It took a week, but today we finished the cleaning of the NIP.
What has once been full of weeds and brush is now visible.
This weekend we will test our scanning processes. After some wall analysis on Sunday, the detailed scans will start on Monday. We look forward to the results.
As we prepare for scanning, we re-exposed much of the northerly garden/porch of the House of Tyche. Not only what it infested with brush, but much tumble and silt had filtered in. So, it was good to see the opus sectile appear at floor level. Final cleaning comes tomorrow after the floor dries.
We also spent more time on weeds and brush on the rest of the site. Tomorrow, that work too will end. After some final wall repairs, test scanning begins (likely on the weekend).
Yes, again we spent the day pulling weeks and cutting bushes. The weather was the clearest I can recall for July. Whenever, I got tired, all I had to do was look up…
As I cleaned the area west of the atrium, I ran across a broken lintel stone. Facing up and having been washed clean by the rain were three crosses.
Perhaps it was from one of the entrances of the church, or from some other part of the compound. The form is quite simple, attesting to the poverty of the community. Such pieces make the weed pulling worthwhile.
I offer one additional photo, because the day was so beautiful… the CSP logo flying over the dig site. Yes, we are at Sussita again.
It was a second day, a hot second day, for pulling weeds and cutting brush. Not much exciting there. But while resting briefly I noticed something I had not seen before. It has to do with the lintel of the doorway we will probe later in the season.
This decorative lintel on the House of Tyche was an entrance from a small street. To the left of the lintel stone is another decorative stone. Today for the first time I noticed a notch in the upper left of that stone.
What was the purpose of the notch. Did it perhaps hold a torch lighting the entrance at night. I set a trowel in the notch to suggest that a torch might have been placed there to light the entrance at night.
I will have to find comparanda for this interesting feature. It is certainly more interesting than all the weeds we pulled today.
It was a rainy winter this year in Israel. That is good. The Sea of Galilee has risen 3 meters. However, so much rain has left the dig site full of weeds, grasses, and brush. It will take several days to clear this material (there are only two of us) before we can start scanning. Lots of hot and hard work.