Dr. Mark Schuler

Today saw another day of digging for the CSP crew. In all honesty, this was a surprise to most of the team as it almost never happens this way. Or we do it every day. One of those two.

C4 continued digging out the floor, but their supervising arachnid was absent. Nonetheless, some interesting finds were uncovered, including a piece of marble that has unknown origins.

C3 worked on exposing the wall on their East side, and that's about it for today.

The area formally known as the Pit of Despair has now been renamed to "The tunnel of Love" or "The Tunnel of Hope" depending on whom you ask. Several meters of the remaining rubble have been removed, and that team is working as hard as ever. The Good Doctor himself spent most of his day in this area shifting dirt. Go Dr. S!

Lastly, tonight is the last night for five members of the team, and thus it will be spent at least partially in the pub. Goodbye to Fred, Becky, Jake, Jim and Janet. Your humor, hard work, and great attitudes will be missed.

Those words ring out every morning at 4:45 in the parking lot while waiting for the bus to arrive. This morning began with more rock moving and clean up. The E8 team from yesterday was reassigned to various squares. The A4 square found a wall and the other side to the easterly apse of the church. That team found lots of glass, pottery and Pastor Jim apparently found a throne on which to sit and turreah. The F0 team found lots of unfortunate things today. Among these things were modern metals and assorted nails. The team also found some encouraging things such as several pieces that came probably from one pot, glass, and bone. The C4 team found a supervisor today. Their little friend checked in on them from time to time and even joined them in their square. This friend just happened to be a scorpion. C5 encountered many walls and were not allowed to pickax and turreah. Thus they had to trowel around the stones but some of them admitted that it gave them a break from the rigorous digging. Finally the old Pit of Despair was done over by a tractor that obviously came from God. The 4 squares are on the outskirts of the current exposed church trying to find the extent of the complex. The F0 team found a couple of modern items which leads Dr. Schuler to believe that it was disturbed by a tractor and the IDF. The other teams found walls that they believe to be assorted hallways and other rooms on the outside of the complex. The interpretations of the walls and corridors exposed by today's digging are a bit unreliable because we have no idea of what lies further down in the dirt. The walls could be part of the urban monastery complex or adjacent buildings. Only time and a lot of dirt will give up these secrets. Today was another good day of digging and with our team at its largest we hope to make one last big push before we say goodbye to 5 of our teammates. Thats all for now… Matt

Dear Friends, I must confess that my friends and I working over in the Pit of Despair began to lose all hope for E8 today. After squaring off the POD (pit of despair) we began searching for the nonexistent pavement we were sure to find at the bottom. Instead of pavement we found a layer of caked mud. We were positive that the pavement was UNDER the muddy-gravely-stuff. It wasn't. We had fun. If only Bob were here… Other squares were likewise interesting. Linda's square C5 really got trucking after the infamous Arny of the Net (like cargo as opposed to the inter variety) began working. They found a wall cutting their square ruffly in half. Jim's new square A4 is trucking along the outside of that wall. They found a bunch of roof tiles we had to clean today at pottery washing. Thanks, Jim. We all appreciate it. F0 is likewise continuing to expose part of a wall. Thats Lynn's department. There was a great deal of excitement when they found a good size iron bar about 10 cm down. Too bad it was modern. Sorry folks. Inside the big tent Susan and her crew continue to expose the mosaic. Jess is having O SO MUCH FUN drawing it all. Piece. By Piece. By Piece. HAHAHAHAHA. Well we got a big crew working this week, and dirt is certainly flying. We got a lot of things going… it's fun… Your Bro in Christ, Kevin

Today marked another day of digging in many of the previous squares, and the opening of two new ones. The loss of Pastor Pickax was felt, but the new team members are earning their way.

Square E8 continued work on exposing the road at the bottom of what has begun to be called "The Pit of Despair", or colloquially, "The Pit." Rocks continue to be removed as well as copious amounts of dirt.

A5 continued exposing the walls that they had previously uncovered, and made the discovery of an 13 centimeter drainage pipe.

C5 was one of the two newest squares, and exposed approximately 10 centimeters of dirt, but ran into significant problems with a shade in the late morning.

F0 was the other new square, and over the course of the day lowered their surface a half meter. While digging they found in the surface dirt two coins, one of which is dated to the third century AD, but because of it's location may be unusable. Two pieces of glass have also been found which may be a bottle and a stopper. Work on the mosaic restoration continues at a steady pace.

The last day of the first week was a success all of the squares did very well this week in finding what they were wanting to find. The A5 square found what they believe is part of a street and a couple of walls that are of different time periods. The F2 square who had knocked out a barrier the day before continued their work in slowly exposing the surroundings of their initial square. The E8 team had a huge success today because the street was found today or at least a portion of it. Dr. Schuler had our team dance in the street because we had found it.
The street (Cardo 2N) is missing some pieces and the wall on the one side seems to have suffered major damage. The fact that we found the street is a huge success for our team. The other teams found walls which they think are of different time periods.
Who knows how much of the street (cardo 2N) is actually still there or if the walls that were found in A5 hold a lot of meaning but the one thing we can be sure of is our great success in the first week of digging. The Galilee region has been amazing thus far.