Second Week of Excavations and Unexpected Adventures

The second week of excavations flew by. In the square I worked on, we worked on bringing the level down to the Iron Age wall. I was in charge of the data log and the maps for the week. On Wednesday, we took an official picture of the square marking the Iron Age Wall. It was a race against the sun to brush the entire square for the picture so the sunlight would not affect it. Yet, we still had to hold up the photography tarp to block the sun from creeping in for one spot. We also stopped a little early to go rafting down the Jordan River. Rafting down the Jordan is not even close to white water rafting; there was only one drop about one meter high. While there was not a rush, it was a fun experience. For most of the pottery readings of the week, I recorded the finds on the data logs. On Thursday, I found a beautiful piece of blue and yellow Phoenician glass, probably part of a bottle. Finally, the physical anthropologist said that he wanted Phil's bones but would not be coming to the site, so one of the archaeologist began to start to carefully and respectfully remove Phil. On Friday, I had to say goodbye to the dig. While many others were ready to be done, I was not. I would have been more than willing to continue for the next session.

Friday night before I went to bed, I was informed that my mom's flight to Chicago was delayed and would likely miss her flight to Toronto, thus missing her flight to Tel Aviv. On Saturday morning, I confirmed that was the case. She was sent to Newark but would be a day late, having to stay the night. Since I no longer needed to go to the airport, I went with the group from Truman State again on their planned day trip. 

We started by returning to Nazareth to go to the museum that is part of the Basilica of the Annunciation area. We headed west to Megiddo, also known as Armageddon. Megiddo is an impressive tel, or hill, of twenty-five layers, meaning the city was destroyed and rebuilt twenty-five times! one of the most impressive aspects was the water shaft to the spring so the people could get water without living the walls of the city, which we used as an exit. We continued west to Caeserea, the remains of a former thriving port city on the Mediterranean. We saw the amphitheater, bathhouse, the chariot race track, and more.

Caeserea remains on the Mediterranean.

After we finished at Caeserea, we took a dip in the Mediterranean Sea near a Roman aqueduct. We ended our day by visiting Bet Shearim, a collection of burial tombs and caves.

While there were a few goodbyes the weekend before, a couple during the week, and were a few on Saturday, on Sunday morning, I had to say goodbye to Truman group.  I am so thankful for them welcoming me to join them during those two week. They were a great group to get to know, and I look forward to hearing about the rest of their trip. 

My Sunday adventure began in the afternoon. Carl took me, Jerome, and Lily to Tiberias to take the bus to the airport. However, when three o'clock, the meeting time, arrived and there was no one at the office yet, Lily and I decided to take the public buses, so I could get to the airport. First, we took a bus to the central bus station in Tiberias. There we changed buses, and boarded the one headed to Tel Aviv. We eventually reached the seven level central bus station there, where Lily and I said our goodbyes. She was headed to a hotel and I was headed to the airport. I was able to find a bus headed towards the airport area. Once I made it to the area, I changed buses again to get on the one that would take me into the terminal. I finally was able to meet up with my mom at the airport and we picked up the rental car and navigated back up to Ginosar.