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18th July 2013

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TME Area C in action, with Tel Megiddo in the background.

Looking back on our four intensive weeks of excavation at Tel Megiddo East, our team'sefforts this season have considerably improved our understanding of the Early Bronze Agesettlement that we have now been excavating for three seasons. Altogether, 47 squares havebeen excavated in Area C, providing an exposure of more than 650 m2 of the EB Ib settlementcontemporary with the Great Temple on Tel Megiddo, about only 350 m away.

Tel Megiddo East Wrap­up

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Digging JVRP style: topsoil to bedrock in a few days anddocumenting everything using the latest innovations.

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The interior of Building 3, including patches of plaster floorand a large basalt pillar base in the exact center of the room.

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One of the major difficulties we have experienced in Area C has been the poor quality ofpreservation of the archaeological material due to exposure, erosion, and its shallow depthrelative to the surface. Following the 2012 season, we hoped to find better preservation bycontinuing upslope on the mound toward the east and north. Luckily for us, this plan paid off,providing us with the best preservation to date.

The most noteworthy discovery in TME this season were three over­imposed buildingsrepresenting three major architectural phases. Each of the buildings is typical of the period,being rectangular in shape (measuring ca. 10.5 x 6 m) with rounded external corners and anopen interior space. The earliest phase represents what appears to be the earliest activity onthis part of the mound, and comprises Building 1 built into the lowest depressions of thenatural bedrock. In the following phase, architectural activity expanded on top of the bedrockto the east and south, on which Building 2 was constructed (partly above Building 1) together

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Nadia carefully articulating the plaster floor of Building 2.

with a large external area to the east consisting of both paved and plastered surfaces built onbedrock. In the final phase, Building 3 was constructed partly above Building 2, apparently re­using much of the external surfaces of the previous phase as its floors.

The two latest buildings also featured rooms subsequently added to the original buildings,essentially lengthening each structure. Furthermore, the latest two buildings, which were bestpreserved, demonstrated plastered and/or paved floors, as well as pillar bases. On theexterior of these buildings were spaces we presently refer to as "streets", which basicallyconsist of many types of refuse, most notably many bones and flint artifacts. These stratifieddeposits may help our understanding of the activities that occurred within the proximity ofthese buildings across a number of distinct phases.

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[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/­2g9VnoFbtyg/UebfOD0kzlI/AAAAAAAAAEM/O0CubBkKVwM/s1600/IMG_3346_cropped.jpg]The eastern wall of Building 3 (in the upper left) and a room

later added to the east (center and right).

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PXRF in action: Rob and Baruch discussing the study of sediments.

One of the research initiatives undertaken this season was the use of a PXRF (Portable X­Ray Fluorescence) device to analyze a number of different materials. By providing theelemental make­up of materials, the PXRF provided great preliminary results for a few studiesat TME. In a collaboration with our flint expert, Roni Shimelmitz, we are studying theassemblage of Canaanean blades from TME in order to determine the correlation betweenraw materials, manufacture techniques, and possible workshops from which the inhabitants ofTME acquired such artifacts. In another collaboration with Baruch Rosen, we are studying theviability of using PXRF to identify patterns of trace elements in sediments relating to period­specific metallurgical activities, using TME and Legio as single­period case studies.

Altogether, this was an exceptionally fruitful season at TME. Our staff and volunteers workedharder than ever, which allowed us to make important new discoveries. We experienced greatresults using our new database system, while also continuing to develop our methods for total

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digital documentation both in the field and back in the dig office. All of these aspectscombined to facilitate what I believe to be our most efficient and effective excavation seasonthus far. Many thanks to all who participated!

~ Rob

Posted 18th July 2013 by Robert S Homsher

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15th July 2013

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Now that the season is over and we've had some time to mull over our exciting work at TelMegiddo East and Legio, we'll put together a couple of final blog posts to wrap things up.Watch for a post from Rob Homsher about Tel Megiddo East and one from myself concerningLegio. The purpose of this particular post is to publicize our new community outreachprogram that we initiated with the two­week Legio dig.

