Second-last Week & Akko

We're getting down to the end here at Megiddo. Another week of excavation has brought most of my area to the Late Bronze Age but we seem to be finding less material this week. It may have to do with the transition between periods or maybe it's the period itself - I don't really know. In any case, for three days I was in a square that yielded me some finds. Monday was a whole tusk (probably boar) that was pretty cool but I made the mistake of giving it to someone who is less than delicate and he broke it. I was so annoyed but it was perfect and pretty for all of five minutes. Tuesday was a flint knife, about 2.5 inches long and an inch in diametre, which was also interesting. Wednesday was a round bronze chunk but I don't know what it used to be. All in all, it was a successful week. Thursday I got moved to a different square and I knew I wouldn't find anything because not even pottery sherds have been coming up with any frequency there. We'll see what next week brings.
We've also had to adjust our bucket lines for Wednesday and Thursday. We had three temporary workers, that is, volunteers who were there for only a week, and they left last week. There was also a soccer game on Tuesday that left a guy injured (just a pulled muscle, I think) so he didn't come down the next two days. (Tangent on the Megiddo Cup: Area H made it to the finals but sadly lost in overtime.) So all this meant that we were short of people and the new method was to bucket line the dirt down the stairs where three wheelbarrows would be waiting, each with an attendant. Someone would be designated to dump the buckets into a wheelbarrow and that would get run to the edge and the next wheelbarrow would get pushed to the front. So that's something a little different.

This weekend's main trip was Masada and Dead Sea, but I opted not to do those since I'd already done that on Birthright, added to which it was already insanely hot on Masada back in June when I went, so that was another reason not to go. Instead, on Friday, I went to Akko.
The Old City of Akko is a really pretty place, great for strolling and it's small enough that you can see most everything without exerting yourself. I decided to spend a night there so I wouldn't be rushing to get back to the kibbutz before Shabbat, and I could take my time. I had some initial difficult trying to figure out how I would get there. I figured I'd have to get to Yokneam and take a bus to Haifa and then another bus or train to Akko. I ended up discovering that there's a bus that stops at the kibbutz and goes to Haifa (albeit by a circuitous route; it took forty minutes to get to Yokneam which is normally a fifteen minute ride). I arrived at Haifa an hour and a half later, and transferred to another bus that got me to Akko. A taxi took me to the hostel where I was staying. By noon I was exploring the Old City.
My first stop was tourist information where I discovered there was a set of tickets I could buy that would get me into six places and it would be cheaper than going to each one individually. So I got to visit the Citadel, Knights' Hall, Templar Tunnel, Turkish Bathhouse, Okashi (art) Museum, and Treasures in the Wall (ethnography museum). These kept me busy for a few hours and was a great way to discover the city.
The Citadel is on top of the Knights' Hall. The former is an Ottoman fortress and the latter was found beneath the citadel; it is the remains of the Hospitaller Knights' citadel. The citadel was also used as a prison during the British Mandate period; members of the underground resistance movement were kept there, and some were executed as well. There is an Underground Prisoners Museum as well but I never made it there.
Templar Tunnel is pretty simple, it was just a tunnel built and used by the Templars and runs underneath the city. It's not a very long walk but it was a neat set-up. They displayed some finds and pictures of finds in glass cases set in the floor, and had video projectors lined along the walkway. One was a short history of of Templars in Akko. Others showed old art depicting the Templars and making them come to life. I quite liked it, moreso that it was a good deal cooler down there than it was above!
The Turkish Bathhouse was another quick visit since the complex isn't very large. Each visitor received an audio guide that spoke about the life of the bathhouse in its heyday. There are statues and pictures throughout showing various activities that people did in each room.
Treasures in the Wall wasn't anything exciting but it showed little exhibits with tools of various trades, like leathermaker, goldsmith, shoemaker, pharmacist, etc. It was interesting to see all the tools and materials laid out in each small space. The museum is inside a section of the fortifications, so I walked along those and read up on Napoleon's failed invasion of Akko. He attempted to besiege the city but was repelled by Ottoman forces led by Jezzar Pasha, who was the ruler of the city, and his right-hand man, a Jew named Haim Farhi.
The Okashi museum is the most modern stop included on the ticket. It houses art, mostly by the titular Avshalom Okashi, who lived half his life in Akko and painted many scenes of the city. The museum also has changing exhibits; this current one had paintings of Israeli poets, and the caption next to it would have one of their poems - I think the artist intended to connect the selected poem with the painting of the artist. It was kind of neat.
After that I returned to the hostel to figure out my next steps. I met a girl in my dorm room named Valerie who was doing the same thing. We decided to find dinner and after some walking, ended up at a portside restaurant. I opted for a fish dish, which wasn't very good, unfortunately. But it was a good scene by the water and a nice night. I marvelled at the clouds rolling by since they're so rarely seen except in the mornings at Megiddo. Walking back to our hostel, we passed an Arab bakery and picked up some sweets. I saw honeyballs and instantly decided I needed some. The woman who worked there was so sweet to us and gave an extra pastry for to each of us for free.

