Day 17-18 (Half way!)

Back to the grind of working the tel! 4:00 am came awfully quickly! I haven't given much info about our dig lately. We are making some great progress. The guys in charge seem to be pleased across the board. We did discover a dog burial in our square on Thursday. Two more were discovered in an adjacent square last week as well. Big deal, you may be thinking. However, 13 dog burials were found last dig season just one square over. This is a big deal, b/c this has only been found in one other place, down in Ashkelon (I think). It was not very common in the ancient world to have burials for dogs.

I named ours "Frodo" (Lord of the Rings character). We finally extricated him yesterday (Monday). Unfortunately, NO SKULL/HEAD! Poor Frodo!

We had a massive group project today. We took down a 15 meter balk that separated 6 squares. Each balk is 5 meters long by 1 meter wide and about 5 foot tall. Additionally, some interior balks were removed. This was a major undertaking which involved every person from each field. I sucked in more dirt working on the line than I did all last week! We had several venomous centipedes come out. Fortunately, no vipers/snakes. Last year multiple vipers came out when the balks came down. As I was working the balk, I found a good sized portion of a pinch lamp (I'll try and upload a pic of one), a pounding stone, and the remains of a very large pottery vessel (was it intact before I started working?). Unfortunately, bringing down a balk means working without regard to what's in the balk. If you break something, it is unfortunate, but expected.

Our wheelbarrow run had really been getting bad last week. The dirt is breaking down into a fine powdery substance that you sort of sink into when you walk on. Pushing a heavy wheelbarrow loaded with about 80 lbs. of material across it was very difficult. My square had taken to referring to the path as the "via de la rosa" (the way of suffering, you know the path that Jesus took to Golgotha). Now, however, it has been fixed up with wood planks stripped from a table. We ride the planks across most of the hill/run! Much better!

I have stopped going to 2nd breakfast and instead just stayed at the top of the tel. Walking back up the tel after eating was not fun. It has been very relaxing to sit up on the hill in silence and rest for about 30 minutes!

Really missing the family right now. I have been using Skype to talk to and see Steph and Madisynn. It really has been a blessing. I miss them very much.

Today marks the half way point for my trip. I now have 17 days left! I'm ready for home!

Shalom!

Trey