We finished up our original square this past week.  I don't have any further info about what it might be!  Schuler hasn't said anything else about it being the beginnings of a temple floor but we did find at least one object with obvious religious significance but more digging will have to happen around the square for us to know what it truly is.

The day that we finished up D5 was an interesting day for me.  You see, while I was helping to move the big shade covering I needed to untie one last rope and as I was walking along the top of the wall to retrieve the rope part of the wall decided to give out and collapse from underneath me.  I fell about ten feet to the stone floor beneath me.  However, b/w God sending his angles to protect me and the knee pads I had on I escaped with a banged up back, minor bruising, and a significant bruise on my right shin.  There are a lot of ways in which the accident could've been very ugly for me but thanks to some divine protection I escaped with no breaks or head injury.  Praise God!

Another Construction Vehicle Attack in Israel

An Israeli security force officer guarded the scene of a rampage by the Palestinian driver of a construction vehicle in downtown Jerusalem on Tuesday.

JERUSALEM -- For the second time in a month, a Palestinian driver of a large construction vehicle plowed into traffic on a busy Jerusalem street on Tuesday, hitting a bus, mangling cars and injuring at least 24 people before the driver was shot dead by an off-duty soldier and a border policeman.

The attack, the second attack in Jerusalem this month involving a construction vehicle, took place on King David Street near the Liberty Bell Park in Jerusalem's upscale hotel district, close to the King David Hotel. Local media reports said Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, was due to stay at the hotel on Tuesday evening. Mr. Obama is on a weeklong tour as part of an American delegation.

The hotel is where visiting dignitaries usually stay in Jerusalem, and where President Bush has stayed in the past.

There were no fatalities besides the driver of the construction vehicle, the authorities said, although at least one person was badly injured. The police were treating it as a terrorist attack and said the driver, who was in his early 20s, came from the village of Umm Tuba, an Arab village within the southern limits of Jerusalem that has a strong Hamas presence.

He was stopped when the off-duty soldier shot into the vehicle. An acquaintance of his, in an interview on the street, said he was a settler from the southern Hebron district of the West Bank. The driver of the construction vehicle was shot a second time by a border policeman who arrived at the scene shortly after, the police said, "to confirm his death."

On July 2, a Palestinian drove another construction vehicle on a deadly rampage in central Jerusalem, crushing several cars and ramming into buses and pedestrians before an off-duty soldier and a police officer clambered up to the cabin and fatally shot him. At least three people were killed in that attack, and more than 40 were wounded, Israeli officials said.

In a third attack in the city this year, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem opened fire at a prominent Jewish seminary in the heart of Jerusalem in March, killing eight students.

On the street minutes after Tuesday's attack, which took place at around 2 p.m., one car was crushed and another turned over. Many of those injured were still being led away from the scene by the emergency services, and the area had been closed off.

Yonatan Yagadovsky, director of the international department of Magen David Adom rescue organization, said one person had lost a leg.

After the attack, eyewitnesses said the construction vehicle, which they described as a large digger, was riddled with bullets, and the body of the driver was being removed by the authorities from the cab.

Witnesses said the vehicle was driven from a construction site behind the YMCA building opposite the hotel. When the vehicle emerged onto King David street, it first hit a bus, the driver of which reacted quickly and drove off the road, according to an eyewitness, Bentzi Gottesman, 24, who was working in a nearby gallery.

The construction vehicle then proceeded slowly along the main street, deliberately hitting cars along the way, Mr. Gottesman said. "I heard a big boom. I went out. I saw the tractor going into a bus. He hit the back part."

Another eyewitness, Moshe Feiglin, said: "The first thing, he tried was to lower the shovel on a female pedestrian right near me. I jumped when there was a boom as the shovel hit the street. He missed by centimeters, thank God. In the first second I thought it was some kind of accident, confusion, but then he continued in a zigzag on King David Street, hitting cars, turning over cars."

Jerusalem police commander Aharon Franko told Israel radio: "When he got to Plummer junction, he was shot by a civilian and a border policeman on patrol." Commander Franko said the attack lasted just a matter of seconds.

Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem and Graham Bowley from New York. Myra Noveck contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/world/middleeast/23israel.html

For some reason I'm not able to upload any pictures to this blog, I keep getting error messages.  Yall will just have to do without pictures this time...but trust me, I have great pics of this place!

The day after the trip to Jerusalem I had the option to go on an extra trip to Caesarea.  I elected to go, I mean, when would I get this chance again.  I've very glad I went!  Caesarea might be the most beautiful of the sites I've seen yet in Israel. 

