Dr. Mark Schuler

Day 9

 We had the best weather today for digging. There was a great breeze and clouds in the sky. Don’t get me wrong it still was hot, but a nice change. Today we basically tackled rock after rock, so I didn’t take before and after pictures like I had said. I will leave that for tomorrow. However, I did get a picture of all the rocks!!!!! John’s group has been working on a room in the house of TK, and got to the floor which happens to be plaster and has a ton of tesserae. Tesserae are little square pieces of art used to make mosaics. Usually the elite, wealthy people had the art which decorated their structures.  While the big manly men were working on the rocks in Darryl’s group Suzie and I went to help sweep up the layer of dirt on the plaster floor in the house of TK. The room should be done by breakfast tomorrow.  Sweeping is kind of a tedious job so Suzie and I are going to be bringing up our music. Watch out John you have two women who love to sing and are tone deaf and can’t carry a tune, but what’s important is that we will be having fun!

 ***** My computer wont allow me to upload the rock picture. I will have to do it tomorrow. SORRY

Day 8

Well we got Jim Jim back up at the dig site Hooray!!! Today I worked my little booty off, and my eyes were burning from the sweat dripping in them. However I had my ear plugs on and the second half of the dig went really fast. We moved a ton of rock, one which I had been working on since Sunday. It’s really boggles my mind on how the people from the Byzantine and Umayyad periods made these structures. By no means am I trying to belittle them, but it’s truly incredible! The last few days, as we were cleaning up, Darryl the team leader, always says “wow we moved a lot of dirt”; and every day it makes me feel good knowing that I helped and contributed to that. I may not be the strongest person out there, but I’m a fierce one. I will start to take before and after pictures, so you out there are able to see the progress for yourself!

Day 7

Today the dig was uneventful…. We did however move a lot of dirt. After the dig we went to Mount Arbel and WOW what an amazing experience. Honestly I have NEVER seen anything like this view and or the way the rocks where. There was this cave that supposedly Seth one of Adams kids, was buried in.  There were caves that people fled to due to Herod the greats persecution, the rocks were HUGE and there really was no trail to follow. At some points while hiking down I really got nervous. One fall and I could have gotten seriously hurt, but the experience was worth it. I don’t know, maybe I’m becoming an adrenaline junky.  As the group was listening to the guide we saw a herd of cows, well I think that they are cows, they had horns!!! After the hike we all (A mixture of the American group and Israeli group) had a picnic outside and watched the sunset.  All in all today was a great day and evening.

Day 6

Well I thought today was going to be a bit easier than last week … I thought wrong. We started digging in a new room, and the dirt is hard and extra heavy, with a ton of rocks. Of course it was super-hot outside AND we were down two people. Suzy was drawing and calculating up the room we just finished and poor Jim Jim knocked himself in the head with a pick axe.  No worries, stitches were not given, although if this incident had happened in America , I’m sure it would have called for a few. Nonetheless he is ok, and now we get to give him a hard time. We didn’t really find anything exciting; however we moved a record amount of dirt today. I hope that tomorrow my hands feel better!!!!!