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It started raining all of a sudden and it was bucketing down. Almost everyone retreated to their sheltered areas, waiting for the rain to stop. Under the natural porch of the tent, Halet Hodja watching the excavation area; although she didn't know how to do it, she knew that she had to intervene in this situation that had occurred outside of the seasonal normals. Years of hard work were about to disappear before her eyes. She lifted her head towards the sky. Feeling the raindrops falling from the sky on her face; she wished the rain would stop as soon as possible. But God had more important things to do. She realized that she had to intervene. Otherwise, all her efforts would be in vain. And it wasn't just her own work. It was the effort of the team that loved her, brought her to where she is today, and worked with. She had to make a decision. She entered the tent and gathered her bag. In her already tidy bag, she added a few more small tools. She came out of the tent with determination. And she started walking towards perhaps the most important point of her life, ignoring the pouring rain. When she arrived at the excavation site, the sight that she saw was not so pleasant. Rainwater flooded the freshly excavated area, covering the carefully unearthed finds. If she could, she would cover the entire area with an umbrella and prevent the rain from hitting the area. But that was not something that she could do.

First she tried to drain the water that had filled the small digging paths. After a while, she realized that this effort was futile. She should have done something else. If she could not prevent the water from filling the excavation paths, then she could open new paths through which the water could flow. With the small hoe in her hand, she started hoeing the ground to open new arcs. The rain waters were following the new paths opened by Halet Hodja. She took a deep breath. She scanned the entire area with her eyes, ignoring the rain water pouring down her head. She began to understand the slope of the land, the direction of water flow, and the structure of the soil. She started to direct the rain like a conductor who directs her orchestra. Every time she hit the ground with the hoe in her hand, she understood that the same place had been hit before. It was as if she was not opening new paths, but was following the paths that had been opened before. It was at this moment that she felt that her work covered a larger area than she had anticipated. These rains must have fallen thousands of years ago, and if an ancient civilization lived in the area where she worked, they must have taken precautions for these rain waters. For a moment lifting her head up she looked at the plain. Everything started to fall into place. A prehistoric city stood before her eyes on the endless empty plain. Halet Çambel understood at that moment that history would no longer be known as history.

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