This place was important for me to see because it was in this very town that so many pivotal events in the history of Christianity happened!  It was here, in Caesarea, that Pontius Pilot resided and this is where the stone with an inscription of his name was found, the first testament to the man outside of the Biblical accounts. 

It was also at Caesarea that the first gentile (that's all of you reading this post unless you happen to be Jewish) converted to Christianity.  I am referring, of course, to the conversion of Cornelius who was a Roman Centurion stationed at Caesarea and had the Holy Spirit pour out on him there and he was baptized! 

It was at Caesarea that the Apostle Paul set out on mission trips from, including maybe his greatest mission trip, as a prisoner being taken to Caesar to appeal his case there.  That's right it from this very harbor that Paul left for Rome.

Caesarea is also the site of the first ever attempt at a Christian history by the bishop of the city, Eusebius of Caesarea, in the 4th century when he became dismayed that there was no history of the faith. 

I'm simply in awe of the history that has taken place at this beautiful site on the Mediterranean coast.  Awestruck is a good description of how I felt while going through there.

Extra Info about Caesarea:

It was during Persian rule (586 -- 332 BC) that the Phoenicians built a settlement on the shoreline of one of the bays on the coast where they found the ground water level was high enough to use.  The village was apart of what is called Dor county and it flourished in the Hellenistic period (332 - 37 BC) and it is first mentioned in the Zenon papyri (a document from 259 BC) under the name of Straton's Tower.

It was in 103 BC that Dor and Straton's Tower were conquered by Alexander Jannaeus and annexed by the Hasmonean Kingdom, it was torn away from the Hasmoneans after the Roman conquest.  Herod was awarded the village in 30 BC and he ruled from 37 - 4 BC.  He turned the village into a large port city and named it Caesarea in honor of his patron Octavian Augustus Caesar.

The city was intricately planned and featured a network of crisscrossing roads, a temple, theatre, amphitheatre, markets, and residential quarters.  It took 12 years to build and great festivities were held at it's completion.  The city was transformed rapidly into a great commercial centre and by the year 6 BC it became the headquarters of the Roman government in Palestine (hence why Pontius Pilate lived here for most of his time in Israel). 

There was a high level aqueduct that brought water from the Shuni springs about 7.5 KM northeast of Caesarea, and was the primary water source.  You can still see, which I did, the aqueducts that run down the coast and beach area to this day.  Jews and Gentiles lived in the city but conflicts b/w the two were one of the important causes of the Great Revolt that erupted 66.  Caesarea served as the base of operations for the Roman legions that dealt with the revolt and it was at Caesarea that general Vespasian was declared Caesar.  It was granted the status of "colony" and after the fall and destruction of Jerusalem, became the most important city in the country. 

During the Byzantine period (324 - 638 AD) the city flourished and extended some 400 acres.  A perimeter wall was built in the 6th century and made Caesarea the largest fortified city in the country.  After the Arab conquest in 640 AD, Caesarea lost its political and economic significance.  Most of its people left the city and it became a small forsaken village.  Only in the 9th century, with the development of sea-trade and the recovery of coastal cities, was Caesarea refortified.  It was conquered by the Crusaders on May 17th 1101, and ruled by the Knights of Garnier.  In 1251, during the crusade of King Louis IX  (the same King Louis that the city of St. Louis, Missouri is named after), Caesarea was fortified anew with impressive intensity (believe me, the walls of the Crusader city ARE impressive).  In 1265 it was conquered by the Mamelukes led by Baybars, and was destroyed and deserted.  Its ruins became a source of lime and building stones for the region. It remained desolate until the 19th century, when the Ottoman authorities settled Bosnian refugees here.  The destroyed Crusader fortress was renovated and became the administrative centre, with new houses built on ruins.  After 1917, the city was in control of the British until the modern state of Israel was founded in 1948.

ATTENTION: Before I begin I just want you to know that if you've had trouble leaving me comments you can still send me your thoughts by emailing me at jake.mueller@gmail.com

The most anticipated event of my time in Israel finally happened this weekend, we went to Jerusalem! 

The bus ride there took somewhere between 2.5 - 3 hours on the bus, so it was a decent drive (for Israel).  On the way there we passed the city of Jericho, one of the oldest continually inhabited places on the entire planet.  The ancient city of Jericho is located about 2 kilometers from the modern city of Jericho.  The modern city was created around the time of the Hasmoneans rule in the region and improved upon by the likes of none other than Herod the Great (he was a bad dude, but man oh man did he ever build a lot of things). 

