The beginning of the end, and a mosaic floor!

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By Jaclyn Wiebold on July 24, 2011 5:20 AM 0 Vote 1 Vote
It's hard to believe, but today was the start of our last week of digging.  After three weeks of hiking up the mountain each morning, digging in the dirt, and sweating in the sun we can almost say we're finished.  Almost.

Today was an exciting day though, a day worthy of starting the week off.  As I mentioned in the last blog we had reached the floor of our room and were a little unsure of what to make of it.  Last Thursday we broke through to mosaic floor, and today we were able to clear away the majority of the loose dirt to expose what was left.  Below is a picture of the entire floor of our room.

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It's a little hard to see, but the top half of the photo is mosaic floor, the middle is a band of stone, and the section at the bottom of the photo is a mud/plaster floor with a pipe running across the top.  Based on the way we broke through the layers as we dug down it seems as though the mosaic floor is the original floor.  At a later time it was cut along the line of stone we found, pipes were laid, and a mud/plaster floor was added to the top.  We were able to follow the pipes across the room, from a catch basin at one end, across the floor, clear through a wall and into the courtyard outside.  We cut out a small section of the pipe to check for mosaic underneath.  Below is a picture of the pipe earlier in the day, as we were working to find the floor underneath.  In this photo you can see the catch basin that held the water at one end of the room.

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Even though we weren't able to find mosaic underneath the pipe, the floor had one big surprise left for us.  Just inside the north doorway another inscription was discovered, similar to the one in the garden next door.

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Unfortunately the inscription is damaged in one place, so we don't know exactly what it means yet.  The first word, however, is a form of the verb "to enter," so the inscription starts with a welcome into the room.  We're hoping that the second word will help reveal the purpose of the room, but we won't know until Dr. Schuler is able to piece together the Greek in spite of the missing letters.  So for now here is a picture of my team around the inscription, and a video of its initial cleaning and reading.  

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Thanks again to everyone who has been following my blog and keeping me in their prayers, I have been truly blessed by this experience.


A day up at the dig

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By Jaclyn Wiebold on July 19, 2011 5:47 AM 0 Vote 0 Votes
Hello again!

Today was kind of an interesting day up at the dig site, so after writing most of my blog entries on the touring we've done I thought it might be fun to change things up and give everyone an idea of what we do up at the site.  

To put it simply, our goal is to move dirt and rocks without throwing away anything important.  We've found some interesting things this season already, including nails, coins, pottery, glass, tessera tiles, inscriptions carved into stone, and a hair pin.  Below is a picture of the room I've been helping excavate.  
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When we started the dirt was roughly level with the back wall towards the top of the picture. In the last two weeks we dug down to what you see now, finding the wall in the right side of the picture along the way.  There is also a street on the other side of the back wall that we spent a day or two helping clear out.  

I said earlier that today was an interesting day, and that's because we were expecting to find the floor of our room.  At this point we're not entirely sure what the function of the room was, but since there is a garden area just to the north of it there's a good chance it could be a dining room.  As we've been digging we've been finding tessera tiles and chunks of marble, so we were optimistic that we were going to run into a nice floor.  As we got closer and closer to the bottom and even past the threshold of the door, however, we weren't finding anything nice at all.  In some areas of the room, as shown below, there was an uneven mud and plaster mixture that could have served as a floor.  But up against our expectations we didn't really seem to be getting anywhere.

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Most of the day was spent carefully uncovering this plaster in case it was the only floor we were going to find.  We got a little help from Telal, the tractor driver for the excavation.  One of the problems with excavating a complete room is lifting the rocks out over the wall, so we left some of the larger ones for the tractor.  I'm not sure how many years Telal has been working up at Hippos, but he's amazing at what he does.  He's found things like oil lamps and carved stones in the trash heaps with the tractor right before they were going to be dumped.  Dr. Schuler likes to joke that we all become mesmerized watching the tractor when it's around.  I don't know if mesmerized is the right word, but it is pretty neat to see.

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Anyway, after spending the day carefully trying to preserve our mud-plaster floor Dr. Schuler told us to dig down deeper in a few areas to see if we could find something else underneath.  In the last 45 minutes of the day one of the volunteers uncovered a mosaic floor.  It's a little hard to see in this picture, but the lighter area in the bottom of the whole is made up of roughly 1 cm square mosaic pieces. 