The next day I woke early for breakfast in the hostel and packed up since the check-out time was 10:30. I thought of doing the Underground Prisoners Museum but that was when I discovered it was closed on Saturday (though many other tourist spots remain open on Shabbat.) I'd also been told that the Or Torah Synagogue would be open as well but nope, that was closed too. It was a shame because that was the site I was most looking forward to see. It's a synagogue that is entirely covered, inside and out, in mosaic scenes. At least I got to see the outside of it. Thwarted, I returned to the hostel to regroup and cool off.
I decided to venture outside the Old City and see if I could find Caparelli's Tomb. He was a general in Napoleon's army; though he lost a leg in an earlier battle in Europe, he was still a valued fighter. He was shot during the siege and he lost an arm; but the wound didn't heal well and he died due to gangrene. The French government holds an anniversary ceremony there each year. However, on my walk I couldn't really find the place and ended up returning to the Old City by sherut (shared taxi, it often takes the same route as a bus but can be quicker). It was still a good walk and I did get to see Akko City Hall. Yay?
I picked up my things at the hostel and set off to catch another sherut that would take me to Haifa. From there, I took a bus to Yokneam (for the initial bus I took to Haifa only runs twice a day). The restaurants in the bus station/mall were still open though other stores were closed. Instead of waiting for the basic dinner at the kibbutz I went to Bergus Burger Bar for a tasty meal (burger with mushrooms and a lemonade. Yum!)

So that's how the week went. I watched a little bit of the Olympics today (judo, men's gymnastics, swimming) and am getting ready for bed now. I'm hoping this last week will be more fruitful and fun.

Another Weekend Gone

Last post I mentioned the rising heat and we did indeed have shorter work days this past week. On Wednesday we ended a whole hour earlier, and Thursday ended a half hour earlier. So, that was a nice way to end the work week, though the weekend was also quite hot.

I took a day trip to Caesarea with 18 others on Friday, July 20th. Caesarea is an ancient port town built by King Herod and named for Augustus Caesar. It later because a Crusader fortress and there are some remains left to be seen of that as well. It has a theatre, which still functions today for performances, a circus, remains of many houses and buildings and lots of preserved floors - mosaic and tile - which are always interesting to see. The original intention was to tour the site and go snorkelling in the waters (the dive club is actually within the walls) but we were told that conditions weren't favourable. The water was too sandy and murky to be able to see much of anything, so it would be a waste of money. We did spend a small amount of time on the tiny stretch of beach but it was rather dirty, and there were rocks on the bottom. We also saw a jellyfish and decided it was a good thing we couldn't go snorkelling anyway. We went for some delicious ice cream and then left the grounds to walk to the aqueduct which is a few kilometres north of the port. We returned to the main area and shared two pizzas for lunch.
Later that night, back at the kibbutz, there was a barbecue and a pool party afterward. So it was a nice night of socializing and drinking together. This night was a tad cooler than it had been during the week so I didn't go into the water but instead sat with others on waterproof carpet and around candles next to the pool.

