End of the Second Week

June 27, 2013  Thursday

I was still sick on Thursday and stayed at the hotel.  The two days off helped me overcome whatever it was, but I sure got sick of watching German police dramas on TV!  Pete says a bunch of people were sick with the same thing and missed time at the dig.  Our theory is that someone in the hotel staff sneezed on our food.  

Pete snapped a photo of the sun rising over the Mount of Olives.  This is near our dig site.

Pete and a couple of others have been responsible for the white bags.  These bags contain the sifted dirt/fill from the entire site.  A truck with a crane comes to haul them away, and the price per bag is the same whether the bags are full or not.  So in true Pete-fashion, these bags are about as full as they can be.  This involves making sure each layer is tamped down, often by Pete or one of the others climbing onto the bag and stomping the dirt.  The sides of the bags have to be carefully pulled up as the bag is filled, allowing for maximum capacity, and the contents have to be kept level so a second layer of bags can be added.  Way to go Pete!

This is "Area 1."  The debris accumulated since the 1970s excavation has been removed and now they are bringing out material to be sifted.  The deep hole isn't really visible in this photo.  John is putting a bucket on the zip line so the contents can be sifted and dumped.

This is "Area 2."  It's a complicated mixture of houses on top of buildings on top of houses on top of ...  The flat area immediately behind the sandbags is the roof to a mikveh, or ritual immersion pool, which lies directly below.  The roof is so fragile we are forbidden to walk on it, for fear of falling through.  The mikveh appears to be part of a private home (thus a wealthy person's home) from Herodian times (34 BC - 70 AD).  The home was probably destroyed by the Romans, then built on top by the Byzantines, and then the Omayyids.

This shot is slightly to the left of the previous photo.  All these blue buckets are brought to the surface to be sifted by me and others.  The ladder leads down to the cistern.  One of the reasons for excavating the cistern is to discover whether the Jewish residents of this house hid their goods or even themselves down there to escape the Roman destruction of 70 AD.

Pete was helping move buckets of mud in Area 2 today when a large boulder (about 24" in diameter) fell out of the wall and down into the pit where he was standing.  We so grateful that Lynette saw the boulder start to fall and shouted to Pete to get out of the way.  The boulder just grazed his left leg.  He has bruises and abrasions but didn't get his leg smashed!

We've been taking the sifted material to the Armenian Museum for washing.  The Armenians own/control the area inside the Zion Gate and have been very generous to our project.  The material is taken to Room 32 ...

... where Abra, a local resident who is a dig team member for these first two weeks, supervises the pottery washing.  Everything has to be carefully tagged so that we know exactly where it came from.  I will replace Abra for the final two weeks, but the washing will be done at the dig site since the museum will be closed.

Thursday evening, we had a farewell party on the hotel's 4th-floor terrace.  The students from UNC Charlotte and some others are leaving this weekend.  I managed to make it to the party but didn't stay long. 

This young couple seem to have started a romance during the dig.  

Arne (standing holding the bottle) is a Norwegian who has written a book arguing that Lazarus is the Beloved Disciple and real author of the Gospel of John.  His arguments are pretty compelling.  Pete and Arne are distant cousins, both descended from Harold the Fair-haired.  Arne is the 34th generation, but Pete unfortunately didn't know how many generations away he is.  So I guess they are 33rd cousins, but we have to check how far "removed" they are.

One more photo of the many we took -- I really like this one.  James is very fond of his students.

And, speaking of James, here's his recap of the first two weeks of the dig.

http://jamestabor.com/2013/06/28/two-weeks-digging-at-mt-zion/