JVRP Outreach at Legio

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Yodfat students at Legio

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Furrows members at Legio

This season the JVRP teamed up with the Moshav Yotfat[http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%99%D7%95%D7%93%D7%A4%D7%AA] in the Galilee to provide adig experience for 14­ to 17­year­old students of the anthroposophy[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophy] school. The students worked with us at Legio in twogroups. The older group (16­17­year­olds) came from July 1 through 4; the younger (14­15­year­olds) came from July 8 through 11. JVRP staff and students had a wonderful timeteaching these young folks the basics of archaeological excavation. The whole group was funand energetic, and everyone had a great time! Thanks to school organizer Doron for makingthis happen!

This season the JVRP also partnered with local disability services organization Furrows[http://www.disability­services.net/tlamim/index.php] to allow special needs individuals to participatein the excavations at Legio. Furrows is a rehabilitation farm located at Kibbutz Megiddo whichengages its special needs members in agricultural enterprise. Through the hard work of theprogram coordinators Tzvika and Gali participants are endowed with a sense ofindependence, cooperation, and empowerment. We are grateful to our new friends from

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Furrows and especially to Tzvika for suggesting this wonderful collaboration. For moreinformation visit their website at: http://www.disability­services.net/tlamim/index.php[http://www.disability­services.net/tlamim/index.php]

Both of these new outreach initiatives were successful the JVRP plans to incorporate thesetypes of activities into future field seasons. Our team learned very quickly that that sharing ourarchaeological experiences with the local communities brought a new relevance to our work.

From all of us at the JVRP ­ thanks!­mja

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Older group of Yodfat students at the end of their week of excavation.

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Melissa explains the art of fine tools to a Yodfat student.

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Yotam explains Roman glass to Gali and Ashraf of Furrows.

Posted 15th July 2013 by Matthew J. Adams

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5th July 2013 שלום/سالم

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A morning at Legio

Inmost languages the vocabulary includes a word that means both hello and goodbye forItalian this word is ‘Ciao’ and in Dutch it is ‘Dag’. In Israel a similar word exists; in Hebrew it isShalom, in Arabic Salaam. The literal translation for the word is ‘peace’, ‘well­being’ or‘completeness’, but more abstractly it is a word that signifies a beginning or an ending. I thinkthis word perfectly sums up how I feel about the end of the dig season.The Jezreel Valley Regional Project was a beginning for me as it marks my first trip to theMiddle East. Although much of my research at university has concentrated around this area,all my previous digs had been in Europe. The experience I gained, not only in methods ofexcavation in this area but also of the cultural background of the area, through weekendtravel and living on the Kibbutz have been entirely worthwhile. My favourite thing about doingarchaeology in other countries has always been that you learn so much about their society,both past and present. This dig was especially great in this aspect as we came in contact withtwo significant periods in Israel’s past: the Roman period and the Early Bronze Age.

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Our final day of digging

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The final award ceremonyMine was the award for the best management of teenage boys

This field school was also the first chance I got to teach archaeology to people who had notreally come in contact with the subject before. Scotland has community projects, but thesemostly involve training sessions before the archaeological team arrives and thus thevolunteers can work almost independently with minimal supervision from the field team. TheJVRP outreach project was a unique experience as my supervisor allowed me to manage myown team and help explain the importance of our research to them. I personally thought thiswas one of the most rewarding aspects of the season; not only because I happened to get thebest volunteers of the entire group, but also because it gave me a different perspective onwhat my role was in the project not just as a worker but an aide in disseminating informationabout archaeology and the excavation to a wider public.

The greeting aspect of the word is covered under the new people that I met while on my dighere. The JVRP brought together a group of volunteers and supervisors varied vastly in age,experience and nationality, each with their own talent and contribution to the excavation. Iwould love to say we all got along all the time, but anyone who has ever lived in closequarters with a group of people for more than 2 weeks know that is pretty much impossible.

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BBQ preparations

However, I definitely think we ended up with a great group and everyone left with a few fondmemories of our time together. I have certainly made a few friends that I hope to keep intouch with long after leaving Israel. I am actually visiting two of them this week, on their dig inCyprus, proving that goodbye doesn’t have to mean forever.

