And So It Ends...Thus It Begins

The dig is over! Friday was our last day. Some people,including my dad, from the Master's group came to help for 2 hours that morning. The Masters group came in to Yad Hashmonah on Thursday from the Galilee. My dad worked with me on the kiln. It was only us two because Jim left and Susan had to do drawings of the other squares. So after my dad left I worked by myself.

The mission on Friday was to do a half meter portion of the section next to the kiln. It was by the entry way so we were hoping to find out more about the kiln if we were working at the entry. That day Kaldune, the man who stores the ABR equipment gave us a 2nd breakfast of bread, hummus, felafel balls, and tea. It was quite good. We also ended around 1215 so with the breaks and early day I wasn't able to get where I wanted to on the rectangle I was working on. I would say I got 80% of it completed, which was quite a task to do in less than one day and it also helped that my dad helped for that short time. It was fun to be able to work on the kiln as a little project of my own.

Now that the dig is over and with a devotion from Dr. Merill I've had some change in my perspective of this archaeology. I know at first it seemed I didn't like it and it was all bad. That was due to the realization of what hard work archaeology is and also the fact that my first square was the worst square on the dig. Dr. Merill said that archaeology helps us to understand the Bible even more because we learn about the culture and people. This archaeology can be a ministry because, it helps believers have a deeper understanding of the Bible. To put in the time, effort, and money to do something like this in order to strengthen the walk of other with God is a ministry. Its a different type of ministry that I have never thought of before.

A secondary aspect to doing archaeology is also to show others that the places and events that occurred in the Bible exist. Scott Stripling, the archaeologist that worked on a Byzantine monastery at the site, during the lecture said, "'Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.' We can take confidence with what the Bible says and it can stand on it's own feet even when archaeological evidence isn't in sync with the Bible." This archaeology that I have done does not have the primary use of saying "In your face, this place does exist!" to those who don't believe in the Bible. I would say one of the main reasons is because if the site is actually different than what was initially thought the believers doing the dig do not look stupid because they know that even if it is not what they thought the Bible is still true and they were wrong.

Friday night I apportioned practically all my food into 19 zip-lock bags for the 19 days that I will be here by myself. So, if any readers are worried I might go a day without food, don't worry. At least I have something to eat every day.

Saturday was the last day the Master's and ABR groups were here. I went into the OC (Old City) with my parents and some others. We got Arab place that I had been to twice back in '09 called the Green Door Pizza which is right by the Damascus gate. The man that owns the place, Ali, said that his family and this place had been there for over 200 years! It was pretty cool to know that I was eating a dish that carried such a tradition for this Ali's family. I then got a phone that works here in Israel just in case I have an emergency I can call someone here. That evening for dinner to Spaghettim which is in Jerusalem by Ben Yehudah St.

Once we got back everyone finished packing up and I got all my stuff out of my room and down to the miklat. I finished just in time to run up to the bus to say goodbye to my parents and some ABR people. Last night and today I've been putting all my things into appropriate bags. I have things I don't need until I get back, so those went on the bottom of bags. I want to do backpacking so my the multi-day backpacking stuff went into the big pack. Daily items such as food and clothes were put in accessible places. Now that I'm basically free of everything, including writing this, to let you all know what is happening I can devote my time to plan.

The cooking and serving of the pizza.
In the end an orange Fanta (preferred) or Coca Cola is necessary.

I'm Kiln IT!

Ok, that was a pretty stupid title, but I moved to a different location today. The old square is closed. I was moved from it yesterday after lunch. I was moved to a square where they are uncovering, what they think to be, a Roman era building. For the short time I was there a coin was discovered and uncovered the threshold of the house/room.

Today was a bit more exciting. Me and two others started to excavate a pottery kiln that probably dates back to the Byzantine era. There is a Byzantine monastery on the hill above what we believe is the Ai of Joshua. One of the cool things about doing the kiln is that no one in the whole excavation team has ever excavated a pottery kiln. It will be a short project. We started it today and cleaned out the inside. The inside is made of a concave floor with thin pieces of rock covered with plaster (only parts now are covered with plaster because of time). There was hardly any pottery in there but it was covered in ash, of course, because there would be fires at the base of it. They would make the pottery by placing it above the fire so that the clay would harden. Tomorrow we will excavate the outside of it to see if we can find more pottery to help date it more accurately. Also my parents are here and my dad and a few others will come join us. Tomorrow is the last day and then other things that I haven't quite planned out yet, because I haven't had much time to, will take place. What I know I am going to do is go down to Eilat, Jordan, and Galilee. More details will come when I figure things out and I have time to tell those who read this.

Today's Before and After Work