Dr. Mark Schuler

Today was another day up on top of Hippos. This morning was particularly special because we had the reburial ceremony for the ‘saints’ whose bones were extracted from the grave under the chancel. The service was a liturgical service by Rhoda, Dr. Schuler’s wife. There were quite a few people from other teams who attended as well. It was cool to do the burial as the sun was rising. We did the liturgy, a prayer, and the doxology, and Dr. Schuler poured the bones into the grave and anointed them with oil. Dr. Schuler even made a new friend with a big hairy spider that was down in the grave with him.
The street provided another rough day for the 7 people who were working on it. The POD, Pit of Despair, gave up more rocks today but Arny and Linda were not phased. They hauled dirt, and it was almost hard to keep up with them. Kristina and Kevin did a great job too today. They started out on the Decamanus and began working toward Arny and Linda. Mark handed buckets up to Jon and I who built a pretty fancy ramp out the excessive amount of dirt hauled from the pit. The ramp was named Ayd Mill in honor of the street in St. Paul. The A team worked hard today too. They took their squares down another level toward horizon C. They continued to expose the many walls that have appeared in their square.
Tomorrow brings another day of hard labor on the street and more dirt flying through the air as both teams work towards their goals. Thats all for now…peace!

WE HAVE REACHED THE PIT! (and there was much rejoicing) Finally, and not soon enough. Only 9 meters left. Not much to say about today really, it was all pretty straight forward. We only worked in C4 for about half a day, then that team got divided and sent to A3/4 and the street. A3/4 made some progress today too,they are going slower due to the plethora of walls they seem to have. This afternoon we took a road trip to the springs near Beit Shean. That was cool to swim around in. We had fun with it. Well, I'm thinking and thinking, but nothing remotely exciting happened today, so I think thats it. Your Bro in Christ, Kevin

Today saw a few notable things, and a lot of dirt and rocks being moved.
Work continues to go on in A3 much as it has in the last few days, trying to dig out the walls and expose more of the back of the church, as well as finding out what the strange room is.
The E corridor or saw more pavement exposed, plus an entire pot was discovered. It fell apart upon being exposed, but Lynn will be doing reconstruction on it over this next week. Yay Lynn!
The wall in C is almost exposed, and a lot of pottery is being recovered from the area as the floor is being approached, especially near the “exit” door.
A crew was dedicated to reopening the tomb and on Wednesday at first light there will be a reburial for the saints of the church. Woot!

Today was another day of digging. The day began like every other day by moving rocks. Today was different because instead of moving rocks from the A corridor we moved them from the E corridor. The street team appreciated the help because there are a lot of rocks that need moving. There were only 3 areas open today due to the loss of team members. The three areas were the E corridor, the two areas C squares and the A squares. The E team found a lot of street today and we think that the street is relatively intact despite what we found in E8. We hope to uncover more intact street tomorrow. The C squares were a wealth of pottery today. They had a couple of full buckets of pottery by the end of the day. They also found a doorway that leads to the south which means more excavation to the south of the church complex. The team in the A squares found a very small room apparently the size of a sarcophagus which leads Dr. Schuler in suspecting another tomb.
The use of the room found in the A squares is still unclear and will remain that way until the team is able to dig a little deeper. Who knows what lies to the south of the church complex maybe it is the lost residential area, only more digging will reveal its secrets. The street is also a big question because who knows if the street is still a wreck or if it was just E8 that suffered massive destruction. That is about all that happened today. We have church tonight which is always a nice way to begin a week. Peace.

Hey Folks, I must confess that I, THE Kevin FitzGerald, am exhausted. I know many of you did not think I showed any signs representative of the physical abuse we have received since we arrived, but yes, even Kevin can be pushed to his limit. Haha, Just Kidding! All day yesterday and today I worked in the Cardo de Amore (a.k.a. the tunnel of love) clearing all the way down to the street. We cleared 5 meters of the street in 2 days, thanks largely to Kristina and Matt who worked their tails off the whole time. It will probably take us most of next week still to clear all the way down to the Pit of Despair, but we are making excellent progress. The C5 crowd worked on taking down the baulk covering the wall at the edge of their square. All I have to say about this crowd is Arny is a freeking tractor. They did great work all day today. The A4 peoples have walls coming out right precisely where they didn't expect them. Its OK, they are rolling with it and taking it down layer by layer. The F0 group is likewise making great progress, they even found another coin today. Sweet stuff! Professor thought that he was going to close their square today, but they are doing such a great job he decided to let them keep going next week. The dirt certainly flew this week, but tonight we have to say goodbye to 5 of our esteemed companions. Jake, Becky, Fred, Janet, and Jim are all leaving us. We will certainly miss them both on the job site and around the kibbutz. Except Fred, I wont miss him because he keeps telling me to "shut up" in his Australian accent and pointing his finger menacingly at me (says Kevin sarcastically)…. Seriously, these guys have all been a blessing to work with and we are sad to see them go. Tonight Kristina's friend Laura is arriving, which is exciting. Equally exciting is the fact that I will be sleeping through lunch tomorrow. Thats always fun. Until next time… Peace, Love and Puppies, Kevin