Dr. Mark Schuler

Today’s finds include a marble mortar, a metal pendant, broken part of a grinding bowl. In this video, Darryl demonstrates the proper technique for getting a big rock UP and out of a square.

Following is the basic 3 step process of Hippos archaeology for those of you tuning in at home wondering what we actually do here.  Please read carefully, and save all questions for the end. 

Step one: Use pick axe to loosen a layer of dirt.  (The boys in my group stated this as their favorite part of digging because it makes them feel “manly.”)

Step two: Use a turreah to shovel the dirt into buckets.

Step three: Transport the dirt by hand to the dump pile and… you guessed it, dump it out!

There are, of course, some other things involved such as picking up pottery sherds and other small finds like glass or bones; we take water breaks, fruit breaks, and even, on occasion, popsicle breaks, and there are many many big rocks to be moved during the course of the morning’s work, but here you see that in just a few steps, we slowly uncover more of this church complex at Hippos, really just one bucket of dirt at a time.  

Now you may ask any questions. 

My fellow blogger Andrea, her husband Cameron, and Assistant Director Christina Neumann joined us for dinner a couple of day before we left for Israel.  Andrea was wearing a pair of shorts very similar to a pair I had recently purchased for the dig.  So here we are in our fraternal twin plaid shorts from Target (that’s pronounced tar ZJAY).  Can you tell who is twenty-something and who is old enough to be the other’s mother?

Darryl gives instructions to the Hippos diggers about the right way to lift.  He has a way with words and movement.