Down in the pit

Today they moved me down into a narrow pit with structures going back to approximately 1,000BC (approx. the time of King David). It was awkward work, carefully uncovering stones and then trying to dig underneath them. Why dig underneath them? Because if a stone is sitting on dirt, it's probably something that just fell down many years ago with the collapse of the city. But if it's sitting on another stone, there's a possibility that it's part of a man-made structure such as a wall as so we shouldn't disturb it. If we find three large stones lined up in a row, we suspect a man-made structure. If there's four in a row, we're getting even more certain.


If you look at the photo, the area where I'm working is down where Steve is standing so you can't see it. But if you look carefully, what you can see is a black layer of burnt barley (behind Steve's back). This layer comes from a later time when this room (built on top of the buried ancient structures) was one of the four chambers of the city gate. Archaeologists always thought these "gate chambers" were used for accommodation of the guards or storage of weapons, but perhaps they were more related to the trading that took place at the gate. Anyway, this barley store was presumably torched by invaders.

The dig here is designed to be an educational experience. The archaeologists are good at teaching us on the site, and back at the kibbutz where we sort and label and photograph the most important finds. Then in the evenings we also have lectures. Because I'm learning so much, I have asked to extend my time here by two more days, which means that I won't get back to Jerusalem until Thursday afternoon.