Ofcourse with every hello there must at some point follow a goodbye. Although people havebeen coming and going throughout the season, the BBQ last night and the few hours we hadbefore the bus left this morning were really the final moments of farewells. It was not only ourlast day on site, leaving the project we had been working on for the past few weeks, but alsothe staff and our colleagues. After a lot of hugs and parting blessings, it was time to go home.Now sitting in the departure lounge, I am ready to start the next leg of my journey. So as Ibegan this post, so will I end it. I say farewell to Israel, Megiddo, Legio and the JVRP.Shalom

­ Annelies

Posted 5th July 2013 by Annelies Van de Ven

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28th June 2013 JVRP at Legio

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Megiddo/Legio region showing the hill of el­Manach

This week marked the beginning of a new chapter in the JVRP's effort to engage in andpromote regional archaeology, as we began excavations at the site of Legio. The site of Legiolies just south of Tel Megiddo where a variety of archaeological remains hint at the location ofthe lost camp of the Roman VIth Legion Ferrata [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legio_VI_Ferrata] .

Historical sources indicate that the VIth Legio established a permanent camp here in the 2ndCentury CE, but no one has yet excavated or been able to prove exactly where in the areathe camp was located.

Yotam Tepper [http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/people­and­groups.html#toppeople] hasworked in this area for about years surveying and studying the finds. In the course of his MAand PhD work at Tel Aviv University, he proposed that the camp was located in the agriculturalfield known as el­Manach. This season, Yotam and the JVRP have teamed up to test thishypothesis. If he's right and we locate the camp archaeologically, it will be the first time in thearchaeology of the Roman Empire that a Roman camp of this period has been excavated inthe Eastern half of the Empire!

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The hill of el­Manach showing the linear gullies that might be a moat.

The hill of el­Manach shows some exciting topographical features that hint at the presence ofthe Roman camp. Note the large rectangle formed by gullies on 3 of four sides of the hill.Yotam has hypothesized that these gullies represent a fosse, or moat, which surrounded thecamp. On the basis of the moats, we might estimate that the camp measures 250m by 250m,a good size for a normal legionary camp! Over the last couple of years Yotam and the JVRPhave conducted Ground Penetrating Radar and Electromagnetic testing of the northern half ofthe hill to see what it could tell us about archaeological material beneath the surface (seeonline reports here [http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/2010­winter­season.html] ), and wewere all excited by hints that something large and complex lay beneath the surface. Could itbe the Roman camp Yotam's been looking for?!

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Yotam formally (and gleefully) opening the first locus at Legio.

OnJune 23rd, the JVRP moved its operation from Tel Megiddo East to el­Manach to test thehypothesis that this is the location of the 2nd/3rd Century Camp of the Roman VIth Legion.The excavation is directed by Yotam Tepper with the cooperation of the JVRP. The JVRP mainrepresentative is Assistant Director, Jonathan David, supported by the JVRP Director, yourstruly.

Stay tuned for updates!

Matthew

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First sunrise over the JVRP Legio Excavations!

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[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/­42HY9nZ9frU/Uc1RfaE1A1I/AAAAAAABGQk/GLnVuvC9ntM/s1600/IMG_4249.JPG]Stephanie and Tricia layout the first squares.

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Breaking ground at Legio 2013.

Posted 28th June 2013 by Matthew J. Adams

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28th June 2013 Director's Post 2

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Nadia instructing students on the basics of illustration.

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Gene halls is 1500th bucket. Way to go Gene!

Bythe end of Week 2, the JVRP season at Tel Megiddo East was in full swing! The volunteersand students have come a long way in our short time together, and many of them havebecome highly skilled and efficient machines! Our educational program[http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/educational­program.html] , which includes a wide varietyof hands­on skill tutorials, is working superbly in its revamped 2013 configuration. It's moreintense than previous seasons, and the results are already tangible ­ many of the studentsare playing important roles processing flotation and samples, georectifying images forphotogrammetry [http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/practical­uses­for­photogrammetry­on­archaeological­excavations.html] , assisting with our RTI initiative, and everyone has developedfield skills for sectioning, planning, excavating floors, and, of course, hauling dirt!

