Day 4

Shalom:

Had a good night's sleep! Yeah. Up at 4:00 another 1st breakfast (same as yesterday) and off to the dig site at 5:00 am.

Here's how it works. We arrive at the base of the tell . . . (I guess this would be the time to tell you the difference between "tel" and "tell" . . . tel is used in Hebrew, tell is used in English . . . now you know) and walk uphill to the base camp (cargo container . . . big metal container you see on trains) with a shade cloth draped to the side!) and unload the tools and supplies that are stored in the cargo container. Everyone hauls supplies up the hill to the dig site. Shade tents (which we put up yesterday) are re-erected (simply pushing the poles back up and propping up the shade cloth . . . screen-like material used as a tent) and then we get to work.

Today I was immediately pressed into service cleaning out a "square" (a 5 meter x 5 meter area) that was dug out last year. I had to go down and clean weeds and sweep/brush dirt and rocks until it was clean. It was cool b/c that square had a walled room (8th century BC) with a basin sticking out of the wall . . . I'll take pics tomorrow). You would not believe the amount of pottery shards . . . they are every where! Just walking up the trail . . . on the ground near our squares on the surface. We are told that these have basically been looked at before in previous excavations and are of no value!

I have found pieces of pottery that were obvious rims of jars or containers and broken handles of jars. These are called napkin holders b/c of their shape.

After spending time in my square cleaning I was called up to begin working with my group of 5 volunteers and my square supervisor. We are in Field B (as opposed to Field A, which is down the hill. Field A is working on extending a previously excavated wall/fortification and seeing how far it goes and how it aligns with another wall on the other side of the site). Field B involves a sloping area (again some of these squares were excavated last year) where we are opening new squares. Last year they discovered evidence of destruction in the Iron Age II level (8th century . . . probably Assyrian destrcution of this Judean city) and they want to see the extent of the rooms/homes and see what the destruction layer will reveal. "What is evidence of destruction?" you ask. Well when mudbricks are exposed to 600 degree heat for a certain amount of time it becomes ceramic (basically). Some of these kinds of bricks in the walls have been found. Also, wood posts that were charred have been found.

So, we started our square by clearing the area of debris . . . grass, rocks, and old pottery and dumping in our site dump. Oh, previous to this we marked off our square with string and stakes and elevations are recorded and a top map is drawn (with all the contours and features of the square). Then we started at the highest point and began taking the dirt down about 10 centimeters (everything is metric in archaeology) at a time until it was level with a certain part of the square. Right now we have just started. Our top layers have only junk in them. Apparently the area just above our site was used by another excavation in the '70's as their dump and over time that material has slid down the hill onto our area. So, we are finding pieces of pottery that have already been looked over and discarded. That being said, we still have to be careful b/c that previous group may have missed things, and they have. Some small scarabs have been found and a few other things. Also, my friend found a loom weight yesterday. I identified it as a loom weight to my friend and then he asked Dr. Wolf (Director of Israeli Antiquities Authority) what it was . . . "a loom weight." Yeah, baby . . . I've got my archaeology grove on!

So, we are just starting in Field B. Hoping to really get into things tomorrow. I had really wanted to be down on Field A. My new friend Nate (he's a 20 something grad student from Abilene Christian University) found 2 sling stones . . . way cool. These are about the size of a baseball and obviously fashioned by human hands. Based on previous finds and the location near this wall it is most likely a sling stone.

I saw a skink in my hole that I was cleaning. Amazing little creature. Many different kinds of spiders. Several species of ants (each one quite large). Last week the survey crew had vipers coming out of the holes in the dig sites! I kept my eye on the hole that was right even with my face while I was down in my square sweeping! Gazelles have been spotted, but not my me.

Interesting . . . Israeli Air Force was doing maneuvers today. Saw several fighter planes and one attack helicopter kept circling us and doing very interesting maneuvers . . . making tight turns, quick ascensions, and taking an attack posture towards this settlement next to our dig. Very cool!

So, 2nd breakfast and fruit break were identical to yesterday. Left the dig at 12:30 pm and headed back to Neve Shalom. Once a week we will stop a this little grocery store. Today was the day! We had 15 minutes . . . it was chaos as 35 of us scrambled to find our own goodies. I picked up some Tabasco sauce, spicy mustard (for sandwiches which to this point have basically been dry . . . except today I used a type of sour cream on my meat and cheese sandwich and yesterday I actually poured chocolate pudding on bread!), some 1 liter bottles of Coke (someone took the last Dr. Pepper!), chocolate chip cookies, Hagen-Dage (don't think I spelled that right) ice cream, and an orange Fanta. Ate some of the ice cream right out of the pint carton without a spoon and chugged the Fanta. The Tabasco sauce came in handy for lunch . . . rice and some sort of chicken curry and roasted potatoes (no salad for me today).

So, that's my day. No pottery washing today. We'll start that tomorrow when we have significant pottery to process (probably 300-400 pieces a day, I think that's what they said to expect). We have a lecture at 5:30 pm and then dinner and then free time and off to bed.

I plan on downloading some more pics today (from yesterday). I didn't take my camera today.

Any questions for me?

Shalom!

Trey