Omrit 2008

Day 31!

2008-06-16T06:54:00.000-07:00

Couldn't resist this last entry, both because I already miss the mad, random, improbable Omrit 2008 conglomeration and because d*** George made me 2 hours late taking off from Heathrow.

Oh ya, when the US Customs Guy asked me if I had brought back any Israeli soil with me, I managed to say no with a straight face!

Day 30 - Sunday morning

2008-06-14T20:02:00.001-07:00

Couldn't resist. Last dinner last night and sunrise at Ben Gurion Airport.

Day 29 - Saturday

2008-06-14T00:17:00.000-07:00

This will be my last post since sometime after midnight tonight our 2 van caravan will head off to the airport an hour away and this excellent adventure will come to an end. Though it will certainly be a good thing to return to 'Merica and home.

I've taken the day off because the group is off to Masada and the Dead Sea and I've been there, done that. It's about 10:30am, I'm sitting in the hotel's breakfast area, drinking coffee and decompressing. It's also the only area to pick up wi-fi. Not a bad way to spend the day, especially with the nap I plan to take this afternoon.

The hotel is on the Mount of Olives and has a great view. Here's a closeup of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that I took early this morning from the hotel steps. The "site" of Jesus' burial was "discovered" by Constantine's mother in the 4th century CE. Who knows? She may have gotten it right...

P.S. If you increase the zoom level level of your browser the pictures get bigger too!

Day 28 - Friday

2008-06-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

Left early for the 3 hour trip to Jerusalem - got a little lost, of course - but first stop was Yad Vashem: the Israeli Holocaust Memorial. A very modern museum with lots of large video, artifacts and information. The architecture is stark, concrete modern - hard to imagine it otherwise.

The first exhibit I saw was ID cards and photos from the pockets of corpses in a mass grave in Estonia. Very affecting.

It's post-ironic if not almost obscene that here we have a large museum devoted to the Nazi era. More info than anyone needs to know even if most of it is about their crimes. Too many swastikas are too many swastikas whatever the reason...

Then off to our hotel in East Jerusalem, the Arab section. We're skipping the tour of the Old City. John's friend, the Canadian Chargé d'Affaires for the West Bank is going to give us a talk tonight before dinner, and we are presently sitting in the lobby (for internet access) drinking a beer.

P.S. Condoleezza Rice is in Jerusalem this weekend. She and GWB have bookended our visit.

Day 27

2008-06-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

The last day and a really early start: on the job at 4:45am! The pressure: to clean up our squares for the all important photographs.The target: eliminate all the dust from the rocks, remove all the grass that blew in overnight and get some good publishable photographs before the sun gets up too high and creates shadows. Well we did it - photos completed by soon after 7am. Then we worked on loading up the trucks to take all the equipment back to the kibbutz.

A lazy day, then a drive out to Tel Hai College for a meeting with the staff and students of the centre for Peace and Democracy. This is an organization devoted to bringing together Jews and Arabs of the College with the aim of creating mutual understanding. Some twenty menbers of the Centre attended to meet with our contingent of around fifteen. To provide a base for discussion we all watched a movie entitled "The Women Next Door". This German film brought together a number of themes: Arab/Israeli relations, the place of women in Islam and finally the exploitation of women by men in general. Plenty of material for discussion! In the event I think most of the discussion focussed on Israeli/Arab relations while members of the Carthage group tried to understand some of the complexities of the situation. Altogether I felt we had a good meeting and during the excellent buffet dinner which followed people from both groups mixed freely and there was much spirited discussion. All in all a very worthwhile meeting.

Day 27

2008-06-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted to include a map when I did the geography lesson but couldn't find a good one. So I took a picture of my own:

We are approximately 2 dots to the left of the numeral 2 in the upper right corner. And here's a must-be-photoshopped aerial shot of the kibbutz looking north, northwest. We are staying in the red-roofed buildings center right. The Golan is behind the picture taker and where the valley disappears in the upper right is Lebanon. The big building front-and-center is the air-conditioner factory that helps support the kibbutz. I just ate lunch for the last time in their cafeteria.

The trip to the college last night was fascinating and John says he'll blog about that later.

Day 26

2008-06-11T01:52:00.001-07:00

Went out early for the last time today to get photographs before the sun cast too many shadows.

Fortunately we came back early too. Tonight we're off to a local college for an Arab-Israeli Dialog and they're giving us a potluck supper.

In Jerusalem one can look forward to the Elvis Express Cafe!

Day 25

2008-06-10T03:41:00.001-07:00

Well, we're closing things down now, the open squares are about ready to be photographed and equipment is being returned. Friday we go to Jerusalem so I hope I'll be able to add a few entries before I return on Sunday. The Ben Gurion airport does have free wi-fi so that should be the last entry as I savor a latte.

Geographically we are in the Hula Valley. It continues into Lebanon and becomes the Bekaa Valley and provides access to Beruit. If we could. We have looking for the main Roman road that crosses our valley and which, after traveling east, then turns north to Damascus.

