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.