Quick Update!

I'm about to go to bed, but I just wanted to say that we have reached bedrock in W2. Our square keeps getting smaller and smaller! There is a little pocket now beside the reservoir wall that isn't bedrock and we will be digging that out tomorrow (we are literally down to 1x2 feet to dig!!).

I keep forgetting my camera but I have it packed for tomorrow :)

if all else fails I will post pics when I get back home.

PS - our pottery is STILL Early Bronze Age! - that means that I have discovered the oldest architecture on the tell to date! :) super exciting to uncover something that hasn't seen the light of day for 4500 years or more...  

Day 2

Two of my workers, Soon and Mariana. You can see the wall of the reservoir at the left side of the picture. We will be excavating the bottom portion (where Soon is, wearing the purple shirt). 

Well, once again the internet is not allowing me to post pictures.

I promise, as soon as I can I will get a visual to you!!

My Square:
We have discovered a wall running North-South in Square W2 in the NE Quadrant. This was a very unexpected discovery and it seems as though this wall pre-dates the wall of the reservoir. On Friday, my team and I removed the East balk of the SE Quadrant from Square W5 to see the connection between the reservoir wall and the wall found in W2. It seems that the smaller wall was cut when the reservoir was built, however we did not have enough time to expose more of the smaller wall, so this is speculation at this point. We will know more on Monday.

The pottery which we are finding in my square is mostly all Early Bronze Age pottery. This is dating to the time of Abraham. We are thinking this might be due to what is called 'Reversed Stratigraphy' - that is when the reservoir was built, the builders filled in the surrounding architecture with dirt. When you fill in a hole from a pile of dirt what ends up happening is the stuff that was on the top of the pile ends up at the bottom of the hole and vice versa. Since we are finding EB pottery at the top of the square, we are thinking this might be the explanation. But - time will tell!!

The Field:
Most of the rest of the field is still just digging away. However, it looks as though Square W11 has found the continuation of the reservoir wall, running to the North East.

I will keep you updated! and (hopefully) get pictures up soon - 

Saludos!

Day two of digging! I apologize for the lack of pictures today, the wireless seems to be quite slow in the evenings. I will try tomorrow in the early afternoon.

The Digging:
I am supervising the excavation in Field W, Square 2. We have the responsibility of dating the cistern! A very exciting and meticulous job. So far we have trimmed and cleaned our north balk and sifted through a sealed locus underneath an architectural installation in the northern balk of square 2.

We will be digging a trench about 2 meters by 1 meter beside the wall of the cistern. We will follow the wall all the way down to the bottom and collect pottery from the base of the wall. Pottery is important because the fashion and style of pottery is different from every time period throughout history. It is the number one way that we are able to evaluate the dating of a site. The pottery we collect at the bottom or base of the wall will give us the date of the cistern. We are hoping that the date will be 10th century BC and will be looking for Late Bronze Age pottery.

The Field:
As for the rest of the field... We have opened 5 other squares in an L shape around the existing squares from last summer. Following the channel from Field G, we have found the continuation of it in square W11, unfortunately this continuation is only one corner of the square and will have to be followed more in continuing years. The other squares are uneventful at the moment. They have the daunting task of digging through 4 meters of packed dirt and boulders to reach the bottom of the cistern. Dr. Gregor is confident we will achieve this in such a short period of time.... I think we need to dig faster... !! At the end of day two, most of the squares have dug about 0.5 meters.


Okay, pictures and more info to come! stay tuned!!   

Greetings!

A new season of digging is about to commence in a couple of days. Most of the group has already arrived. This morning they got on a bus headed to the Amman Citadel for the first part of the day. I decided to stay behind and spend my birthday poolside, sipping a coke and soaking up the sun :)

It looks like we have a great group this year, a few returning veterans and a number of fresh new faces ready to brave the sun, dirt and dust! (I'm sure the novelty will quickly wear off for them as soon as the heat of the desert scorches their skin and their sore muscles make it difficult to sleep at night, but I won't burst their bubble just yet).. lol

The wireless at the hotel is much improved this year than last so I will hopefully be bringing you daily updates.

Now off to the pool :)

Erika

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!!