The east side of our valley is the Golan Heights (otherwise known as Occupied Territory), which we are right up against. Hope the Syrians don't get to come back too close.

The other side, a few miles away to the west, is the Naftali mountains which are part of Israel and form the border with Lebanon. Hezbollah made great sport, a few years ago, of lobbing rockets over.

The valley itself is part of the Great Rift Valley that extends down through the Dead Sea and the Red Sea into Africa. The Hula has had a number of earthquakes in historic times though we have been cautioned not to blame earthquakes for much of anything. Archaeologically, that is.

Here we're looking west across the smog-filled valley:

Day 24

2008-06-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to wind down a bit. No more digging down, just cleaning up. Cleaning our "loose", shaving the sides (the balk) and articulating structures. (Bill, see that dirt up against that wall? Clean it off. Yes sir.) Buff up the stones, draw a diagram and take a picture.

At 4pm today, my little clock/thermometer read 104F in the shade. Fortunately we leave the site at 11:30 and our air conditioning is working fine!

Udo is a kibbutz resident who BBQs our chicken wings on Saturday nights. We walked by his place on our tour of this gated community. There was a bit of "folk art", and the quotes are needed, around his place so John and I went back this afternoon to take a few pictures at his residence "Graceland". Here he is with a Syrian artillery shell:

Day 23

2008-06-08T05:59:00.000-07:00

Today, an off-day, we were off to Sepphoris - a large 1st century CE city in lower Galilee. It's only a few miles from Nazareth so Jesus undoubtedly knew it and probably worked there. The ruins are not as impressive as Beit Shean but it's impressive none the less. A great many fine mosaics have been found including the one below. This large mosaic from a 3rd century CE private house is now enclosed in its own modern building.

The panels in the center depict a drinking contest between Hercules and Dionysus! You ain't seen nothing 'til you've seen Hercules puking (and losing).

Day 22

2008-06-07T02:21:00.000-07:00

A restful day today, no half-day of digging. We're doing pottery instead. We collect a lot of it and periodically an expert is supposed to appear to tell us for sure what we have. Unfortunately she just had a baby!

So Gabi Mazor, who has helped excavate here (and who was the director at Beit Shean - he gave us our tour!) is doing a prescreening. We sit around a table, each pottery bag gets dumped out and he does his magic. (There is a separate bag of pottery, which we've already cleaned, for each separate "locus" in each square.)

He sorts the shards into different piles, looks it over, tell us what is, and then discards most of it. Sigh.

Day 21

2008-06-06T23:07:00.000-07:00

What a slob I've been - no posts for over two weeks - apologies to all my fans!

Life here has settled down to a steady routine which occupies most of my time: work at the site in the morning, lunch, then hide away from the heat in the afternoon (temperatures are regularly over 102F in the shade), drinks, then dinner followed generally by bed at around 9pm! We’ve also had a number of lectures after dinner several of these focussed on temple architecture and religious practices in Roman times. I found these extremely useful in understanding the work we are doing on site.

Work at the site is hard but enjoyable, I've spent most of my time picking away at the dirt and levering out boulders - all this with the aim of revealing the original structures on the site

Where I am working we think we have found part of a pavement of unknown date but likely post-Roman. In other places we’ve found an olive press, a wall with a decorated plaster finish and numerous other buildings of unknown function. The problem is that stones from many of the original Roman structures have been reused in Byzantine times creating a real jumble of partially collapsed structures. It takes real skill and imagination to work out what has gone on.

Our current theory is that people would travel to the Temple and stay there for a day or two, requiring food and overnight accommodation for themselves and their animals, so there should be evidence of all this in the area.

One of the most interesting projects we’ve started has been an attempt to survey on foot the whole area of the site looking for evidence of these other buildings. Apart from the difficulties arising from the undergrowth, it seems that many of the useful stones from early structures have been re-used much more recently to form what look like farm buildings, nevertheless there are still many cut pieces of limestone lying round likely where they fell centuries ago. It’s going to be really difficult but very worthwhile to sort out what’s going on. I think this is the start of a long term project.

At weekends we’ve been on visits to other archaeological sites, but also during the week we’ve been to some nearby sites, one of the most impressive being at Kadesh up towards the Lebanese border. There we saw the remains of a vast administrative centre which had been in use since Phoenician times, perhaps acting to tax people travelling between Damascus and the coast. The building had some superb mosaic floors which had survived and walls built in a Persian style and designed to withstand earthquakes. Over the hillside were the remains of many other buildings and residences – hopefully the sort of complex remaining to be discovered at Omrit!

It’s weekend today, so after some work on the pottery we’ve found, we’re off on visits both today and a full day visit tomorrow…..then it’s a few days of really intensive cleaning up at the site in preparation for photographs before we close up for the season.

