Sunday, August 4th
I finally gather the willpower to refuse a sleep-in and instead go on a day trip. I decide on Beit She'arim, a Jewish necropolis not too far away. It takes two buses and a small trek to get there. The town itself was founded in the 1st century BCE, but most burials date to the 2nd-4th centuries CE. It's not a giant site but there are a fair number of stone tombs to inspect. One particularly large cafe is the Cave of Coffins which was amazing to see; there are several rooms full of coffins and some of them are beautifully decorated with various reliefs of animals, flowers and other imagery. There are other smaller caves with preserved writings outside the tombs. The whole thing was really impressive to see. I manage to catch a sherut (shared taxi) back to the first transfer point and wait a few minutes more for the bus home.
Monday, August 5th
The entire day is spent working on straightening this section in 169. It was that ugly, and I am that dedicated to the art of flat planes that it's a time-consuming effort. I miss the last bucket chain because Elise has requested my aid in using the elevations instrument.
Tuesday, August 6th
I continue sectioning and am able to finish it, so it runs pretty perpendicular to the ground and runs evenly across. However, it will be the last of my excavation efforts at Dor because this is the last day of digging. After breakfast, everyone is tasked with sweeping the area.
We also have some area tours. D2 and D4 make separate visits and listen to Yuli explain the progress made in D5. Together, D2 and D5 visit D4 and hear the same thing there.
At pottery reading, Molly usually helps Elise with recording, but she has to take a final quiz for her field school class, so I take over for the next 40 minutes.
Wednesday, August 7th
We're getting very close to the end now. We do another sweep-down of D5 before returning to D1 and weeding the leftover bits that didn't get done at the beginning of the season. I do the same in a section of D5 that was left unexcavated. The weeding has to be done so the aerial photographs can get clean pictures of the site. We have to take down the shades as well, and that was a large collective effort, as D5 is a fairly large area, with a fairly large shade. We push it down the slope, rolling it as we go. Once it's at the bottom, everyone gets on one side of it, and heaves it up to one shoulder. We had to walk it back up the slope and to the main grounds outside the container. It was not an easy task - one entire side of me was left muddy because of the dirt and condensation on the tarp.
There is a leftover boulder that has to be broken apart, so various people take their turns with a sledgehammer. Once it's small enough to be carried out, all the broken shards have to be taken out. So we form a mini bucket-chain to the top. I was the second-from-the-top, so I passed them to Elise; she'd dump them and throw them back, aiming for David's head. You have to make your own entertainment, sometimes.
Things were well in hand, so Yuli sent me to the Glasshouse to help with whatever jobs they had there. I helped with washing the bones and placing them into the sun to dry.
We had one final pottery reading, but it started really late. The woman who usually does it had to do the reading for another group, so she couldn't get to us until 6:00. Miraculously, we were able to finish before dinner.
I skipped the Kfar meal though, and went to the mall with Sarah E. We had dinner at Aroma and then went shopping. We each had nice dresses we wanted to wear for the final night but no shoes. That just won't do. We got lucky pretty early on as we found a store that had a two-for-$20 deal. It was a successful night and we went home happy.
Thursday, August 8th
The final day! Much of the group goes to the Glasshouse but I head up to the Tel with a few others. We begin the day by sweeping all of D5 for final pictures. The staff and supervisors from the other areas help as well. When that was done, I moved to D2 and did more of the same.
I carried sandbags down to D4 so they could begin covering their walls or other features and keep them protected. When we ran out of sandbags, I and some others helped to make more. We also formed a never-ending bucket chain from the dirt heap to the areas of D4 that were covered in plastic sheeting so it could be backfilled. The process: buckets are filled, passed down the line to the area, dumped and empty ones are tossed to someone who stacks them and carries them back to the beginning, where it repeats. This continues until the area is filled. After some time of solid bucket chains, someone calls for a water break and we can take a breather.
After this first water break, Sarah E. asks me to help her with laying down the plastic sheets for D5. We had to work fast because though D4 is a big area, D2 was next and is a smaller area, so it wouldn't be much time before it was our turn for the backfill. The task went faster when people were free to come over and help lay down sheets and rocks (for weight). Finally, the entirety of Tel Dor comes together and everyone who is able works the bucket chain to backfill. It was a good chain too, since everyone knew how to fill and throw a bucket, and we had very few gaffes. It's also possible that I sort of accidentally covered someone with dirt (the area beneath had to get covered with dirt anyway, so it wasn't a total loss) and it's also possible that I was spitefully covered in return. All in good fun! (And I mean that, it was a strangely fun day, even if I did end it completely covered in dirt.) After a lovely watermelon break, we return to the bucket chain and are actually able to finish it in time to take the bus home, which apparently has not always happened in seasons past.
Later on, Yuli and Elise request my help with some computer work - it won't all get done that day, but we got a head start. I had time enough to get pretty for the party. It was a large barbecue and I stayed up all night because I wanted to say goodbye to people who were leaving that night or early the next day. I would be staying on at the Kfar for a few days to help out, so I wasn't in any rush to get anywhere.
Friday, August 9th
It is a stupidly early morning, a 5:30 wake-up call (and I definitely did not get enough sleep!) because we have to head to the Glasshouse to help with their last-minute work, and do some of our own. I have to hand in the keys to my room but I'm allowed to leave my things behind and move out later. At the Glasshouse, Elise has brought along the computer so we can work on top plans. They all have to be edited because some loci have changed shape or otherwise don't look right. We were going to head back to the Kfar early but Yuli misplaced her keys - it caused a lot of concern since she had more than just her car keys on the chain! We looked everywhere but couldn't find it - I actually suspected it ended up in a box and got moved out. Yuli had to call someone to fetch her spare keys from the Kfar but that would take some time. So we settled back in and got to work.
Once we ate lunch and got back to the Kfar, I was able to take a little nap, which boosted my energy considerably. I went back into the office to help Elise some more, and we worked through the night. For dinner, the guys of D4 started up a fire and cooked a stew with the leftovers from the party (chicken wings, hot dogs and vegetables - interesting!)
Saturday, August 10th
More work on top plans with Elise, and we alternate a little bit, so I get hands-on time with Photoshop. We work together until lunch, which is another barbecue of burgers and sausages. After lunch, I have another job, working with the database. I have to go through the basket list and cancel the tags of the baskets we are not keeping. I also enter "bad context" to those shell tags deemed unworthy. The big job was proofreading the basket list, making sure it was all spelled correctly, taking out any mistakes or repeats; I made it grammatically correct as well, which wasn't totally necessary to anyone but myself.
When that's done, I see Elise is moving along fine without me, so I go back to work on locus sketches. There is a dinner interlude of a semi-shakshouka (tomato-based stew with veggies and eggs, though I think we were missing tomatoes... and someone added sliced hot dogs) Afterward, I return to work and I'm able to complete a couple more sketches before 2:00 am.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Week Five
Sunday, July 28th
Each free Saturday or Sunday I get, I entertain the idea of a day trip somewhere, and being proactive. However, I wake up at 7:30 am, which would be a good time to get up and go to breakfast, but as I lay there, all willpower drains out of me and I return to sleep. I wake again at 10:00 am, but stay in bed reading and using the computer.
When I finally get up, I do two small loads of laundry and reading more of my book between laundry tasks (mainly that due to the copious amounts of dirt in my clothes, they require multiple soakings until the water in the bucket [did I not mention? I use a bucket to wash!] runs clear - or, if not clear, then something other than total brown or grey.)
Later on, I trek to Haifa Mall in order to return a canister of bug spray that was missing its nozzle. I picked up a new one, made sure it was complete, and went to the counter but met with a girl who didn't know English. I gestured to the faulty one's total lack of function, then pointed to the new one, and finally procured the receipt. Then I stood there, looking expectant. The girl called over a supervisor, they said some words, and then all appeared well. I can now take home a can of bug spray that will work instead of mooching off my friends.
I wandered around the mall for a little bit, got some nice iced tea from an Israeli franchise called Aroma, which I have learned exists in Toronto, and then headed for the bus stop. I had to wait 35 minutes for my next bus to the Kfar, but it got me back in time for dinner.
The evening passed slowly, but Lothar, an older German fellow who also works in D5, brought out a small keg of German beer and was generously sharing it. So a few people would gather around the keg, and some chit-chat was going on. It was a nice evening, after all.
Monday, July 29th
I'm in locus 137 now, with the task of scraping down larger bumps so the whole area is level. There's more mudbrick material here that I try not to destroy, and another patch is full of rocks so that slows the work down some.
After breakfast, I wet-sift again with Lothar. This time, I do all eight buckets, so I can just stay in the water and Lothar can prepare the nets and buckets and pass them to me. I am perfectly okay with this because it feels super nice having one's feet in the warm water.
One of the bucket chains put me in the unique position of being the first and last on the line: I'm the first to pass them out until the group of buckets gets smaller and the second person can reach them all on his own, then I can run around to the end of the chain to the top of the dirt heap and catch/dump as they come to me. I discovered it was actually kind of fun to be Queen of the Heap, but not so fun to empty the dirt out of your shoes and socks afterward.
Tuesday, July 30th
Back in locus 137, I continue my levelling work, and do a clean job of it. This takes most of the day due to the rocks. Nothing particularly exciting for the day.
Trevor, Elise and I decide against Kfar dinner, so we go off-campus. Trevor takes us to Tirat Carmel, which is a residential area just east of the Kfar. There is a street with a line of restaurants. We stop at one for a decent kebab-in-pita. We walk back around to the highway and complete the circle home.
Wednesday, July 31st
I am in a new locus, 169. First, Yuli has me straighten some of the section; I do half of it but leave the rest for (hopefully, since it looks awful) another day. Then she has me excavate a layer of the ground. Part of it is already uncovered, and we can see a black charcoal patch and a bit of phytolith floor. I also see mudbrick, which I avoid. So I start to uncover the floor but I see a very thin layer of another floor in the chunks I'm taking off. I try to isolate this layer but it's very wispy and hard to track down. Yuli's presence is in high demand so I call for her but while I'm waiting, I just try to find more of this layer. I do find two small seeds, which might mean something if associated with this little floor.
The bucket chains are still a bit rough with this newer group of people. I'm in the upper stretch of the chain this time. The very last bucket gets thrown into my arm and gives it a good scrape. It's partially my fault, I thought the last bucket had been done, but also the guy was three feet away and threw it pretty hard. Ah, well. It'll bruise and hurt to move for a couple of days, but I'll survive.
I have a new project from Yuli, which I will do alongside Sarah E. I talk to her later in the evening so she can explain the job. I will be doing Locus Sketches, which entails Photoshop work. I'll have a list of loci, along with their corresponding limits (which loci border it to the north, south, east and west) - I take this information and find the top plan that best matches this information. (A top plan is a sketch of the whole area, day by day, with walls and loci as they develop over time.) The sketch is where I zero in on this locus, take out any irrelevant information, put in necessary information and crop the image. I'll start work on this tomorrow or the next day.
