As the team prepares for the final week of the excavation, we have been cleaning and documenting some of our small finds. These are the finds that excite us:
Byzantine M Coin
Bronze Pitcher
Spiral bottle
Bone Jewelry
Cross and Palm decorative tile
Fibula
Maenad
Janus Flask
And what will we discover this week?
During the excavation season, we frequently have visitors to our site from around the world. This Friday, when several of us hiked up for a photography and drawing session, we looking up to see some unusual visitors — three powered paragliders. Had my camera been more accessible, I would have gotten an even better shot as they suddenly appeared over the edge of the cliff.
Earlier this season, we published a photo of a plastered basin in the north colonnaded building. In the northeast corner of this room is another water feature, plastered and half-round fed by a water pipe. Its function is a mystery, in part because we have not yet reached the bottom of the feature.
Christine discovered the feature and below she is seen inspecting and clearing the water pipe. Ideas anyone?
I am exceptionally proud of and thankful for the volunteers that are part of the Northeast Church Project at Hippos of the Decapolis. Without them, the project could not have accomplished what it has over the last nine years. Some are truly amazing . . . or has the director been in the sun too long?
As the team today swept the final dirt from the eastern peristyle court, two years of work are coming to fruition. Romans homes typically had a peristyle courtyard and in the late Roman period, particularly in north Africa, such courtyards had only three porticos, as is the case with the one you see here. Various rooms of the home give access to the courtyard from the east and from the south. We are just starting to reveal them.
And in the doorway of the central room to the east of the courtyard, Ted recovered an intact oil lap. The lamp may help us date the destruction of this area by earthquake. Congrats, Ted!
