Day 10

Another day of digging! Up at 4:00, 1st breakfast, blah, blah, blah . . .

Our square is taking down one of our balks. "What is a balk?" you may be asking. Well, each square is 5 meters x 5 meters. However, we (us professional archaeologists) do not excavate the entire 5 x 5 square. We come in 1/2 meter from all sides making our excavated site 4 x 4 meters and leaving a 1/2 meter wall or balk, which when combined withe the balk of the surrounding squares makes the entire balk 1 meter wide all the way around the square.

Well, we are going to be tying into the squares excavated last year and thus taking down our West balk. We are anticipating finding 8th century destruction, which is what they found on the other side of our balk. Also, they had found above that several "mass" dog burials. So, I've had to go slowly through this area being cautious of bones. We have found some, but not full skeletons.

In our balk I did make two interesting finds . . . I found a nearly perfectly round stone with a flat base. It is obviously been worked (that means tooled or manipulated or shaped by human hands) and is possibly a weight for measuring out gold, silver, grain, etc. I also found a small, round potsherd (broken pottery piece), but again b/c is was perfectly rounded it is definitely been "worked." For what purpose . . . possibly a game piece, or a token, or who knows. They will clean both pieces and analyze them later this week. It was pretty cool to find those pieces. Also found some flint scrapers.

The square on the other side of the square that was excavated last year made two pretty significant finds. One was a zoomorphic pottery piece (that means a pottery piece that is shaped like an animal). The head of a bull(?) which would have been the spout of a jug. Only the head was found. They also found a scarab seal. It is a small stone (about 1/2" x 3/8") with a scarab beetle engraved. It also had epigraphic evidence (writing). This is probably the biggest find so far. However, they are expected much more and cooler stuff to come!

Had a run-in with a wheelbarrow today. We have to move the dirt that we excavate to our "dump." We have to go up and down several high and low spots, but the last run is about 40 yards up a steep hill on very soft dirt that is littered here and there w/large sub-surface stones. You have to really get a head of steam if you want to make it up the hill, making sure to avoid the stones. Well, I missed one. My wheelbarrow came to a quick stop and I kept going . . . smashed my shin into the back leg of the wheelbarrow and the handle rammed into my left rib cage! I'll be feeling that for a while. It certainly left it's mark.

Pottery washing this afternoon was a chore . . . not much fun, hunched down brushing small pieces of pottery. But, it's not too bad.

Lecture tonight on Bronze Age . . . pretty interesting. I bought an interactive DVD for $10 from the doc that gave the lecture. He has put together a bronze age (time of Abraham down to Exodus) graphics program that lets you walk into the walls of a city and look up and down and to the left and right and go into houses and temples etc. It's pretty cool. Well worth the $10. Y'all will get a chance to see it when I get back.

Well, it is 7:24 pm and I am thinking about heading to bed. Today was pretty hot today and I'm pretty warn out.

Shalom

Trey