Speaking of hauling dirt, in the 4 weeks, our students and volunteers excavated 20+ squaresfrom surface to bedrock, moving an astounding amount of dirt! We have known since the firstseason here that many of the archaeological features of the EB I are located below 50­75 cmof topsoil. The topsoil has yielded some interesting data about the modern taphonomicprocesses and roman­ottoman use of the site (including agricultural terraces), so we have

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Pillar base and plaster floor in our late EB Ib Building 2.

been reluctant to use mechanical means to clear down to the EB I (see our earlier reports[http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/tel­megiddo­east.html] on this). Therefore, all topsoilmust be excavated by hand.

This hard work has paid off, however. This season at Tel Megiddo East has been our mostproductive yet for understanding the EB I town associated with the Great Temple. We nowhave two complete domestic units as well as compacted garbage from streets surroundingthe buildings. Already it's clear that these areas were the focus of lithic production, and ourspecialist, Ron Shimelmitz, is eagerly awaiting the study of this exciting assemblage. Watchfor our end of season report [http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/tel­megiddo­east.html]complete with architectural plans and detailed report of our discoveries.

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Visiting with our friends and neighbors, the Jezreel Expedition

I'm also thrilled by the great interest our excavation has generated with friends, colleagues,and the local community. We were fortunate to host visits by representatives of the IAA,including Jon Seligman and Norman Getzov, as well as friends from the Ein al­JarbaExcavation Project [http://eineljarba.wordpress.com/] , including Director Katharina Streit, andthe Jezreel Expedition [http://www.jezreel­expedition.com/] , including Directors Norma Franklinand Jennie Ebeling. We also had a visit from Belgian independent film­maker, Emmanuel Vander Auwera. In his search for his next story, he visited Megiddo to ask about the enduringphenomena of apocalyptic thought and Armageddon in the modern world.

We had a wonderful season at Tel Megiddo East ­ new data and new questions will bring usback here in future seasons, for sure! Thanks to all of this years students, volunteers, andstaff!

But that's not the end of JVRP 2013 ­ on to the Roman Camp at Legio... stay tuned!

Matthew

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JVRP Tel Megiddo East 2013 Team.

Join our Facebook group [https://www.facebook.com/groups/jvrp2011/] to follow along withpersonal and official updates on the season!

Posted 28th June 2013 by Matthew J. Adams

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27th June 2013 A Legion of Volunteers

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The newest innovation in bucket­running

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A brick­stamp saying LEG V[I FERR]

This week we moved across the road from Tel Megiddo East and broke ground on our newsite: Legio. We soon found out that it wasn’t just the site that was changing but the entireexcavation was getting a bit of a makeover. An additional director was introduced: YotamTepper, who specializes in the Roman occupation of the Megiddo area. He gave us our firstlecture on the site, explaining the initial process of locating an area of excavation. The choicewas based on a combination of historic sources, place­name analysis, studying aerialphotographs and maps, the statistical mapping of finds and tracing Roman infrastructure likeroads and aqueducts. We have yet to see how the features uncovered in our squares fit intothis theory, but I am sure that once we have them all planned out we will be able to makemore sense of the site and see how it may interact with the original idea of a legionary camp.

Another change was the addition of about 15 field­workers, and more after the breakfast

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[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/­6GEaQDrhTDM/Ucwo_jruZJI/AAAAAAAAAEk/StSSjM2SDaM/s1600/DSC00117.JPG]All 3 volunteers pick­axing the next pass

break. Most of the helpers are from Moshav Yodfat, a youth group residing nearby for thesummer. We got 1 extra pairs of hands in my square on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I gotassigned a new square with 4 different teens on Thursday and Friday. So far my square­mates have all been fun to work with and quite keen to talk about the project. We've hadbucket­carrying competitions, singing in the square, and talk of Game of Thrones. The workhas been pretty rough this week, especially considering the topsoil in these squares is bakedinto a dry compact mass, but the volunteers have been ploughing on nonetheless, and haveuncovered enclosing walls of a room in my square. Besides aiding us in the actual diggingprocess they have also taught me a bit of basic Hebrew and introduced us to some popularIsraeli music, my personal favourite being Balkan Beat Box. The extra help meant that wecould open a whopping 12 squares in just one week, as they have practically doubled ourworkforce, a definite benefit on a site that has a 2 week expiration date this season.

