A very dirty day (Israel, Day 9)
Jan. 2nd, 2009 07:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuToday we went to Bet Guvrin National Park, where Archaeological Seminars is excavating the Mareshah ruins. It was an amazing experience. If you ever have a chance to participate in a real live archaeological dig, do it.
Our team assembled at a gas station near the entrance to the park, and then we went into the park and the closed area containing the dig. Our leader, Missy, gave us a historical overview of the site, which is first mentioned in Joshua 15 when the land is divided among the tribes. This site was primarily non-Jewish, and when John Horkenus, nephew of Judah Maccabee, became king, he offered the locals the choice of conversion to Judaism, expulsion, or the sword. Most chose to grab what they could, destroy the rest, and flee, which makes it a very rich archaeological site.
We started off in cave 169. It was down about one flight by ladder and a second flight by the excavated original steps. This was initially a quarry (the whole area is basically limestone) but then they used the hollowed out rooms. This cave contained a cistern, an area that the archaeologists have dubbed "cultic" because there's a niche, by the entrance, that probably held an idol, and a third chamber codenamed "Buffy" (after the vampire slayer).
So basically for the next hour, we were archaeologists. We were trained on how to use our tools, and we would dig with picks, trowels, brushes, and our fingers. When we found something interesting --- pieces of bone, pottery, hewn bricks, or metal --- we'd put it in a "find" bucket; limestone clumps, rocks, and dirt went into "fill" buckets. We were taught how to rub clumps with our thumb to see if there was anything interesting inside.
I unearthed a brick. Heather and Alissa found some pottery sherds, bones, and seashells. Tani was put to work unearthing a wall to see how far it went. We all had an amazing time.
Then we hauled our buckets up top and started sifting through the "fill" buckets to see what we'd missed. Anything new was added to our "find" buckets.
Our family found a piece of metal, a few millimeters in diameter and about 1.5 cm long, which was a sufficiently significant item that it did not go into the "find" bucket. Instead, it was put in a Ziplock, labelled with our name, the location, and the date, and taken off to the main tent.
The head archaeologist came by to share something that was found a few days ago and just cleaned off this morning. It was a hewn piece of rock, on the side of which they found writing and an etched grid, probably for playing a board game.
We finished off by bringing our "find" buckets to the appropriate pile, based on which room we had been working in.
The next part of our adventure was to see what the caves look like before they're excavated. Cave 84 is a columbarium, a pigeoncote. They have 85 columbaria on site, so this one probably won't get excavated. There were enough pigeonholes for 50,000 birds; it is believed that the people who lived here raised pigeons and olives as their local industry, selling them to Jerusalem and Egypt. Since some of the pottery that we've found is local (i.e., composed of the same limestone as local soil) but much of it is imported (i.e., umber colored), we know that the community was successful at selling their wares.
We left our things up top, and descended into Cave 84.
We could easily see the pigeonholes:
Many of the connections from one room to the next were tight squeezes, often on our backs, feet first:
and at one point through a hole in the floor (that had obviously been constructed 2,200 years ago for this exact purpose):
Finally, covered in limestone chalk dust, we ascended out the ancient stair at the other end of the complex.
We'd been through over 20 chambers, but emerged not far from where we'd started.
The last stop was cave 61, which has been fully excavated by now and is open to the public as an exhibit. This was an olive press, which has been partially restored:
We got cleaned up; they gave us pottery sherds to take as souvenirs, and we drove home. On the way home, we passed by an interesting satellite dish complex:
and some donkeys by the side of the road a kilometer away.
The contrast between modern and ancient was stark.
Once again, I must give my kids credit for sticking with a demanding schedule and being really engaged in what we were doing. Alissa and Tani both took to their assigned jobs with gusto; each found an artifact for the "find" bucket; and they really understood what we were doing and got into it.
Now we're back in Efrat, showered off and getting ready for Shabbat. I understand now the law that says one must wash hands, feet, and face before Shabbat; it felt like every pore in my body was plugged with dust.
