Friday, June 4

A little change of pace, I want to talk about our meal tonight. Our directors are good friends with an Israeli couple who live on a nearby kibbutz. They invite the staff over for a meal each year, a banquet really, and square supervisors are fortunate enough to be included.

I had a conversation with their son, a third generation kibbutznik, who is a film studies student (and whom I also met in January when I was here). He's written a script of a film he plans to make this fall about kibbutzs (kibbutzim actually). In recent years there have been a many changes in kibbutzim, as they move away from the socialist/communist model to what he describes as being just small towns or suburbs, really. His story focuses on a middle aged man who has grown up on and still lives on a kibbutz. But, now, with the communal features disappearing and no family around he lives a lonely, isolated life, as the film will detail. The film maker's insider view of current kibbutz situations was most interesting. Not a new theme, perhaps, but I look forward to seeing it on YouTube.

Thursday, June 3

Our square is about finished except for the shouting. We've already been assigned the square next to it to see what's there. Sigh. It has a large 3/4 meter mound on half of it that also has to be cleared out carefully. We'll probably be on this one until the end. I'll get a picture tomorrow. Here's (another) John standing in our cleaned square. That area where he is standing is relatively clear of stone so we're digging down to the wall's foundation. If he stood as far as we've gone down, only his head would show. Behind is the wall of the podium on which the temple stood and around him is where it fell.

Wednesday, June 2

Sorry for the delay, a very busy day. After a full morning of work, I "volunteered" to go back in the afternoon for sandbagging duty. Parts of the earliest temple has beautiful fresco work on it's outside walls. Each year some preservative is applied by an expert and the fresco is reburied with sand and sandbags. Then each year it's uncovered the the work repeats. Some of us go out every afternoon to help uncover it for this year's cycle.

Our square is about finished. We've uncovered many column drums and 2 column capitals: the fancy stone at the top that holds the roof structure. Here's part of one we just finished cleaning off.And the other one:Then for dinner, John and I and new friend went out for dinner to a fancy place. First time we've gone out for dinner and a great time was had but we arrived back in time for sleep.

And here's Grace (on the left) with her friend Lydia. Her parents follow the blog.

Tuesday, June 1

I hear the Israelis shot up some peaceniks off (way off) Gaza yesterday. Or rather, they shot up "rioters" as an Israeli news service stated. Everything is calm and peaceful here. Somehow I'm not reassured.

It's about 100 degrees F this afternoon, though it feels hotter. I'm room-bound. Pleasant this morning in the field though.

We have encountered lots of "big stuff" in our square, as you've seen in the pictures, though, perhaps, not exactly all the right stuff. We are going to move to the area adjacent to ours and level it too. After we gussy up what we've done for photos.

I didn't take any photos today so here's one from yesterday and also one from my "birthday" party on Saturday.

Monday, 31 May 2010

Dig we must! We're making good progress, too good perhaps since we approach bedrock and will soon get another square. What's up with that? Hope none of my square is reading this. And roomie John may also get a square of his own.

Here are some of the crew digging away:Don't forget you can zoom in on any of these pictures by clicking on them.

We've uncovered a lot of mundane column drums and moved a lot of dirt and rocks. Is this all there is to life? Guess so...

Sunday, 30 May 2010

I didn't want to spoil the surprise so let me tell you that yesterday I celebrated my 66 years and 8 months birthday. That makes me 2/3 of a century old! I bought enough cake for our group at Saturday night dinner.

Sunday is an off-day, but excursions are planned. Today we went to the Decapolis city of Hippos. There were (only approximately) 10 of these Greco-Roman cities mostly on the east side of the Jordan. (And, hey, I've only been to 5 of them.)

Hippos is on a high plateau on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. It has a great view looking west over the water.

An original paved Roman road

Oh yes, here's a picture on Lindsay on the bus. Her parents read the blog faithfully.

Saturday, 29 May 2010

A half day's work today, 3 1/2 hours (from 5am to 8:30am!). We are going deeper but didn't push ourselves too much today. Here you see active work amongst our 3 column drums that are showing.In the afternoon we visited Tel Kedesh (which I visited in a January post) and an ancient synagogue in a national park at Bar'am, which dates to about the 3rd century C.E. (below)Personalizing the tools, Sarah and Allison