| Caravanserai Gordion, Anatolia, Turkey, June 2003 Some 10000 Celts are thought to have lived here in the 3rd century BC. I look out past the archeological site to the burial mounds rising in the distance and imagine all the people who had traversed these plains the routine of setting up camp and then leaving; the sounds, the smells, the trepidations; preparing the animals, living next to the elements Mongolia, September 2003 I have spent a fascinating time with a Mongolian nomadic family contemplating their connection to the Celts, moving livestock from summer to winter pastures. Cappadocia to Konya, Turkey, October 2003 On the road to Konya, we visit a caravanserai; a stunning building. Susan Whitfield, in her book Life Along The Silk Road, describes these structures as stopping places for itinerant merchants, their servants and animals The bazaar was held here. Ten or more languages might be heard at any one time, as people haggled over the silks, spices and other luxuries This causes me to reflect on the concept of home, the nomadic impulse and our relationship to nature, the land our collective histories merging into something new. Is it happening too quickly in our contemporary times? |
