Göbekli Tepe Excavator Loses his Cool Over Stratigraphy Comments (II)

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 To my comment, perfectly valid in the circumstances of a site like this that has been excavated for so many years that " I think we need less emphasis on the excavated "finds" and more on the context", Dr. Oliver Dietrich @odietrich replied

Thanks for trying to educate me about a site I worked at for 15 years based on one photo and one paper. Have a nice day.

[of course like many people observing this site and the controversy around it, I have read more than "one paper" on it, and I find the treatment of the excavation techniques and documentation of the stratigraphy woefully lacking in all of them, even the ones discussing the C14 dates] So I am afraid I replied:

Paul Barford @PortantIssues · 19h No., the job of your excavation REPORT is to educate me and the general public (including the Turks whose heritage this is) on what you've found. It actually does not do that, it just shows (again) some pretty pillars.

Dr. Oliver Dietrich @odietrich_

In order for this to work, you would have to read it. And now, goodbye.
3:46 PM · Sep 1, 2024

·   The thing is, this is not "his" site, in his country. He is working a guest in a foreign country and should be accountable for the way he went about digging through the otherwise unthreatened stratification - not simply dismiss issues raised by a fellow archaeologist like this. Also it seems to me from this exchange that this sort of professional arrogance is not only exercised by some archaeological professionals when questioned by members of the wider public (like YouTuber Jimmy Corsetti et al who have previously complained about being treated dismissively), but seems far more endemic in our discipline. We need to come down from ivory towers and always be ready explain what we do, how and why. An excavator of Gobekli Tepe publishes a text about a portion of the site, but seems utterly unwilling to discuss the excavation, and seems miffed I do not want to talk instead about the "ancient art" he's written about - but there is enough of that kind of talk from antiquities collectors and dealers and the "looks like" brand of pseudo-archaeologists. Let us talk about archaeology, and that means talking about methods of data collection and stratigraphy.