Dr. Mark Schuler

Here’s the video of Arthur Segal translating the first line of the inscription. The sound quality is not the best, but it’s worth watching for Arthur’s gestures and Andrea’s bounciness. I think there must have a been a bee buzzing around Andrea; that’s why she’s waving her hands in front of her face a couple of times.





Who’s who? Andrea Heiliger, illustrator for the Concordia team, is in the gray shirt and white hat; Kristina Neumann, assistant director for the Concordia team, is wearing the red bandanna around her head; Arthur Segal, head archaeologist of the dig and director of the Haifa team, is in the navy shirt; Mark Schuler, director of the Concordia team, is in the gray Yale shirt; later in the video they are joined by Michael Eisenberg, second in command for the whole dig.

Here’s Liz, engineering student from Northeastern College in Boston and 2nd year volunteer, with a large fragment of mosaic floor. By its position (way above floor level in A99), Dr. Archaeology Schuler has hypothesized that there was a second story above this room that collapsed in the earthquake of 749. My question: What room could be on the second story of the church complex that was important enough to rate a mosaic floor? And where are the stairs to get to it?


Maybe you’re wondering how the Concordia, St. Paul team got a volunteer from NE College in Boston. Liz tells me she wanted to go on a dig, any dig, last year, did some online research, and found the University of Haifa site. It had a link to the Concordia team. Her Dad emailed and then phoned “the other Dr. Schuler,” and after talking to him, said to his daughter, “These people seem nice. Why don’t you dig with them.” We’re so glad to have her back! She’s also among the “skilled labor” because she helps Arny check the elevation in each square at the end of the day. Thanks to Linda, who brought a set of walkie talkies, it’s easier for Liz and Arny to get those elevations on windy days. Liz holds the measuring stick in each square, gets it level, and then tells Arny (who’s in the distance with the elevation instrument) she’s ready. Sometimes we (that is, we who are unskilled labor) have to lift up or remove our shade tarps so that Arny can view the measuring stick.

Earlier this season Andrea, our illustrious illustrator, was commenting that she’s been digging for 4 years and hasn’t found anything of great importance. Of course, the fact that Andrea spends lots of her time drawing stuff other people unearth (wall, floors, etc.) may be one reason why she’s been so, shall we say, “unlucky.” Today (Monday) she was drawing the basalt stone floor in square F8, a complicated area with a small room to one side and staircase to nowhere uncovered by Arny’s Army and cleaned by Arny personally just yesterday. F8 is on the southwest side of the site; most of us were working in the nave and on the northeast side. Suddenly Andrea was yelling, “Dr. Schuler, Dr. Schuler, come and look!” “What did you find?” someone yelled back. “It’s writing!” she replied. Here’s what Andrea found:





Here’s Andrea, proudly posing in front of the inscription, which Professor Arthur Segal thinks is a stone in secondary use:





Here’s the first line of the inscription in legible format. It says “Good fortune …”





Check back later for more information! I took a long video of Arthur Segal reading it with Andrea making goofy faces, but getting my movies converted and posted takes a LONG time! Arny claims to have heard Professor Segal translating the inscription to read, “Roman Temple: Three blocks west.”

These are the best of the “small finds” (stuff other than pottery that we carry down off the dig site) from the first 2 weeks. We also found lots of nails, but they’re pretty boring to look at, so I’m skipping those photos! Except for Brennan, who’s a student at Concordia, Ann Arbor, ALL the people with the cool finds from the first two weeks are from Irvine. We’re not sure if we want them back (because they find such good stuff) or if we’re glad their gone so that other people get a chance. Just kidding, guys!


Will found this marble mortar used for grinding. If it’s just a plain old kind of rock, we call such items “grinding bowls.”





So here’s Will’s buddy Eric with part of a grinding bowl he found.





Here’s Brennan with a mysterious item made of metal. We’ll see what Small Finds Coordinator Kristina decides to call this curious item in the 2009 report.





Eagle-eyed Jen made this amazing find the first week. I’ve seen fragments of oil lamps before on the dig site and intact ones in museums, but never a fully intact one that just came out of the ground. Good thing it was Jen digging in this spot and not Darryl with a pick axe!



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Ellie is holding another metal item still to be officially named. It’s a tiny spoon with a long handle that may have been used to measure medicine.



Here’s Jen AGAIN wearing the cross (a metal alloy) that she found in the same square as the oil lamp. The cleaned version can be viewed on the main website as one of the rotating photos at the top of the page.





Ashley is pictured here with the coin she found. It’s one of several uncovered the first two weeks. Coins get sent off to a specialist in Haifa for cleaning and identification, so people will have to read the report next year to find out more about the coins!





It’s Tuesday afternoon here. We had a good day on the dig site: croissants for breakfast; Popsicles with our fruit break, AND A REALLY INTERESTING FIND BY ANDREA. I’ll be working on that post next, so stay tuned!!

Colleen: Hope you made it home safely. See how far we got today on your column!