Heidi Weik

Where Did the Time Go?

2009-07-17T12:25:52Z

How did it get to be July 17th aready? Today is my last day at Kibbutz Ein Gev, and I was just starting to have fun! Last time I wrote, I had injured my achilles tendon and was working from the dorm on classwork for Dr. Schuler's New Testament class. I spent Monday and Tuesday on the kibbutz, and by Wednesday morning I was ready to go back up! Unfortunately after a few hours I realized my ankle was not ready so I spent the rest of the day sifting. This worked out well though,because I did find 2 coins within an hour of each other. I also took it slow on Thursday, and helped out Arnie's team sweeping their walls and floors. They have done a fantastic job in their square, and it was great to spend some time with another team. I just wish I could figure out what they have going on over there!

Thurday evening, courtesy of generous donations from Darryl's church members and others, we were given a fabulous sunset ride on Lake Tiberias. That was probably one of the high points for me, as far as connecting the present and the past and really feeling the divine presence of this place. Tomorrow it is off to Caesarea, which I have been looking forward to ever since I found out I would be able to go. I was in Caesarea 10 years ago, and have great memories of that trip, so looking forward to making some more!

Archaeology and the Achilles Tendon

2009-07-13T06:20:41Z

When your fearless leader tells you to "pace yourself", "take care of your body", and other such statements, s/he is not making casual conversation. I learned this yesterday when I realized (much to my surprise) that I am not 20, I am not an athlete, and I am never going to be able to sprint up that hill. After 2 days of touring in Jerusaem and Bethlehem, my body had had it, but I wasn't listening. So it spoke loudly to me yesterday in the form of a couple of very painful achilles tendons. Edmond was kind enough to give me a ride down to the kibbutz after breakfast, an event which may or may not have been better than alternative. Don't get me wrong, Edmond is an excellent driver; but there were several points along the way where I woud have preferred to walk. And passing the bulldozer one the one lane gravel road at the top of the cliff was one of them. At least he made the bulldozer go on the outside. But I arrived safely and am currently sitting at my desk, feet up, 1.5 liter bottle of water nearby and working on New Testament assignents for Dr. Schuler. Not very exciting, but better than a trip to the emergency room.

How to See Jerusalem in 24 Hours or Less

2009-07-12T16:53:29Z

Remember that movie, "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium"? I just experienced the Middle East version. I'm not sure how we did it, but our team managed, in a single day to visit the Praetorium, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem Archaeological Park, The Western Wall, The Mount of Olives, Church of the Ascension, Church of All Nations, Garden of Gethsemane, St Anne's, the Via Dolorosa and still have time left for shopping. After a delicious meal and a good night's sleep at the (fabuous) Lutheran Guesthouse, we set out for Bethlehem. We spent a beautiful morning at the Church of the Nativity where we had an excellent local tour guide, then spent a few hours browsing the local shops. I found everything I needed, from batteries to frankincense, for less than $20 and had lunch at a great little cafe with the best shwarma I have ever had. After lunch we reconvened and set out for the Herodium. After studying Herodian Archaeology last year, it was amazing to see one of his buildings up close. Oddly enough, the favorite feature seemed to be the cisterns (ok, so it was about 30 degrees cooler in there). After a quick ice cream, we headed back home to Ein Gev, where we enjoyed a fabulous indoor picnic courtesy of our teammates who stayed back from Jerusalem.

I learned a LOT about myself this weekend. I learned that I swell in the humidity. I learned that I do not have good feet for walking long distances. And I learned that I can only look at so many churches in one day. Apparently I have a limited capacity for appreciating Byzantine architecture. Either that or it was the heat. Yeah, it was probaby just the heat.

That said, I am so glad to have had this opportunity. It will probably hit me when I get home, when I'm looking at my pictures, or reading an email from friends made on the trip, what anawesome experience this has been.

Oops!

2009-07-08T16:48:56Z

Somehow, in all the excitement, I forgot to make an entry yesterday! So this entry will be for both July 7th and July 8th.

