Day 9??

Nine days! Wow! I've been here a long time. I'm just a little over half way through my trip. In some ways it feels like I just got here and in others it seems like I've been doing this dig thing for a long while. Despite the dust and heat and early hours, I truly am loving it! I hope someday I'll be able to come back.

Today saw our team move from E6 to B5. E6 is a bit perplexing and so off we went to another patch of ground. Do you remember me mentioning last Wednesday that I had helped prepare another square for excavation? Well, today our team started excavating that square (B5). It was a little tough getting motivated with nothing but a piece of flat ground starting at us, but after a little work, things paid off. We knew there were at least two walls in that square because of what is found in the squares next to it. Due to the size of our square and the general findings in the site as a whole, we suspected that there would also be a third wall in the square, but we had no idea where it might be. We dug away from the places where we knew there were walls to avoid damaging them. By shortly after breakfast at 7:45, we had located a suspected third wall and were ready to start digging a little closer to the other two walls. All our patience paid off! Just before quitting time, Quin identified the inside face of the first wall and Katie uncovered the line of the "suspected wall" which confirms that it is indeed a wall. We also think we know where the other side of that wall is. All that discovery, and only one day. In our last square, we worked all week and didn't get that far! So far we still haven't found anything more significant than rocks, pottery and the occasional piece of glass, but it's still fun. I must confess, though, I'm a little jealous is E8...they have found a staircase, a cistern, a road and several columns in their square and it is the same size as our old E6...Ah well, "thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's square." Maybe I'll need to confess that when we have worship tonight. ;)