Since the Romans were a more metal heavy society in comparison to our Bronze Agepeoples, the final novelty on site has been the inclusion of metal detecting to the excavationprocess. There are three separate aspects to this, detecting in the squares, on the dump pileand as a survey technique throughout the general area. A number of finds have beenuncovered over the past few days although only a small percentage appear to be of Romanorigin. In a brief moment of lighthearted merriment, a member of my square hid a metalbracelet in our recently pick­axed dirt. Needless to say the metal detector started bleeping likecrazy when it passed over the pile only to find an object that had probably been bought at astore less than a year earlier. The joke was met with a giggle followed by a tut­tut­ting fromthe supervisors. The ‘artefact’ was promptly bagged and tagged to the surprise of the owner,but eventually returned.

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Legio day 1

Thus far Legio has proven to be quite an interesting site; it will be interesting to see how itsstory unfolds throughout the next week…

­ Annelies

Posted 27th June 2013 by Annelies Van de Ven

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26th June 2013Last week we closed up excavation for the season at Tel Megiddo East. In a month we

excavated fifteen squares, some all the way down to bedrock. By the end of the month Ineeded a ladder to get out of most squares. By now I’m sure you’re excitedly asking yourself,“Whatever did they find?” Well, here is a brief summary of the finds highlights: We found two early bronze (the period on which we were focused) buildings, possiblyhouses or workplaces. Inside one building there was some plaster flooring and outside of itwas some sort of cobble pavement. The first two squares in which I worked were full of this

Goodbye to TME

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pavement, which followed along outside of a wall of the building. There were also at least twoother squares with possible pavement, that I of course ended up excavating because I amapparently the Cobble Whisperer. In one of the cobble squares there appeared to be flooringover cobble over slightly smaller cobble, meaning that we might have actually found threeseparate surfaces from different occupational periods in one square. We dug through thepavement in the other square and found rubble from a possible road, and on the last day wehit a large rock that was probably the beginning of bedrock, which means we nearly dug thesquare as far as we could. For that square, as well as many others, we only did what’s calleda probe on the last few days. This means that we split the square in half and only dug in halfof it because we didn’t have time to go as deep in the full square. We also found a Roman quarry and some Roman terracing along with a decentamount of Roman and Byzantine pottery so, there was obvious occupation of the site duringthe Roman period. The site was assumed to cover Early Bronze 1 to the Roman period, butone sherd of pottery may have thrown the assumed timeline off a bit. One sherd ofmetalicware—named for the sound it makes when hit against other pottery—barely largerthan an oreo could actually have a major impact on changing our understanding of theoccupational timeline. So I suppose that proves that the one sherd you choose not to pick upcould be the one sherd that changes everything. It almost makes me dread pottery washingless. Almost.

I shall conclude my Tel Megiddo East blog with a series of pictures!

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This square had two walls, one original and one add­on abutting the original. It also hadcobble. We tore out the wall and picked through the cobble (NOT an easy task), proving thatarchaeology is DEFINITELY destructive by nature. In the section (the side part of the square),

you can see a nice white line that marks the cobble that I dug through. On the last day,literally minutes before the end of the day, we hit that nice big chunk of possible bedrock in

the middle of the probe. Way to hit rock bottom at the last possible second.

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This was my second square. That top layer is where I found cobble and was the level I left thesquare at. As you can see, they did a probe that went meters deeper and uncovered much

more of the wall.

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This a beautiful corner from the building we found in the East side of the area. Look howbeautifully articulated and intact it is!

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This is our first mound of dirt, with Isabelle standing in front of it for scale. And...

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This is me on top of our Eastern dirt pile. We moved all of this dirt bucket by bucket. Do yourealize how many buckets that is? It's A LOT. A lot, lot, lot of dirt. We all have some nice

forearms and callouses to prove it.

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This is another square I worked on, and you'll notice some articulated cobble in the lower rightcorner. Ridiculously soon after I joined the square, we found that cobble. I feel as though I've

spent half of my life articulating cobble. Cobble forever. Cobble for life.

