Old Things

Note: New picture album soon to be uploaded! “Israel: Tel Kabri Archaeological Dig.” Also, please visit www.telkabri2011blog.wordpress.com for daily links to pictures taken by one of the directors, most of which you can find me in, somewhere!

Day to Day: 12-16 July 2011

 

My right hand hurts, my lower back aches and all in all, I’m feeling like a feeble 31-year-old! I suppose it should be no surprise after a week of wielding a pick-axe and a hoe for hours on end, after a week of hauling bucket after bucket of dirt and rocks, after a week of either sitting or standing bent over, scrabbling in the dirt for pieces of pottery or plaster or flint. Still, the feeble feeling that has followed really has me down in the dumps! I can’t grasp a knife in my hand, or curl it more than halfway into a fist. I’ve never had arthritis or tendonitis, but I imagine this is what it feels like.

Not to mention the tiredness and exhaustion that kept me in bed, on and off, for over twelve hours yesterday. Yikes! I mean, thirty-one isn’t old, right? But I certainly feel that way! Luckily, Paula, a childhood friend of my mom’s, and her family have welcomed me into their Nahariya home as if I’m one of them. It’s so nice to have a place to call home and a family to chat and joke and eat and walk with, who don’t mind if I laze the day away. And Paula, with her quick smiles and cheerful outlook, makes all the aches and pains and feebleness seem ok (as long as it doesn’t last too long).

Some of the pain is worth it, though: on Thursday, I made the end-of-week big find. The day before, Jeff, another volunteer, and I were lowering a square of earth. That is, we’d take a “pass” by pick-axing away a layer of dirt, then use the turiyah (or hoe) to gather the loose soil into buckets. Pass by pass, the area we were working got lower and lower. We found bits and pieces of pottery and flint on the way and finally reached a point where we were told to use a petiche (or small hand pick-axe) to continue digging more gently. Eventually we reached a plaster floor, which was expected. Our job Thursday morning was to see how far the plaster floor went. So we were on our knees or butts, using the petiches and trowels and brushes and dust pans to loosen the soil, clear it away and find the floor. We found an edge and kept going to see if it was just a gap in the floor, as had been found elsewhere on site.

Then it picked out a piece that seemed to be a chunk of plaster, or maybe pottery. I brushed it off and was about to toss it into our “finds” bucket, when I noticed the bright red on one side.

“Oooh! Is this painted pottery?” I asked Laurel, a girl digging out a pit nearby. She held out her hand to take a look, although even painted pottery is nothing unusual. Before she’d gotten a close look, though, she said, “Isn’t that plaster?” Soon we’d called over the supervisors and they in turn eyeballed the piece and in turn took it over to the directors, who were conducting a site tour. It turns out that the piece I’d found is big news: painted wall plaster. The fact that I found it in an area that seems to be a robber’s pit (where some stones are missing) is frustrating, but everyone was excited nonetheless. Woohoo! Next week I will continue digging in the same place and hopefully come across more of the painted plaster.

If I’m able to hold a trowel, that is…

--Z