Thursday, August 1st
Back in 169, I'm still trying to trace this wispy floor. I also level down another bump of dirt. When I'm able to flag Yuli, I can tell her about this other floor. She tells me I can work on it, but first, to please finish the rest of the sectioning because it is rough and uneven - I gladly agree. I barely get started before the Tel Olympics begin.
Tel Olympics! This is an event that has been running for a few years. We have our usual 11:00 food break first, which is good to boost water reserves and energy.
There are four events, six people from each area participate:
1) Bucket Circle: each group stands in a tight circle with two buckets half-filled with dirt. They are to pass the buckets around, and when a full cycle gets completed, each person is to take a step back. This keeps going until a bucket is dropped. D2 dropped out pretty early but D4 and D5 battled it out a while. D4 totally cheats by not taking steps back and unfortunately win the event. D5 held strong though, and we are by far the loudest cheerleaders.
2) Rock Toss: there is a line and a wheelbarrow full of pre-selected rocks. Beyond this line are three wheelbarrows. Each person is three tries to get their rocks into the wheelbarrow. It is three points for a complete throw, two points if it goes in and bounces back out, one point if it just hits the wheelbarrow and nothing at all for a miss. D2 and D5 tie but D4 takes this one as well.
3) Poetry & Interpretive Dance: at 7:00, each group received four words at random (or supposedly at random, I think D5 just got the leftovers), and has to make a poem out of them. Our words were Kimama (for the children's camp that runs at Kfar Galim), vuvuzela (for the horn that blows at the end of each break), Hellenistic and elevations. I wish I had a copy of it, but our poem was pretty killer and way funny. D2 barely put in an effort so they barely count. D4, however, had this long, involved (admittedly funny) rap so of course they win this one too. I later learn they had their words since the night before, which says it all.
4) Dirt Triathlon: the most complex event. It starts with the six people at a starting line. When the horn blows, everyone takes off for the dirt pile that has buckets on top of it. Each person has to half-fill two buckets with dirt and sprint down the heap back to the starting line which has a wheelbarrow for each area. The buckets get dumped into the wheelbarrow and has to be pushed/pulled/conveyed to a point on the dirt heap, but it's not that easy! No, this has to be done with the entire group having his/her two buckets on their feet. The best way to manage it was to get the wheelbarrow onto the one rubber track before any other group can do so. I am proud to say that D5 totally won this one, and it should have been worth all the points.
So, we put forth good, solid, honest effort but came in good, solid second place. It was a lot of fun though. We finish the day brushing down our areas and putting away tools.
Later in the evening, in preparation for this project, I download the trial version of Photoshop which takes my poor little computer two hours to manage. I am also feeling under the weather (again! I thought I was done!) which doesn't bode well for the next days.
Friday, August 2nd
I wake up feeling pretty fuzzy, so I opt to stay in bed. I know there are some end-of-season things being done today, which makes me a bit regretful but I really just need to sleep instead.
I wake again at 10:30, feeling much better. I can't sleep any more, but I stay comfortable in bed and read 180 pages of my book. About noon, I get up, change my clothes and take my book outside. I read a little more, and chat with Sarah G., who's been feeling poorly herself for the past week. This whole day off leaves my cold much diminished.
I'm feeling well enough to go out with people later that night. It is the birthday of one of the staff, Colin, so we head to a pub in nearby Zikron. The pub is called The Hobbit and has themed paintings on its walls, which is fantastic. The night began a bit slowly but got a lot more fun as time went on. It was nice to hang out with people outside of Dor/the Kfar, and be more informal. I get home by 2:30, but stay up a bit to chat with others and finally get to bed at 4:00.
Saturday, August 3rd
I wake at 8:00, briefly consider breakfast and return to sleep. I'm up again at 10:00 and finish off my book. Around lunchtime, I head to cafe Aroma with Sarah E., Molly, Elise and Colin; we meet Yuli and David (from D4) at the cafe. We order some food first and then proceed to work on our laptops which we've all brought with us. My computer's slow but I'm able to complete a few locus sketches. After a few hours, there's a small blackout, so we can no longer take advantage of the free wifi at the cafe. I head back with some of the others. I continue to work a little more at the Kfar but otherwise, I'm just hanging around, killing time.
Each free Saturday or Sunday I get, I entertain the idea of a day trip somewhere, and being proactive. However, I wake up at 7:30 am, which would be a good time to get up and go to breakfast, but as I lay there, all willpower drains out of me and I return to sleep. I wake again at 10:00 am, but stay in bed reading and using the computer.
When I finally get up, I do two small loads of laundry and reading more of my book between laundry tasks (mainly that due to the copious amounts of dirt in my clothes, they require multiple soakings until the water in the bucket [did I not mention? I use a bucket to wash!] runs clear - or, if not clear, then something other than total brown or grey.)
Later on, I trek to Haifa Mall in order to return a canister of bug spray that was missing its nozzle. I picked up a new one, made sure it was complete, and went to the counter but met with a girl who didn't know English. I gestured to the faulty one's total lack of function, then pointed to the new one, and finally procured the receipt. Then I stood there, looking expectant. The girl called over a supervisor, they said some words, and then all appeared well. I can now take home a can of bug spray that will work instead of mooching off my friends.
I wandered around the mall for a little bit, got some nice iced tea from an Israeli franchise called Aroma, which I have learned exists in Toronto, and then headed for the bus stop. I had to wait 35 minutes for my next bus to the Kfar, but it got me back in time for dinner.
The evening passed slowly, but Lothar, an older German fellow who also works in D5, brought out a small keg of German beer and was generously sharing it. So a few people would gather around the keg, and some chit-chat was going on. It was a nice evening, after all.
Monday, July 29th
I'm in locus 137 now, with the task of scraping down larger bumps so the whole area is level. There's more mudbrick material here that I try not to destroy, and another patch is full of rocks so that slows the work down some.
After breakfast, I wet-sift again with Lothar. This time, I do all eight buckets, so I can just stay in the water and Lothar can prepare the nets and buckets and pass them to me. I am perfectly okay with this because it feels super nice having one's feet in the warm water.
One of the bucket chains put me in the unique position of being the first and last on the line: I'm the first to pass them out until the group of buckets gets smaller and the second person can reach them all on his own, then I can run around to the end of the chain to the top of the dirt heap and catch/dump as they come to me. I discovered it was actually kind of fun to be Queen of the Heap, but not so fun to empty the dirt out of your shoes and socks afterward.
Tuesday, July 30th
Back in locus 137, I continue my levelling work, and do a clean job of it. This takes most of the day due to the rocks. Nothing particularly exciting for the day.
Trevor, Elise and I decide against Kfar dinner, so we go off-campus. Trevor takes us to Tirat Carmel, which is a residential area just east of the Kfar. There is a street with a line of restaurants. We stop at one for a decent kebab-in-pita. We walk back around to the highway and complete the circle home.
Wednesday, July 31st
I am in a new locus, 169. First, Yuli has me straighten some of the section; I do half of it but leave the rest for (hopefully, since it looks awful) another day. Then she has me excavate a layer of the ground. Part of it is already uncovered, and we can see a black charcoal patch and a bit of phytolith floor. I also see mudbrick, which I avoid. So I start to uncover the floor but I see a very thin layer of another floor in the chunks I'm taking off. I try to isolate this layer but it's very wispy and hard to track down. Yuli's presence is in high demand so I call for her but while I'm waiting, I just try to find more of this layer. I do find two small seeds, which might mean something if associated with this little floor.
The bucket chains are still a bit rough with this newer group of people. I'm in the upper stretch of the chain this time. The very last bucket gets thrown into my arm and gives it a good scrape. It's partially my fault, I thought the last bucket had been done, but also the guy was three feet away and threw it pretty hard. Ah, well. It'll bruise and hurt to move for a couple of days, but I'll survive.
I have a new project from Yuli, which I will do alongside Sarah E. I talk to her later in the evening so she can explain the job. I will be doing Locus Sketches, which entails Photoshop work. I'll have a list of loci, along with their corresponding limits (which loci border it to the north, south, east and west) - I take this information and find the top plan that best matches this information. (A top plan is a sketch of the whole area, day by day, with walls and loci as they develop over time.) The sketch is where I zero in on this locus, take out any irrelevant information, put in necessary information and crop the image. I'll start work on this tomorrow or the next day.
Thursday, August 1st
Back in 169, I'm still trying to trace this wispy floor. I also level down another bump of dirt. When I'm able to flag Yuli, I can tell her about this other floor. She tells me I can work on it, but first, to please finish the rest of the sectioning because it is rough and uneven - I gladly agree. I barely get started before the Tel Olympics begin.
Tel Olympics! This is an event that has been running for a few years. We have our usual 11:00 food break first, which is good to boost water reserves and energy.
There are four events, six people from each area participate:
1) Bucket Circle: each group stands in a tight circle with two buckets half-filled with dirt. They are to pass the buckets around, and when a full cycle gets completed, each person is to take a step back. This keeps going until a bucket is dropped. D2 dropped out pretty early but D4 and D5 battled it out a while. D4 totally cheats by not taking steps back and unfortunately win the event. D5 held strong though, and we are by far the loudest cheerleaders.
2) Rock Toss: there is a line and a wheelbarrow full of pre-selected rocks. Beyond this line are three wheelbarrows. Each person is three tries to get their rocks into the wheelbarrow. It is three points for a complete throw, two points if it goes in and bounces back out, one point if it just hits the wheelbarrow and nothing at all for a miss. D2 and D5 tie but D4 takes this one as well.
3) Poetry & Interpretive Dance: at 7:00, each group received four words at random (or supposedly at random, I think D5 just got the leftovers), and has to make a poem out of them. Our words were Kimama (for the children's camp that runs at Kfar Galim), vuvuzela (for the horn that blows at the end of each break), Hellenistic and elevations. I wish I had a copy of it, but our poem was pretty killer and way funny. D2 barely put in an effort so they barely count. D4, however, had this long, involved (admittedly funny) rap so of course they win this one too. I later learn they had their words since the night before, which says it all.
4) Dirt Triathlon: the most complex event. It starts with the six people at a starting line. When the horn blows, everyone takes off for the dirt pile that has buckets on top of it. Each person has to half-fill two buckets with dirt and sprint down the heap back to the starting line which has a wheelbarrow for each area. The buckets get dumped into the wheelbarrow and has to be pushed/pulled/conveyed to a point on the dirt heap, but it's not that easy! No, this has to be done with the entire group having his/her two buckets on their feet. The best way to manage it was to get the wheelbarrow onto the one rubber track before any other group can do so. I am proud to say that D5 totally won this one, and it should have been worth all the points.
So, we put forth good, solid, honest effort but came in good, solid second place. It was a lot of fun though. We finish the day brushing down our areas and putting away tools.
Later in the evening, in preparation for this project, I download the trial version of Photoshop which takes my poor little computer two hours to manage. I am also feeling under the weather (again! I thought I was done!) which doesn't bode well for the next days.
