Final Post

Well, we're back and this photo will be the last post (unless you want a detailed description of recovering from jet lag....) It is taken from the Scottish Church that sits just southwest of Jerusalem's Old City Wall.

Finds of the Week

Photos on this page show finds unearthed during our last week of the dig.

Photo 1: Roman era glass bottles (for perfume?).


Photo 2: Gold earrings


Photo 3: My Iron age lamp (dates from 680-620 BCE).

Photo 4: An acquaintance.

Last Day on the Dig

A final photo of our area (and its pile of debris) before we refill our site. Our shade is let down at night to prevent people from falling into 3 foot deep holes.

The last morning we continued to clean up our area, filling and emptying buckets to remove our piles of accumulated soil and debris. (And in the process eliminating all signs of our work.) At the end of the morning the courtyard was once again a courtyard and accessible through the excavated 'gate' area.

Photos showing the progression of work done on the gate area over the 4 weeks.
Photo 2: (Above) uncovering the stones hidden by the gravel in the pathway.
Photo 3: (a reverse image from photo 1) the stones cleared of debris and the iron railing and retaining wall removed (on left).
Photo 4: A cut showing the layers of flooring and soil below the stone flooring.
Photo 5: Areas not covered by stone flooring are excavated while 3 sections of stone flooring are removed.
Photo 6: A wide stone wall uncovered at west end of flooring. (View is towards courtyard and away from stone floor.)
Photo 7: Roman era pottery found below portion of eastern wall and flooring, providing an 'earliest' date for structures above.
Photo 8: Further excavation below removed stones, uncovering an earlier floor. Half of the earlier floor was removed in an effort to gain pottery samples for dating the level.

The 2nd to last Day...

Work is beginning to wind down here in some of our areas - like mine. Most of our team spent today moving dirt from the pile we generated earlier into already excavated areas to return them to their original appearance (minus the pottery!) Team members counted 865 buckets of dirt moved today. We also spent time removing plants that were beginning to regain their footing in areas excavated in previous seasons.

I was given the cushy job of continuing to dig through an area in the courtyard that has produced so many l'melek [belonging to the king] stamped jar handles and my pretty oil lamp. Today we simply moved dirt from one side and dumped it into another that was no longer being excavated. Sue did find one stamped jar handle.

Since this is the last planned season for excavating at Ramat Rahel, some areas are continuing to try and answer some questions - like where was all the rain water stored that was used in the many Jewish ritual baths, the Assyrian and Persian era gardens or the Roman Bath. The photo is of some of those trying to find some answers.

Yes, the handsome man is John. The photo is taken while I stand at ground level looking down. I think he's figured out this wasn't the spa vacation I had promised...

Finally Fun!!

The 3 photos are evidence of two kinds of fun I'm having this week.

Touring and Digging:
Photo1: is of area "G" in the city of David. It's an ancient support for buildings above it dating to times prior to David. There is a heated debate about whether it was in use during his century.

Photo 2: John and I near the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock is in the background. We had just visited Hezekiah's tunnel in the city of David so (I) had pants wet up to my knees.

Photo 3: Ido, my area supervisor, felt sorry for me (perhaps pouting all day yesterday had something to do with it?) and placed me in the courtyard dig site in the area they knew had pottery finds. I uncovered this wonderful little Iron Age oil lamp. Nearly all the pieces were present so they will be able to reconstruct it. I must confess, it was much better than the Fanta can and plastic cups combined... and much better than cleaning the pine needles out of the area.

Some preliminary conclusions regarding Ramat Rachel:
1. It came into being as an administrative center as Assyria gained control of the region. Its early monumental architecture, foreign to local architecture but familiar from northern Israel, speaks of some foreign influence.

2. It was in continuous use as a center for foreign rule (Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Greek) until the time of the Hasmoneans (Jewish rule lasting 80 years between Greek (Hellenistic) rule and Roman rule) 146-46 BCE. At that time it was torn down. The archeologists speculate the site was a significant reminder of foreign power for nearly 500 years and as such worthy of destruction. The site then housed many Jewish ritual baths and obviously a Jewish community.

3. It later housed a portion of the Roman X legion around Jerusalem (said Legion destroyed Jerusalem, etc. in 66-70 CE.)

4. Later it became a small Christian community with a Church.

5. Later it became a small Muslim community before disappearing into oblivion.

Monday Day 20

Well, my hero arrived Sunday noon. John only fell asleep once during the evening lecture which is pretty good for someone with little sleep and jet lag. I'm thrilled to have him share this last week of the dig with me.