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We're hoping we will find similar tiles under the rest of the floor.  It's hard to believe, but we only have 7 days left up at the dig site.  The goal is to finish this room and start excavating another area a little to the southwest.  

One of my favorite parts of the trip so far is going to visit other archaeological sites to see the work that has been done there, and then thinking about how our site might someday become like those sites as well.  There's still a lot to be done, but the difference two weeks of work can make is amazing.  

Stay tuned for more dig updates, and hopefully pictures of our complete mosaic floor!

The images in my head

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By Jaclyn Wiebold on July 14, 2011 1:49 PM 0 Vote 0 Votes
So the point of this blog entry was to choose one picture from each of the sites we've visited so far and post it with the scripture reading connected to that place.  I thought it was going to be simple, but it turns out it's really hard to condense the Holy Land experience down to a picture per place.  So keeping in mind that there is so much more I wish I could show, here is the picture from each of the sites we've visited (so far) that sticks in my mind the most as I think about them, along with the Biblical reference. 

And a bonus picture of the entire dig team standing in a street we excavated this season. 

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Now onto the sites:

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Hippos
Matthew 5:14-16
This is a picture of the temple pillars with the Sea of Galilee in the background.  What you can see of the opposite shore could very well be where Jesus sat as he looked back up at this temple and spoke of a city on a hill.  

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Kursi
Matthew 8:28-34
The site which commemorates the healing of the demon possessed men.

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Capernaum
Matthew 8:5-13
The remains of what is believed to be Peter's house, where Jesus would have visited.

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Tabgha
Matthew 14:13-21
The altar of the church which commemorates the feeding of the 5,000.

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Beatitudes
Matthew 5:3-12
The church at the site which commemorates the Beatitudes.

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Jesus' Ascension
Acts 1: 6-12
The church which commemorates the Ascension of Jesus.

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Mount of Olives
Matthew 21:1-11
The view back over Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.

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Jesus Weeping over Jerusalem
Matthew 23:37-39
Notice how the cross on the altar covers the Dome of the Rock from the right angle. 

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The Garden of Gethsemane
Matthew 26:36-46
The garden outside of the church which commemorates this site.

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The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Matthew 27:33-50
The front of the church which commemorates Jesus' crucifixion.

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The Church of the Nativity
Matthew 1:18-25
A picture of the church, taken from manger square out front.

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The Herodian
Matthew 2:6-18
The remains of the Herodian, one of Herod's fortresses outside of Jerusalem. 

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Hezekiah's Tunnel
2 Kings 20:20
On the way down to Hezekiah's Tunnel, a tunnel approximately 1/3 of a mile long used to access fresh water.

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Jesus' Trial Before Pilate
Matthew 27:11-26
The site, outside of Herod's palace in Jerusalem, where many archaeologists believe Jesus' trial before Pilate took place.

And last but certainly not least:

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Sunset on the Sea of Galilee
Matthew 14: 22-32
The horizon, right after the sun went down.

I hope that gives you a glimpse into the amazing experience I've been blessed to have while over here in Jerusalem.  Thanks again for all the prayers and support.

A brief overview of the first week in Israel, or archaeologists are all skeptics :)

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By Jaclyn Wiebold on July 10, 2011 5:50 AM 0 Vote 0 Votes
Hi everyone!

This weekend marked the ending of my first full week in Israel, and what a week it was.  Sunday through Thursday was spent digging, and Thursday night we drove down to Jerusalem and spent the night at a hotel in the Christian quarter.  The next day was spent touring various sites in Jerusalem, and on Saturday we headed over to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity.  

Our first week up at the dig site ended with a lot of moved dirt and one pretty significant discovery.  The final piece of an inscription on a piece of stone was found in one of the rooms a team was investigating.  The first piece of the inscription was found in 2008, and four years later this third and final piece was discovered.  The inscription honors Tarius Titianus, a governor of Syria Palestinae, as "patron and builder of the fatherland."  A lintel stone, the stone over the top of a doorway, was also found at the site this week.  What made this find really special was the fact that it was found in place on top of its doorposts.  In the earthquake that destroyed Hippos back in 749 most of the doorways were destroyed.  This was only the second lintel stone found in place at the site in 10 years.  

