Day 12

Digging, digging, digging! Lot's of digging. We are to the point where we are sifting every khoufa (pronounced "goofa") of dirt. A khoufa is a bucket made from recycled tires (I uploaded a pic of something that looks like our khoufas). We put a sifter over the wheelbarrow and pour our dirt and sift it. Dirt flies everywhere! Any pieces of pottery that is quarter-sized or larger we keep, plus any MC (material culture).

I have discovered two things about our square: 1) we are digging over what used to be a pet rock farm b/c we are finding all the remains of that farm; or, 2) we are working over what used to be handle factory which made all the handles for pottery in the area, b/c we are finding a bazillion (is that a real word?) handles!

My square is revealing fired-mud brick. This is mud-brick that on fire so hot that it melted together and then glazed into this hard material, but with enough shape that you can still tell what it used to be. They are trying to determine if we are looking at a wall that has collapsed (2nd floor) or it is a wall "in situ" ("in place" or "in its situation" . . . if you are in the medical field you recognize that phrase). We have uncovered a pillar (the top of it). Half of it was in our balk, but since we are taking down our balk, we finally revealed the other half today. It is sitting in a spot that matches the other pillar in the area already excavated (last year) adjacent to our square. Now . . . is it a pillar for a courtyard, or a pillar that supported a second floor? It is amazing to watch the professionals dialogue and discuss and form hypotheses and then change their opinions as new information is added (as we continue to move dirt and uncover more area).

What is really awe-inspiring . . . or what's a better way to say it . . . I really desire to be reverent . . . yah that's it . . . this room that I am opening up used to be someone's home. It hasn't been walked in for about 2725 years. The last time someone did walk here a tragedy was unfolding . . . . fear . . . terror . . . pain . . . uncertainty . . . faith being tried . . . faith being lost . . . as the Assyrians, probably being led by the infamous Tigleth Pileser III, were knocking the walls down to the city and slaughtering nearly all the inhabitants of the city. The person who lived in this house . . . did he/she die or was he deported to another part of the Assyrian empire, taken away from all that he/she knew and loved? Did the mother watch her husband killed, did the children watch their parents killed? Did they stay huddled up in the house undiscovered until the Assyrians left and then moved on to a new life? Will we find the remains of those who used to call this home? Who knows? What we do know is that when these walls collapsed, everything . . . everyone . . . that was in this house(s) was left buried until we uncover them.

It's not something I want to take lightly. The dirt I trod, the rocks I move has history. I want to be ever mindful of that.

Now, moving on to something less intense . . . I did not like our bus driver today! Today was store day! He didn't stop! He said that he had not been given sufficient notice and didn't have time to stop for 15 minutes! We almost had an international incident on our hands! He was coming between me and my Dr. Pepper! . . . If he cares about international peace and good relations between Israel and US, he'd better stop tomorrow, or you'll be reading a headline about it on Friday!

Tomorrow is last day for the week! Yeah. We leave for our northern field trip to Galilee and surrounding area on Friday morning. We will be gone for 3 days, returning on Sunday.

Tomorrow we will be having a 4th of July celebration! Don't know what that will look like, but it will be something different!

New friend . . . Ghazan (Ghasan?) . . . he is a young, budding, Palestinian archaeology student. I met him when we first got here, but we have been having some great conversations together lately. My other friend, Mark, who is the son of the President of Mid-Western Baptist Theological Seminary, has been engaging Ghazan in conversations and sharing his faith. Mark is a really neat, outgoing, personable kind of college kid! So, we have been answering questions from Ghazan about American culture, sayings, gestures, etc. He has been very inquisitive and he has amazing English. Well, today was his 24th birthday. He lives in Bethlehem and is, of course, away from his family. I figured everyone needs a birthday present so I gave him one of my pocket knives, one of those multi-function tool kind of things. He did not want to take it, but I insisted. He didn't know what to do. It's like he had never been given a gift before. I was glad to give it to him. I brought it as a back up to my main one. It reminded me of how blessed I am. I have so much, been given so much, I take for granted so much. It truly is more of a blessing to give than to receive!

Well, computer just reminded me that my battery is about out, so I'd better git! I'll try to upload a few pics before it goes completely!

Shalom!

Trey