The Deeper We Go

Today was exciting at the dig. There have been many things found the last couple of days as we dig deeper. Coins (Lorna found one yesterday!) a small jug that was almost complete and still together, glass of different description, bits of metal, and today I found a big piece of pottery. It wasn't whole, but it was noteworthy enough to take measurements and pictures!

They say I'm digging well. You have to be very careful and only go about 10 centimeters or so at a time. We use the small pick axe to loosen the dirt, a big brush similar to a broom to brush it away, and a paintbrush if we find something to get it even cleaner. I also have a small spade that I use, especially when loosing an object.

Today's piece had to stay in the ground until they could take pictures so I had to dig very carefully and slowly around it so it wouldn't break. Then I had to dig all around the area to make sure there weren't any more pieces and then I found an animal bone! (Thank goodness it was animal.)

 My pottery!

After we get it pictured, we have to register it. It has our East and North numbers, registration numbers, numbers that indicate what level it was found, and other complicated things like that. After it's registered, it's put into a special little zip lock bag and then it's archived until it can be cleaned, numbered, drawn and analyzed. The digging is only the first bit!

My section

The archeologists keep an eye on everything and take pictures at each level so they can fit all the pieces of the puzzle of what happened and what kind of room it is, or town it is, or what have you. Some things are easy to explain, but others take a bit of work. It's very scientific the way they do it here on this dig.

It's really fun and interesting to think about who lived in the house you're digging out. I'm fairly sure I'm working in an area that was a kitchen, so all the jugs we found must have been used to cook. Did someone cook something for Jesus with that pot? Who wore the perfume from the bottle we found? And the thing is, no one has seen it since that time. How's that for blowing your mind?

I never thought that one day I'd be sitting on a small step stool using a paint brush to move dirt around. This is certainly one aventura de la vida!

Can't wait to see what's next!

An Average Day On An Archeology Dig

I thought ya'll might like to see the average day for me here, while participating in the archeology dig.

4:30 Alarm rings if we're not already awake from the loud street noise.

5:15 We're in the van on the road to the dig. It's about maybe 10 minutes away.

5:30 First breakfast. We eat cereal out of goblets, bread and jam, and orange juice. Then 2 folks clean up while the rest head for the work site, just a short walk.

6:00 We collect our buckets from the store house. We each of three buckets and 3 different picks, etc to use as well as 2 kinds of brushes. These all have our names on them and we are responsible for them. We start working in our square which is about 5'x5' I figure. We stay in our square because we know what we found where and where to dig carefully and so forth. Each square is assigned East and North numbers and every day we have to register the finds on little cards and keep a journal of what we did in the square that day.

10:00 Second Breakfast. This time we add a few sandwich items to the cereal and orange juice.We rest for about 30 minutes.

10:30 Back to work. Again, 2 stay behind to clean up. I have Thursdays with Roseaura.

12:00 10 minute break to drink water and rest for a minute.

1:30 Clean up and time to come back to the guest house. We get back and I've started changing or at least taking off shoes and socks and taking a short nap before lunch. This has really helped since the sleeping as been all off for me.

2:30 Lunch. This is usually a substantial hot meal with meat.

Free Time! Because of some stuff going on with money, some extra workers were let go. So we have to mark pottery in the afternoons. We did that today. I understand that next week they've put together a new schedule of four people marking while the rest dig in the mornings. That way they won't have to bring the pottery back with them.

8:00 Supper. This is usually salad (ie chopped vegetables), hot meat and a side.

9:30-10:00 Bed time!

Today in my square I uncovered some big rocks. This has caused great discussion about whether it's a wall or something that fell or a sub flooring. So tomorrow we'll make sure to dig around them so we can see what it is.

The big find of the day was a perfect top to a perfume bottle. It's kind of a greenish colored glass and everyone was very excited. 

Be It Ever So Humble....

I'm not sure I would call this home, but this is the street where I live...:) All I want is a room somewhere. :)
Any way, I thought ya'll might like to see where I'm staying. This is a view of the courtyard. We park to the left of the church on the left side. It's a Melkite Catholic Church. There's just room for three cars to park there. See those steps near the red wall? I go up those steps and around to my room.

The table is where we eat all our meals. To the right in the little lean-to is a kitchen area.

And here you can see the cars... the little black one is the rental one we use. We ride those vans to the work site everyday.

This morning I went up on the roof and could see this view:

There is some street noise, but nothing like I experienced in Bolivia!!

Most all the houses are white. And built on top of each other like this!

Looking down at the dining area. After supper most folks take their laptops out there to do their thing.

We open and close this gate faithfully to keep the watch dog in. It's some kind of boxer and was ferocious at first.