So after the exciting week of digging we headed down to Jerusalem to spend a few days touring the old city and many of the sites that commemorate various Biblical events.  This leads me to a bit of explanation about the title of this blog.  I think we're receiving an entirely unique Holy Land experience because we are looking at everything from an archaeologist's perspective.  At nearly every site we visited we were reminded that the site "commemorated" the event rather than marked its absolute location.  One of the major benefits, however, was getting to visit some "off the tour guide map" locations where archaeologists believe events were more likely to have occurred.  For example, in addition to walking the Via Dolorosa we also walked another route from the wall of Herod's palace to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which archaeologists believe is closer to the actual route Jesus' would have taken.  Either way it was incredible to spend the weekend walking in the steps of both Jesus and thousands of pilgrims before us.  

So far everything is going better than I could have imagined.  Though I'm not quite as pale as when I left I've managed not to get entirely sunburned, and besides a few bruises from runaway wheelbarrows I'm holding up pretty well at the dig site.  Next weekend we're heading down to the Dead Sea and over to Masada, so I'm looking forward to seeing what that experience holds as well.  I'm also working on a "photo blog" with a highlight picture from each site we visited, along with the Scripture reference attached to it, so keep an eye out for that.  Thanks again for all the prayers and thoughts, I'm sure they've made all the difference.  


A city on a hill cannot be hidden

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By Jaclyn Wiebold on July 3, 2011 8:24 AM 0 Vote 0 Votes
     Yesterday was our first full day in Israel, and the majority of it was spent traveling around the Sea of Galilee. We started off the morning with a trip up to Hippos-Sussita, the site where we're excavating. At this point I should probably insert a disclaimer. Along the way Dr. Schuler explained some incredible things and drew amazing connections, and this blog is mostly going to be my best attempt to remember them. I know I'll miss things, but I'll do my best to try and keep everything straight. We get to the excavation site by taking about a 10 minute bus ride up the mountain and then hiking another 10 minutes along a rocky path up to the city. On the walk we have a pretty spectacular view of the Sea of Galilee. 

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At one point on the walk we stopped and read Matthew 8:28-34 together, the healing of two demon-possessed men. Though the site of this healing is officially commemorated at a different location, the description in Matthew also fits this site. It was pretty incredible to stand on the mountain overlooking steep hills (though at the time pig-less) and the sea, and read those words. 
     As we came over the top of the mountain we got our first look at the city's remains. Our team is working on excavating a house at the northeast corner of the city, and an unknown area farther southwest. Several houses and a small church have already been excavated. The way the columns in the church were discovered tipped over in the same direction shows that the city was destroyed by an earthquake, around 749. Standing at the site we can look across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, where Jesus carried out much of his ministry. At this point we read together Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." With many of the columns made of marble, the church at Hippos certainly shone as a light on a hill in Jesus time. As we stood on the mountain and looked across to where Jesus preached it was pretty amazing to think that he could have been speaking of the very place we were standing.
     The rest of the day was spent traveling to the mountain where the Beatitudes are commemorated, Tabgha, a reconstructed Byzantine church that commemorates the feeding of the 5,000, Capernaum, and the site that commemorates the healing of the two demon possessed men. Back at the Kibbutz we went for a swim in the Sea of Galilee before meeting together at a fish restaurant for a group dinner. Overall the day was a great way to start off our time in the Holy Land. I was certainly excited to get started at the excavation site, and after spending today day out in the sun digging I can honestly say that I'm still excited. If you haven't done so yet, there's probably still time to buy some stock in Coppertone before our sunscreen consumption shoots it through the roof.
     Thanks again to everyone for their prayers and support, I know this trip wouldn't be possible without them. I hope this gives everyone an idea of what the first part of my trip was like. I've uploaded pictures from the first day to facebook, if you'd like to view them and don't have facebook this link should take you to the public album. We're digging until Thursday and then heading to Jerusalem for the weekend. My plan is to post again about our first week on the dig, and then about our trip to Jerusalem, so stay tuned if you're interested :)

The Excitement is Building!

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By Jaclyn Wiebold on May 18, 2011 8:49 PM 0 Vote 0 Votes
Hi everyone, 

As you probably know by your navigation to this blog, I'm heading to Israel this summer!  Stay tuned for pictures, ponderings, and other fun things that are to come.  I'll be there through the month of July, so I'll "write at" you then :)

~Jackie
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