Mt Zion Day One…
It is already Sunday afternoon here in Israel. We just completed our first day of digging at the Mt.Zion site. It has been a most wonderful and successful day. We have a exceptionally dedicated and hard working group of Team members/volunteers, ranging from my students to several adults, including two gentlemen in their 70s, who, by the way, work as hard as any of us! We worked seven hours today, expecting to perhaps remove from three to five bags of soil–but as the photo shows, we ended up clearing out sixteen (yes, 16!) ballasts or soil bags. I can not remember when I have seen a team work with such enthusiasm and excitement. We had quite a few visitors to the site today, including a well known German film crew. Our task today was mainly just to clear vegetation, trim things down, remove rocks, and get the site ready for this season. We also inaugurated, under the incredible supervision of Egon Lass, taking down the upper areas of the site, so we can eventually dig in sequence. These areas were left from the 1978 digging and are from the Turkish period. Everything needs to be brought down to the Byzantine level, then and only then we will move along to the Roman/Herodian period, that lies in places just under our feet. More to come, including pictures…