Friday, August 2nd
I wake up feeling pretty fuzzy, so I opt to stay in bed. I know there are some end-of-season things being done today, which makes me a bit regretful but I really just need to sleep instead.
I wake again at 10:30, feeling much better. I can't sleep any more, but I stay comfortable in bed and read 180 pages of my book. About noon, I get up, change my clothes and take my book outside. I read a little more, and chat with Sarah G., who's been feeling poorly herself for the past week. This whole day off leaves my cold much diminished.
I'm feeling well enough to go out with people later that night. It is the birthday of one of the staff, Colin, so we head to a pub in nearby Zikron. The pub is called The Hobbit and has themed paintings on its walls, which is fantastic. The night began a bit slowly but got a lot more fun as time went on. It was nice to hang out with people outside of Dor/the Kfar, and be more informal. I get home by 2:30, but stay up a bit to chat with others and finally get to bed at 4:00.
Saturday, August 3rd
I wake at 8:00, briefly consider breakfast and return to sleep. I'm up again at 10:00 and finish off my book. Around lunchtime, I head to cafe Aroma with Sarah E., Molly, Elise and Colin; we meet Yuli and David (from D4) at the cafe. We order some food first and then proceed to work on our laptops which we've all brought with us. My computer's slow but I'm able to complete a few locus sketches. After a few hours, there's a small blackout, so we can no longer take advantage of the free wifi at the cafe. I head back with some of the others. I continue to work a little more at the Kfar but otherwise, I'm just hanging around, killing time.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Actual Jerusalem Weekend
Friday, July 26th, cont'd
I left off last time with our arrival in Jerusalem and the long-awaited, much-appreciated showers. After that, we set off to find an early dinner/late lunch (since we skipped lunch at the Kfar to go straight to Jerusalem) and found a cafe that was still open; it's Shabbat but this place closed a little bit later than others. I had a nice iced tea and a cheese ravioli in a mushroom alfredo sauce.
We then walked to the Old City and followed the trail of people to the Western Wall. I'd seen it last year but I was glad to return. It was Sarah's first time seeing it, so I explained to her a little about it before we both approached the Wall for a spell.
Sarah wanted to see the Temple Mount, even just the outside of it, but there were military guards on the pathways there, and they said there was no way through - we could try again on Sunday, which was disappointing. So we kept wandering around. We walked up a bit through the main road of the Muslim Quarter and began trying to find the Christian Quarter but were not having an easy time of it. Some people were very helpful and gave us good directions to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
This site is a new experience for me as I never made it inside on last year's trip, only past the courtyard and the teeming groups of people striving to get in. It is meant to be the place of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. As it was evening, there were much fewer people around. It was very nice inside, but the building was very dark due to it being nighttime, so the paintings were mainly obscured. Still, I got a good impression of its dimensions and grandeur. Immediately in the entrance, you see a marble slab, and several people praying over it and kissing it - this is the Stone of Anointing, where Jesus' body lay in preparation for burial. Inside the main space is an enclosed sort of altar that houses the tomb as well as a piece of the stone that once covered it - there was a small crowd of people surrounding this enclosure, so we didn't go in. We did make it up a stairway to see the Golgotha, which houses a glass case that covers a long rock that has a hole in it, a hole that supported the cross on which Jesus died. There was a large tour group here, each person lining up to crouch underneath a table and kiss the icon placed over the rock. The whole space is very lavishly decorated, with gold and lights and mosaic walls. Then a guard started coming around and telling people to begin leaving because the Church was closing. We must have had really good timing, to be able to get in and have a look-see.
Sarah and I decide we've had enough, it's been a long day and we should get back to the hostel for bed. Just as we leave Jaffa Gate, though, we see another small group of Dor people, and they joyfully invite us to come along. Sarah and I look at each other, shrug, and turn back. We thought we were done, but no, the Old City always gets you. The group's first stop is the Western Wall, so Sarah and I sort of sigh, "We were just here." We sat down with two other girls and waited for the others.
The group split into two, one who went off to go shopping and the other who wanted to find the observatory point and have a good view of the city. Sarah and I walked with the latter, but this point proved impossible to find, and Jerusalem is tricky even with a good map (and we only had an okay map.) We somehow meet with the others again. We all wander into one of the shops near Jaffa Gate, have a look around. Sarah E. and Sarah G. both got sucked in by shopkeepers; the two ladies were actually looking for specific items to take home and the shopkeepers latched on. It was actually very impressive to watch. We were there so long, most of the others went back to the hostel - it was only the Sarahs, Myr and myself who remained. I occupied myself in two ways: passively observing the negotiation process and actively warning one or the other girl to be mindful about the options being presented before her. It was a strangely entertaining, and not a little maddening, way to end the night. We finally dragged them out of there (with their purchases) and got back to the hostel to have a good sleep.
Saturday, July 27th
We woke in time to have a little bite at the hostel's complimentary breakfast (cereal, toast, fruit, vegetables, coffee/tea). After checking out and putting our things into luggage storage, Sarah E. and I then headed off to the Israel Museum in time for its opening, at 10:00. We'd heard a lot about the Herod exhibit and how it was a must-see, so that was our first stop. It was actually pretty impressive, with details of Herod's life, his works, various architectural accomplishments (i.e., Masada and Caesarea), his large tomb at Herodium and various artifacts from these places and his time.
Our next stop was the exhibition on illusionism. It begins with a room that contained works by MC Escher; through this space is a stairway up to the rest of the exhibition, called ArTricks. This contains various art pieces that were optical illusions or otherwise unique in perspective. For example, there was a piece that had several wooden/metal scraps, standing in a row and increasing in height/shape - behind them was a light, and this projected the collective shadows into the shape of a man onto the wall. There was another that looked like an impressionist painting but a closer view revealed it was made from knitted wool. It was, overall, a really cool exhibition, like being back in elementary school and going on a trip to the science museum.
After a brief snack at the museum's one cafe that was still open, we visited the large Second Temple model and the Shrine of the Book. It's my third time seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls but I was happy to visit again, especially since it was Sarah's first time. She enjoyed it more than she was expecting to, and I'm always impressed by the Scrolls
Then we wandered over to the exhibition on Fauvism, an art movement from the early 20th century that focused on very bright colours and less realistic lines (that is, more rough and large). There were a couple of rooms dedicated to this style, and we were happy to see a few Matisses on display, and the various other artists were interesting as well.
We thought we'd finish about this time, but we just kept going. Around the corner from Fauvism was more French art, along with a whole room on Picasso. I peeked into another hallway and saw this really intricate, detailed painting, but then I looked closer and saw it wasn't a painting at all, but a style of art called micromosaic - this painting was made up of thousands of tiny little pieces. I was so impressed I called Sarah over to have a look, and this action led us down a whole new rabbit whole of European art. There were even rooms that were decorated in the style of 18th-century French boudoirs and salons, with tables, vases, paintings all from the period.
The museum kept on going, and so did we. We had moments where'd we sort of look at each other, say that it was enough and nod along in agreement but not actually leave. So by the time we actually did want to leave, it was 3:30. We ran into a few of the girls from the dig (and the night before) as they were just entering the museum - they invited us along and this time we said "Nope! Thanks!" and left. We return to the hostel by 4:00 and we were so exhausted that we just couldn't manage anything else. So we hung out in the common room with our computers and just relaxed.
At about 8:00, I went out with a few of the other girls; Sarah had gone out earlier to meet with a friend who was staying in Jerusalem. We found a restaurant, but service was rather slow, and most kitchens are ill-equipped to handle big crowds but won't turn away people. It took a while for our food to come. I was hoping to get out of there a bit sooner but it wasn't until 9:50 that I could return to the hostel, get my things out of luggage storage and meet with Sarah to plan our return to the Kfar. We had thought there was a train at 11:10, but the last one was apparently 10:10, so we had a mild panic while we tried to figure out a way back home. It wasn't as big a deal for me, but Sarah had a field trip to attend the next day, so it was imperative for her to get back home. After a little bit of time and some questioning at the hostel's front desk, we learn there is one bus to Haifa at 10:45 - it was 10:20 when we discovered this. It's doable, but we miss the more convenient streetcar to the bus station and instead flag down a taxi. We make it to the station with ten minutes to spare - not bad at all.
Once in Haifa, we get an overpriced taxi, but we're so tired and glad to be back that we don't care too much, and we arrive at the Kfar, safe and sound and ready for sleep.
I left off last time with our arrival in Jerusalem and the long-awaited, much-appreciated showers. After that, we set off to find an early dinner/late lunch (since we skipped lunch at the Kfar to go straight to Jerusalem) and found a cafe that was still open; it's Shabbat but this place closed a little bit later than others. I had a nice iced tea and a cheese ravioli in a mushroom alfredo sauce.
We then walked to the Old City and followed the trail of people to the Western Wall. I'd seen it last year but I was glad to return. It was Sarah's first time seeing it, so I explained to her a little about it before we both approached the Wall for a spell.
Sarah wanted to see the Temple Mount, even just the outside of it, but there were military guards on the pathways there, and they said there was no way through - we could try again on Sunday, which was disappointing. So we kept wandering around. We walked up a bit through the main road of the Muslim Quarter and began trying to find the Christian Quarter but were not having an easy time of it. Some people were very helpful and gave us good directions to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
This site is a new experience for me as I never made it inside on last year's trip, only past the courtyard and the teeming groups of people striving to get in. It is meant to be the place of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. As it was evening, there were much fewer people around. It was very nice inside, but the building was very dark due to it being nighttime, so the paintings were mainly obscured. Still, I got a good impression of its dimensions and grandeur. Immediately in the entrance, you see a marble slab, and several people praying over it and kissing it - this is the Stone of Anointing, where Jesus' body lay in preparation for burial. Inside the main space is an enclosed sort of altar that houses the tomb as well as a piece of the stone that once covered it - there was a small crowd of people surrounding this enclosure, so we didn't go in. We did make it up a stairway to see the Golgotha, which houses a glass case that covers a long rock that has a hole in it, a hole that supported the cross on which Jesus died. There was a large tour group here, each person lining up to crouch underneath a table and kiss the icon placed over the rock. The whole space is very lavishly decorated, with gold and lights and mosaic walls. Then a guard started coming around and telling people to begin leaving because the Church was closing. We must have had really good timing, to be able to get in and have a look-see.
Sarah and I decide we've had enough, it's been a long day and we should get back to the hostel for bed. Just as we leave Jaffa Gate, though, we see another small group of Dor people, and they joyfully invite us to come along. Sarah and I look at each other, shrug, and turn back. We thought we were done, but no, the Old City always gets you. The group's first stop is the Western Wall, so Sarah and I sort of sigh, "We were just here." We sat down with two other girls and waited for the others.