We will be working in different areas so the marriage will survive the dig...

Photo one: A wine press

Photo two: an olive crushing installation - which is then followed by pressing the olives for oil.

Photos 3 and 4: The following two are from a power point my team put together for a goofy Thursday evening celebration last week. It had a story line about getting a disease [recognized by the 'growth']. This idea was due to our Site director getting the flu that week.

The answer to the question - and no, it's not Mel Brooks - sigh.... IS: Shimon Perez, president of Israel. He toured the site on Friday.

One more chance

OK,

Here's another, better photo of the elderly visitor to Ramat Rahel. Can you guess who it is now?

Saturday: Masada and Qumram

Today was our last day long excursion.

Masada (which means "Fortress") sits on the southern edge of the Dead Sea. It was developed by Herod the Great as a 5 star resort (for himself) and citadel. It was used later by refugees/rebels during the Jewish revolt of 66-70 AD and was the last hold out to fall. Rome's 10th legion besieged it for months before finally taking it by building a siege ramp on it's eastern side. [Our site, Ramat Rahel, has evidence of the 10th legion living here.] Monks in the 3rd-5th centuries built a monastery there before it fell into disuse and near oblivion until rediscovered in the modern era.

Photo 1: Masada seen from the west. If you look really really closely you can just make out the northern 3 step tier of Herod's palace complex on the right edge of the bluff.

Photo 2: An obligatory photo of tourist at top of Masada, with Dead Sea behind. If you look really really closely you can see her skin burning...

Photo 3: One of the many (8?) cisterns built at Masada to collect rain water...the local water source not being conducive to drinking. Yes, those are people walking around in the bottom and the photo was taken about halfway down the stairs.

Photo 4: the sub-flooring in Herod's sauna so he could heat the room - exactly why he found this necessary or desirable when it's often over 100' F. at Masada escapes me.

We also spent some time floating in the Dead Sea - a truly weird experience. (Sorry, no photos of weird tourist in water.) Fortunately it was not an exceptionally hot day - only 40' ... centigrade [normal body temperature is 37' C.] It is 1,385 feet below Sea level - the lowest place on earth not under the ocean floor. Jerusalem is about 2570 feet above Sea level and is about 13 miles from the Dead Sea. Jericho is on the northern edge of the Dead Sea so a walk from Jericho to Jerusalem is a steep climb.

Our last stop was Qumran, known for its catch of biblical scrolls, dating to 200-100 BCE. This is nearly a 1,000 years earlier than our other 'oldest' Hebrew texts. It's also where people purchase Ahava skin products made from Dead Sea salts.

Day 17 Friday A surprise visit

Photo 1: my hole

OK, I've dug a nice new hole this week. Finds have included: a plastic cup, a Fanta can, 2 cheap metal forks, paper, a coin from 1973, nails, broken glass beer bottles and the turn screw off a sardine can. In archeological terms this is has the highly technical title of a 'contaminated fill.' I've also uncovered a wall and although in line with a large wall a few feet away, it is not the same width - suggesting a different time period or structure for the two walls. One of the reasons we're re-excavating this area is because the prior supervisor for this very complicated area failed to keep daily records. sigh.


The real excitement today was a visit by the elderly gentleman in the second Photo.
Question of the day: Who is he?

Day 17 Wednesday: A Pottery lesson

Yesterday a long work day (of digging out the foundation of a wall that involved stones and clay and almost no pottery finds). However, Bennie, our architecture expert spent some time in the hole I dug and from which Anna had retrieved her jug. He found the items in the photo while Johannes and I dug through the clay.
Pottery finds: handles, jar stem, and the circle is a reuse of a broken pottery base. It has been carefully chipped and shaped into a circle to use as a stopper or cover for another pot.

Later in the day was a visit to Jerusalem and walk on the Via Dolorsa "Way of Sorrows" (photo 3) which is a devotional walk with 14 stations through the streets of Jerusalem remembering the crucifixion of Christ. The walk ends at the church of the Holy Sepulcher (photo 4).The current building dates to the time of the Crusades (1100 CE) and space is shared (rather acrimoniously at times) by Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian, Coptic (and a small space for the Ethiopian church on the roof.) If you're really into long walks in the heat, stairs, and watching your bag for pick pockets, it's a great experience.

Day 15 Deconstruction progress

Today our team benefited from 4 new members. Two from England, one from Germany and one from Pennsylvania.