I also saw for the first time the Judean Wilderness that is described so often in the Bible.  It was a bit of a surreal experience to see the same wilderness that John the Baptist based his ministry out of and that Jesus would have been tempted in by Satan. (click the links in blue to read more).

Our visit to Jerusalem was a whirlwind tour because we only had till 4pm on Friday before we had to leave for the Kibbutz.  The driver dropped us off at the Joffa gate and we walked through the old city, through the Muslim quarter mostly, to go through St. Stephen's gate on the other side by the Mount of Olives.  It is called St. Stephen's gate because tradition has it that St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr was martyred outside that city gate.  We hiked up the Mount of Olives and I'm not joking when I say it was a hike.  I was almost as sweaty at the end of it as I usually am at the dig site.  However, the view from the top of the Mount of Olives over the Kidron Valley and the Old City is stunning.  The amount of history there in one view is just ..... awesome.  We then proceeded to hike down the Mount of Olives and stopped off at Dominus Flevit (The Lord wept) Church which commemorates what is described in Luke 19.  Unfortunately I was, along with 3 others from our group, denied entry for wearing shorts....even though the shorts I have on go past my knees and were acceptable at every other modest site we went to thus far on the trip.  I guess it depends on who is guarding the gate as to how strict they are on the rules.  After that we stopped off at the church commemorating Jesus praying in Gethsemane.  Gethsemane means "olive press" so even though the actual place would not be in the garden next to the church we saw the site is still significant because it is where Christians have come for 2 thousand years to remember this event in the life of Jesus.   

After our time at the Church in Gethsemane, we hiked down into the Kidron Valley and back up again to get back to the outer walls of the old city.  At that point we were given a choice by Dr. Schuler to go either to the Wailing Wall or to tour the archaeological park located there by the Temple Mount.  I chose the archaeological park, I have no real desire to see the Wailing Wall.  I have no regret in my choice as the park was spectacular!  We walked into the plaza and saw the remains of the Umayyad courtyard that had been built there and the remnants of the Roman Arch on which a great staircase to the Temple once rested and Roman shops were beneath it.  The  sheer size of the Temple Mount is impressive, I can only imagine how much higher the Temple itself might have been.  It's given me some perspective on the story when Jesus was tempted by Satan to throw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple and have the angels attend to him and rescue him.  There is a pile of rubble of huge stones left at the base of the Temple Mount by the Israeli authorities as a reminder of the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70AD.  From there we scaled the remainder of the crusader defences, the steps were gigantic which leads me to believe that these knights must have been some tall dudes.  Because it was friday we could not have access to that part of the park in which the steps to the Temple are located because they are too close to the mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the Muslim day of gathering, which is Fridays.

After we got done at the park we regrouped in the plaza outside of it and went up into the old city, to the Jewish quarter.  The Jewish quarter is all brand new because much of it was badly damaged in the 1967 war because there was such fierce fighting there between Israel and Muslim forces.  We ate lunch there.  Some got swarma (sort of like the Greek gyro) and some got genuine Jewish bagels....not this guy.  I went to the island of America in a sea of Middle Eastern....I went to the burger barn.  I regret this desicion.. I was feeling rather ill for the rest of the afternoon.  The lamb burger was pretty good...though the meat does not hold well in patty form like beef does.  However, I'm a big fan of lamb meat and couldn't pass up an opportunity to get a lamb burger. 

The next stop was to St. Mark's church in the Armenian quarter, which claims to be the first church in all of Christianity because it was here that Peter came to see the rest of the apostles after the angel helped him escape from jail.  They were all gathered in the house of St. Mark's mother, so the first house church and the first church.  Dr. Schuler likes to take tours there because the name of the woman that answered the door for Peter was Rhoda, and Dr. Schuler's wife is named Rhoda.  So we have the church of Mark... and ... Rhoda, there you go. 

King Hezekiah built a new fortification around the city of Jerusalem to protect and we saw the remnant of that wall on our way to the beginning of what Dr. Schuler calls the "archeaologist's via de la rosa" (because this way is more accurate than the tourist and medieval via de la rosa aka way of tears).    We went to the site of Herod's palace in Jerusalem were Jesus would've went on trial and then we went a little further down to the courtyard where Jesus would've been scourged by the Romans before being taken outside the city walls at that time to where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in which place Jesus was crucified for our sins, in an old Roman rock quarry and then put in a tomb only to rise again three days later.  There is a chapel marking the place that empress Helena (mother of Constantine) is said to have found the remnants of the "true cross".  The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a fascinating place in it's own right.  It is dark on the inside, the architecture is a hodge podge of Byzantine, Medieval, and crusader styles.  The church itself is split off into different sections controlled by different groups.  One group is controlled by the Greeks, another by the Latin Catholics, another by the Coptics...another by the Syrian....and I believe the Ethiopians have rights to the roof of the church.  To top all that off, a Muslim family controls the key to the church that locks the one door in and out of the place every day.  If you stand in certain parts of the church during the time of service you can hear the various liturgys going all at once in different languages. 