The group split into two, one who went off to go shopping and the other who wanted to find the observatory point and have a good view of the city. Sarah and I walked with the latter, but this point proved impossible to find, and Jerusalem is tricky even with a good map (and we only had an okay map.) We somehow meet with the others again. We all wander into one of the shops near Jaffa Gate, have a look around. Sarah E. and Sarah G. both got sucked in by shopkeepers; the two ladies were actually looking for specific items to take home and the shopkeepers latched on. It was actually very impressive to watch. We were there so long, most of the others went back to the hostel - it was only the Sarahs, Myr and myself who remained. I occupied myself in two ways: passively observing the negotiation process and actively warning one or the other girl to be mindful about the options being presented before her. It was a strangely entertaining, and not a little maddening, way to end the night. We finally dragged them out of there (with their purchases) and got back to the hostel to have a good sleep.
Saturday, July 27th
We woke in time to have a little bite at the hostel's complimentary breakfast (cereal, toast, fruit, vegetables, coffee/tea). After checking out and putting our things into luggage storage, Sarah E. and I then headed off to the Israel Museum in time for its opening, at 10:00. We'd heard a lot about the Herod exhibit and how it was a must-see, so that was our first stop. It was actually pretty impressive, with details of Herod's life, his works, various architectural accomplishments (i.e., Masada and Caesarea), his large tomb at Herodium and various artifacts from these places and his time.
Our next stop was the exhibition on illusionism. It begins with a room that contained works by MC Escher; through this space is a stairway up to the rest of the exhibition, called ArTricks. This contains various art pieces that were optical illusions or otherwise unique in perspective. For example, there was a piece that had several wooden/metal scraps, standing in a row and increasing in height/shape - behind them was a light, and this projected the collective shadows into the shape of a man onto the wall. There was another that looked like an impressionist painting but a closer view revealed it was made from knitted wool. It was, overall, a really cool exhibition, like being back in elementary school and going on a trip to the science museum.
After a brief snack at the museum's one cafe that was still open, we visited the large Second Temple model and the Shrine of the Book. It's my third time seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls but I was happy to visit again, especially since it was Sarah's first time. She enjoyed it more than she was expecting to, and I'm always impressed by the Scrolls
Then we wandered over to the exhibition on Fauvism, an art movement from the early 20th century that focused on very bright colours and less realistic lines (that is, more rough and large). There were a couple of rooms dedicated to this style, and we were happy to see a few Matisses on display, and the various other artists were interesting as well.
We thought we'd finish about this time, but we just kept going. Around the corner from Fauvism was more French art, along with a whole room on Picasso. I peeked into another hallway and saw this really intricate, detailed painting, but then I looked closer and saw it wasn't a painting at all, but a style of art called micromosaic - this painting was made up of thousands of tiny little pieces. I was so impressed I called Sarah over to have a look, and this action led us down a whole new rabbit whole of European art. There were even rooms that were decorated in the style of 18th-century French boudoirs and salons, with tables, vases, paintings all from the period.
The museum kept on going, and so did we. We had moments where'd we sort of look at each other, say that it was enough and nod along in agreement but not actually leave. So by the time we actually did want to leave, it was 3:30. We ran into a few of the girls from the dig (and the night before) as they were just entering the museum - they invited us along and this time we said "Nope! Thanks!" and left. We return to the hostel by 4:00 and we were so exhausted that we just couldn't manage anything else. So we hung out in the common room with our computers and just relaxed.
At about 8:00, I went out with a few of the other girls; Sarah had gone out earlier to meet with a friend who was staying in Jerusalem. We found a restaurant, but service was rather slow, and most kitchens are ill-equipped to handle big crowds but won't turn away people. It took a while for our food to come. I was hoping to get out of there a bit sooner but it wasn't until 9:50 that I could return to the hostel, get my things out of luggage storage and meet with Sarah to plan our return to the Kfar. We had thought there was a train at 11:10, but the last one was apparently 10:10, so we had a mild panic while we tried to figure out a way back home. It wasn't as big a deal for me, but Sarah had a field trip to attend the next day, so it was imperative for her to get back home. After a little bit of time and some questioning at the hostel's front desk, we learn there is one bus to Haifa at 10:45 - it was 10:20 when we discovered this. It's doable, but we miss the more convenient streetcar to the bus station and instead flag down a taxi. We make it to the station with ten minutes to spare - not bad at all.
Once in Haifa, we get an overpriced taxi, but we're so tired and glad to be back that we don't care too much, and we arrive at the Kfar, safe and sound and ready for sleep.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Week Four
Monday, July 22nd
Nothing special for this day; my main task was to sweep down the slope, make it clean and get rid of the topsoil and fallen pottery.
Tuesday, July 23rd
I was sent to the Containers again today, so it's another full day of moldy and gross cardboard boxes. It's not all bad, but it's not my first pick of places to be.
We also had a farewell party for the Hebrew U. people, who were a really good group; their last day is tomorrow, but they won't be heading back to the Kfar with us, so we celebrate today. D5 was a bucket chain utopia with them around, and I am concerned for the new group. Anyway, this party was flowing with ice cream, beer and wine. There was good cheer and good conversation. The dig directors stayed up during the night with us as well - one of them, Ilan Sharon, told us stories of digs past. It was a nice evening, and worth staying up late for as I was in bed by 11:00 as opposed to my usual 9:30.
Wednesday, July 24th
Elise asks me to help her today; she begins by teaching me how to use the elevations instrument, which reads the height of certain points in the area in relation to the instrument and the readings are calculated later to the exact height above sea level, so we have an accurate point of reference for each reading. I've just begun entering tag information into the database on the computer when Yuli comes over and asks a favour - she wants me to return to the Glasshouse/Containers again. But I was just there yesterday!
Apparently, Yuli had promised Elise I would work with her today, but because it was the final day for the Hebrew University students (sidenote: the first half of the season in D5 had Hebrew U. students, and the second half will have Haifa U. students) she didn't want to send any of them off site for their last day. So I was the sacrifice.
Once at the Glasshouse, I'm dreading the idea of being sent to the Containers for a third time, but Golan (Dor's coordinator in the museum) assures me that won't be the case. Instead, he'll give me work to do in the museum. I am to take the special finds, enter their information into the database and attach photographs to each file. It's repetitious but steady work and I enjoy looking at the unique items that the areas have dug up.
Thursday, July 25th
A very slow morning today, as there was a lot of light brushing to do in several loci so that clear pictures can be taken. The photographer, Trevor, was a much wanted man, as the other areas needed him to come by before the light got too bright and in the way. To pass time while I waited for a job, I sat at the recorder desk and made basket tags (partially blank, so information can be filled in quickly.)
I'm finally moved down the slope to the end of a wall. I'm to take the handpick and hack away the dirt until we can find more stones, possibly the rest of a different wall.
One of the Hebrew U. students, Asaf, has stayed on one extra day. At the last bucket chain, he's at the bottom of the sloped walkway and is the first to pass up the buckets. I'm at the top of the hill, and there are three people between us, and a few metres too. For the very last bucket, he asks me if he can throw it to me, as a farewell gesture. I say "Bring it on!" He gets set to throw, immediately drops it (by accident, to great hilarity), picks it up again, and flings it toward me. It careens ever so slightly, losing a bit of dirt on the way, and wobbles into my hands. Success!
In the evening, a group of us decide we don't want Kfar food that night, so Elise, Molly, Sarah E., and I go to the mall. There are a couple of restaurants, but there was great difficult in deciding where to eat. We even briefly discussed just going to the food court, but how is that any better than cafeteria food? We decide on a restaurant, Avazi - Sarah and Molly have been before, and did not like the service but maybe our experience tonight would be better.
It was not better. We actually got the same waitress that they had, one who couldn't understand English very well but kept trying to give us satisfactory answers. She would say "yes" and "no" to the same question. Soon, she got the idea to get someone else who could better help us. The second girl was better, though we would have various employees floating in and out trying to help us. Elise could speak some Hebrew, so that was something. We decided to get the Special, which mean we could each get a main meal from a preselected list, and receive unlimited side dishes. The sides were good but brought in very small plates, so that was how they cut down on costs. I have to say, my meal, the hamburger, was pretty delicious, and came with four tasty dipping sauces.
Back at the Kfar, some people were hanging out at the central meeting spot and drinking wine, so I joined them for a while. All in all, a nice night. Then I hastily packed for my return to Jerusalem.
Friday, July 26th
Another slow morning due to pictures. I'm put into a new locus with another person, scraping down a layer of floor in order to uncover another floor beneath it. It is here that I find a bronze pin, so I'm happy to finally find something noteworthy.
After breakfast, I have a new experience: wet-sifting. Lothar has been excavating a pit that's likely got a lot of different materials in it, so he puts aside 12 buckets of dirt. We take the buckets and some nets to the shoreline. I take off my shoes and socks and go into the water. The process: take an empty bucket, place a net inside, dump full bucket into the net, go into the water with the net and start dunking it. I keep dunking and rolling my full net until it shrinks and the water coming out runs clear.
When this is done, I'm again left without a job as my partner on the floor-scraping has done it himself. I hang around the recording desk, making tags so I'm doing something useful. Elise does ask me to help with taking elevations. We have the new Haifa University students, and they don't know yet how to get into the bucket chain groove, or to not fill up the buckets so much so they get too heavy to throw well - it's a learning curve, and a rough bucket chain today.
I walk to the Glasshouse with Sarah, as we are leaving directly from there. Marina, the Containers staff member, has kindly offered to drive us to Jerusalem. I had left my bag with Yair, as Marina would be borrowing his car to get there. She also has to transport boxes to a museum in Jerusalem, so Sarah and I help to load some of these into the van.
When we get to Jerusalem, Marina drops us off at the streetcar station, where it's an easy ride to the stop near our hostel. We check in and take a much-deserved shower, since we're both still dirty from our work on the Tel.
That's enough for now, but the next post will detail the weekend further.
Nothing special for this day; my main task was to sweep down the slope, make it clean and get rid of the topsoil and fallen pottery.
Tuesday, July 23rd
I was sent to the Containers again today, so it's another full day of moldy and gross cardboard boxes. It's not all bad, but it's not my first pick of places to be.
We also had a farewell party for the Hebrew U. people, who were a really good group; their last day is tomorrow, but they won't be heading back to the Kfar with us, so we celebrate today. D5 was a bucket chain utopia with them around, and I am concerned for the new group. Anyway, this party was flowing with ice cream, beer and wine. There was good cheer and good conversation. The dig directors stayed up during the night with us as well - one of them, Ilan Sharon, told us stories of digs past. It was a nice evening, and worth staying up late for as I was in bed by 11:00 as opposed to my usual 9:30.
Wednesday, July 24th
Elise asks me to help her today; she begins by teaching me how to use the elevations instrument, which reads the height of certain points in the area in relation to the instrument and the readings are calculated later to the exact height above sea level, so we have an accurate point of reference for each reading. I've just begun entering tag information into the database on the computer when Yuli comes over and asks a favour - she wants me to return to the Glasshouse/Containers again. But I was just there yesterday!
