Kalypso The Odyssey

Yesterday me and a few of the volunteers went to the site of Lachish. It is an old site that was once conquered by King Sennacherib’s Assyrian army. That date was 701 BCE. Pictures of the battle were found on the walls of Sennacherib’s palace.

In that picture you can see Sennacherib’s army trying to break down the walls to the city using a machine on wheels with a long spear to knock out rocks. The people on top of the tower are shooting arrows and throwing torches trying to burn the machine. One of the Assyrians is dumping water on the fires. Behind the city the wall you can see women and children being led away into captivity. The Assyrians won the battle and it was a big victory for Sennacherib. Neal Bierling led the tour. He worked there on the dig many years ago, as did Gabi Barkai, who is also working here at Zeitah. There are many similarities between the site that I’m working at, Zeitah, and Lachish. The people probably knew each other, and were neighboring cities. They also had the same types of pottery.

According to the Hebrew Bible, on the seventh day, the Israelites rested from their work. Shabbat is that day. So on Saturdays in Israel, the people, including we archaeologists, spend the day relaxing. In the evening on Friday, we go to Shabbat dinner here at the kibbutz. We eat nice food up at the kibbutz dining hall and wear dressy casual outfits. Afterwards, we all head down to the patio for coffee and cake.

Today I went on a tour of Bet Guvrin/Maresha which is located not too far from Kibbutz Gal’on where we are staying. I was tired because we were out late at a party at the kibbutz. Our dig’s registrar and manager is Sherry Whetsone, and she gave the tour. Maresha is a biblical city mentioned in Joshua 15. The tour started off by going to one of the first columbariums, which is a big home for many doves. It was giant and shaped like a bell. There were many holes inside that were perfect for doves and pigeons and other fowl creatures that size to live and nest in. These holes were triangular in shapes. One of the people on the tour with us named Chuck said that it also could have been used for accoustics. My dad says he is wrong. Then we went to another bigger cave with pigeon holes in it and inside there were hundreds of dove holes, and these were square-ish. I was surprised how well developed the architecture was there. We went inside a tomb there that had many paintings on the walls. One had a rooster, another a three headed dog. They said the rooster was the one that collected the coin when you went to the River Styx when you died according to Greek Mythology. There were a few other animals, mythical and real, painted on the walls and it was very amazing. Inside one of the caves the acoustics were amazing. A girl named Amy sang some beautiful opera songs and it was mesmerizing. Then we headed back at about noon and ate a great lunch with Mike and Sharron at the Bistro. Thanks Sherry for a great tour.

After two years away, we finally returned to Tel Zeitah. For the first day on the site we began to hack away all the weeds that have grown on the tel over the past couple of years. The weeds were full of stickers and everyone got their arms, legs, and bellys cut up. This is what the site looked like at the end of today:

I will be working just on the top of the tel in square 0-19. Lots of people from two years ago returned, like Ben, Dan, Dave, John, Erin, Madeline, Sherry, Barbara, and a few more. There are about 40 people on site this year, and a few more who stay back at the kibbutz and run the lab. That’s about twice what we had in the 2005 season. We hope for a great season.

Tomorrow, me and my dad are going on a six week trip to the Middle East on an archaeological excavation (my dad gets his trip for free, but I have to pay to spend six weeks in the dirt digging up broken pots and dead bodies from 3,000 years ago). But don’t get me wrong, it’s a great experiance and a chance to meet nice, fun new people. But anyways, I have this summer reading list that I have to finish and we couldn’t find one of the books that we needed at book stores so we had to get it at a library. It’s called, Dovey Coe by Frances O’Roark Dowell, and it is about a little girl named Dovey from North Carolina who gets accused of murdering her older sister’s evil sutor. Her brother Amos is deaf and because of this, everyone thinks that he is crazy. Amos has two dogs, Huck and Tom, an older sister named Caroline, and mother and father who are called Mama and Daddy throghout the book. Caroline’s sutor, Parnell Caraway, is a bratty rich kid, who has never worked a day in his life. He grows up being spoiled by his parents and comes to think that the world and everything in it is his to buy and sell. The only thing that he can’t have is Caroline Coe. So, to get his way, he comes into the family and tries to ruin her plans to go to college and become a teacher by making him fall in love with her. His cruel plan fails miserably as she turnes him down again and again, humiliating him and causing him to become bent on revenge. The thing that I liked best about this book was how it was a murder mystery book, because I like those. The thing that I liked least about it was the southern accents, I don’t know why I don’t like that accent, especially because I live in the south. The problem with reading is that the book is due back before we return, so I am stuck on the last evening before that long trip, reading when I could be doing stuff online. Maybe this is my reward for getting all As on my report card. I don’t get why people usually reward a great feat with more work. Like one of my many friend’s relitives says ,” No good deed goes unpunished.”

Remember how I went on the dig last summer at Zeitah in Israel? Well there was a bit of info that I left out because it was secret. We found a 3,000 year old abecedary. We had to swear to secrecy for a while but now we can tell you about it because it has been published. Dan was the one who found it. It was a stone that was in a wall and it was the last day of the dig that he found it. I found an article about our find on Time For Kids. It is a Kids’ magazine about what is happening in the world. It was about our inscription. We read it in class. I think my teacher didn’t believe me that I was part of the great find. Want to see the article, well just click on this. Pretty neat, huh?

The dig has come to an end. I am sitting at home thinking of all the wonderful times I have hade over the past six weeks. I had so much fun in Israel. I just finished the seventh and final book in the Chronicles of Narnia. Now I’m going to read the newest Harry Potter book.

Our camera is broken, so these pictures were sent to Abu from Jill Baker, who is sort of the official Albright photographer among other things.

Today is my 10th birthday. My dad keeps on telling me that it will be twice as hard now to write my age because I will have to write two numbers instead of one. Today I had a beautiful cake, it had coconut shedding thingies and frosting and lots of layers and it has a sparkler thing that took a long time to go out. I’d say even five minutes. Here is a picture of the cake:

I woke up this morning and we had a lot of work to do before we left the kibbutz. Now we are at the Albright and the cook and my friend Hisham made the cake for me. He is very nice and here is a picture of him:

Today was a nice day. Tomorrow we go to the Israel Museum, and we leave Jerusalem for home on Thursday. In 48 hours we’ll be at the airport.

During a typical day on the dig, we wake up at 4:30, get ready, and leave for the tell in a van that leaves at 5 AM. We leave on the first van. When we are on site we work from 5 AM to 8:30 when we have breakfast. Then we work from 9 AM until 11 AM when it is fruit break. Then from 11:15 until 1 PM we work, then at 1 we come back to the kibbutz for lunch. While we work we use petiches, trowels, and pick axes to rip up the ground and dirt. Brushes and dust pans are used to pick up the dirt, and we use wheel barrels to haul it and dump it. Any pottery we find goes into a pottery bucket. If we find any beads or important things they go into separate bags. If we find very important pieces of pottery or something else than we take pictures of it. While we take a picture we have to sweep really well and make sure there are no foot prints and we have to get all the dirt out. Pictures are annoying but it is nice to look at them and remember that time. The pictures I take with my dad’s camera are just of people working. Many of my pictures are here on my blog and on flickr. We give each pottery bucket a locus number and a bucket number. Then we take the pottery to Sherry who is in charge of recording it. Then we wash the pottery. Barbara reads the pottery and John puts it in the computer. Tomorrow we are sweeping the square all day for the final photo which is on Friday and it is a lot of work. It is very hot and we can’t have a shade cloth. Oh well, we’ll be able to manage.