After that we did some shopping before heading back to the bus.  The vigor in which Israeli shop keepers haggle with you is something that us nice midwestern folks aren't really used to.  One thing I've learned here, every price is negotiable, they care about making the sale more than losing a customer. 

Picture time:

That's all folks!

In Christ,
Jake

P.S. -- to my nephew, Dorian:  I have not found any old tranformers like I or your daddy used to play with when we were kids, up at the dig site.  But don't worry, when I find one it is yours to have buddy. I miss ya kid!

Week 3 has been, by far, the most interesting week of digging the Team has had.  It's a shame our Canadian friends had to leave us just as things got interesting!  Some of the team has struggled this week with Illness and the heat but we've come through and we're stronger for it. 

In a previous post I unveiled to you, dear reader, that my square uncovered a flat stone surface that is being dated (for now) in the late Roman Period.  For the past three days our task has been to clear out the bulk of stones on the other side of our space to see what that yields.  Our hard work, our blood, sweat, and tears finally paid off today.  We uncovered three significant finds today!



The first two were uncovered by yours truly.  My first find is a stone (basalt) bowl that could've been used for grinding things or possibly for holding incense or another religious ritual perhaps. 

The second thing I found was another stone bowl.  However, this stone bowl is not round but is square around the perimeter while having a round, shallow center.  The initial analysis is that it too is a grinding stone but myself and Team Destruction leader, Darryl, don't really believe it's a grinding stone because it looks too nice to be a grinding stone. 

The third, and most impressive, find of the day belongs to Darryl.  In the last 5 minutes of the dig he unearthed a bronze incense holder!  The significance of this find is unquestionable for several reasons.  First, we've been wondering if we uncovered the floor of a temple of some sort.  Second, at the end of our square we discovered that the wall is resting on bedrock which put a damper on the temple theory.  So, finding three objects of potential religious significance on the Roman floor has given the temple theory a new life!  It has renewed my energy for the dig and I'm eager to get back up the hill to see what we find next! 



Tomorrow we leave for Jerusalem!  We get on the bus at 7am and will leave the city at 4pm.  I'm SUPER excited about getting to see and touch the Old City, to climb the Mount of Olives, to see Gethsemane and walk the path to the site of the crucifixion.  On Saturday 12 of us will be going to Ceasarea Maritima, a city built on the coast by Herod the Great.  We should be able to see the Jewish synagogue and Herod's palace, I believe.  It should be another great time!

Here's tonight's embarrassing picture of the day.  This one happened today at the dig.  I call this picture "Dr. Gimbal 'resting' at the site".  If you wish for further explanation please direct your comments to Dr. Jim Gimbel at gimbel@csp.edu.


Here's to you, America!

In Christ,
Jake

I'd like to start out Monday's blog (only a day late) by showing you a picture that I promised to take for Mike Miller.  So, Mike, here it is:

We left Jerash after having our first meal there, which was Arabic.  That means, lots of pita bread...humus (really good stuff, fyi)... and chicken.  Lunch costs about 10 dinar (=15 American dollars) everywhere we went.  We had to pack our own water for the trip and if we needed more we had to purchase bottled water b/c the water in Jordan....well....it's not quite as good for you as it could be.  In fact, there is a stomach bug that the majority of our group seem to have caught (in varying degrees) from something we consumed in Jordan.  Now, whether that comes from the water (melted ice in drinks for instance) or some food we ate is yet to be determined.  We're taking care of ourselves so there is no cause for alarm.

Before I take you to Petra, I need to take you to the stop we had on the way there.  I will show you the view from the top of Mount Nebo, which overlooks the Dead Sea, Quram (think Dead Sea Scrolls), Jericho, and some of Jerusalem.  It was on this mountain that Moses himself ascended to die because God would not allow him to enter the promised land but allowed him to see it before his death. 

We left early on the morning of this past Friday to spend three days in Jordan seeing the sights.  Our first stop in Jordan is the ancient decapolis city of Jerash (or Gerasa).  The preservation of Jerash and the amount that they have uncovered over the last 70 years of excavation is amazing.  This city is by and far the most impressive archaelogical site I've gotten to see since coming to Israel. 