Apparently, Yuli had promised Elise I would work with her today, but because it was the final day for the Hebrew University students (sidenote: the first half of the season in D5 had Hebrew U. students, and the second half will have Haifa U. students) she didn't want to send any of them off site for their last day. So I was the sacrifice.
Once at the Glasshouse, I'm dreading the idea of being sent to the Containers for a third time, but Golan (Dor's coordinator in the museum) assures me that won't be the case. Instead, he'll give me work to do in the museum. I am to take the special finds, enter their information into the database and attach photographs to each file. It's repetitious but steady work and I enjoy looking at the unique items that the areas have dug up.
Thursday, July 25th
A very slow morning today, as there was a lot of light brushing to do in several loci so that clear pictures can be taken. The photographer, Trevor, was a much wanted man, as the other areas needed him to come by before the light got too bright and in the way. To pass time while I waited for a job, I sat at the recorder desk and made basket tags (partially blank, so information can be filled in quickly.)
I'm finally moved down the slope to the end of a wall. I'm to take the handpick and hack away the dirt until we can find more stones, possibly the rest of a different wall.
One of the Hebrew U. students, Asaf, has stayed on one extra day. At the last bucket chain, he's at the bottom of the sloped walkway and is the first to pass up the buckets. I'm at the top of the hill, and there are three people between us, and a few metres too. For the very last bucket, he asks me if he can throw it to me, as a farewell gesture. I say "Bring it on!" He gets set to throw, immediately drops it (by accident, to great hilarity), picks it up again, and flings it toward me. It careens ever so slightly, losing a bit of dirt on the way, and wobbles into my hands. Success!
In the evening, a group of us decide we don't want Kfar food that night, so Elise, Molly, Sarah E., and I go to the mall. There are a couple of restaurants, but there was great difficult in deciding where to eat. We even briefly discussed just going to the food court, but how is that any better than cafeteria food? We decide on a restaurant, Avazi - Sarah and Molly have been before, and did not like the service but maybe our experience tonight would be better.
It was not better. We actually got the same waitress that they had, one who couldn't understand English very well but kept trying to give us satisfactory answers. She would say "yes" and "no" to the same question. Soon, she got the idea to get someone else who could better help us. The second girl was better, though we would have various employees floating in and out trying to help us. Elise could speak some Hebrew, so that was something. We decided to get the Special, which mean we could each get a main meal from a preselected list, and receive unlimited side dishes. The sides were good but brought in very small plates, so that was how they cut down on costs. I have to say, my meal, the hamburger, was pretty delicious, and came with four tasty dipping sauces.
Back at the Kfar, some people were hanging out at the central meeting spot and drinking wine, so I joined them for a while. All in all, a nice night. Then I hastily packed for my return to Jerusalem.
Friday, July 26th
Another slow morning due to pictures. I'm put into a new locus with another person, scraping down a layer of floor in order to uncover another floor beneath it. It is here that I find a bronze pin, so I'm happy to finally find something noteworthy.
After breakfast, I have a new experience: wet-sifting. Lothar has been excavating a pit that's likely got a lot of different materials in it, so he puts aside 12 buckets of dirt. We take the buckets and some nets to the shoreline. I take off my shoes and socks and go into the water. The process: take an empty bucket, place a net inside, dump full bucket into the net, go into the water with the net and start dunking it. I keep dunking and rolling my full net until it shrinks and the water coming out runs clear.
When this is done, I'm again left without a job as my partner on the floor-scraping has done it himself. I hang around the recording desk, making tags so I'm doing something useful. Elise does ask me to help with taking elevations. We have the new Haifa University students, and they don't know yet how to get into the bucket chain groove, or to not fill up the buckets so much so they get too heavy to throw well - it's a learning curve, and a rough bucket chain today.
I walk to the Glasshouse with Sarah, as we are leaving directly from there. Marina, the Containers staff member, has kindly offered to drive us to Jerusalem. I had left my bag with Yair, as Marina would be borrowing his car to get there. She also has to transport boxes to a museum in Jerusalem, so Sarah and I help to load some of these into the van.
When we get to Jerusalem, Marina drops us off at the streetcar station, where it's an easy ride to the stop near our hostel. We check in and take a much-deserved shower, since we're both still dirty from our work on the Tel.
That's enough for now, but the next post will detail the weekend further.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Jerusalem-ish Weekend
Friday, July 19th (cont'd)
After the workday ended, everyone (myself, plus Sarah, Hanna, Myr and Morgan) going on the trip showered, packed and met together at the main meeting area. We shoved our bags into the trunk of our rental car, shoved ourselves into the car and off we went. The highways themselves were easy enough to navigate, but once we go to Jerusalem itself, it became a lot harder to get around. Add to the fact that we had two people as navigators (Hanna and Morgan), which is typically not recommended, and we were driving during Shabbat and Ramadan when some streets are closed off, we got a little bit turned around. We were always able to find our way back to the right road, and eventually ended up at our hostel without too many issues.
We didn't do much that night, except for finding a restaurant that was open on Shabbat and having a nice meal together. We returned to our hostel and went to bed very early, because we were planning an early day on Saturday.
Saturday, July 20th
The plan: Wake at 3:30-ish, meet at 4:00, leave for Masada and arrive in time to see the sunrise on the mountain.
The reality: Wake at 3:30-ish, meet Hanna and Sarah at 4:00, wait some number of minutes before wondering if Myr and Morgan were just running late or something more aws awry. I know where Myr's room is, but not Morgan and am able to procure the information at the front desk. I stop at Myr's room first, and knock on the door a few times but receive no response. Hm. I will return. I go to Morgan's room and knock on the door, and she answers. She says she woke in time to meet us at the right hour, but planned to take a shower and had forgotten that, in this hostel, you have to set a timer for 20 minutes before you want to enter it and receive hot water, so that pushed us back a bit. She is otherwise packed and ready to go. Okay. I go back to Myr's room and she answers - her alarm clock did not go off and she was woken only by my knocks.
The upshot, we didn't leave until 4:40, and we're certain we won't make the sunrise hike. Alas. But we go there anyway, because at least we'll beat the rush. We do see the sunrise when we're just a few minutes away from Masada, and it's still nice. For a pre-breakfast, I've brought along chocolate croissants, which will give us a nice little energy boost to start the morning.
Finally, we arrive. I have visited Masada once before, on Birthright; we climbed the Roman path and came back down the Snake Path. This time, we will ascend by the Snake Path (which is horrible to walk down in full heat, so I imagine it's still pretty bad to walk up in lesser early morning heat). Sections of it are quite difficult, when some of the steps are a bit taller than the average human step, and I managed a couple of shortcuts across the path's curves when they were available. Of the group, I am the first one to the top, which speaks poorly for the others because I am not in shape, and it means they are far worse off!
At the top, I wait for the others. When they arrive, we begin our exploration. I am happy to be able to take my time and look around a bit more. I was especially delighted to see the columns and bright frescoes of the lower part of the Northern Palace, which I missed last time around. Various other buildings, I never got to see at all, were also explored. It is a beautiful view on Masada, with a large expanse of the Dead Sea nearby. When we decide we are done, I opt to take the cable car down along with Morgan and Sarah - Hanna and Myr will walk back down - I descended the Snake Path once already and didn't fancy do it again. We waited in the gift shop/restaurant for the other two to arrive.
We had packed fruit, bread, peanut butter, and chocolate spread for a light breakfast. There are picnic tables near the parking lot, so we sat there for a quick meal.
The next stop is Ein Gedi. It is a nature reserve with natural waterfalls, pools and streams that people can wade in. Sarah and Morgan decide not to walk too much and pick one of the earlier waterfalls, whereas I go up a bit further with Hanna and Myr. The first two pools were either too shallow or too crowded. The last one's a bit deeper and has fewer people. For a while, it has no splashing children - a nice bonus. We can sit chest-deep in the water, which is so refreshing after a hot day on Masada. I don't think anyone was expecting to like it there so much, but it was really just a perfect pause in the day.
Then we're off to Qumran, which we know will be a small site and therefore a quick stop. Qumran is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. You are not allowed to actually go into the caves where they were found, but there are maps onsite that point them out. There's also a small reconstructed area of buildings where the sect - who wrote the scrolls - lived and prayed. They were ascetics, so they practiced a lifestyle of extreme spiritual discipline. The site had multiple mikvaot (ritual cleansing baths) so they were serious about moral cleanliness.
Our last stop on the tour is the Dead Sea. It's a public beach, so it's closing at 5:25, and we arrive at 5:00. We have just enough time to enjoy a good float. I was careful about not getting the water into my eyes, mouth or hair, though I did become very aware of this tiny cut I had on my finger.
The return to Jerusalem is again made difficult by horrendous traffic and blocked roads. Our route begins in a very tight road, with a couple of ambivalent drivers. We also encounter a group of angry Orthodox people who overturned a garbage bin, and children who were throwing empty water bottles at passing cars. They didn't get to throw anything at us, because Sarah sped right through. We also got turned around a couple of times on this trip, and Sarah was convinced multiple people were out to get us. By the time we pulled into the hostel's parking lot, she was shaking. Poor thing, having to drive through all that.
Myr and Hanna continue their own adventure at the Kotel in the Old City, but Morgan, Sarah and I decide to have dinner at this Italian restaurant. We had ordered a beet appetizer but the waitress said they were unable to make it, so we told her to surprise us with a different appetizer. So she brought us this hot plate of seasoned cauliflower and it was amazing. The whole dinner was very nice, and we all got cocktails to congratulate ourselves on fitting in so much sightseeing (which would not have been possible without the rental car and the freedom to our own timetable).
Sunday, July 21st
We check out of our hostel and store our luggage in the car. We mainly split up into different groups but agree to meet back at the hostel at 4:00. Sarah and I stick together for the day. We begin by browsing the Machane Yehuda, which is an outdoor market full of stalls that offer various spices, foods, jewellery, clothing, whathave you, and is always teeming with people (except for when it shuts down on Shabbat). Then Sarah accompanies me on my long-planned trip to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum.
This museum is a place I visited on Birthright, but I felt very rushed - there were so many things I wanted to look at and see but because we were on a guided tour that lasted just over an hour, I missed out on a lot of it. I intended to go back and do it properly, and that's exactly what we did today. We took it slow and steady, though I think we both rushed through some of the video segments because they were too poignant. The whole visit was very intense, reading over some of the stories, and personal diaries of those who died in the War. Certain sections were absolutely sickening, like one where a man has received packages of parchment that already have writing on it, but he is assured the writing will come off and the papers can be resold. At the end of the paragraph, you learn that the parchment is really a Torah scrolls. I'm not a very religious person, but I understand the idea of this sanctified object that the human hand is not permitted to touch and it's being repurposed for ordinary means.
When I meet Sarah at the end, we've just spent two-and-a-half hours wandering the museum and we're absolutely drained. We spend a little more time on the grounds, looking at the Children's Memorial, which I tell Sarah she must see. It's incredibly sad but really beautiful. We also take a small stroll along the avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations, which is lined with trees planted in the name of those non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust. When we're finally ready to leave, we're so full of the pain and grief of those who perished or lost their families, but also the overwhelming strength of the survivors who overcame so much hatred and escaped death.
