Archaeologists excavate ancient sites very carefully in 5×5 meter squares, trying to identify each soil layer as we go down. We work systematically and attempt to find how things connect in that layer.
In our site’s domestic complex, just inside of and associated with the ancient city wall, I have excavated a number of house walls but not clearly identified the beaten earth floor associated with them. That’s want I was after this year at Tall el-Hammam.
Outside my square was evidence of 3 walls to a room and my job was to find the 4th and the floor connected to them all. While this housing complex has been dated to somewhere around 2000 BC, many walls have been identified virtually right under the surface. Believe it or not, our floor was less than a foot below the present ground level.
What showed up first was a number of stone “installations” sitting on the floor. There was a small circle of 9 stones, a large flat stone “table,” another small boulder with a circular hole in its center. Each set in place by circles of smaller cobble stones.
Then there was pottery and other stuff associated with the floor. We found a whole juglet, a bone bead (which I smashed while cleaning!), a ceramic roulette seal and a broken pot with a bull’s head staring right up at us!
I got my floor – but it was a good life lesson for me. I needed to go a little slower to get what I really wanted. In fact, they are still working at it now, while I am back here at home. God has some amazing things ahead for us all, but we better to be prepared for it to take a while.
One Layer at a Time,
Pastor Gary Byers
Spiritual Life Director