The first week of our TeHEP Jordan dig is now over. It takes a few days to get a dig started: including laying out the squares on our grid, running the controlling string lines, establishing elevation points, getting all the tools inventoried and divided up for each field, training new diggers and, oh yeah, actually starting to dig.
I don’t want to brag, but…guess whose square had the best find of week one!?!? My team is digging in a much disturbed plowed field where we have excavated the stone foundation of a Bronze Age temple (maybe 3,800 years old). To continue uncovering it, we are digging through lots of churned up disintegrated sundried mudbricks.
On Tuesday, Dr. Joe Holden and I were digging through some very loose and soft disintegrated mudbrick material and were finding lots of broken pottery pieces. The dirt was then being sifted to check for any small finds, like jewelry or beads.
In the sifting process, Joe’s son, Ian, spotted a “miniature” juglet in the dirt we had dug. Dated to about 2000 BC, it was less than 2 inches high and 1 inch wide and was over 95% complete. Somehow, Joe and I completely missed it!
That was embarrassing, but Ian saved the day and we got the award for the week – an extra dessert Friday night! Can’t wait to see what we will find next week.
Still Working it One Day at a Time,
Pastor Gary Byers
Spiritual Life Director