Today was another nice, lazy day. I resolved to sleep in and managed an impressive 10:00 am wake-up call. I did actually wake up a couple of times around 6:30 and 8:00 but refused to get out of bed. And it was glorious.
When I did get up, I did a much-needed full load of laundry so I should be set for the week, though I might do another load during the week for other stuff that didn't make it in. The rest of the day was pretty lazy. I read another borrowed book, The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff; the book teaches a bit about Taoism by relating it to the characters found in Winnie the Pooh. It was short and easy but interesting. Before that, over the the week, I read Ruth Rendell's The Vault, which is a murder mystery and not a bad read.

It's hard to believe I only have two weeks left before I'm back in Canada, but I'll try to make the most of it! Still trying to figure out my remaining weekends though. Whatever happens, it's sure to be fun.

Short and Quick Update

The morning buses came late, so it happened that we got to the site about half an hour later than usual. And at breakfast, we got a surprise announcement that, due to the heat (about 37 degrees) we would be ending work half an hour earlier. So we got a nice and short work day. People, myself included, were very pleased that they would actually get to shower before lunch. This whole week is supposed to be very hot - I heard at least one day will get to around 40 degrees.

Today was a cleaning day because my current square (yes, I got moved again) is to be photographed from several angles, so I straightened the wall profiles and did a deep sweeping of the rocks and walls around. It'll have to be brushed down again tomorrow morning but then I think we may take up the pavement that's in the square, or else I'll continue levelling down next to pavement - I don't know but we'll see how it goes.
I got to change things up a bit in the afternoons. I had spoken with Julye, one of the assistant supervisors, and she suggested that I try sorting through the micro-materials because I'm so good at finding the small things. Sometimes random buckets will be taken down to the pottery office and sifted through a mesh bag or screen, then it gets looked through with tweezers for any small bones, shell, pottery or artifacts that may pop up. I did one bag today and it was kind of interesting. I found a bead, a bit bigger than the one I'd found but a dark brown colour.

Currently I'm wondering what to do with my remaining weekends. I have two left while the excavation's still going, and a last one before my flight home. I've been looking at maybe doing a trip to the Ramon Crater, a naturally-formed crater in the Negev Desert - it would be a longer trip and seems it may require more planning so I'm not sure I'll pull it off but it'd be nice if I could. It's supposed to be a beautiful location. Otherwise, I may just see what people are planning and go on one of those since it's a bit easier.

Yerushelaiyim

This weekend, I went to Jerusalem on a private bus much like we did for Tel Aviv, only there were more of us this time so it was a larger vehicle. We left the kibbutz at 4:00 and arrived at the Jaffa gate a couple of hours later. I stayed with a small group at the Austrian Hospice, which is a pretty nice hostel but a little out of the way - in the future I'd go for something more central (though the Old City is small enough that it didn't matter too much.) The first night, we were too tired to do much more than dinner, so we went to Jaffa Road, a sort of main street, and found an Italian place there to dine. Thence to the hostel for much-needed sleep. On Friday, I went to the City of David (and saw the Western Wall again on the way). The main purpose of the trip there was to visit Hezekiah's Water Tunnel, which came highly recommended to me by friends. Hezekiah's Tunnel is a waterway that was constructed in the 8th century BCE as a protected water source for Jerusalem - in case of siege (which was impending), the city wouldn't go without water.
I went down and immediately got stuck behind a Birthright group, but it was moving so slowly in the shaft descent that precedes the tunnel itself. I actually left via the very narrow Canaanite tunnel and went around to wait a bit. I ended up running into my kibbutz roommate, Alex, and we went through together. This time it was moving much more quickly. There is a sign, right before entering the tunnel, of a man standing with a child and it shows the water level, which was currently 70 centimetres. The tunnel is dark and you are told to carry a flashlight; if only a few people have them though, it provides enough light for the surrounding people (and I did have one myself.) The pathway is wide enough only for a line of people walking single file, and not too narrow though that's easy for me to say, haha.
Part of the tunnel did get a little deeper, and the water did reach up to 70 cms which reached to my thighs but most of the time, the water only went past the ankles. It took about 45 minutes to get through but it was a fascinating walk. Alex and I were both really glad we took the time to go through it.
At the end of the walk, we saw the little Siloam Pool, which was much larger in the old days. There were a couple options for getting back to the start: one could take the a winding path back or a tunnel that led most of the way back but was a little longer. We took the tunnel and it turned out to be a really eerie choice. The tunnel wasn't very wide, and the ceilings became low in some points. We were walking over mud and old sandbags. And we were the only ones in there! It was only 500 metres long, so it wasn't a big deal, but it was a strange way to end the visit.