Day 20

2008-06-05T04:20:00.000-07:00

(Drink lots of water.) Sure. (Take water breaks.) Always do. (Have enough water?) Leave off will you? Well actually, it's good advice. Because I had a dehydration episode today. So embarressing. A little nausea and inability to keep water down. All better now. Here's a picture from the Dome of the Rock to settle our stomachs.

Day 19

2008-06-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo that gives you a little geography of the site.

In the upper left, next to the "2nd breakfast" tree is the temple, or rather multiple temples. Down to where the tent is located ran the colonnaded way, with big pillars, that was the entrance. Down to where there is green is a slope to a dry creek bed, a wadi. Where I am standing is up the other side of the wadi. One assumes there was a small bridge across the wadi.

Also it is assumed that I am standing where the main east-west road from the Mediterranean around to Damascus ran, it being perpendicular to the temple entrance road. There is a lot of digging going on trying to find that road. No definite success so far.

Here's a reconstruction of the temple from the far side looking down towards the wadi. The main road would run parallel to, and near, the top of the picture.

Day 18

2008-06-03T02:31:00.000-07:00

Where I'm not: Blue Ridge, Georgia

Day 17

2008-06-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the "Antony and Cleopatra" shrine ("Temple 0"). Note the foundation walls of Temple 1 that was built entirely over it. The floor of that temple, built by Herod for Augustus, was at the top of those walls. Sure looks like deliberate obliviation to me. (I got the date of Temple 2 wrong yesterday, it was built at the end of the 1st century CE, about 100 years after this shrine and 80 years after Herod's temple.)

Went out on a "surface survey" this afternoon organized by one of the professional archaeologists. A group of people organized in straight line walk over an area, sometimes over a period of weeks, and look for evidence of human activity. We were fairly disorganized but it was still an interesting activity.

Day 17 - Official Report

2008-06-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

Week two of the 2008 excavations at Omrit saw the completion of work in two areas, and the move across the valley to the north to open up two new squares. We believe that these will turn up evidence of structures that lined the road north of the temple that ran between the Hula Valley and Damascus.

The completion of Amy Fisher’s square, yielded a massive foundation for the colonnade leading from the valley to the temple area. We also tore down balks from excavations in the area in 1999 and 2000, and opened up the end of the colonnaded way. It gives the appearance of a stoa with shops or offices leading up to the temple. The colonnade architecture was ionic in order. The team set up one of the capitals and found it to be beautifully preserved on one side. In fact, we used the image of an ionic column as the design for this year’s t-shirt.

In Willis Jensen’s square, the team uncovered a clear view of the bedding for the road that ran along the colonnaded way. Below the road bed, the team isolated the remains of several terra cotta pipe lines that served as either drainage or water supply for the temple complex (see attached).

Some pipelines are visible in the valley north of the colonnaded way, and we are now moving Amy’s group to a square just off of the valley where we might pick up the continuation of the road bed and the pipelines. This square might also provide insight on the bridge construction that must have joined the colonnaded way with the road to the north.

Meanwhile, Nannette Goldman has started a square across the valley, and is starting to pick up some traces of architecture that might have lined the road. Further to the east, Willis Jensen’s group is starting work on what appears to be an industrial complex of some sort, featuring a fairly complex system of holding tanks or vats.

All of the volunteers have been working very hard, and this has allowed us to investigate these additional areas. Their pictures attached show the satisfaction of completing work in a square.

We are also anticipating interesting results from a pedestrian survey that Field Supervisor Greg Stoehr is planning to run with some of the volunteers during the afternoons this coming week. This process involves a careful examination of a 30 meter swath of the site running east from the altar in front of the temple. The volunteers make note of any features or architectural remains observed while they are walking, and these are recorded for later analysis. This survey will be useful in determining the extent of the site, and planning future areas of excavation.

Dan Schowalter

Day 16

2008-06-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I've missed a couple of days - combination of fatigue and keeping busy. I'll try not to bug out.

So let's talk about what we're digging: At the lowest level, sitting on the ground is a small "shrine". Perhaps a cave underneath that made the area sacred in some way. This shrine, as our art historian said, could have been built by John and I in a year. Small stones on a small scale. Nevertheless impressive with a small wall surrounding its courtyard and lots of plaster and fresco.

It was built around 40BCE. Why? To whom? Unknown. I suspect Antony and Cleopatra had something to do with it. He was helping her expand her influence into this area and together they were the top dogs.

Another reason to think they had something to do with them was that it was totally destroyed about 20 BCE by Herod to honor his patron Augustus. The platform of his temple (the podium) was elevated and the foundation walls completely covered the shrine, many of whose stones were robbed for the new building. I'll show you a picture soon.

He built a fancy temple with columns on the podium and it lasted almost 200 years. In the late 2nd century CE it was rebuilt and expanded. Hard to tell how long that one lasted until its stones were reused and the earth swallowed it up. Though a small christian church was discovered close by. The picture is looking at the podium level. The black fill was used to expand the first podium and make it larger.