At 4:00, we return to meet the others and prepare for our departure. We find an easier way out for Sarah and have a nice drive back to the Kfar. It was a great weekend, and we were able to see a good many things. We're also properly sleepy enough to retire for our usual early bedtimes and get ready for the week ahead.
After the workday ended, everyone (myself, plus Sarah, Hanna, Myr and Morgan) going on the trip showered, packed and met together at the main meeting area. We shoved our bags into the trunk of our rental car, shoved ourselves into the car and off we went. The highways themselves were easy enough to navigate, but once we go to Jerusalem itself, it became a lot harder to get around. Add to the fact that we had two people as navigators (Hanna and Morgan), which is typically not recommended, and we were driving during Shabbat and Ramadan when some streets are closed off, we got a little bit turned around. We were always able to find our way back to the right road, and eventually ended up at our hostel without too many issues.
We didn't do much that night, except for finding a restaurant that was open on Shabbat and having a nice meal together. We returned to our hostel and went to bed very early, because we were planning an early day on Saturday.
Saturday, July 20th
The plan: Wake at 3:30-ish, meet at 4:00, leave for Masada and arrive in time to see the sunrise on the mountain.
The reality: Wake at 3:30-ish, meet Hanna and Sarah at 4:00, wait some number of minutes before wondering if Myr and Morgan were just running late or something more aws awry. I know where Myr's room is, but not Morgan and am able to procure the information at the front desk. I stop at Myr's room first, and knock on the door a few times but receive no response. Hm. I will return. I go to Morgan's room and knock on the door, and she answers. She says she woke in time to meet us at the right hour, but planned to take a shower and had forgotten that, in this hostel, you have to set a timer for 20 minutes before you want to enter it and receive hot water, so that pushed us back a bit. She is otherwise packed and ready to go. Okay. I go back to Myr's room and she answers - her alarm clock did not go off and she was woken only by my knocks.
The upshot, we didn't leave until 4:40, and we're certain we won't make the sunrise hike. Alas. But we go there anyway, because at least we'll beat the rush. We do see the sunrise when we're just a few minutes away from Masada, and it's still nice. For a pre-breakfast, I've brought along chocolate croissants, which will give us a nice little energy boost to start the morning.
Finally, we arrive. I have visited Masada once before, on Birthright; we climbed the Roman path and came back down the Snake Path. This time, we will ascend by the Snake Path (which is horrible to walk down in full heat, so I imagine it's still pretty bad to walk up in lesser early morning heat). Sections of it are quite difficult, when some of the steps are a bit taller than the average human step, and I managed a couple of shortcuts across the path's curves when they were available. Of the group, I am the first one to the top, which speaks poorly for the others because I am not in shape, and it means they are far worse off!
At the top, I wait for the others. When they arrive, we begin our exploration. I am happy to be able to take my time and look around a bit more. I was especially delighted to see the columns and bright frescoes of the lower part of the Northern Palace, which I missed last time around. Various other buildings, I never got to see at all, were also explored. It is a beautiful view on Masada, with a large expanse of the Dead Sea nearby. When we decide we are done, I opt to take the cable car down along with Morgan and Sarah - Hanna and Myr will walk back down - I descended the Snake Path once already and didn't fancy do it again. We waited in the gift shop/restaurant for the other two to arrive.
We had packed fruit, bread, peanut butter, and chocolate spread for a light breakfast. There are picnic tables near the parking lot, so we sat there for a quick meal.
The next stop is Ein Gedi. It is a nature reserve with natural waterfalls, pools and streams that people can wade in. Sarah and Morgan decide not to walk too much and pick one of the earlier waterfalls, whereas I go up a bit further with Hanna and Myr. The first two pools were either too shallow or too crowded. The last one's a bit deeper and has fewer people. For a while, it has no splashing children - a nice bonus. We can sit chest-deep in the water, which is so refreshing after a hot day on Masada. I don't think anyone was expecting to like it there so much, but it was really just a perfect pause in the day.
Then we're off to Qumran, which we know will be a small site and therefore a quick stop. Qumran is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. You are not allowed to actually go into the caves where they were found, but there are maps onsite that point them out. There's also a small reconstructed area of buildings where the sect - who wrote the scrolls - lived and prayed. They were ascetics, so they practiced a lifestyle of extreme spiritual discipline. The site had multiple mikvaot (ritual cleansing baths) so they were serious about moral cleanliness.
Our last stop on the tour is the Dead Sea. It's a public beach, so it's closing at 5:25, and we arrive at 5:00. We have just enough time to enjoy a good float. I was careful about not getting the water into my eyes, mouth or hair, though I did become very aware of this tiny cut I had on my finger.
The return to Jerusalem is again made difficult by horrendous traffic and blocked roads. Our route begins in a very tight road, with a couple of ambivalent drivers. We also encounter a group of angry Orthodox people who overturned a garbage bin, and children who were throwing empty water bottles at passing cars. They didn't get to throw anything at us, because Sarah sped right through. We also got turned around a couple of times on this trip, and Sarah was convinced multiple people were out to get us. By the time we pulled into the hostel's parking lot, she was shaking. Poor thing, having to drive through all that.
Myr and Hanna continue their own adventure at the Kotel in the Old City, but Morgan, Sarah and I decide to have dinner at this Italian restaurant. We had ordered a beet appetizer but the waitress said they were unable to make it, so we told her to surprise us with a different appetizer. So she brought us this hot plate of seasoned cauliflower and it was amazing. The whole dinner was very nice, and we all got cocktails to congratulate ourselves on fitting in so much sightseeing (which would not have been possible without the rental car and the freedom to our own timetable).
Sunday, July 21st
We check out of our hostel and store our luggage in the car. We mainly split up into different groups but agree to meet back at the hostel at 4:00. Sarah and I stick together for the day. We begin by browsing the Machane Yehuda, which is an outdoor market full of stalls that offer various spices, foods, jewellery, clothing, whathave you, and is always teeming with people (except for when it shuts down on Shabbat). Then Sarah accompanies me on my long-planned trip to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum.
This museum is a place I visited on Birthright, but I felt very rushed - there were so many things I wanted to look at and see but because we were on a guided tour that lasted just over an hour, I missed out on a lot of it. I intended to go back and do it properly, and that's exactly what we did today. We took it slow and steady, though I think we both rushed through some of the video segments because they were too poignant. The whole visit was very intense, reading over some of the stories, and personal diaries of those who died in the War. Certain sections were absolutely sickening, like one where a man has received packages of parchment that already have writing on it, but he is assured the writing will come off and the papers can be resold. At the end of the paragraph, you learn that the parchment is really a Torah scrolls. I'm not a very religious person, but I understand the idea of this sanctified object that the human hand is not permitted to touch and it's being repurposed for ordinary means.
When I meet Sarah at the end, we've just spent two-and-a-half hours wandering the museum and we're absolutely drained. We spend a little more time on the grounds, looking at the Children's Memorial, which I tell Sarah she must see. It's incredibly sad but really beautiful. We also take a small stroll along the avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations, which is lined with trees planted in the name of those non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust. When we're finally ready to leave, we're so full of the pain and grief of those who perished or lost their families, but also the overwhelming strength of the survivors who overcame so much hatred and escaped death.
At 4:00, we return to meet the others and prepare for our departure. We find an easier way out for Sarah and have a nice drive back to the Kfar. It was a great weekend, and we were able to see a good many things. We're also properly sleepy enough to retire for our usual early bedtimes and get ready for the week ahead.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Week Three
Week Three - Monday, July 15th to Friday, July 26th
Monday: I've been moved to a new locus (the name for a specific area/layer) - this spot has a lot of mudbrick and phytolith floor - actually, the whole area has a lot of mudbrick - so much time is spent brushing and sweeping it clean for photographs. Once the pictures are taken, I can get to work scraping down the layer, and revealing more floor.
Tuesday: It's a very slow day, because of all the mudbrick popping up, there have been various discussions between Yuli and the directors, and also supervisors from the other areas have been dropping by to talk about it. There's more brushing for pictures. I do a bit of section work (where I scrape down the sides of a trench to make it straight) and another task to find the outline of a possible pit. I catch up with Yuli after work, and she had discussed the extreme amount of work that D5 is producing, so I ask if I can help, and she said there may be something. It'll be nice to see another aspect of excavation work.
Wednesday: The day of many bucket chains. Our area has a section of slope, which is generally difficult in terms of stratigraphic context because everything falls down a slope. It'll be a big mixture of potsherds from various periods, so what we need to do scrape it all down until we can get the area to a reasonably clean layer. We still collect the pottery but most of it will get tossed.
After breakfast, the slope-work ceases and everyone returns to his/her locus. In mine, I have to level down this little bump of dirt so that it's more even with its surroundings, and I find another small mudbrick. At the end of the day, there is mass confusion with the bucket tags (each bucket of pottery, or bag of bones/shells, gets its own identification tag) and since I know how to make them, I quickly write them out. Elise, the recorder, likes me to do them because my handwriting is neat. We also receive good news today - since it's becoming too dark to work at 5:00, and we're waiting for the sun to come up a bit, our bus will leave 15 minutes later, at 5:45. We'll arrive a bit after 5:00, and once we finish getting the tools, we'll be able to get to work faster. People are very pleased with the extra 15 minutes of sleep.
I find Yuli later on for that special assignment - what she wants me to do is take a few specific loci and find the layers directly above that correspond to its dirt makeup - I will have to go back into the previous seasons' reports to do so.
Thursday: A normal day, though I'm moved around a little bit. We have to do more slope work. After breakfast, I help at the recording desk, making tags and writing the corresponding numbers/information into a notebook. Then it's mostly cleaning. So at the end of the day, since dirt was moving a bit more slowly but we picked up too many buckets, we have to do one enormous bucket chain. I decided to count them, and came up with approximately 286! It was huge, and we mostly found our groove in the chain, so it went mostly smoothly, so we sort of congratulated each other at the end. I think this was also the day that the tourists came by, stopped and marvelled a while. I saw one guy, down at the rocky shore, standing there for a good five minutes, after which he pulled out his camera and starts taking photographs. We get a lot of tourists wandering around because they can just walk up from the beach, and technically, Tel Dor is a national park now.
Later on, at pottery reading, Elise enlists me to be her sidekick during the reading. I would cut up the tags of those baskets that had nothing worthwhile to keep, or create new tags for anything in baskets that needed to be separated out. It was a very long reading, and ran for two-and-a-half hours.
In the evening, I worked a little more on Yuli's project. I also started preparing for the weekend trip to Masada/Ein Gedi/Dead Sea/Qumran. I would be renting a car with Sarah G., Myr, Hanna and Morgan. Sarah and Hanna went out during the pottery washing to pick up the car so we can be ready to go after the work day tomorrow.
