Sunday, June 13

Whoops I skipped a day, let it be. Yesterday we went out to the site for half a morning. Our big mound of dirt and rocks is almost gone and the square leveled. It's all a 13th century habitation, a time when the whole site was occupied. What people were doing here is not totally clear but perhaps quarrying what was left of the temple for stone. There's evidence of a settlement then all over the site. We read our pottery in the afternoon which gave this dating information. If we get below this layer we should find the type of stones we found in our first square.

I have a ton of paperwork to do, recording data in multiple places and then using that data to write weekly reports. Ugh. So Saturday was kept busy. Watched a little of the USA-England football match.

Today was more paperwork, John went off to tour Israel but I stayed behind. More restful. Tonight we get a talk by a former commander of the Israeli Navy (among other things). It'll be interesting to hear what he says about the flotilla.

Here's a few pictures from inside the temple foundation, where an earlier shrine had been covered over and buried by the podium. All the material from inside the podium is not yet removed, but it's getting there.