A day at the site

Well, I've been chastised for not posting recently, so I figured, why not give you guys an idea of how a typical day at the tell works? So here is our generally schedule. It applies less this week (this is the final week) because we are mostly cleaning up and finishing paperwork, packing stuff up, etc. but it'll give you guys a little taste of what digging is like (insert subliminal message here: COME TO SAFI)

4:45 am -- Okay this tends to creep closer and closer to 5:00, 5:05, 5:10.... but hypothetically this is when we get up in the morning. We throw on cloths, grab gear, and chug down coffee and biscuits as fast as possible in an effort to wake up. It sounds really early, but I really like getting up at this time. Its nice and cool and its not bad once you get into a routine.

5:25 am -- This is when the bus leaves for the tell. There is a nice 15 minute drive to sort of wake up a bit.

5:45(ish) -- Digging begins! This is the best part of the morning -- it's cool and you can see an absolutely gorgeous sunrise over the tell.

9:00 am -- Breakfast! mmmmmmmmmm hardboiled eggs and peanut butter and honey never tasted sooooooo goood. Manna from heaven really.



This is Eric and Jacob at breakfast. Here pudding is considered an acceptable breakfast food. While I still can't bring myself to eat it, Eric and Jacob say it's very good with cornflakes.

9:30 am -- Back to work!

11:15 am -- Fruit break! mmmmm Israeli fruit.... Only 11:15 and my schedule is very food based, haha



This is watermelon was soooo delicious. I only like the ones here for some reason (more flavorful? less mealy? both? i'm usually so hungry i'd eat dirt... and accidentally do a lot haha). Carrying them up the hill is.... challenging but it becomes less challenging as the season goes on. Eric has joked about making a dig-based work out video which includes the watermelon hike (other exercises include Jerry can curls and turiya presses.... patent pending haha).

11:30 am -- Back to work! Just another hourish to get stuff done!

1:00 pm -- The bus heads back from the site to the Kibbutz where we are staying. It is called Kibbutz Revadim.

1:30 (ish) -- Lunch

2:30 pm -- Pottery washing and reading. During this we wash the pottery from the previous day which has soaked over night and look through baskets that have already dried. Pottery is used to date the various areas we're looking in. This can take just a few minutes or a couple hours depending how much stuff there is to do. It is so interesting to watch as the staff take tiny 3 cm sherds and can figure out exactly what the original piece looked like and where it was fun. I would love love love to be able to do that! Hmmmmm maybe a few more trips to the Rockefellar.... and about a billion years of studying haha.

(Some days) 4:00 pm -- Field trip. We get to visit nearby archaeological and Biblical sites.

7:00 pm -- Dinner

8:00 pm -- Lecture

9:00 pm -- Bed!


So that's a typical day! It's gone so quickly; I wish we still had another couple weeks.

I hope all is well with you all.

Love!

A tale of two weekends (in photos... and in the same city...)

Hi all! Sorry to have been so negligent a correspondent. Excavations are fully under way and we've all been totally caught up in all the excitement. Things are good here, lovely and hot but not humid like Philly, and I have a short tan that makes it look like I am wearing white shorts with my bathing suit.

Last weekend I went to Jerusalem again with my friends Eric and Josh (from Penn State and Gordon-Conwell respectively, and Jacob, Courtney, Audrey and Daniel, who are all from BYU. We had a really low-key weekend. The BYU kids went on a road trip to the Galilee but Eric, Josh and I spent out time wandering, napping, and eating shawarma (best food ever!).

We went to the Rockefeller Museum on Saturday and Eric gave me an extensive pottery lesson. We were there so long that some of the other dig people who went with us left and Josh fell sleep in the (absolutely beautiful) courtyard. The building is a beautiful Mandate-era building in East Jerusalem, a short walk from the Damascus Gate.

Below are some photos from the last two weekends. Much like Petra, I don't think looking at these (very amature) photos can even remotely give you a real sense of how beautiful the city is, or what it sounds like and smells like, or what it feels like to sit and eat cinnamon rolls on the steps of the Holy Sepulchre on a Sunday morning (Eric's favorite ritual).





This is Audrey, Alissa and me at the Cotel on Friday night our first weekend in Jerusalem. We hung around and people watched for over two hours and had our own mini Shabbat.



This is my dear dear friend/Square buddy Jacob. He is wonderful.



This is Jacob, Eric and me. Eric is also wonderful.



After the Western Wall we walked back to our hostel along the Old City walls.



This is Daniel and Jacob



Saturday night both weekends we went to Ben Yehuda Street in the New City.



Sunday morning our first weekend we visited the Temple Mount.





This is some beautiful graffiti right outside the enterance to the Temple Mount.




On Sunday morning we bought pastries and sat on the steps outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.