Friday: It's an easygoing work day, as I helped out at the recording desk for a little bit. Since D5 is the place for Israeli archaeology students and we have Haifa University for the first three weeks, each of them has to spend time at the recording desk. It is Asaf B's turn, and Elise asks me to help him make the tags. Though, since his handwriting is not too solid, she has me write out a few of my own. I did some fieldwork as well, just scraping down a small bump next to a three-mudbrick line we have.
After lunch, I take a quick shower and hastily pack for Jerusalem. We will be driving there, and staying for two nights so as to have an easy jumping-off point for our sightseeing. I will write about this trip next post.
Monday: I've been moved to a new locus (the name for a specific area/layer) - this spot has a lot of mudbrick and phytolith floor - actually, the whole area has a lot of mudbrick - so much time is spent brushing and sweeping it clean for photographs. Once the pictures are taken, I can get to work scraping down the layer, and revealing more floor.
Tuesday: It's a very slow day, because of all the mudbrick popping up, there have been various discussions between Yuli and the directors, and also supervisors from the other areas have been dropping by to talk about it. There's more brushing for pictures. I do a bit of section work (where I scrape down the sides of a trench to make it straight) and another task to find the outline of a possible pit. I catch up with Yuli after work, and she had discussed the extreme amount of work that D5 is producing, so I ask if I can help, and she said there may be something. It'll be nice to see another aspect of excavation work.
Wednesday: The day of many bucket chains. Our area has a section of slope, which is generally difficult in terms of stratigraphic context because everything falls down a slope. It'll be a big mixture of potsherds from various periods, so what we need to do scrape it all down until we can get the area to a reasonably clean layer. We still collect the pottery but most of it will get tossed.
After breakfast, the slope-work ceases and everyone returns to his/her locus. In mine, I have to level down this little bump of dirt so that it's more even with its surroundings, and I find another small mudbrick. At the end of the day, there is mass confusion with the bucket tags (each bucket of pottery, or bag of bones/shells, gets its own identification tag) and since I know how to make them, I quickly write them out. Elise, the recorder, likes me to do them because my handwriting is neat. We also receive good news today - since it's becoming too dark to work at 5:00, and we're waiting for the sun to come up a bit, our bus will leave 15 minutes later, at 5:45. We'll arrive a bit after 5:00, and once we finish getting the tools, we'll be able to get to work faster. People are very pleased with the extra 15 minutes of sleep.
I find Yuli later on for that special assignment - what she wants me to do is take a few specific loci and find the layers directly above that correspond to its dirt makeup - I will have to go back into the previous seasons' reports to do so.
Thursday: A normal day, though I'm moved around a little bit. We have to do more slope work. After breakfast, I help at the recording desk, making tags and writing the corresponding numbers/information into a notebook. Then it's mostly cleaning. So at the end of the day, since dirt was moving a bit more slowly but we picked up too many buckets, we have to do one enormous bucket chain. I decided to count them, and came up with approximately 286! It was huge, and we mostly found our groove in the chain, so it went mostly smoothly, so we sort of congratulated each other at the end. I think this was also the day that the tourists came by, stopped and marvelled a while. I saw one guy, down at the rocky shore, standing there for a good five minutes, after which he pulled out his camera and starts taking photographs. We get a lot of tourists wandering around because they can just walk up from the beach, and technically, Tel Dor is a national park now.
Later on, at pottery reading, Elise enlists me to be her sidekick during the reading. I would cut up the tags of those baskets that had nothing worthwhile to keep, or create new tags for anything in baskets that needed to be separated out. It was a very long reading, and ran for two-and-a-half hours.
In the evening, I worked a little more on Yuli's project. I also started preparing for the weekend trip to Masada/Ein Gedi/Dead Sea/Qumran. I would be renting a car with Sarah G., Myr, Hanna and Morgan. Sarah and Hanna went out during the pottery washing to pick up the car so we can be ready to go after the work day tomorrow.
Friday: It's an easygoing work day, as I helped out at the recording desk for a little bit. Since D5 is the place for Israeli archaeology students and we have Haifa University for the first three weeks, each of them has to spend time at the recording desk. It is Asaf B's turn, and Elise asks me to help him make the tags. Though, since his handwriting is not too solid, she has me write out a few of my own. I did some fieldwork as well, just scraping down a small bump next to a three-mudbrick line we have.
After lunch, I take a quick shower and hastily pack for Jerusalem. We will be driving there, and staying for two nights so as to have an easy jumping-off point for our sightseeing. I will write about this trip next post.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Week Two, Second Weekend
Week Two - Monday, July 8th to Friday, July 12th
Monday was spent cleaning. There were leftover weeds in D1, so people were working on that until 7:00, after which we returned to our own areas. Back in D5, I am placed in a narrow space between a stone wall and a baulk (a foot-wide strip of dirt left standing during excavations so you can see the layers left behind).
Tuesday, I have told Yuli a bit about my extra experience with sketches on previous digs, and she says she has a project for me. We'd found a large stone that looked to be worked and could be an architectural fragment. It's been photographed but also needs to be sketched in detail. Yuli asks me to draw it from a bird's eye view in 1:20 scale but when I begin, I see the rock will be extremely small and I ask Yuli about it, so she tells me to do it in 1:10 scale, so it will be bigger and we can see more detail - 1 real-life centimetre will be 1 millimetre in the sketch.
It's my first time drawing something like this - I am accustomed to sketching stratigraphy and trench plans, and I usually have twine laid out in square metres so I have something to measure from, but with the rock I have to measure it against itself. I don't complete the drawing today, but will finish it tomorrow.
It is also the first day of pottery washing, and we will have it every day at 4:00, Monday to Thursday. The buckets are filled with water the day before, and we clean them the next day. Mondays are a bit heavier due to the lack of washing on Fridays, so we do Thursday's and Friday's on this day. I start on my own area first, and if there are no more left to do, I look to see if D4 or D2 has buckets to do. Someone else has picked out a very full D4 bucket, and we end up with five people total cleaning this one bucket of pottery.
Wednesday, I complete the drawing. Yuli looks it over and says it was too accurate. I only needed the basic lines and not to measure it over too much. I then have to do a slice drawing, where we imagine the stone is cut in half and I have to sketch it an inside view. It is an easier task, as I just have to select a point in the middle and measure around it.
I am also given a new job; at the end of the day, we have a bucket of special finds (like tools, bronze, flint, metal, anything that's not pottery, bone or shell) and this has to be taken to the Glasshouse. Instead of packing tools away in the container at the end of the day, I just take this bucket, walk across the beach and leave it at the dig office in the museum.
Thursday, Yuli tells me I have more drawing to do! I now need to do a sketch of the front view of the stone. I try to be less accurate, though I'm still measuring along the way. When I give it in to Yuli, she sits down in front of the stone with me next to it and starts adding more roughness, more contours. She says she can do this because I measured so carefully. The drawing ends up rather more different than it started, but at least now I know what to do if I'm ever asked to do it again!
I have yet to decide my plans for the weekend. Some people are going to Jerusalem and I try to look into the possibility of going along, but I need more time. So I decide to try and figure out a day trip, but will research more on Friday.
Friday, I am reassigned to the Glasshouse with fellow D5-er, Inez. Once we get there, Marina takes us and Jose from D2 to the Containers. This is where all the pottery finds are stored, and have been stored since the 80s. The Containers are not airtight, however, and various animals have been getting in and messing up the cardboard boxes. So the task is to transfer the contents of these very disgusting boxes into new plastic boxes and give them new, easy-to-read labels.
It's not actually a terrible time, as we have fun chatting with each other. There are lots of neat bits of pottery in the boxes, so it's like we're rediscovering them all over again. There are whole small vessels, or parts of big ones, some that have really nice painted styles, and others that have imprints. So it makes up somewhat for feeling contaminated at the end of the day. Showers are very necessary!
Sarah G. gives us another quick Hebrew lessons, and this time we learn about aspirations! These are the various ways to say a letter depending on their specific location inside a word.
I am offered a spur-of-the-moment invite with a group of people to go out to a pub in Haifa. I split a taxi with some others to a place called The Bear. We follow this up with a short visit to club Sleek. It was a really fantastic time; I spent most of it hanging out with the staff members, who are closer to my age.
When we return to the Kfar, we see a small commotion at the corner of my building. It appears a one of the girls who went out that night had returned very drunk and had fallen onto the concrete and hit her head pretty hard. There was some mild freaking out - we know head wounds tend to bleed more and look worse than they are, but people were pretty concerned. An ambulance was called and actually came pretty quickly. In the meantime, two of the staff had put on medical gloves and were attending to the girl, talking to her and keeping her conscious while cleaning her up. She was whisked off to the hospital and would spend the weekend there. So, an exciting night that ended on a too-exciting note!
Saturday, July 13th
I failed at sleeping in, which happens when you're on a dig that requires a 4:00 am wake-up call. I get myself up at 8:30 and took it easy the rest of the day since the night before was pretty hectic. I missed breakfast but had snacks in the room. Weekends here, breakfast and dinner are provided for but you're on your own for lunch.
In the evening, after dinner, 9 of us decide to head out to Haifa Mall and shop for a little bit. It is a large mall, with three floors and over 100 stores. I spent most of the time there browsing with Sarah G., and we find a store with good options and each bought a nice item - for myself, it was a dress, which I plan to wear if there's an end-of-season party.
Afterward, we decide to head out to the beach area for drinks. Most of the others either remained at the mall or left early. So it was just myself, Sarah G. and Myr who were left. We walked to the train station and could see the beachfront just beyond the tracks but there was some confusion as to how to get across. We wandered a bit before realizing there was an underground walkway to the other side.
We found a bar with English menus, and I ordered a refreshing lemonade. Sarah got a full litre of this lemon-mint slushie, which she loved. It was enough for three people but she happily consumed it all herself, which was quite amusing.
Sunday, July 14th
At breakfast, Janice, who is an older, 50-something teacher of Gospel history, is talking about a trip around the Galilee. I'm hesitant to go at first, but she is quite convincing and gets three people to go: Jordon, Jose and myself. We will charter a taxi, and she says she'll pay for most of it, and we put in what we can for the tip. It's hard to disagree.
Our first stop is Nazareth, and the Church of the Annunciation. The Annunciation is the moment where an angel visits Mary and announces she will bear the son of God. It's large and very impressive inside, with a gated area in a lower level that contains what is believed to be the childhood home of Mary. It is large and there is booming, orchestral music playing. We walk through it to the Church itself, and see a sermon being held. Around the room, there are enormous paintings, each showing a country's interpretation of New Testament scenes. Outside the Church, there is a wall full of mosaic pieces showing Jesus and Mary as created by different countries, so you get a lot of variation in artistic style, clothing choices and even how the characters are depicted.
We also take a brief look inside the Church of St. Joseph, and the Cana Church of the First Miracle (the changing of water into wine while at a wedding, and actually, in one of the shops outside, we taste a small sample of wedding wine). We see the nuns setting up inside for a wedding. This church also sits on top of ancient remains.
