the colonnade of columns on the left, and a bit of the stone road.  It really was amazing to be standing on something that was about 2,000 years old.  Adam and I talked about what it would have been like to walk from one end of the Roman Empire to the other all on stone paved roads.  Compared to today's standard, walking that far would have been miserable, but I think traveling by road in a time with few roads and very little in the way of secure passage would have been a welcome option.  

Adam was a bit mad at me at this site by the way.  I managed to spot a BRIGHT green frog which jumped away before I could recover myself and call to him.  I also saw a lizard before he did that day.  He, the master animal spotter, was bested by me early not once but twice, so he was slightly out of sorts.  He gave me an earful for not making sure he saw the frog.

Are you kidding me?  I never see animals first, and let me assure you it wasn't like I was trying to one up him.  I just happened to be the first person who walked by this little frog before anyone else did that day.  

To end the day, we went to a women's co-op that makes handwoven rugs.  These ladies hosted our lunch, and then we had a tour of the dying room, the weaving room, and the final products.  Adam and I bought one rug (4 x 6 ish) and I think we may use it as a wall hanging rather than on the floor.  It is in a natural gray wool, darker gray, and red as the main pattern with aqua blue and cream accents.  We also got a few little weavings the size of place mats.  

I'd show pictures of these but I'm (1) struggling with the picture up-loads today and (2) giving one of them to Jessie for Christmas so I don't want to ruin the surprise.  

Jessie, you're getting a small weaving made by women who run their own co-op.  It's socially responsible and really pretty.  I hope you like it.