A side note: there was a much more visible army presence on the road we took today. I don't know if that's a function of the road being a different one than we've used before, or if it has to do with the continuing military action in the south. Aside from everyone continuing to be obsessed with the latest news reports, the developing war hasn't really changed the feel of the part of the country where we are.
Our team assembled at a gas station near the entrance to the park, and then we went into the park and the closed area containing the dig. Our leader, Missy, gave us a historical overview of the site, which is first mentioned in Joshua 15 when the land is divided among the tribes. This site was primarily non-Jewish, and when John Horkenus, nephew of Judah Maccabee, became king, he offered the locals the choice of conversion to Judaism, expulsion, or the sword. Most chose to grab what they could, destroy the rest, and flee, which makes it a very rich archaeological site.
We started off in cave 169. It was down about one flight by ladder and a second flight by the excavated original steps. This was initially a quarry (the whole area is basically limestone) but then they used the hollowed out rooms. This cave contained a cistern, an area that the archaeologists have dubbed "cultic" because there's a niche, by the entrance, that probably held an idol, and a third chamber codenamed "Buffy" (after the vampire slayer).
So basically for the next hour, we were archaeologists. We were trained on how to use our tools, and we would dig with picks, trowels, brushes, and our fingers. When we found something interesting --- pieces of bone, pottery, hewn bricks, or metal --- we'd put it in a "find" bucket; limestone clumps, rocks, and dirt went into "fill" buckets. We were taught how to rub clumps with our thumb to see if there was anything interesting inside.
I unearthed a brick. Heather and Alissa found some pottery sherds, bones, and seashells. Tani was put to work unearthing a wall to see how far it went. We all had an amazing time.
Then we hauled our buckets up top and started sifting through the "fill" buckets to see what we'd missed. Anything new was added to our "find" buckets.
Our family found a piece of metal, a few millimeters in diameter and about 1.5 cm long, which was a sufficiently significant item that it did not go into the "find" bucket. Instead, it was put in a Ziplock, labelled with our name, the location, and the date, and taken off to the main tent.
The head archaeologist came by to share something that was found a few days ago and just cleaned off this morning. It was a hewn piece of rock, on the side of which they found writing and an etched grid, probably for playing a board game.
We finished off by bringing our "find" buckets to the appropriate pile, based on which room we had been working in.
The next part of our adventure was to see what the caves look like before they're excavated. Cave 84 is a columbarium, a pigeoncote. They have 85 columbaria on site, so this one probably won't get excavated. There were enough pigeonholes for 50,000 birds; it is believed that the people who lived here raised pigeons and olives as their local industry, selling them to Jerusalem and Egypt. Since some of the pottery that we've found is local (i.e., composed of the same limestone as local soil) but much of it is imported (i.e., umber colored), we know that the community was successful at selling their wares.
We left our things up top, and descended into Cave 84.
We could easily see the pigeonholes:
Many of the connections from one room to the next were tight squeezes, often on our backs, feet first:
and at one point through a hole in the floor (that had obviously been constructed 2,200 years ago for this exact purpose):
Finally, covered in limestone chalk dust, we ascended out the ancient stair at the other end of the complex.
We'd been through over 20 chambers, but emerged not far from where we'd started.
The last stop was cave 61, which has been fully excavated by now and is open to the public as an exhibit. This was an olive press, which has been partially restored:
We got cleaned up; they gave us pottery sherds to take as souvenirs, and we drove home. On the way home, we passed by an interesting satellite dish complex:
and some donkeys by the side of the road a kilometer away.
The contrast between modern and ancient was stark.
Once again, I must give my kids credit for sticking with a demanding schedule and being really engaged in what we were doing. Alissa and Tani both took to their assigned jobs with gusto; each found an artifact for the "find" bucket; and they really understood what we were doing and got into it.
Now we're back in Efrat, showered off and getting ready for Shabbat. I understand now the law that says one must wash hands, feet, and face before Shabbat; it felt like every pore in my body was plugged with dust.
A side note: there was a much more visible army presence on the road we took today. I don't know if that's a function of the road being a different one than we've used before, or if it has to do with the continuing military action in the south. Aside from everyone continuing to be obsessed with the latest news reports, the developing war hasn't really changed the feel of the part of the country where we are.