Archaeological Digs and Historical Hikes!

 This is my goal: More frequent, shorter posts! I hope this works out!

This week has been quite a busy adventure, and totally wonderful! Having just gotten back from Galilee, we just jumped right back into a crazy, hectic, fun, exciting schedule! We had normal classes on Monday and Tuesday, but then Wednesday- Friday, we got to go on an archaeological dig! Some of the IBEX students are actually in the archaeology class offered here, and they had to go to all three days of excavating. I, however, am not in the class, so I only went to the excavation on Wednesday and Thursday. Having never excavated anything before, it was a completely new and exciting experience for me, and despite its challenges, I really enjoyed it!

The Western Wall

The site we excavated at was actually just in our backyard; it's one of the hilltops we can see through the window of our cafeteria as we're eating our meals! We took a bus from Yad HaShmonah and it only took us like 5 to 10 minutes to get there. The site is called Khirbet Eres, and the excavator is actually the author of the archaeology class's text book. His name is Ami Mazar. The site was very small compared to other archaeology sites we've been to. Mazar had already started excavations on the site and believed that it was some sort of Persian military fortress from the time period of Ezra and Nehemiah. There is no evidence of a massive destruction, so it probably just ended up being abandoned. The site had three main areas of excavation:
1.The Western Wall: Mazar had already uncovered much of the remains of a wall on the western side of the fortress. One team of students concentrated their work there, removing more dirt from around the wall, and collecting pottery as they went.

Sarah found a whole rim in one of the rooms!

2. The rooms: There were 2 rooms that were pretty well uncovered before we got there. The students working in that area got to dig deeper in order to find the floor of the rooms. They found some amazing things in their efforts, since they were so close to the floor. They found fully in tact pottery handles, and even a full rim of a pot, as well as some brass nails, a broken stone wash basin, and a warped sling stone. They had a lot of fun!
3. The ...... well we're not sure what it is: This is where I dug! We got to start completely from scratch! When we got to the site, Mazar said he believed that there was a wall in the southern corner of the site, and asked us to find it! So we started by hacking away some bushes, throwing some rocks over the edge of the site, and then digging and moving more rocks as we went! We found lots of pottery (as everyone else did too) and even found some huge stones that look like they could have been part of a wall. As we were trying to theorize about where the wall was or could be, Mazar joked with us, "In archaeology, 2 stones next to each other is almost a wall, and 3 stones next to each other is definitely a wall." Archaeology is a funny thing ... it was hard for me to see everything come together, because to me, it just looked like a bunch of rocks! But that being said, it was definitely exciting to try to figure things out. Plus, we found dozens of scorpions along the way! That certainly added an aspect of excitement and danger to our efforts!

Katie and I were particularly dirty after
excavating mystery site number 3!

I really did enjoy the archaeological excavations, but I have to say, I wouldn't want to make a career out of it. It was fun to get super filthy and dirty, and it was fun to try to recreate history with all the evidence we were finding, but it was hard work! But in all honesty ... who can say that they helped on an archaeological dig of a site dating back to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah in Israel? The opportunities we have here are so amazing!

Friday was a free day for me, which was a total blessing. I got a lot done and just got to relax!

Recognize this wall? :) 

Then on Saturday, it was back to the craziness! Five IBEXers and I actually decided to go on a hike on Saturday morning before going to church in Jerusalem. We are all taking a class called Regional Studies, which is basically a hiking class that studies the intricacies of the geography of the Bible, and one of the requirements for the class is to plan and go on a hike of your own. So, we planned a hike right in the hills behind Yad HaShmonah, and decided to do it early in the morning before leaving for church. We left at 6 am, hiked down into the Nahal Yitlah behind our campus, and up the ridge of the next mountain. Those paths were not very well marked, so we definitely had to do some bush whacking! But we had a map and knew the general direction we needed to go in, so it all worked out in the end! Once we got to the ridge, we went to Bet Tul, where there were some ruins. The excavation site has been well preserved, and even turned into a park! We walked along the ridge, around Khirbet Eres where we excavated with Ami Mazar, and we decided to hike up to the site just to see it again and take some pictures. Then we finished the hike by walking through Abu Ghosh, the Arab village near our campus. It was a really fun hike, and it was so nice to be out and around early in the morning! It was beautiful, and nice and cool outside. We had such a good time, and even got class credit for it! We showered real fast and got ready for the day, and then spent Shabbat in Jerusalem!

 Today (Sunday) our regional studies class went on a hike in the Sorek Valley! This is the valley where Samson was born, and where many events in his life took place. We started out at Zorah, where Samson was born, and where the Spirit of the Lord first moved upon him, and we ended at Timnah, where he met his first Philistine wife. The hike was a pretty easy walk once we got down into the valley. It still blows me away that I get to hike in these places where such ancient history took place! I remember reading these stories as a child, and now I get to experience them more! I get to understand how long it would have taken for Samson to travel between his home in Zorah, to Timnah where his wife was. I get to experience the deep valleys and canyons of the land, and understand why cities were generally built on hills and ridges, rather than in the valleys (except for Timnah, which was built in the depths of the Sorek Valley because of the rich agriculture). This is such a wonderful experience! I'm loving every bit of it!