We went to Beit Shean today, the ancient Greco-Roman city of Scythopolis. When someone walked into this city, they knew who was in charge.

Day 13

2008-05-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

It's starting to get a little warm these days. 87F at 3:30pm in the shade. Seems a lot warmer. No clouds and no rain since we've been here. Lots of lawn and plant irrigation at the kibbutz keeps everything green.

Well, our old square needed cleaning up for its final photograph so I did a lot of that today. Our water pipe (incoming/outgoing?) looks neat. It's about 4 feet down.

Day 12

2008-05-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Things are moving dig-wise. The ceramic drain- or waterpipes were more apparent but difficult to follow. We did find 2 pipes extending out of the side of the hill into the wadi near our square. Neat. But the square is now closed.

Our team is moving across the wadi, up the hill, to a site that has a plastered wall barely sticking out of the ground. The site has a great view of the temple site and of the valley. A new square means loads of work to get it started. Pictures to follow.

We went on a tour of Golan battle sites with an Israeli veteran this afternoon. Picturesque hills with great views of valleys make great sites for tank battles, but bright sun and haze don't make for great pictures so I'll leave you with this one:

Day 11

2008-05-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

Down we go - moved 5 tons of earth today (4 cubic meters) - found drain pipes. Looking for the road foundation. Will never find it.

John and I have had to move to a new room (don't ask) so we had a housewarming party. 'Twas a great success.

It's now 8:30pm local time and we're off to a lecture on ancient Roman religion.

Day 10 - Official Report

2008-05-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends of Omrit,

The first week of the 2008 excavation at Omrit has progressed very nicely. We opened two squares near the entrance to the colonnaded way leading to the temple complex. Square supervisors Amy Fisher and Willis Jensen are working with a great group of volunteers and Omrit super-veteran Greg Stoehr is supervising the field. Our hope is to clarify the nature of the entryway, and the road leading to the temple. In addition, we want to determine if there was only one colonnade, or two. Once we have finished in these squares, we hope to move across the valley to the north in order to search for the roadway and any associated structures.

While we are not digging in the area of the temple this season, we did do some preservation work in the area west of the early shrine before the volunteers arrived. In March of this year, a visitor to the site found a fragmentary Aramaic inscription in this area. The inscription is now being analyzed and appears to date from the 4th century B.C.E. This would make it by far the earliest artifact we have cataloged. It’s relationship to other activity on the site requires further analysis. We will keep you posted as information becomes available on this interesting piece.

Our week ended with a bang, when another visitor to the site reported finding a Greek inscription in the valley north of where we are digging. On Saturday morning (5/24), our whole crew helped to remove this large stone and move it up the hillside, and secure it in the truck for transport to the storage shed. This is definitely the heaviest stone we have moved by hand at Omrit, and as you can see in the attached picture, we used ancient lifting technology to do so. We are grateful to Gavri from Kibbutz Kfar Szold who loaned us the 4 meter beam to make this move possible.

Dan Schowalter

Day 10

2008-05-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

Not much happening today, our square gets deeper and deeper...

So here's: Moon over Omrit

Day 9

2008-05-26T02:37:00.000-07:00

Caesarea Maritima was super. A harbour built almost from scratch over the course of 12 years by Herod the Great to honour Augustus.

We looked first at the temple to Augustus but this is in far worse condition than óur'temple at Omrit, and in fact I wasn't able to sort out the stones of the original structure from those of the later Byzantine building.

After the temple, we walked out along the breakwater to look back at the town. This gave a magnificent view across the the harbour of white buildings, dark green grass and palm trees all set off by the yellow sand of the hippodrome. Classic Mediterranean!

Later, we walked along through the hippodrome trying to imagine what it must have been like in Roman times to sit up in the stands and watch the chariot races against a background of the sea and its cooling breezes. Almost adjoining the hippodrome is Herod's palace with its swimming pool set into the rocks of the shore. Fantastic place.

After Caesarea, looked at the aqueduct which brought fresh water from the mountains into the town and then drove on to Haifa. This is a city which has expanded very much since the 60s when I was last there. we drove in past offices of Microsoft, Intel and other American hight tech organizations.

At the University visited the Hecht Museum and look at a set of exhibits relating to the Jewish Rebelliuon and its suppression by the Romans. Impressive.

Day 9

2008-05-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

Well, Saturday continued yesterday after I blogged. We went off to Banias where a spring gushes forth from the Mount Hermon range with one of the three major tributaries of the Jordan. I'll not burden you with the Grotto of Pan but just show you a river picture. Sort of like north Georgia, only lusher.

Later last night we had BBQ cooked by one of kibbutzniks. Right in front of our room, in fact, and a good time was had by all.

Today we started with a trip to Caesarea Maritima, the seaport that Herod built on the Mediterranean as an entry port for his Roman friends. A beautiful place. Here's John with our buddy Paul and a crusader castle (and restaurant) in the background:

After this we went up to a museum at Haifa University. We were (very much) treated to a tour of an exhibit by its curator. The exhibit featured the Galilean aspects of the Jewish Revolt of 67-73CE. Tonight back to blog, eat and sleep.