As soon as we got of the bus we were immediately impressed by Hadrian's Arch, which stands well outside the ancient city borders.  Emperor Hadrian came to Jerash in 129 BC and the enormous arch was built to commenorate his coming.  Our guide, Sammy, told us a rather funny story about the arrival.  Apparently they put the "welcome" sign on the wrong side of the arch b/c the people of the town were told he would come from one direction when in fact the emperor came from another way. 

My favorite part of the whole trip was after we walked up the grand stairway in the middle of the city to the temple of Artemis.  It was remarkable to me that the columns of the Temple showed no sign of fall damage.  The Roman engineers were genius, what they did was manufactor special columns for the Temple that are built to absorb shock by being flexible enough to move around.  I wouldn't have believed it if not for the demonstartion that Sammy gave to us.  He put a rock and a metal spoon between a base column piece and the base itself and had some of the group members push the column and we could see the spoon move up and down as the column itself moved from side to side!

It's been a couple days since I last blogged but I'm pleased to announce that I have an ice cold coke, my I pod on shuffle, all my pictures uploaded, and a stable internet connection so I'm ready to go!

This past friday marked the last day of the dig for 10 people.  All 8 eight Canadians went back to there homes this morning after spending their time in Jerusalem today.  I'm very grateful for the chance I've had to get to know them and I'll miss them all.  Despite some minor mumbles and grumbles about the heat I found them to be fine workers with good attitudes, not to mention great men and women of God. 

We had to rearrange our quarters today b/c the Candians left and have been replaced by Russians in room 2 of the men's house.  I was genuinely sad to see the Canadians go already and to add salt to the wound they were replaced by, of all the people coming here to work, some Russians.  I don't believe these are the same Russians that I found so annoying last week.  As long as these Russians are here to do some work and not give us a fashion show up on the hill, I'll be fine with them being here in our space.

Team Destruction (that's what my team calls ourselves, we work in square D5 thus D is for destruction) had a major milestone occur for us on Friday.  The Most Right and Honorable Reverend Heir Doctor Schuler finally gave us the go ahead to unblock the doorway!

Taking the rubble out of the doorway meant that we had completed one of our primary goals of getting out square down to, what ought to be, floor level.  That task completed we embarked on a new mission.  We are in the process of performing a deep probe in a 1 meter by 3 meter portion of the square.  Our mission is to take it down until we hit bedrock.  Here's a picture of our new work area.

Our square might be the most important square at the moment b/c depending on what we uncover in the deep probe there will be big implications for the rest of the dig.  Dr. Schuler expected us to dig down a little bit and run into bedrock, which would be the final proof he needs to know that the northeast church is not resting on an old Temple of some kind.  Finding a temple would be VERY significant for the dig b/c it would almost ensure a renewal for the dig.  Byzantine Churches are a dime a dozen around here and, quite frankly, I don't believe the Israeli Antiquity Authority really cares all that much about finding churches.  However, Dr. Schuler has said from the beginning that if we find a Temple of some sort he would be ecstatic b/c it would mean an almost certain renewal of Hippos.

We started digging and then it got interesting b/c we ran into a layer of stones that are clearly laid out on purpose and were not just destruction fill of some sort.  Here's an early picture of what we unearthed on Friday.

It's hard to say exactly what we have found.  At first glance it looks like a floor but it could be a floor with the remnants of a wall.  We're below what should be the Byzantine Period and at our depth would be venturing into the Roman era.  Dr. Schuler has several different theories but more needs to be unveiled.  What will we discover on Monday??? Stay tuned to learn the dramatic continuation of this story and it's inevitable conclusion!

I'm adding a new and infrequent addition to the blog.  I'd like to start closing this session with a funny and/or embaressing picture of something around here. I hope that you all will find it as amusing as I do.  I like to call this picture "Nathan, caught in the act of eating yogurt without a spoon!" I just think the expression on his face is just hilarious...I don't know why.
Anywho, that's it for Friday's posting.....4 days late.  I'll leave you with two more thoughts before I end this.

First, don't consume any more products from Budweiser.  Inbev completed their hostile take over of AB Sunday night.  So not only are the products sub par mass brewed beer but it's not even American owned anymore.  Today is a tragic day for any self-respecting St. Louisan or Missourian.

Second, the All Star game is one Tuesday night 7pm.  Go National League!

Keep it real America!

In Christ,
Jake