The Canadians and a few other scattered volunteers left this past weekend leaving our group significantly smaller and quieter. Already many of us are missing them. We did gain another team member, Jim, who will be with us for the last two weeks. Our groups focus has been directed to two of the squares we had been working on. Today we uncovered a large amount of nails and glass shards, John found a nearly complete pot that he will have to reconstruct in the lab, and I found a complete oil lamp! The lamp is from the late Roman period. I think from 500-700 AD?? I will have the privilege of cleaning it later in the week. We were blessed today with a nice breeze most of the day and clouds for a good part of the day. After the clouds left it heated up significantly. The heat and a bug that has been going around the team have kept some people back, but they are eager to get better and get back up to the site. As close as we are to the floor in our square we are still running into large boulders! Apparently the "wall" that had been in this room was not the best wall and when the earthquake struck it was pushed out. Only about 2-4 feet remain in areas of the room. We are also sweeping and uncovering the floor of our room. It is a nice paved plaza that ends where the inside of the house would have been and then continues as a plaster floor. I am still taking pictures, some are up on facebook and others are waiting to be loaded! Stay tuned!
The dust is never ending! Everyday one has to take time cleaning out their nose of all the black crud that has deposited within... On the bright side we have found many great finds so far! We have a glass Janus vase, a glass bottle, copper pot, bone carving statue, bone carving doohickey (possible napkin holder??), some nails, two daggers, and two cisterns, one of which Corey and I uncovered within a wall! The sites which originally were no different from any other ground on the site are now up to 3 and a half meters deep with floors, columns, and cisterns everywhere. When many people think of archeology they think of people using little brushes on delicate items. Since we are so deep it is a LOT different. We pick ax and shovel dirt out half the day and the other half is spent carrying and boosting rocks out of our holes upwards of 400 lbs. I have decided that if I ever have my own city I am going to accept that someday it will fall and become ruins, so I am going to make it easy on later generations and make my walls out of something light not basalt!! The Byzantines and Romans never think ahead...
Saw so many cool sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem this weekend! Unfortunately the trip to Jerusalem was just as taxing as a day at the dig site. We had to hike everywhere! There is a lot of information to share in a small format. The most interesting thing I learned on the trip to Jerusalem was that anyone will claim anything to come onto the tourism route through the city. We went to several places that were 100% positive that... they had the footprints of Jesus from his ascension, had the exact (marble) manger where Jesus was born, new exactly where Jesus was crucified and buried, and found a place that Mary's milk as she was feeding Jesus fell to the ground and stained the black rock white. This and others, were very hokey to say the least, but being in Jerusalem with a teacher who knows his archeology and can say "I for sure know Jesus was here" is reassuring. Some known cool places were the Herodium, the desert fortress and possible tomb of Herod the Great, the giant platform for the temple where the Dome of the Rock now stands (constructed by Herod), the Mount of Olives, Hezekiah's tunnel, and the markets with the TONS of people trying to barter everything but the clothes of their back to you. If you have any questions on any of the sites please contact me on facebook! I don't have enough time to go into great detail about every aspect of the trip but it was great! Keep following my blog, the dig site is getting to the interesting phase where we are on the look out for cool stuff not just rocks and dirt. Thanks for reading!
Had a scare today about water shortage at the sight, but Dr. Schuler scrounged up some from other sites! We unearthed the other side of our wall today in what we believe to be an extension of one of the other dig squares as a giant room. We still have about 2-2.5 meters to drop before we hit bottom. Pottery scrubbing was a pain today because one of the squares found a massive reserve of pottery shards. It is a good time to get to know people and especially to make fun of Canadian accents, eh? The site drawings I am doing every day are really coming along well! It is getting easier every time I do it. Hoping to get dark, but sat out in the sun today for a while and may have only gotten a little redder...
We discovered two walls that are on either side of a street! No large finds yet, but we may have to go down 3 meters to find a floor!! Less pick axing today and more removing HUGE boulders that fell in earlier times from our walls and were covered along with the walls themselves. The largest were about 2 feet by 2 feet by a foot. My not sound huge but we had a mixture of different stones that were very heavy! Started my rough sketches that I will do every day at the end of the dig. Saw some cool wildlife such as the Mediterranean worm snake! very interesting. Still no scorpions yet! Time for bed!
Started off our first day at 8 when we left to tour the dig site. It was a lot more organized and complete that I thought it would be. No scorpions or snakes yet. After the dig site we went to the site attributed to the beatitudes from Jesus' sermon on the mount. This may or may not be the place where it happened, but it is where it is commemorated. Next we went to the church that is attributed to the feeding of the 5000. Next was Capernaum, Peter's supposed house and the church and synagogue their. Finally we finished by visiting a church that was half rebuilt to what it originally looked like. This church is attributed to Jesus casting the legion of demons into pigs. Overall very very interesting, but also VERY VERY hot. We had to wear jeans so that didn't help. Cooling off in the Sea of Galilee after made it all worth while! Besides the fish trying to snack on my pinky toe...
I am getting extremely excited to leave, but much of the enthusiasm hasn't set in as I have been wrapped up in trying to get my last minute reading done before we leave. The material is very interesting at least! I am hoping the long plane ride will help my determination... take flight... lol bad pun.
On a side note I am collecting a mental picture book of the faces and reactions I get from friends when I tell them I am going to Israel. I often get the deer in head lights look. This is usually accompanied with a quip about me being blown up or something along those lines. Many people are just "blowing" it out of proportion.
Getting closer to July 1st and cannot wait to get on the plane despite the long plain ride. Bought many of the supplies I need last week, but have to go pick up some more. Text books finally arrived! Getting very excited.
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