Day 8

2008-05-24T02:46:00.000-07:00

A half day of work today: 5am to 8:30. (Whose idea was that?) Most of our work involved this amazing inscription. It was found down the hill from temple in a small valley, a mostly dry creek bed called a wadi. So this big slab of basalt had to be moved uphill and then into a pickup. Took over 2 hours of careful work.

Then into the storehouse back at the kibbutz. This is as close as you will allowed to see the slab for a while:

It has a number of lines of inscription and mentions the emperor Diocletian, who ruled from 284 CE to 311 CE, and also his co-emperor Maximian, among others. I think this little guy is destined to go straight to the Israel Museum. (After proper study, of course.)

This afternoon we're off for a little touring in Banias. Pictures later.

Day 7

2008-05-23T06:25:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Greta, our host here, took us on a tour of the kibbutz and gave us a little bit of its history. In 1934 a group of people, mainly from eastern Europe, formed a small community in southern Palestine. In 1942 Jewish authorities, such as they were, decided that a Jewish presence was needed along the Golan Heights and a string of kibbutzim was founded. That small community moved north to start this kibbutz. And, sure enough, in 1948 they helped make this part of Palestine part of the new Israeli state. How close to the Golan Heights is Kibbutz Kfar Szold? As close as you can get:

Up on top is a plateau, a butte if you will, that was once Syria. There are 2 residents of the Kibbutz' old folks home who date back to 1934.

Here's a picture of our square showing what we are finding: nothing! Our neighboring square has walls, columns and other fun stuff. We aren't very deep yet but the site supervisor suggests this is the 13th century level. But no remains of earlier times sticking through.

A good time to mention my schedule. The van to the site leaves at 5am, John and I get up at 4:15. We work until 8:30 when breakfast comes over from the Kibbutz. Then we continue until 11:30 when we clean up and return. Lunch is at 1pm in the cafeteria of the Kibbutz' air conditioner factory. After lunch our square team washes the pottery we found the day before and which has been soaking since. Then we're free for the day (unless there is some need to return to the site). A little reading outside in the shade, web surfing, maybe a snooze. Supper at 7:30, maybe a lecture after and bed soon after that.

Didn't get to walk the perimeter yesterday because I went back out to the site for some "compulsory" volunteer work. Today's the day.

NEWS ALERT: An inscription has been found! We've learned this afternoon that a visitor prowling around our site today (what is that all about?) found a massive basalt inscription. The honchos went kinda bat-s***. It has the greek word for Augustus in it. Yikes. More tomorrow.

Day 6

2008-05-22T02:11:00.000-07:00

Well, archaeology-wise, we've pretty much cleaned off our top layer of dark earth and have reached a ragged layer of limestone dust. We'll see soon what lies underneath. I'll take the camera out tomorrow.

Physically I'm holding up well, somewhere in the middle. The heat and effort is affecting some of the kids and some are gung-ho workers. John and I are in the solid middle. There is a 3-mile perimeter around our gated community and I feel I can walk this hilly route today. John runs it every day in less than a half hour but won't stop to take pictures.

The picture today is from Jerusalem last week. A few times we saw large groups of soldiers just hanging out. Why? Don't know, but probably held in reserve in case GWB was attacked or something. This group was just outside the walls of the old city. Note all the spectators. We saw one woman call out to her son for a tearful mother-and-child reunion.

P.S. If you're ever traveling internationally, Skype telephone calls are great! John and I have been calling landlines in North America regularly for the last 10 days and haven't spent $5.00 yet.

Day 5

2008-05-21T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the dig director, Dan Schowalter, showed us some of the fanciest artifacts found in previous digs. Since the temple slowly went out of business, these are not as many as one might expect. But there is some glass, marble and sculpture. And a nice sphinx that has been sent off to the Israel Museum. He thinks this is an official starting a race by dropping a cloth.

We continued to strip away the surface layer today. Lots of pottery shards but still the same rich, black, and dry upper layer. Lots of large rocks. Stay tuned. The weather has been warm but not oppressive except in the late afternoon. We cleaned the pottery that we found yesterday (and that had been soaking for a day). The asst director, an art historian who tries to decypher the architecture details of the site (and who is moving to a new job at Queens College (CUNY)), is going to give a lecture tonight.

Day 4

2008-05-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Real archaeology today: breaking up the ground with pick and hoe, shifting dirt and heaving boulders out of the way. By 9:30am I was looking at my watch hoping it was nearly time to knock off. By the end of the day the temperature was close on 90, I was nackered and spending less than 50% of the time working - the remainder resting.

No real finds yet - too early in the process.

Spent the afternoon reading until about 5pm when I went for a run around the perimeter of the kibbutz - it was still very hot and there's a savage hill in the middle of the run which I've yet to run without a pause.