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And finally, a picture of the very first square I ever excavated. We left it at the level we firstfound cobble, so it looks exactly the same as when I left it. The first square I opened and the

first square I closed. What an adventure it has been ever since.

Goodbye, Tel Megiddo East. I shall always remember you fondly. You gave me callouses,back aches, and many a­scrape (mostly from falling into baulks...), but I think I can definitelysay it was worth it. Shalom, dear friend.

Posted 26th June 2013 by Harley

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21st June 2013 Armageddon for Tel Megiddo East

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Shannon holding the broken pick­axe

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Kyle pick­axing in our half­square

Yesterday was the last day of digging in Tel Megiddo East this season. Everyone was quitehigh spirited in the morning, as is the norm on the last day before the weekend. In the squareI was working on we even had a canon of songs going on. It definitely made the digging go alot faster and kept us all entertained. We hit a bit of a snag when the pick snapped in halfbecause Kyle was hitting the dirt so hard. It was actually a pretty amazing feat, I havepersonally never seen that happen, admittedly sometimes the metal end comes off but I havenever seen the wood split before. The work became slightly more frantic after our breakfastas we only had 3 hours to close all the open loci (a unit of archaeological material). It wasextremely tiring but we got it done and managed to hit bedrock or plastered floors in mostsquares. It was definitely an odd feeling leaving the site at the end of the morning, clearingout all the equipment, saying our good­byes to the squares we had been working on for thepast 4 weeks, knowing they would be covered in weeds by next season. Who knows maybethe JVRP will continue that area in seasons to come, possibly even reopen some of ourunfinished areas.

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The truck being loaded up

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Packing up the shade

This weekend the field archaeologists have the mammoth task of wading through all the fieldnotes, registers and photos and inputting the information into the new database system. It is alot of hard work but definitely worth it when you see how thorough and organized the finishedproduct is. I never really appreciated how much administration work goes into an excavationimmediately after all the fieldwork is done. I have always seen the post­excavation process asa long­term unhurried part of a project, but now that we have a second site in the sameseason the bulk of it needs to be done and packed up at a breakneck pace. I guess thepositive side to this situation is that all the information is still fresh in the supervisors’ mindswhen they are doing the processing. We volunteers are helping out in any way we can, doingflotation, pottery washing and bone washing. Everything needs to be processed and out of theway for the new site.

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Weekend work

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Last time seeing the Tel Megiddo East site

From next week onwards we head over to Legio to dig up, what we hope to be, the camp ofthe 6th Legion of the Roman Imperial Army. For those of you who did not know, the wordArmageddon is thought to derive from the name of the Megiddo tell itself. Rather than beingthe site of the literal end of the world, it is now commonly thought to refer to the site of theprophesied fall of the Roman Empire and the end of oppression for the Judean people. In thissense it would be describing the last stand of the Roman army in the Holy Land at the campof the sixth legion. If this is the case then technically our excavations at Legio would beuncovering the true site of ‘Armageddon’… Which makes it all sound so much more exciting.

­ Annelies

Posted 21st June 2013 by Annelies Van de Ven

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18th June 2013For my mid­season blog, I thought I would regale you with a few things I’ve learned in thepast three weeks:

1. Gloves with a little padding are your best friend. I bought regular gardening gloves(for kids, because I have ridiculously small hands) that have padding along all theareas people normally get blisters. In three weeks I think I’m the only one who has yetto blister and am instead working on some nice, painless callouses.2. You will never have enough water. If you think you’re drinking enough water, drinktwice as much. There is nothing worse than waking up dehydrated before the dayeven starts.3. You know how the second you learn a new word or phrase, you begin hearing iteverywhere? The same thing is true for cobble. I found it in my first square, and havenow found it in every square I’ve worked in since. In three weeks I have becomesomething of an expert on excavating cobble.4. Everything is worse when you’re in the sun. Apparently the majority of digs don’thave shades to cover their squares. I think that this is insane. Whenever I’ve beenunlucky enough to be in a square just outside the reach of the shade or to be runningbuckets in the sun, I have felt immensely more exhausted and overworked than anyother time. One of the absolute best things about the JVRP is the shade. Love theshade. Cherish the shade. Respect the shade.5. Everyone has their thing. Terria­ing is easier on the arms but hard on the lowerback; picking is rough on the arms but fairly OK on the back; bucket running is a bitmore aerobic and hard on the arms. It turns out that I don’t mind picking but hatedoing the other two. While it’s always good to take some turns trying everything, inalmost every square I’ve found people who loved terria­ing and running buckets andwould let me take the majority of the picking. Everyone has their niche.6. The days are long, but the weeks are short. When you’ve been awake since 4 a.m.,dinner at 7 p.m. feels like a lifetime away. While the work goes by fairly quickly as longas your busy, it still feels like you’ve been awake for days by the time you crawl intobed. However, this is almost made up for by the fact that the weekend always seemsto sneak up on you. Before you know it, it’s Thursday and you have a full two and ahalf days to rest and recuperate.7. Archaeologists are probably some of the most entertaining, hard­working, and well­educated people you will ever meet. My education is in theology and religious studies,so until now I’m not sure I’d even met an archaeologist. Living with dozens of them forthree weeks, though, definitely has me considering changing my academic plans, ifnot for the field itself then definitely for the people.

Next week I will do a final summary of everything I’ve experienced, discovered, and learned atTel Megiddo East (don't worry, there will be lots of pictures). After that, we move to Legio, aRoman fort that we will excavate for the last two weeks. Hopefully I will have a lot to writeabout at the end of this week!

Posted 18th June 2013 by Harley

A Learning Experience

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16th June 2013

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Staff member Stephanie has a "teaching moment" in the field with Emily.

With the third week of excavation behind us, here at JVRP we have accomplished much morethan moving buckets and buckets full of dirt; JVRP’s 3­credit field school, run through theUniversity of Hawai’i, has now come to a close. During this time, our staff members have beenhard at work presenting daily lectures and tutorials about the archaeology and culture historyof the southern Levant. Focusing on methods of data collection, processing, and analysisboth in and out of the field, we have covered a wide range of topics from contexts,registration, note­taking, drawing, and photography in the field, to artifact illustration,zooarchaeological analysis, paleobotany, RTI, and pottery reading in the lab. In addition, wehave hosted much­anticipated lectures by local and international specialists on such issues asdomestic archaeology, lithics, osteology, geoarchaeology, and architecture. Special thanks toguest lecturers Dr. Ron Shimelmitz and Prof. Julye Bidmead for their very interesting andthought provoking presentations given this past week!

Reflecting on these busy few weeks, I am happy to report that JVRP’s newly designed fieldschool program has been a great success so far, due to the eager participation of the sixenrolled students as well as our dedicated teaching staff. Implementing and organizing theprogram has been a challenging yet rewarding endeavor. Not only have the enrolled studentsdirectly benefited from formally learning and practicing field and lab skills that will transfer tofuture excavations, but the rest of the volunteers have also been actively engaged duringtutorials and lectures. Needless to say, we now have a very accomplished field team allaround, which is the ultimate goal of every archaeological field school.

Educational Program

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Technical artist Nadia instructs Sethon the finer points of ceramic illustration.

Starting today and continuing during the next few weeks, the 6­credit students will learnadvanced archaeological methods and techniques, many of which are cutting­edgetechnological skills such as ArcGIS, AutoCAD, photogrammetry, digital illustration, and 3Dphotography, scanning and modeling. Staff members Adam Prins and Stephanie Steinkeprimarily will be teaching these tech­based topics. We also look forward to an upcoming guestlecture by Prof. Eric H.Cline, who will be talking about the battles of Megiddo. This lecture willbe particularly relevant as we wrap up our season at Tel Megiddo East. More to come in a fewweeks!

­Melissa

Classic Flipcard Magazine Mosaic Sidebar Snapshot Timeslide

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[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/­8Dkoq1_0­vg/Ub2­1JawcWI/AAAAAAAAACc/xhmB7_btUyA/s1600/IMG_0846.jpg]Rob leads a discussion on Early Bronze Age sherds at pottery reading.