And this is toward the Sea this morning.

Here's a funny story about the dog. I don't have a picture of him, but will try to get one later so you can see him. It's big. And loud. And ferocious. And kept on a chain during the day. But at night he's loose in the enclosed gate to guard. It's been very warm, so last night Lorna and Pam decided to leave the door open to get some air. They closed a gate between us and everything else and we went to bed. (I was already asleep when they did this). Suddenly during the night I wake up to hear the tingle of dog collar and clicking of nails and the dog was in our room. Not being mean, but in poking around! I woke up and started saying loudly, get out! Get out! NOW! And he scuttled out. I went and shut the door thinking it was left open by mistake.

Later on it happened again. I shooed the dog out and then realized that they had left the door open on purpose. I pulled it to so the dog wouldn't come in again.

Tonight we're fortifying the gate so he can't get in.

A Fashion Show

These are the skirts I bought yesterday. I bought the green one so I could wear it here. The others I just liked. :) I got Pam to take these really quickly this morning while I was getting ready for hiking. The pink one is the only one that isn't double sided.

What do you think girls? Post a comment!

They're approximately $11 so if you want one shoot me a message and I'll pick one up for you. :) I feel like Queen Esther in the dark shiny ones! :)

Okay, off for a day of hiking.

Exploring Cesaria Maritime

Today I was excited to finally meet the Mediterranean. I never thought I would find myself sitting on top of an ancient Roman aqueduct staring at the Mediterranean. But there I was.

First we went to see the archeology park at Cesaria Maritime. This is the town that Herod built to show Rome how great he was. Paul was also there, and I saw where the hearing rooms were when he was sent to Rome for the uprising accusations. An important artifact found here is a monument stone the mentions Pontius Pilot. This is the first known record other than the Bible of his existence which supports the Biblical account. It was really cool to walk the mosaic floors of Herod's palace and peep into the grottos that used to be the town. Afterwards we met the rest of the archeology team at the beach where the aqueducts are. They were eating lunch there and spending the afternoon. The weather was very windy and the sea was too rough to venture out too far. But I enjoyed walking down the beach and picking up stones that had been smoothed by the waves. I picked up a piece of marble that had been smoothed.

We came back in the evening and then Pam and I went to the Promenade here in Tiberias near the sea front. They had pony rides for little kids, and kiosks of various souvenirs set up. We both bought some pretty wrap skirts. I wanted one to wear when we visit a family next week for Sabbath. I also might go to Mass with the Catholics one day. A funny thing happened when we were shopping. Pam had bought a skirt and was looking for another one at a different kiosk. The owner was a Jewish lady who took the skirt Pam had already bought and looked at it and said, this is polyester, mine are silk! And then hung around and wouldn't let Pam hardly look at what she wanted to look at. I walked away, but Pam called me over to look at one of her skirts. Then the lady used my name and said, my skirts are silk, tell her they are better! I just laughed and moved on, but we were tickled.

Then one of the boys on the team showed up and helped Pam shop a little, giving opinions about colors,etc. We laughed about that, too. He sometimes reminds me of Joshua.

Now I am washing my clothes. We get the washer on Saturdays and Tuesdays. We have to hang the clothes out to dry. The sheets on the bed are funny. The bottom sheet is like a duvet cover, you slide it on the mattress like a pillowcase!! We didn't know how long it's been since they had been washed so added them to our wash pile.

And now enjoy the pictures!

This big foot came from a fallen statue that was situated in the harbor of Cesarea. It's huge! Imagine the nail clippers he would need!

Today's Adventure

Today was an interesting day. We went and worked this morning. We had a good day. I found a handle that was still one piece! Not much, but I thought that was exciting. I was the helper to clean up after breakfast and breakfast 2, washing the goblets we eat cereal from. It lends a lot of class to breakfast to eat from a goblet!

After work we went to Tabgtha where one of the seven freshwater springs flows into the Kinneseret where there is a waterfall. It felt so good after the hot day to get under the water- it was so cold!

Then on the spur of the moment we decided to go to the mineral water hot springs. They had a big pool inside and outside which was warm (but not very hot) and then a cold pool to cool off in. It was salty water. It felt very good and made my muscles feel at lot better after all the work. We might go to another hot springs that is a sulfur springs another day.

Most of the team here is from Mexico and several are helping me with my Spanish. Elias is one and he told me to ask him anytime if I have questions about Spanish word...he doesn't know just how many questions I can ask!! They are being very nice and polite and seem like a big family. Elias is a baby of the family if that tells you anything Rachel.

Today's best find:

This is today's best find for me! I wonder who was the last person to touch this....until I dug it up today!
A girl in the next square found a coin, so if I get a little farther down, I might find one too!