This is proving a very taxing vacation physically!!

Day 4

2008-05-20T02:38:00.000-07:00

What have we done in 2 days of digging? Well, in our 4 meter by 4 meter square, we've cleaned off all the vegetation, all the surface rocks and dug down (with picks and hoes) about 15 or 20 centimeters. Doesn't seem like much but it's still a couple tons of dirt.

This level is not very important, too close to the surface to tell us anything. Lots of pottery shards though and lots of big rocks sticking out, some "dressed", that is, with artifical surfaces. Even a couple of column drums.

It's 12:45 and off to lunch, the big meal of the day. I get the fish!

Picture of the day: Wild Wheat with Thistles. Remember that wheat was first domesticated a couple hundred miles north of here.

Day 3

2008-05-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

John, below, has covered the day well. We hope to find evidence of the main entrance off the main road, as it were. Lots of column drums, bases and capitals scattered around and we hope to uncover many more.

He didn't mention the civilized aspects of this dig, the first of which is the mostly paved road we travel over to get there. There's a porta-potty! There are tables and chairs for our breaks and "second breakfast", and, wonder of wonders, there's a tarp over our "square" for shade.

Day 3

2008-05-19T04:47:00.000-07:00

This was the day we'd been looking forward to yet dreading the 5:00am start. In the event it wasn't too bad, Bill and I had packed our bags the evening before, so we just had time for a quick peanut butter sandwich and a cup of coffee before boarding the van out to the site. It was cool and only just light when we reached the site.

Imagine a wide lush valley - the Huleh valley. The hills on either side are bone dry, the grass burned yellow. On the easten side of the valley we can see Lebanon. Our side of the valley is Israeli and is essentially a part of the Golan heights. Our side is largely fenced off, as much as anything to keep us off the hills which are covered with landmines.

At our site, the work in previous years has excavated much of the two temples, and has also shown that at least in Roman times, the later temple (Temple 2) had been approached by a street lined with columns and perhaps covered over.

Part of this years work is to find the route of the street and how it crossed over a nearby shallow wadi. (valley). To this end Bill and I were assigned to different teams each of which was set to clearing all the surface grass and loose stones from a 5m square. This took most of the morning, then we set about measuring the elevations of all the larger stones embedded in the ground. Some of these left in each square were clearly part of the structures we expected to find, others perhaps just loose stones from a fill somewhere. Before beginning the excavation of the 5m squares we had to create a scale drawing of each square and photgraph each area. We'd prettty well finished this at the end of the days work. So perhaps tomorrow we'll actually begin excavations....

By the time we left the site the sun was up and the temperature into the late 80s, the bugs were active as well - small gnat like things that buzzed around your easr and sometimes bit you. Quite unpleasant!! Of course there's lots of kidding around about the snakes, scorpions and spiders said to be in the area. A prize has been offered to the person who kills the most scorpions of the whole period. So far I've yet to see my first!!

We're starting to get to know the students who are very friendly and seem an interesting bunch. Most of them seem to be in degree programs with a strong religious/history focus and I'm enjoying talking to them.

But as I write this, it's mid afternoon and the whole kibbutz is quiet - most people seem to be asleep....Bill is dozing in a chair under a tree. The temperature is well into the 90s. When it cools down a bit I plan to go for a run. It's only about 3.5 km around the perimeter fence, but there is a steep hill at one side of the kibbutz. At the top of this is a pill box facing the Golan. The perimeter fence is high and topped with barbed wire and in places razor wire as well. We have an armed guard at the gate which is manned 24/7,all this belieing the current tranquility of the place.

That's it from me, time for my run.

Day 2

2008-05-18T02:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, first a little history. When Octavian beat Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, he became the new ruler in the eastern Mediterranean and all the sub-rulers there had to act fast. Most convinced the now Augustus of their new loyalty and none better than Herod of Judea. He built a temple, an Augusteum, to his new best buddy in about 20BCE. Josephus wrote:

So when he had conducted Caesar to the sea, and was returned home, he built him a most beautiful temple, of the whitest stone, in Zenodorus's country, near the place called Panium. This is a very fine cave in a mountain, under which there is a great cavity in the earth, and the cavern is abrupt, and prodigiously deep, and full of a still water; over it hangs a vast mountain; and under the caverns arise the springs of the river Jordan. Herod adorned this place, which was already a very remarkable one, still further by the erection of this temple, which he dedicated to Caesar.

We are at Panium, the cave where the Greeks had a shrine to the god Pan, now called Banias. Or at least our site, where the Augusteum is being excavated, is 2 miles from the cave. And the kibbutz is a further 2 miles away. We went to visit this morning and are pretty much free now. The new arrivals have to recover from jet lag, though these kids seem pretty hardy...

The site was discovered 10 years ago after a fire cleared away the brush and "dressed" stones were seen peaking out of the ground on the top of a hill. In the last ten years much has been exposed. You'll get a complete story of what has been found over the next few weeks! As well as details of my co-workers.