This is my favorite part of the church. Right at the enterance visitors have carved small crosses and messages in the columns over the years. Normally this would make me really angry (grrrr! defacing antiquities! blerg!), but there is something interesting and beautiful at seeing all the different types of crosses at the enterance of a common Holy site. It is a nice reflection of the Church itself, as each of its knaves is divided among various Christian sects.

I hope everyone is well at home. Love!

One week in!

It's Saturday night here and my friends and i just got back from Ben Yehuda street, a sort of night life area in Jerusalem. We've come in for a low-key weekend of people watching and shawarma.

We got to Jerusalem yesterday evening after a frantic rush to get out of the Kibbutz and to the bus stop in the afternoon. The eight of us had dinner then went to the Cotel for Shabbat, which is one of the most moving experiences I have ever had. I've done this a couple times but it is never any less powerful. We people-watched and had our own little shabbat meal for a couple hours, then wandered back to our hostel to crash. This morning we bought breakfast and did more people-watching -- but this time outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Jerusalem is one of the few places where you can literally sit still and watch the entire world go by. We spent the afternoon wandering the markets and climbed partway up Mount Olive to the Church of All Nations.

Week one of our four-week excavation season is already over, thought I don't know how its possible. It is going so unbelievably fast. The first week is largely spent cleaning up the areas we dig in and beginning excavations. The next two weeks will be particularly exciting. Even this early on though there are already exciting developments. Check out the Tell es-Safi blog for updates! I'm part of Area F. Specifically, I'm excavating the Iron II kitchen in Upper F mentioned in the blog.

I miss you all (especially you Lauren -- Safi is weird without you!). Email me if you have time!

Photos of Petra

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then between me and Zach have 300,000 volume from our trip to Petra (and insert eye rolls here haha). I can't explain to you how beautiful, how breathtaking the scenery is. The pictures don't really give you a sense of how expansive the views are, how red the rock, etc.

LITTLE PETRA



This is Zach. He is an absolutely awesome travel buddy.



These tomb and buildings are the sort of typical style of the area. Petra is originally a Nabatean site that was later controlled by the Romans. A good history can be found at the Brown Excavation website.





We climbed up there!



And this guy helped us get up. He is a local Bedouin. He invited us to his cousin's wedding, which we didn't go to.... I regret not going, but at least I probably saw the fireworks haha.





PETRA





This is Zach sticking his head over an ancient waterway in the Siq, the valley leading to the main part of the city.



This is the Treasury Building. Not actually a treasury in antiquity. This is a theme at Petra haha.









This is Zach standing on the alter at the "High Place of Sacrifice." The climb up there is pretty intense (at least for someone as out of shape as me) but it was so worth it. At the top of the peak there is a courtyard and alter originally used for sacrifices (thus the dramatic name) and gorgeous, sweeping views of Petra and the surrounding country.

















This is the "Monastery," not actually a monastery.

Hope this whets your appetites!

Petra

Right now all of Petra is filled with lots of noise -- screaming, honking, fireworks, firecrackers (I hope)-- because there are at least four weddings going on tonight. According to the woman who works at the reception of our hostel, the Petra Gate Hotel, this is a normal, nightly occurrece. This, coupled with the regular call to prayer from the Mosques around the hotel (there are several) are a nice reminder that real people actually live here, despite the fact the town is almost entirely sustained by the tourism industry.

Zach and I got here yesteday afternoon. After a five-hour bus ride from Tel Aviv to Eilat (perhaps it would have been four if we hadn't stopped at every passing rest stop? haha) we crossed the border into Jordan on foot and took a taxi to Aqaba, and another to Petra (haha and, as expected, paid way more than we should have...). Our cab driver took us to this hotel, a cheap but nice place about ten minutes up the hill from the gates of Petra. The owner and staff are very knowledgable and helpful.

Yesterday we explored little Petra, a small Nabatean site carved into rocks just like the more famous, "Big" Petra. It was really exciting, but nothing compared to today, when we climbed all over Petra. I can't do either place justice in words, so I will post pictures as soon as I get back to Safi on Sunday.

Love!
h

I'm here!

I am currently sitting in my friend Julia's lovely apartment in Jaffa, just about to go to sleep. Zach, a Brandeis student and my Petra buddy met me at the airport after a long flight (2.5 hrs to Atlanta from Philly, 5 hr layover, 12 hr flight to Tel Aviv. We took a train, got lost looking for the central bus station (Zach: "well this area looks run down... the central bus station is run down... its gotta be nearby), got lost in the central bus station (it's not hard to do.... it doubles as a mall) and then got lost looking for Julia. She found us though and took us home where we had a wonderful dinner, and -- sigh -- cold showers (even at 9 pm it is sooooo sticky here). We are staying tonight and then off to Jordan tomorrow morning via Eilat.

Petra here we come!