The Woolley Dig House
Woolley's Dig House is the location
of the future visitors' center
However wonderful it is to be working on the legendary site of Alalakh, Sir Leonard Woolley's long-forgotten, ramshackle dig house is the first sight one encounters upon climbing the 9 meters high mound. Situated on the highest rise in the mound, it commands a strategic view of the Amuq Valley (the Mukish Kingdom) in all directions. No doubt the Middle and Late Bronze Age kings of Alalakh such as Yarim-Lim and Idrimi were well aware of the same advantages as well as the cooling breezes when in residence at their palaces. The two storey dig house was constructed in the architectural tradition of the region from stone, mudbrick and timber in the 1930's and functioned as the operational center for the British excavations. Robert Braidwood, one of the excavators of the neighboring mound of Tayinat, and the director of the original University of Chicago Amuq Survey, reminisced that he was invited by Woolley to help with a malfunctioning fireplace. Being an architect by training, soon the smoky problem was solved and chimney rebuilt. Today the chimney is still standing but barely and the second storey is in eminent danger of collapsing.
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Quite a number of legends surround this abandoned dig house and are often
repeated by villagers to anyone who comes to visit the site. One story
which is well documented by photographs is that Woolley was often visited
by the well known-such as Agatha Christie and her archaeologist
husband, Sir Max Mallowan among other famous and infamous archaeologists.
It is said that each visitor was asked to sign the plaster wall of the
dining room (although consistent re-plastering has obliterated these signatures).
Inaccessible for a long time, the dig house was protected by the local
Hatay Archaeological Museum and contained some of the study collections
from the excavation seasons of 1936-1949. Although it functioned as a
depot, a small padlock and its remote location kept this material mostly
unavailable for decades. Today these collections are safe in our new excavation
compound in the village of Tayfur Sökmen and are being processed
for publication. Looking at the state of the two-story building which
is dangerously close to crumbling, I was reminded of Nasreddin Hodja's
mausoleum in Nevshehir. The Hodja's sarcophagus there is carefully
laid out in the center of a building which has no walls and is accessible
from all directions. However, it is "protected" by an impressive
and totally functionless lock. The situation reflects the gentle, ironic
humor of a well-known philosopher-poet living in central Turkey during
the 11th c. AD and also typifies the surreal nature of Woolley's
dig house depot similarly "secured" by a padlock despite gaps
in walls and ceilings. To add to the irony, the depot was guarded by a
one-eyed watchman who took pity on us and agreed to let us store our heavy
surveying equipment in the above, hitherto-unentered depot.
Full scale excavations have been on-going at Alalakh since 2003 and consequently,
the steady increase of tourists has heightened the urgency of a visitors'
center. In 2001 the dig house was declared an important national heritage
architectural monument and registered in the Adana historical society.
Our hope is to seek funding to restore this splendid building to its original
state and ensure its longevity by maintaining it as a visitors'
center. As part of the Amuq Archaeological Park Project, this building
will house a learning center, rest room facilities, ticket offices, and
rooms for a resident guard. Please help us in making this future center
a reality by contacting us at:
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