Patience, Futility and Discovery

Notes: A few more pictures posted in the “Israel: Tel Kabri” album.

Day to Day: 17-26 July 2011

 

“Go brush that baulk and make it look nice and neat!” Off I run to use the bottom part of a stiff-bristled broom to brush dirt away, pick it up in a dustpan, and fill a bucket (or two or ten). What am I brushing the dirt from? More dirt, or maybe rocks. “Cleaning up” in archaeology means get as much dirt away from the dirt or rocks as possible.

“Hmmm, articulate those stones there, but make sure you don’t move anything!” Off I go with a pointy trowel, soft brush, a dustpan and a bucket (or two, or ten) in order to “articulate” an area. To articulate is to clean it up, maybe dig around it and get the clotted dirt out, or order to allow us to see what’s emerging. It’s slow work, because you have to be careful not to remove the very evidence you’re trying to clarify. Also, you don’t want to scratch or break some of the stuff you’re articulating, like pottery or plaster or even certain stone things, like orthostats (an upright stone, in our case, which shows the architectural outline of the building).

“Here’s a bag of dirt, pick through it and see if there are any bones inside.” With a small paintbrush in hand, I flick aside dirt, leaves, flint, pottery, shells and rocks to try to find tiny pieces of bone. I’ve gotten better at this throughout the last few weeks, able to spot them more easily, but still… there are hundreds of bags of dirt to go through.

“Those pieces of pottery you found today? Wash them off, we might want to keep some of them.” The chunks of pottery, large or small, which are dug up during the excavation are put in buckets and tracked carefully. We “wash” them with water and bits of sponge while sitting in a circle of chairs under the trees near our accommodations. Sometimes, what looked like pottery in the field is really just rock. When we’re done washing each piece, we put them in boxes out in the sun to dry. Later, more experienced people go through to determine if they’re worth further analysis. For the most part, they’re not, for a variety of reasons, and so they’re thrown away.

“Did you seriously just find a ______?!” It’s always fun when you hold something up, something you’ve dug out of the ground and which looks either odd or interesting in shape, color or texture, and the supervisor squints at it, asking you this question. The first week I found a piece of painted plaster, something they later determined to be a piece of wall plaster in an area not assumed to have had such a thing. The second week the find was a neolithic hand axe, a stone with clearly defined edges and symmetric shape. And this third week, the day excavation was supposed to wind down, someone found a new orthostat amid a section of masses of broken potter and more plaster. The finds and resulting excitement (or confusion) makes the futility and tests of patience absolutely worthwhile.

The past three weeks have been fun and educational and instructive… but I’m fairly sure that archaeology is not where my future lies. I just don’t have the patience – for the futility of most of the digging tasks, for learning all the history to be effective, etc – or the excitement that I’ve watched in the other volunteers and students here. It would be interesting to follow what happens at Tel Kabri and maybe even come back to volunteer again.

Meanwhile, I have pondered what to do with the rest of my time here in Israel, which will be about two weeks after this program is over. My general plan is to take a cooking class, visit Jerusalem, travel down to Mitzpe Ramon and hike for a day, visit Nahariya again, and visit some friends in between. Then, I’m off to Turkey for four days before heading to Nepal to see Ngima, with whom I e-mail daily still. We’re looking forward to seeing each other again and seeing how things go between us. I’m nervous, excited, ready to go… as usual!

--Z