Maybe, maybe, maybe... another favourite saying of an Archaeologist!
Today we had the most excitement yet!
W5 has continued to excavate their enormous wall, towards the north of their square. The wall appears to be going down in steps! This is important because it might be the steps that people would take to go down into the cistern to get water. The steps would circle down 5 to 25 meters into the well to the spring at the bottom. Such cisterns have been found at many sites in Israel (like Megiddo, Hatsor, Gezer.) But one has never been found this side of the Jordan River. If this is the case this would also be the largest of them all. And it would be a MAJOR discovery for Jordan Archaeology and History.
Now, these "steps" could be where stones have been robbed. (Later occupations would rob earlier buildings of their beautifully squared stones instead of quarrying their own stones to make new buildings, and so you have missing parts of walls a lot of the time.) As we excavate further we will discover whether or not this is the case.
I'm so frustrated that I can't load pictures because the wall is actually starting to curve in the direction of the dip in the land where we speculate the cistern is located.
Now another interesting note is that in 2009 we discovered the wall of the city in Field G. This new wall of the "cistern," lets call it, appears to be wider and larger than the city wall! Most unusual because typically the wall around a city is the largest, obviously, for the best defense. Why would there be such a large wall inside a city? Well... this wall would be to keep the earth from falling into the well. This appears to be true because the wall is inclined, going in towards the bottom. Which would create a sort of buttressing to hold the surrounding earth out.
Needless to say we won't be getting much sleep tonight because we are SO excited about this find.
Back to Field G, we have another discovery today! Abe Rivas found a figurine! I talked to Stefanie Elkins, asking her who she thinks the figure depicts and she seems to think that it is a Hathor-type deity. She clearly has two braids ending in curls beside her face and her hands are crossed in front of her chest. (This rules out fertility goddess, because her breasts are not exposed) In her hands appears to be a loaf of bread. So she might not be a fertility goddess, but she could be a different kind of female figure. She was found amongst a lot of cooking pots, bowls, etc. so that, with the loaf of bread in her hands she could have been worshipped as a provider of the family.
Please don't take any of my comments as truth, I'm only writing what we discuss out on the field. These are mostly all hypotheses and hopeful wishes! This blog is just to help keep you in the know about what we know!
Goodnight, one more day on the Tel, and then it's off to Jerusalem! We finalized our plans for the weekend and we will be staying at the Armenian Guest House.
Today we had the most excitement yet!
W5 has continued to excavate their enormous wall, towards the north of their square. The wall appears to be going down in steps! This is important because it might be the steps that people would take to go down into the cistern to get water. The steps would circle down 5 to 25 meters into the well to the spring at the bottom. Such cisterns have been found at many sites in Israel (like Megiddo, Hatsor, Gezer.) But one has never been found this side of the Jordan River. If this is the case this would also be the largest of them all. And it would be a MAJOR discovery for Jordan Archaeology and History.
Now, these "steps" could be where stones have been robbed. (Later occupations would rob earlier buildings of their beautifully squared stones instead of quarrying their own stones to make new buildings, and so you have missing parts of walls a lot of the time.) As we excavate further we will discover whether or not this is the case.
I'm so frustrated that I can't load pictures because the wall is actually starting to curve in the direction of the dip in the land where we speculate the cistern is located.
Now another interesting note is that in 2009 we discovered the wall of the city in Field G. This new wall of the "cistern," lets call it, appears to be wider and larger than the city wall! Most unusual because typically the wall around a city is the largest, obviously, for the best defense. Why would there be such a large wall inside a city? Well... this wall would be to keep the earth from falling into the well. This appears to be true because the wall is inclined, going in towards the bottom. Which would create a sort of buttressing to hold the surrounding earth out.
Needless to say we won't be getting much sleep tonight because we are SO excited about this find.
Back to Field G, we have another discovery today! Abe Rivas found a figurine! I talked to Stefanie Elkins, asking her who she thinks the figure depicts and she seems to think that it is a Hathor-type deity. She clearly has two braids ending in curls beside her face and her hands are crossed in front of her chest. (This rules out fertility goddess, because her breasts are not exposed) In her hands appears to be a loaf of bread. So she might not be a fertility goddess, but she could be a different kind of female figure. She was found amongst a lot of cooking pots, bowls, etc. so that, with the loaf of bread in her hands she could have been worshipped as a provider of the family.
Please don't take any of my comments as truth, I'm only writing what we discuss out on the field. These are mostly all hypotheses and hopeful wishes! This blog is just to help keep you in the know about what we know!
Goodnight, one more day on the Tel, and then it's off to Jerusalem! We finalized our plans for the weekend and we will be staying at the Armenian Guest House.
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