Below are two photos to show the changes we've made to our site since beginning work in July. Where Johannes is digging is about where the bucket stands in the first photo... except about 3 meters below. He and I are working to excavate around an ancient wall which appears have been reused in different configurations at least twice.

Archeology is a controlled destruction of a site. When we're done, our work will be covered and the only record will be photos and measurements and careful notes and a published record of the work.

Our other site is finding coins.... I always pick the right spot.

Question of the day: Do I get very dirty?

Day 14 Sunday in Jerusalem

Today another student and I visited a bit more of Jerusalem.

Photo 1: the ramparts around the Old City which date to the Crusades (1100-1200 CE). The walls have been used for military purposes as recently as 1948 and 1967.

Photo 2: A typical slit for archers - they must have been bigger than me....

Photo 3: The Damascus gate seen from inside the north side of the city.

Photo 4: Zedekiah's tunnel. Despite being named after the last King of the Judahite monarchy from 587 BCE, this actually dates to the time of the 2nd Temple, first rebuilt around 515 BCE and rebuilt again by Herod the Great in the late 1st century BCE). This site was used to excavate limestone for building in Jerusalem... It's a very big hole and runs under the Old City.

Photo 5: There is no photo 5, we're not allowed photos inside the Rockefeller Museum run by Israel's antiquities authority.

After finding that churches in the Old City are open only for services on Sunday, Michelle and I went shopping. I was offered a skirt for 170 shekels ($48) and bought two for 100 shekels total.

Day 13 Galilee

Today was another travel day. Our bus drove us the 2+ hours up the Jordan rift valley (filled with date palms and agricultural activity) to the Sea of Galilee where we visited several sites associated either for real or by tradition with the Gospel accounts of Jesus' ministry in that area.

Photo 1: typical scene of the Jordan rift valley. The mountains you see are in Jordan. If you can see the Jordan river, your eyesight is better than mine. There was only place where I actually saw river water during our 2 hour drive.

Photo 2: The Sea of Galilee (looking towards the south east) from the Mount of the Beatitudes made famous in Matthew 5. The flowers may be native but the greenery below are banana plants - not a native crop.

Photo 3: A portion of the restored tile floor from a 4th-5th century church that commemorated the feeding of the 5,000. In front of the altar, the central image contains 4 loaves and 2 fish - one loaf less than recorded. It is suggested the 5th loaf was to be understood as the one being served as part of the communion celebration thus allowing worshipers to participate in the miracle. However, you don't get to see that because I took a lousy photo. What you do see is a portion of the rest of the floor that contains images of birds and animals native to the Nile river. Perhaps that year's most popular decorating pattern?

Photo 4: The required photo of a typical visitor standing in the Jordan River.

Day 12 Friday

My last post had a photo of a hole I excavated and I whined about how undramatic it looked. Today's photo shows you the find discovered about 2 centimeters below the point at which I had stopped.

Anna had resumed the excavation of my hole so it is "Anna's Pot" Once the green eyes of jealousy had subsided, I was able to enjoy this remarkable find. It is significant because it is in the foundation trench of a stone wall and based on it's distinctive style, dates the wall to the Hellenistic (Greek) period. The wall and its foundation trench cut through the floor and the floor does not reach the walls. This indicates a floor dating to an earlier time than the walls.

Photo three is of the team working at our site (minus Jim who took ill yesterday). All the women except myself are German students from Heidelberg, as is Ulrich on the right. Charlotte, beside me, will leave tomorrow.

The last photo is a confession. This is breakfast which we eat at 9:00 AM - after 3 and 1/2 hours of work. And yes, I actually ate all of it.

Day 10 Wednesday: sigh

Photo 1: My hole. With a little initial help from Jim, I emptied and cleaned this waist deep hole. You can all stop applauding now. I know it's incredible and terribly interesting...

Work at my sight has involved clearing rubble and looking for pottery so we can date the construction under the stone pavement we removed. Unfortunately we have found very little at this point and nothing to definitively date the construction.


Photo 2: Jason's pot. He cleaned about 4 inches of dirt from a different square in the courtyard and got to unearth this 7th century BCE cooking pot. Some people get all the work.

Photo 3: Me with two of my team members, Charlotte and Anne, students from Heidelberg University in Germany.

Tuesday after work a bus load of us went to the City of David (not to be confused with the Temple Mount or with the "Old City".) This section of Jerusalem has the oldest stone structures excavated in Jerusalem - dating back to the middle bronze age (1800 BCE). Photos will have to wait since I forgot the camera.