Day 1 redux

2008-05-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

Met our noble leader at the airport and two students from Carthage. He waited for other arrivals and we traveled north with the students and another staff member in the dig's truck. All arrivals (there are about 15 of us) met for a hot dog supper tonight and we're off to an orientation at the dig tomorrow.

The Kibbutz is an island of greenery in a fairly barren landscape. John and I share a standard motel room with a kitchen. And wireless. Our room is the one on the end:

Day 1!

2008-05-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

We're at the Ben Gurion Airport now, it's about 2 pm, we're waiting for our fellow diggers to arrive from Chicago. We just spent $30 for a sandwich and drink which appals us both. Then off for a 3 hour drive to the northern tip of Israel and Kibbutz Kfar Szold.

This morning on the drive over we stopped at the Arab village of Abu Ghosh to visit the crusader "chapel". Soon after it was built, it was taken over as an muslim school. 600 years later or so, in the late 1800s, the Ottomans gave it over to a French religious order. There was a French mass in progress when we entered which even I found a little inspiring.

Day -1

2008-05-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

Bill mentioned our second frustrated attempt at visiting the Israel Museum, what he didn't mention was the way in which the whole road had been cleared so that George preceeded by half a dozen motor bikes, and in a convoy of 15 other vehicles could sweep through majestically while the rest of us were held back by police and army. There were no cheers from our group as he passed indeed when we were released by police I heard one woman remark "now we are a free people. As we hiked towards the museum we came across a group of about 50 or 60 soldiers armed to the teeth - just waiting for something to happen. Each day we've seen dozens of heavily armed police and soldiers; yesterday we actually saw a young couple in Tee shirts and jeans each carrying a sub-machine gun!!

Anyway the Islamic Art Museum was great - so sucks to you, George! We saw some beautiful Persian miniatures of religious subjects with intricate arab calligraphy, together with very beautiful pottery and glass with comples geomatric designs. I enjoyed this a lot.

After picking up our car we set off to meet my friends at a traditional Palestine restaurant. We ate outside starting with an array of salad dishes, including homus, toasted lumps of goat cheese, taboulet, a spicy chilli dish and many more. I followed this with a huge piece of leg of lamb served with rice. Delicious.

My friends who had been in the area for the last five years talked about their disgust at the way the Palestinians were treated. I expect we'll see something of this first hand if we go to Bethlehem with the group.

After luch, drove back home, lay round, drank and read. This is the life!!

Day -1

2008-05-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Our last full day here. In the morning we walked the 2 miles to the Israel Museum. Yesterday we had a wasted $50 cab ride because the museum was closed. After fruitless exploring all options our cab driver got us to the door but to no avail. I guess GWB was inside. So we pilgrimed our way down the Mount of Olives instead.

Today, on our way, we were stopped for a half-hour until a 50 car caravan passed, including 3 big black limos bearing small American flags. A bad omen. Sure enough the biggest museum in Israel was closed again. We doubted GWB was getting culture. Maybe Laura.

So we showed them: we hiked over to the Islamic Arts Museum.

Then off to the Hertz office in the suburbs since the street of the in-town office was closed due to security. We have wheels! We're off to the airport tomorrow to join our incoming crew with a stop at a crusader church in Abu Ghosh on the way.

A late lunch today with a friend of John's who is with the Canadian diplomatic mission to the West Bank. Already fascinating. He and his wife live in East Jerusalem and seem to have as little to do with the Israelis as possible. He works in Ramallah and she teaches in a Quaker school there. I'll try to impart a bit of conversation in later blogs but I made a big mistake: I told them about this blog so I can only hope they don't read it! (The beer we drank, brewed in the West Bank, has the motto: Drink our beer. Taste the revolution!) They promised us a great restaurant meal in Ramallah when we return if it can be arranged. Today we ate in an upscale palestinian restaurant just across the former Green Line. And today had a different perspective.
Didn't take my camera today so here's a picture of John in front of the restaurant where we ate yesterday. Our Canadian diplomat suprised us today by the confirming the great reputation of Abu Shukri's hummus:

Day -2

2008-05-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

A warm day today, but a cold front has it chilly tonight and cool tomorrow.

We spent the morning doing a rampart walk, moving along the top of the walls, halfway around the city. From there you see all the residential areas usually blocked from view. We passed 3 full basketball courts and a soccer field. When we passed a playground I thought of Helen so here's a video taken from the walls of Jerusalem:

Day -3

2008-05-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Overcast, hot and humid - a real effort to keep going by late afternoon. Both Bill and I were on the point of dozing off at times during the afternoon.

Nevertheless, a very enjoyable day. Superb lunch at the Armenian Cafe in Armenian Orthodox Patriarch Road (if you're ever there). We ate Armenian Pizza - a piece of flat bread with a thin coating of meat on which you placed a couple of slices of tomato and cucumber. Very nice, it was. I followed this with a Jerusalem mixed grill - small pices of chicken coated in spices and mixed in with lots of grilled vegetables again delicious. All this was washed down with Macabee beer at a cost of $25.