July 7th

Once again, the majority of the morning was spent deciding which rocks were 'just rocks' and which rocks were part of something else. This part of archaeology is not fun, especially when the majority of your area is filled with 'just rocks'. It was eventually determined that we really had a whole lot of 'just rocks', and spent the day agressively removing them. We have revealed a few potential areas of interest, on the east side of the square and on the south. We will be leaving them for now, until we see what they can tell us. Our hope is that at least one of them will be the continuation of previously excavated walls, most likely the east side, next to the street. Today I also learned that archaeologists use some transferable skills that I had not previously considered, the main one being communication. When you think about it; with so many different people with different levels of experience and training working on a common goal its amazing that things go as well as they do. Information often reaches you through a chain of comand, so it takes skill to know when and how) to ask questions, when to act, and when to just sit dow together and eat popsicles.

July 8

Today was Aggressive Rock Removal Day Part 2. Within a few hours we had revealed a potential wall course along the east side, and a line of stones consistent with that in the square to our west. We will continue to articulate around those stones to determine if they are part of a feature, or 'just rocks'. Later in the day it was deterined that the south side was not part of a wall, so we will be bringing that down tomorrow. We also found a level of flat stones on the north side that appear to be a floor. At this point I'm a bit puzzled about what type of building/room this would have been. There is so much destruction tand rebuilding, hat it is difficult to know what the original structure was. At this point it is still a little difficut to visualize, but there is some discussion of removing the bauk to join us to the square to our west. Hopefully this will help to clarify things. I feel that we accomplished a lot today and worked together well.

Just Another Manic Monday

2009-07-06T16:33:56Z

Day two is over and my feet are very thankful! Today we began with a massive team assembly line to remove the large stones and debris from one of the squares. It went extremely well and we accomplished quite a bit in half an hour. We then met in the Northeast Church building for a lecture by Kristina, on recognizing small finds. Her knowledge and enthusiasm got everyone excited for the first day of 'real' digging. In my square, we are still working on removing some very large debris; possibly a destruction layer, and are down about 30 centimeters. We are finding considerable pottery now, and a beautiful glass handle, possibly from an unguent bottle. But the most rewarding part of the day, was getting some tarps up and getting all of our team members in the shade. We did have great cloud cover until about 8:00, but then the sun came out with a vengeance.

From what we uncovered today, it is fairly certain that we have at least another meter of destruction before we reach any architecture or substantial artifacts. Because we will be coming down next to the main road, I remain hopeful that we will eventually find some solid diagnostic evidence, but patience will be required.

Although we accomplished a great deal, today was not an easy day for me. I seem to be experiencing some adjustment issues. Having been on an excavation last year that was incrediby strict and rigid, I am having a little difficulty finding my place on the team. I would feel more comfortable with a little more direction and structure, so I am going to have to figure out the best way to handle that. But adjustments are to be expected, and tomorrow will probably be better.

Day One!

2009-07-05T15:55:55Z

Today was the first official day of fieldwork for the Concordia teams at Hippos-Susita. We were blessed with an exceptionally rare, overcast sky for most of the morning (which started at 5 am), and a few people even felt a raindrop or two. We could ony hope for such good digging weather tomorrow. The morning began with clean up duties, including removal of weeds and debris that have appeared during the off season.There was a good deal of singing this morning, which kept everyone in good spirits while we worked as did the knowledge that with hard work comes reward. Within a few hours, most of the teams were ready to begin digging, but the first day is not usually very exciting in this regard. We were mainly beginning to remove the top layers of packed dirt and rubble, but won't get to the 'fun' digging until tomorrow.

I have been on 2 digs previous to this one, and I have to say that this is the nicest group of people I have ever worked with. Everyone is genuinely excited to be here, and there is a level of kindness and respect that I have not encountered in the field before. I feel very lucky to part of such a great team of people. In my opinion, all the academic credentials and funding in the world can not replace the experience of being part of a team that is so united in its philosophy and its purpose.