Friday June 18 Boy was it hot again.

Found my pavement went entirely the other length of my locus 2212, I was the only one in it for today. Did not find much, however the others were luckier, one found a bronze ring (I did not get a picture of that), we found a storage jar (broken but probably mostly complete), a couple of coins, they found the wall in another locus that we thought should have been there, and an oven. It was a bit sad to be saying goodby to so many new friends. I will be emailing many of them to keep up. Have worked out my travel to Tel Aviv so I should be on my flight. Well it appears there will be no pictures today. They are not uploading.

Thursdat June 17 Boy is it HOT

I failed to mention it yesterday but it hit about 95 to 100 degrees. Today it is between 100 and 105 so we were told to drink plenty of water and pace ourselves. We found the other pavement or walk way on the rest of our locus. Also found a second stirrup or door knocker. We do believe that they are for opening a door or something else. The locus next door found three beads which may have been on the same string as a necklace. Also found a couple of coins. See pictures, and I am also putting in the knife and horse head which they now think is a bull head. I did have some trouble with uploading the pictures yesterday. So just one more day of digging. See you all soon.

Wednesday June 16 We continue to find

The big find today was a dagger in our locus just next to where I found the sword. Look for picture. I did not find it because we had not removed a rock that covered it. Found some more oil lamps, a couple of coins, I do not know what they are yet for they have not been cleaned. The entire group has fun thinking up stories that connect all our finds even though they are from different times and levels. Started working on how I get to the airport Sunday, hoping to car pool or something. I can get the Kubuttz shuttle to Tiberious and then the express bus to the airport. But I will work it out. I volunteered for breakfast duty today since I had not done this. Just as much work as digging.

Tuesday June 15 Our Finds Continue

Well excitement continues, this morning we found a scicle or sythe (see picture). However our pavement or walkway does not continue where we expected it to, so it may be a corner where we are. In section C, ours is A West, South and East, they found a small horse head figure. It had a spout through it mouth so it probably held some kind of valuable liquid or perfume. Many other finds in the site. More oil lamps, an almost complete little jug, other many shards of pottery. Last night we had a lecture on a New Testament Source called Q which Matthew and Luke possibly used. Nothing new to me I had read about it in the Seminary. Tonight the lecture is one I have heard so I probably will skip it. The week is going fast and I will be home before I know it. See you all soon.

Sunday June 13, and Monday June 14 "Eureka"

To finish up a little Saturday, I took time to go through the entire Museum on the Kibuttz. It was very interesting, mainly on the establishment of Israel and the Kibuttz. Sunday I choose to go touring with Carlos my friend from Costa Rica, who presently lives in the Phillipines. I had thought about going to Jerusalem but the travel time would have been too much. Well I got to see three sites I had never seen before. We left about 8:30 am and went to Chorizim of the Bible. It was a great site. One which is not on most tourist agendas. It had a fine synogogue and other buildings (ruins). The Bible does not mention Jesus preaching in the synogogue but of his miracles there. Then we went to Tel Hazor, mentioned in the Old Testament, Joshua destoryed the Hitites there, King Ahab had a Palace and High Place there. Then we went to Tel Dan, which is the northern most place in Israel in the Old Testament. We ended up in Banis or Caecarea Philipi, where I had been before and on the first weekend. We had a great time.

Now for Monday and "Eureka", I found a Roman? sword, it was in a deteriorated condition, but most of it appears to be present. Look for picture (second picture is of the handle in situ). The handle was riveted to the blade with bronze pins. The big find of the week so far (my 15 minutes of fame). A jug was found in our locus also, it was just missing the small neck and handle. Look for picture. Our locus has been subdivided with one locus on each side of the wall. I also found a paved walkway, very small at the moment but we expect to see more of it. We did not open the area below the five long stones because we need to get the rest of our locus on the same level. So here's to tomorrow.

TGIF June 11 An Eventful Day

We have found our wall, I also found a door post holder. I will put pictures on the blog. The one's beside us have numbers now they are 1151 and 1152. Since ours are continuations of previous found walls they have to look back in the data and find what numbers they have. A little humor happens also, yesterday Dr. Savage and some in a locus that has been pretty barren in finds where talking about finding a Mazzuza (one of the Jewish door posts prayer things) in the dig. Well he planted one for a lady to find, she started laughing for it was a plastic modern one. Well Bill Hild, a pastor from Florida, had bought several first century oil lamps in Jerusalem, Dr. Savage had kept requesting we find some oil lamps since some of the other areas had found some. Well Bill planted them in their barron square (They called it the hell hole because they had moved some much dirt and stones and found little). Bill called Dr. Savage to come see what he had found. He had planted one lamp right side up and one upside down and put some bones found earlier beside them. He had uncovered the bones and one lamp, Dr. Savage was very excited. He said cain't you find two. Well Bill began to uncover the other one and the Dr. was very excited. Bill was thinking he had had it for this prank. Rance one of his church members wispered, you better tell him now. Well he reached in the little hole in the lamp and pulled out a note that said Gotcha. But with the walls and another exciting find which we could not start uncovering on Friday. Look for the row of five stones in the picture. I don't think he was to disappointed. We had not pottery reading today because it was the begining of the Jewish Shbott (Sabbath). No lectures either. I worked on organizing my pictures which are numerous.

I am writing this on Saturday morning, leazure breakfast, read some magazines I brought, came to the museum to get internet. It looks like a relaxing Saturday with maybe some touring tomorrow if we can work it out.

Someone told me it is Thursday already June10

Thg lecture last night was on the Herod Philip coins many which have been found in Bethsaida. It is very interesting what a coin can tell us. Like who is in charge, who serves whom, who is honored and much more. I found that coins of the first century were usually dated. We are very close to the walls that we have been looking for, Dr. Savage numbered the ones in the locus beside us so it is a matter of time before we find them in our locus. We will probably photograph and then move rocks again tomorrow, right now it is hard to dig between the ones on top. We are finding less mixed pottery and more first century pottery which means we are approaching what is called a closed strata where the mixing will become almost nonexistant. More coins were found today, we are not sure what they are for they have not been cleaned. Yesterday we found one of the Roman nails in our locus. And we found an oil lamp also. I plan to put the pictures on the blog today. Note how long and big they are. These would be the ones they used in crucifixion. Our lecture tonight is on the Crusaders again so I will probably skip it. A group of austrailians have joined us for a few days, we thought they were students with an instructor but it turns out they are just an independent group. So after having three roommates for two weeks I have a room to myself at least until Sunday evening.