In the afternoon we spent most of the time in the Israel Museum looking at exhibits showing the history of the whole area from the year dot through to today. After all my reading over the past few months, I feel I've finally got the start of a framework in the subject, so this visit helped to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge.

No sign of Bush although we had helicopters droning over the city all day and we saw lots of army youths strolling round with machine guns at the ready- this on the streets and in the markets. We couldn't decide whether this made us feel safer or less safe!

Day -3

2008-05-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

Hope you noticed that we'll now get an occasional entry from my roomie John. (See photo below)

It's getting warmer here but we still hiked around like madmen. Started off with a tour of arab East Jerusalem. We passed the US Consolate (no one is getting in there unannounced) and St. George's Anglican cathedral. No tea and crumpets. Found a great bookstore that has practically every English language book written by or about arabs. On to the Rockefeller Museum where all the loot (er, finds) of archaeologists in the 20s, 30s and 40s is on display.

Lunch in the Armenian Tavern with some great lamb:

On to Herod's palace in the afternoon and then back to relax a little and eat some of those fresh dates we bought today.

Day -4

2008-05-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

Back in Jerusalem after over 40 years, the smells of the market instantly brought back memories of that earlier visit. Lots more tourists this time, but organized into parties with guides. We spent the day meeting up or avoiding the same few groups - mostly Americans!!

In the heat of the day we looked at many of the major tourist sites. For me the highlights were the Dome of the Rock - absolutely fantastic tiles, mainly deep blue and contrasting brilliantly with the gold of the dome; the archaeological museum which showed some excellent videos of what the area must have looked like in Roman times and I really enjoyed just wandering through the old city and along the Via Dolorosa.

I noticed stray (feral?) cats everywhere in the market - not fat, not scrawny, but rather unkempt and definitely afraid of people - makes you wonder what happens to them!!

Drank lots of coffee in the markets. It comes as Turkish coffee, made with cardamom and a thick sludge at the bottom. Very nice much better than Timmy's.

Church of the Holy Sepulcher was packed with tourist parties, so many that it was difficult to move around. I felt sorry for the many people I'd spoken to for whom this was expected to be one of the highlights of their visit to the Holy Land - there was no atmosphere. I don't think anyone could have a religious experience under circumstances like that! We made a quick circuit of the place then out fast!

Signing off now to hit town for the evening. Don't know what tomorrow will be like to Bush in town!!

Day -4

2008-05-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

Today was a day spent being a tourist. We walked and walked about the old (walled) city of Jerusalem. I'll post a picture or two and description over the following weeks. A highlight though was a retired jewish woman (American) we met at lunch. She lives in NYC and Florida so nothing unusual yet. "Are you being a tourist?", we ask. "No, I'm here as a volunteer," she says.

Turns out she's here as a volunteer for the Israeli military! For 3 weeks she lived on an army base and helped with communications. She said they do need the extra help, and, yes, the military is on a higher alert over Lebanon.

The first picture is the Cotton Merchants Street. 40,000 people live in the walled city, mostly Arab, so a great many shops are aimed at them, like these clothing shops on this side street. The 2nd picture is of a coffee shop on that street where 2 arab (boiled, not espresso) coffees are being prepared for us. Notice all the carrots and carrot juicer. I should have ordered that!

I forgot to mention that yesterday we walked by the Sbarro Pizza that a suicide bomber blew up 7 years ago. I was in Israel then (up north).

Day -5

2008-05-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

After a long, uninteresting flight I met up with John at the airport and we went through rush hour traffic to get to Jerusalem. Didn't get in until about 7pm.

We knew we had a basement apartment but wow! It's really an old cistern, a very deep cistern. 36 steps from ground level down with 2 balcony levels along the way. The only window is a ground-level skylight that allows anyone see all that we do. Though we are a long way down.

After we settled and the landlord showed John where he could buy some beer, we went off exploring. We landed on swinging Ben Yahuda Street, a pedestrian mall really, and had some falafal and espresso. The street was packed on a Monday night. Off tomorrow for some real exploring. Oh yes, Hertz says their city rental office will be closed all week due to the visit of W, who's staying nearby. I'll have to take a taxi out to the suburbs to pick up our rental. And I made my first Skype call back to the states. Easy as pie and only cost pennies.

Day -6

2008-05-11T04:15:00.000-07:00

700 of some of the best minds in the world are going to be in Jerusalem this coming week. Make that 701...

Day -7

2008-05-10T13:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a "promo video" to give us all a flavor of what's to come:

Prequel

2008-04-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

This blog will start in earnest in May. I'll post unofficial news and photos of this year's work at Omrit, Israel with an emphasis on my personal POV. The first week of posts will be a week in Jerusalem as a tourist before the real work begins.