The next stop brings us to Yardenit on the Jordan River, near the supposed site of Jesus' baptism by St. John. It's a nice spot, lots of overhang trees. Janice, Jordan and Jose all dip their feet, but I'm wearing regular socks and shoes, and don't feel like taking them off so I opt out.
It's a short visit there but for a stroll through the gift shop before we're off to see the Jesus Boat. Really, it's the Boat from the time of Jesus, but it could've been used by anyone. It's a 2000-year-old boat that was discovered in 1986 in the Sea of Galilee (which, let's be clear, is a giant lake). The banks of the Sea had lowered that year and revealed a vessel that had been protected by the lake sediment. The boat was rescued in an 11-day excavation. We watched a brief movie that chronicled the boat's rescue. They had to keep spraying it with water so it wouldn't become dry and crumble in the sun. They eventually encased the boat in fibreglass and polyurethane foam and floated it down to a place where they could carefully begin conservation efforts, which took eleven years.
It's about eight metres long and made up of several different woods - there was a drawing nearby that showed every plank and its separate makeup. It's called the Jesus boat because it fits the description of a type used by Jesus' disciples in the Gospels, but it also fits as a boat that was used by the Jews against the Romans in a nautical battle in 67 CE. It now sits in an atmosphere controlled room, though I do find it odd it's not permanently behind glass, like all other atmosphere-controlled items.
We moved on to the Church of the Beatitudes, placed on the Mount where Jesus is supposed to have "blessed the meek for they shall inherit the earth" and various other proclamations. The Church itself is small and nice, but not as impressive as the others I already saw that day.
Our final stop was Capharnaem, the site of Jesus' growing up. It also contains various ancient remains including a synagogue! After seeing so many Churches and Jesus-related things (which, to be fair, thrilled Janice to no end) it was nice to see a Synagogue. But then, the signpost said it was a "Jesus Synagogue" so there was still no escaping the good son.
It was a long, and very interesting, day. But also very warm. I forgot to mention the brief stop at the Sea Level signpost before we descended into the Galilee. When you go below sea level, it gets very warm. The temperature-reading in the taxi stated it got to about 38 degrees, whereas Haifa was about 31. I was glad to get back home and relax again before the week ahead.
Monday was spent cleaning. There were leftover weeds in D1, so people were working on that until 7:00, after which we returned to our own areas. Back in D5, I am placed in a narrow space between a stone wall and a baulk (a foot-wide strip of dirt left standing during excavations so you can see the layers left behind).
Tuesday, I have told Yuli a bit about my extra experience with sketches on previous digs, and she says she has a project for me. We'd found a large stone that looked to be worked and could be an architectural fragment. It's been photographed but also needs to be sketched in detail. Yuli asks me to draw it from a bird's eye view in 1:20 scale but when I begin, I see the rock will be extremely small and I ask Yuli about it, so she tells me to do it in 1:10 scale, so it will be bigger and we can see more detail - 1 real-life centimetre will be 1 millimetre in the sketch.
It's my first time drawing something like this - I am accustomed to sketching stratigraphy and trench plans, and I usually have twine laid out in square metres so I have something to measure from, but with the rock I have to measure it against itself. I don't complete the drawing today, but will finish it tomorrow.
It is also the first day of pottery washing, and we will have it every day at 4:00, Monday to Thursday. The buckets are filled with water the day before, and we clean them the next day. Mondays are a bit heavier due to the lack of washing on Fridays, so we do Thursday's and Friday's on this day. I start on my own area first, and if there are no more left to do, I look to see if D4 or D2 has buckets to do. Someone else has picked out a very full D4 bucket, and we end up with five people total cleaning this one bucket of pottery.
Wednesday, I complete the drawing. Yuli looks it over and says it was too accurate. I only needed the basic lines and not to measure it over too much. I then have to do a slice drawing, where we imagine the stone is cut in half and I have to sketch it an inside view. It is an easier task, as I just have to select a point in the middle and measure around it.
I am also given a new job; at the end of the day, we have a bucket of special finds (like tools, bronze, flint, metal, anything that's not pottery, bone or shell) and this has to be taken to the Glasshouse. Instead of packing tools away in the container at the end of the day, I just take this bucket, walk across the beach and leave it at the dig office in the museum.
Thursday, Yuli tells me I have more drawing to do! I now need to do a sketch of the front view of the stone. I try to be less accurate, though I'm still measuring along the way. When I give it in to Yuli, she sits down in front of the stone with me next to it and starts adding more roughness, more contours. She says she can do this because I measured so carefully. The drawing ends up rather more different than it started, but at least now I know what to do if I'm ever asked to do it again!
I have yet to decide my plans for the weekend. Some people are going to Jerusalem and I try to look into the possibility of going along, but I need more time. So I decide to try and figure out a day trip, but will research more on Friday.
Friday, I am reassigned to the Glasshouse with fellow D5-er, Inez. Once we get there, Marina takes us and Jose from D2 to the Containers. This is where all the pottery finds are stored, and have been stored since the 80s. The Containers are not airtight, however, and various animals have been getting in and messing up the cardboard boxes. So the task is to transfer the contents of these very disgusting boxes into new plastic boxes and give them new, easy-to-read labels.
It's not actually a terrible time, as we have fun chatting with each other. There are lots of neat bits of pottery in the boxes, so it's like we're rediscovering them all over again. There are whole small vessels, or parts of big ones, some that have really nice painted styles, and others that have imprints. So it makes up somewhat for feeling contaminated at the end of the day. Showers are very necessary!
Sarah G. gives us another quick Hebrew lessons, and this time we learn about aspirations! These are the various ways to say a letter depending on their specific location inside a word.
I am offered a spur-of-the-moment invite with a group of people to go out to a pub in Haifa. I split a taxi with some others to a place called The Bear. We follow this up with a short visit to club Sleek. It was a really fantastic time; I spent most of it hanging out with the staff members, who are closer to my age.
When we return to the Kfar, we see a small commotion at the corner of my building. It appears a one of the girls who went out that night had returned very drunk and had fallen onto the concrete and hit her head pretty hard. There was some mild freaking out - we know head wounds tend to bleed more and look worse than they are, but people were pretty concerned. An ambulance was called and actually came pretty quickly. In the meantime, two of the staff had put on medical gloves and were attending to the girl, talking to her and keeping her conscious while cleaning her up. She was whisked off to the hospital and would spend the weekend there. So, an exciting night that ended on a too-exciting note!
Saturday, July 13th
I failed at sleeping in, which happens when you're on a dig that requires a 4:00 am wake-up call. I get myself up at 8:30 and took it easy the rest of the day since the night before was pretty hectic. I missed breakfast but had snacks in the room. Weekends here, breakfast and dinner are provided for but you're on your own for lunch.
In the evening, after dinner, 9 of us decide to head out to Haifa Mall and shop for a little bit. It is a large mall, with three floors and over 100 stores. I spent most of the time there browsing with Sarah G., and we find a store with good options and each bought a nice item - for myself, it was a dress, which I plan to wear if there's an end-of-season party.
Afterward, we decide to head out to the beach area for drinks. Most of the others either remained at the mall or left early. So it was just myself, Sarah G. and Myr who were left. We walked to the train station and could see the beachfront just beyond the tracks but there was some confusion as to how to get across. We wandered a bit before realizing there was an underground walkway to the other side.
We found a bar with English menus, and I ordered a refreshing lemonade. Sarah got a full litre of this lemon-mint slushie, which she loved. It was enough for three people but she happily consumed it all herself, which was quite amusing.
Sunday, July 14th
At breakfast, Janice, who is an older, 50-something teacher of Gospel history, is talking about a trip around the Galilee. I'm hesitant to go at first, but she is quite convincing and gets three people to go: Jordon, Jose and myself. We will charter a taxi, and she says she'll pay for most of it, and we put in what we can for the tip. It's hard to disagree.
Our first stop is Nazareth, and the Church of the Annunciation. The Annunciation is the moment where an angel visits Mary and announces she will bear the son of God. It's large and very impressive inside, with a gated area in a lower level that contains what is believed to be the childhood home of Mary. It is large and there is booming, orchestral music playing. We walk through it to the Church itself, and see a sermon being held. Around the room, there are enormous paintings, each showing a country's interpretation of New Testament scenes. Outside the Church, there is a wall full of mosaic pieces showing Jesus and Mary as created by different countries, so you get a lot of variation in artistic style, clothing choices and even how the characters are depicted.
We also take a brief look inside the Church of St. Joseph, and the Cana Church of the First Miracle (the changing of water into wine while at a wedding, and actually, in one of the shops outside, we taste a small sample of wedding wine). We see the nuns setting up inside for a wedding. This church also sits on top of ancient remains.
The next stop brings us to Yardenit on the Jordan River, near the supposed site of Jesus' baptism by St. John. It's a nice spot, lots of overhang trees. Janice, Jordan and Jose all dip their feet, but I'm wearing regular socks and shoes, and don't feel like taking them off so I opt out.
It's a short visit there but for a stroll through the gift shop before we're off to see the Jesus Boat. Really, it's the Boat from the time of Jesus, but it could've been used by anyone. It's a 2000-year-old boat that was discovered in 1986 in the Sea of Galilee (which, let's be clear, is a giant lake). The banks of the Sea had lowered that year and revealed a vessel that had been protected by the lake sediment. The boat was rescued in an 11-day excavation. We watched a brief movie that chronicled the boat's rescue. They had to keep spraying it with water so it wouldn't become dry and crumble in the sun. They eventually encased the boat in fibreglass and polyurethane foam and floated it down to a place where they could carefully begin conservation efforts, which took eleven years.
It's about eight metres long and made up of several different woods - there was a drawing nearby that showed every plank and its separate makeup. It's called the Jesus boat because it fits the description of a type used by Jesus' disciples in the Gospels, but it also fits as a boat that was used by the Jews against the Romans in a nautical battle in 67 CE. It now sits in an atmosphere controlled room, though I do find it odd it's not permanently behind glass, like all other atmosphere-controlled items.
We moved on to the Church of the Beatitudes, placed on the Mount where Jesus is supposed to have "blessed the meek for they shall inherit the earth" and various other proclamations. The Church itself is small and nice, but not as impressive as the others I already saw that day.
Our final stop was Capharnaem, the site of Jesus' growing up. It also contains various ancient remains including a synagogue! After seeing so many Churches and Jesus-related things (which, to be fair, thrilled Janice to no end) it was nice to see a Synagogue. But then, the signpost said it was a "Jesus Synagogue" so there was still no escaping the good son.
It was a long, and very interesting, day. But also very warm. I forgot to mention the brief stop at the Sea Level signpost before we descended into the Galilee. When you go below sea level, it gets very warm. The temperature-reading in the taxi stated it got to about 38 degrees, whereas Haifa was about 31. I was glad to get back home and relax again before the week ahead.
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