Alex and I then walked back to the Old City and out of it again to Jaffa Road because things were starting to close up for Shabbat and we wanted to find someplace that was still open. I went to a place called Holy Bagel and had a pretty decent cucumber & lox bagel sandwich. I picked up some pastries next door and we went our separate ways to our different hostels. I took the longer path back to my hostel through the Jewish quarter and past the Hurva Synagogue.
Back the hotel I took a rather long nap and by the time I woke up, I wasn't sure what there was to do at night in the city. I decided to relax and eat my pastries and hang out there for the night.

Today (Saturday, July 14), I met with a large group at the Jaffa gate and we shared taxis to the Israel Museum. I spent over a third of my time in the archaeology wing, which was rather extensive and very interesting to wander through. After I'd decided it was enough, I made my way to the Shrine of the Book, which holds the Dead Sea Scrolls. I'd actually already seen the scrolls when they made a rare visit to the ROM in Toronto, but it was nice to see them in their home space. The visit begins with small exhibits on items found in Khirbet Qumran, where the Scrolls were discovered, and the exhibits explained a bit on the life of the people who lived their lives according to the Scrolls. After the exhibits, the hallway opens up into a dome that holds pieces of the scroll and a picture of the Isaiah Scroll, which was the longest, most intact piece (the scroll itself is apparently too fragile to keep out for display but they rotate pieces of other copies found in an case in the room). Below the scrolls is another room that the Aleppo Codex and information about it. The Codex is a medieval copy of the Bible and is considered a definitive example of the Hebrew text of the Bible.
I also visited the complete model of Jerusalem in the time of the Second Temple, which lays out how the Old City would have looked in that time. Another short walk was made to the Art Garden and the Museum Shop before I met up with the rest of the group for the return to the Old City.

I had lunch with a few others and returned to my hostel to collect my luggage. I walked with the others who had stayed there to spot just outside the Jaffa Gate where the bus would collect everybody at 4:00. However, the bus was 20 minutes late and people were wondering why. As it turns out, the bus had been sitting in the parking lot just across the street for who knows how long. After calling them, the bus came out to meet us. It should have been called early, but the benefit of the doubt was given and probably won't be again!
We returned to the kibbutz in time for dinner and that ends the weekend.

New Session

On Friday, Monica, Chelsea, James and I decided to share a taxi to the nearby city of Yokne'am. The main objective was to eat a meal that was not located on or provided for by the kibbutz, so we sat at an Italian joint and had some small pizzas, which were decent. The restaurant was in a small mall, so we stayed there for about three hours, just to take money out of the ATM, look at the stores and make some purchases. I bought a book, The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter because I'd already read through the four books I brought along (O What a Paradise it Seems by John Cheever; Better Living Through Plastic Explosives by Zsuzsi Gartner; The Bay of Love and Sorrows by David Adams Richards; and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, which I'd read in Grade 7 and wanted to read again before the movie came out.) So far, I'm more than halfway through and it's pretty good. We stopped at the pharmacy since we all seemed to need something from there; I picked up a hot compress for my neck (which was already feeling better by that morning) and sunscreen since I'd run out.

Saturday was sort of a lazy day. It wasn't totally unproductive - I did a load of laundry (by washing in buckets and putting on a rack to dry) and then I went to the pool with my new roommate, Katherine. She's actually in my area but was one of several who had to move rooms in order to accommodate the new arrivals coming later that evening. Nick joined us at the pool and we took a couple of dips in the water, and a couple of drying sessions. Later on, I was hanging out with the Yokne'am crew and we had some beers while we waited for the buses to bring the new people. Katherine and I received two new roommates, which makes for a slightly tighter squeeze than when I shared it with only two others, but so far, we seem okay.

