Anyway, Thursday was a pretty uneventful day. We started digging in our square (ZZ2North- We originally started just as ZZ2, but cut it in half as mentioned in a previous post) and did so most of the morning. We pulled out several rocks, and got a it more of the dirt cleared. However, after lunch, Dr. Schuler came over and moved us again. He had us go to ZZ3Northwest. Now, with a full team in a full square, we had a good system going. When we had the same number of people in half the square, it was a little crowded, but doable. But when a full team got put in a quarter square, it was nearly impossible to keep everyone working and not killing each other when picking, or chopping someone's foot off while using the turreah. (For those of you who don't know what a turreah is, here's the definition from the virtual dig site. "We use a hoe called, in Arabic, a turreah. It's is a little like a garden hoe, except it's handle is shorter, about four feet long, and its blade is approximately square, not pointed. We use the hoe to scoop dirt into buckets that we empty nearby.") But I digress... We made do with the quarter square with a little more caution in our work. No small finds, no walls. However, we do know that there are at least two walls in that quarter square. On that leads from ZZ2N, and another that comes from behind the apse on the church. So we hope to hit them before too long.
So without any good small finds today, and not being allowed to collect pottery in the new square, we got a lot of digging done. It was really hard work at times, clearing away rocks and dirt, but it was sort of interesting starting a new square. For some reason, it reminds me of Lamentations 3:21-23;
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of YHWH's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Now, I don't know how many of you have actually sat down and read the book of Lamentations, but if you haven't, I'll give you a brief overview, as it is one of my favorite books. Israel is lamenting to God (hence the title) about His justice. Israel had, onec again, turned their back on God, and He et them go. As a result, the poeple and the land are ravaged. It is in the middle of this big long complaint that these verses pop up. And given that context, these verses stand out even more. Even in the midst of the destruction, the people still have hope. Because God is God. And God is Love. This sort of reminds me of digging, in a strange, roundabout way. (For those of you wo don't really know me, my mind does this sometimes... It's more fun that way...) In the midst of our own backbreaking labor, we can still praise YHWH for His love and compassion and faithfulness. As we get new squares every morning, we get more opportunities to make finds, to uncover unknown structures, and to grow closer to the God who gave us this opportunity.
There is much work yet to be done. But with the team we have, we will continue to move rapidly. We still have a couple walls to find, and hopefully more small (or large, for that matter) finds. We're working well as a team, which is a great thing. All this hard work has really drawn our square closer (in more than one sense of the word.) Since I'm writing this after the next blog's events have happened, I can say that there are new compassions in the blogs ahead. You'll see when I get there...
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