Today I am incredibly sore. I haven’t felt the burn this entire period, even though I have been working far harder than I did today. Even this weekend was as rough as last weekend, when I walked the Old City like a bazillion times. The good news is that we have a four day week. We’re celebrating the 4th of July on Thursday, June 30th, then heading north to the Galilee for a three-day weekend Friday morning. We’re supposedly staying right on the Sea of Galilee with access to the beach all night, so it should be a party. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and blog about that.
I have to hit up pottery washing now, so I’m going to finish this entry afterwards during the lecture (it’ll look like I’m taking notes). I’ll snap some pictures so everyone can see the beautiful craft of pottery washing.
ANNNND we’re back. Pottery washing was relatively uneventful. Akiva found a LMLK seal, a stamp on a handle of a winged sun-disc bearing the word LMLK or lamelek meaning “of/belonging to the king.” These stamps are very good for dating because they were used exclusively by King Hezekiah as part of his plan to reinforce the kingdom of Israel.
A lot of folks complain about the really tiny potsherds that end up filling buckets. It is very tedious and, as you can see, there is a lot of pottery to get through. I like to argue that the body sherds could end up being important, but the reality of the situation is that those small pieces are a waste of time and space. The exception is if they are diagnostic (handles, rims, etc.) or from a sealed locus, such as just beneath a floor. Even in these cases, though, there is nothing a plain brown sherd will gain anybody, but it isn’t always easy to tell in the field whether or not a potsherd is burnished or painted, so sometimes it’s better to suck it up and wash them. Rocks, on the other hand, are unacceptable, as is bone. Come on people; we’ve been at this for two weeks, get with the program.
Speaking of being at this for two weeks, today we received a nice influx in labor. A total of 13 new volunteers, or as we called them, “fresh meat,” from Lancaster Bible College joined our fields. Our squares got two new folks, Ian and Beth. They seem nice enough, and were very willing to be coached, so while they were a little shaky today I am confident they’ll be all set in a day or two. The biggest difficulty comes when they are unclear on the size of potsherds to collect. We tried to give them the honest answer, which is, “it depends,” but sometimes you just have to suffer your first pottery washing to understand what is and isn’t worth it. It’s hard to give a rule that applies to all areas because, as I mentioned before, it all really depends on where they potsherds come from, whether they are diagnostic, and whether there is a chance of reconstruction. I did my best and encouraged them to be liberal rather than overly selective, because I figure if we get too much we can wade through it later, where as if we lose stuff in the field it’s gone forever.
Today’s activities centered on examining that mysterious circle of stones in the center of F7. I think I’ve mentioned that. Anyway, there was a semicircle of stones, and it was mysterious, and we checked them out today.
The stones turned out to not be any kind of pit or kiln or installation of that nature. They did turn out to be part of a possible cobble surface that may go along with the one next door. We’ll see. Our surface was all wobble and bent up and probably not good to walk on. If it is still a surface, it is not a well preserved one.
Also on the docket was busting some rocks that we declared tumble. The first one was made of limestone and was hard to get to crack. A few solid whacks, though, and it crumbled and we carried it out. The second was big, and it sucked. We could crack it, and it took three of us plus a metal spike to chip it small enough that we could carry the thing out. I think that’s why I hurt right now.
This is the last remaining large piece of the stone and the crater it used to be resting in. We’re pretty sure it tumbled off of the casemate wall.
I am sitting in lecture and noting how often archaeologists make use of the word “probably.”
As a final treat, I am including a picture of a balk section:
I just think this is neat. Here you can see sand bags reinforcing the edge on top followed by a thick section of some kind of rubbley fill. About halfway down you can make out a few centimeters of plaster and directly below that, towards the bottom of the balk, stones making up a cobble surface that continues into the section.
Everyone go eat a piece of a pig for me. Peace and bacon to all mankind.
I had me some bacon at the 50s Diner on Sunday! Nomnomnom.
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