Today (Sunday) was the first day of the new session. We were told the previous day at dinner that we had to board the bus fifteen minutes later because when we get up to the Tel at 5:00 to work, it's still too dark to see anything, so the extra time will give us more sunlight. The upshot is we get to sleep in a tad later; it's only fifteen minutes but it means so much!
I was given a new square to work in and was told to level it down so we could better see the walls, and see if we could find the bottom of it yet or if it kept going. I only got down one layer because I kept finding small bird bones which slowed me up a little bit (very interesting though - I found six whole vertebrae pieces and 1-centimetre-long complete bones). As I was straightening the profiles of the trench sides (which seemed to have been done a bit shoddily by the previous workers there last session! The walls were flat but not straight down to the ground) I found a faience bead and small broken piece of bronze within five minutes of each other. Lucky day, and a great way to begin the new session. Hopefully I get to keep up with this trench a bit longer and not get moved around quite so much, but we shall see.

Megiddo & Tel Aviv

I am currently at Megiddo, almost done my third week of excavating! It's been an intense workout on some days, especially the first week when I have to get used to the schedule and the physical activity!

But first, the day's layout:
4:10 am - Wake up! It's still dark outside, but this is the time for a snack and preparation.
4:45 am - The bus leaves for Tel Megiddo, about a 15 minute drive away.
5:00 am - The day's work begins; digging and digging.
8:30 am - Breakfast time; salad, cereals, hardboiled eggs provided in the picnic area.
11:00 am - Water break; work stops for fifteen minutes while we rehydrate.
1:00 pm - The day's work ends, we take buckets of pottery with us on the bus and, at the kibbutz, fill them up with water to prep them for cleaning later.
1:30 pm - Lunch.
4:00 pm - Pottery and bone washing.
5:00 pm - Not every day, but we have occasional pottery reading sessions with our dig supervisors, who look over pottery we wash and look for the diagnostic shards, the ones that have information to give (dates, periods and such).
7:30 or 8:15 pm - There are lectures for people taking the course for credit, but anyone can sit in on them.


And that's pretty much how the day goes, Sunday to Thursday. Thursdays are free days, where there's no work after lunch, so people often go away on weekends, or relax at the kibbutz.

There are four areas of the Tel to work in, and I'm in H. It's a smaller area than others, but pretty deep. We're working in the 12th layer of human activity, trying to uncover the period between Early Iron and Late Bronze ages.
I haven't had a consistent square to work in, as they keep moving me around to different spots. But I've had various jobs - pickaxing, troweling, cleaning of profiles (straightening the walls of the trench so they are easier to interpret) and use of the handpick. We also have a bucket line for the dumping of our buckets. Because our area is up a handmade staircase, we need a way to get it to the cliff's edge and empty our dirt there. First we collect all the full buckets - about a hundred - in one area at the opening of the area. Then everyone stands in a line that does to the edge, and passes each bucket along until it goes to the end and gets dumped. Depending on the work's activity, this means 4 - 6 bucket lines occur in a day, plus a small one at the end for the clean-up and tools. So in the short time I've been here, I'm already getting quite strong! I can't imagine how I'll be at the end of my six weeks here.

Last weekend (Thurs. June 28th to Sat. June 30th) I went with a group of people to Tel Aviv. I had gone initially to try and meet up with the few remaining Birthright people still in Israel - but it was difficult to coordinate so I ended up spending most of the time with the Megiddo folks. I had a really nice time with them; we went to a bar one night, and then the beach for a few hours the next day. The water is so nice but the waves could be tall if you weren't careful to go past the breaking point. We went to a nice restaurant another night, and they gave us free shots, "For Shabbat!" I ended up meeting with two Birthright guys for an hour that night, so I was glad I could manage one meet-up, and actually, I ended up running into two more on the street home from the beach - coincidence! On the Saturday before departure, some of us went to the Tel Aviv Museum. It's a really good museum and I enjoyed the time we spent there. Most people left early, but I hung back with Will, Kanayo and Brad. The Museum actually has a small excavation on its grounds, and visitors are able to wander about it a little bit. At 4:00 pm, we met the bus that would take us back to the kibbutz near Megiddo.

Today (July 4th) I woke up with an awful pain in the side of my neck. I must have slept funny and injured myself somehow, because it was incredibly stiff and I couldn't move it on that side. So I skipped the day's work and tried to rest up. I imagine I'll have to miss another day but at least I have the weekend to recover and hopefully, I can get back to work on Sunday. Here's hoping!