Posted 16th June 2013 by Melissa Cradic

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14th June 2013

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EZ90

Film stars and farewells

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Matt pick­axing like a boss

The atmosphere this week has been pretty hectic to say the least. We closed a largeportion of the squares set up in week one, including our own square EZ91. Amidst thereconfiguration of workgroups and photogrammetry intermissions we all got to spend sometime with the other volunteers, rather than just our own square­mates. It was interesting tosee how different supervisors approached the excavation. You really do pick up a lot of trickswhen you hang out with different archaeologists. I now have the ability to level my pick­axepasses with relative ease if I make a mess the first time around, something that hadpreviously taken ages. I also had the chance to check out some of the interesting finds theyhad made. There were a few EB walls, plaster floors, cobbled streets and some stone ‘pillarbases’, which Matt promptly used as a plinth for Cyrus. Among the newly laid out squares wewere given EZ90 which already shows evidence of a wall. Matt says it shouldn’t be full of thesame pebbles as our former square, as it seems to be an EB storage room. I am just hopinghe is right so I don’t have to hack through a pile of tiny rocks!

A second element that added to the increased buzzing around site was theappearance of a Belgian film­maker on site. It was especially motivating for me to meet somepeople from my homeland, as I was finally able to speak Flemish to someone again for thefirst time in months, but the prospect of our dig site being in a film was exciting for everyone.Apparently they had just seen our site from atop the tel and decided to take a look. Whatresulted from this was a ton of digging footage, probably some images of us all eating lemonpopsicles and two interviews with Matt and Adam. Matt definitely seemed to be taking to hisrole as a Belgian movie star, and who knows he might just become the next Jean Claude VanDamme. With his pick­axing today I honestly would not be too surprised. Hopefully when themovie is actually produced we’ll all be able to get a hold of it so we can see what our dig lookslike to an outsider, and how we all look caked in dirt.

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The group trying to create shade

A final reason why this week was especially significant was of course the prospect ofhaving to say goodbye ­ not just to watching Game of Thrones on Tuesday nights but also toa bunch of our fellow volunteers. It is weird to think that next week there will be around 10less of us in the field, we have all grown quite close. Tonight is the farewell party since theairport bus is set to leave at 4 am tomorrow morning. As a true tribute to our time here we’llbe having falafel, because it is one of the most delicious things in all of Israel. Surprisingly abreak from schnitzel is not the thing I am looking forward to most, but actually the superlativesthe staff is giving the departing volunteers. It should make for a fun night, at least untilgoodbyes at 4...

­ Annelies

Posted 14th June 2013 by Annelies Van de Ven

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11th June 2013 Exciting Architecture

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Look, I actually used a trowel!While kneeling! Over suspiciously interesting­looking stones!

This past week has actually been pretty exciting. The first wall of the season (a continuation ofa previous one) was found in my square so we have eagerly been working to see what elsethe square has to offer. The work finally might have paid off. Slowly, our pickaxes began tooverturn a more and more dense sections of rock until we finally abandoned the axesaltogether for some nice on­all­fours patiche action. I’ve learned that contrary to popular loreand media portrayals of archaeology, it is really about 80% pickaxing and carting dirt and 20%picturesque hands­and­knees troweling and brushing. It’s exhausting, dirty, and often fairlyfruitless. But after a week and a half of carting dirt, I finally got to spend two days trowelingand brushing. I even got a few pictures of myself in the prime, stereotypical archaeologistpose. If only I had been wearing the perfect stereotypical archaeologist outfit (see picture ofMatt)….

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[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/­uBPX12wge5g/UbYI4yAUGlI/AAAAAAAAACs/vN85tjj_W70/s1600/matt.jpg]

Note the cargo short­belt­pocketed shirt combowith the boots and hint of white sock peeking out.

Every respectable archaeologist should own this outfit(or, in Matt's case, 20 variations of this outfit).

All the hard work and brushing paid off when we uncovered what could very possibly be somekind of rudimentary cobblestone pavement. Initially, we were told to articulate the stones eventhough we would eventually be asked to tear them down. It's a little depressing to know thatyou're meticulously detailing a pile of rubbish that will just get destroyed, so imagine mydelight when Matt and Rob began to mumble about a possible cobble pavement. The surfaceis fairly uneven, warped by time and weather or poor engineering, but the tightly packedstones definitely do look like they might be something. On Wednesday we opened a newsquare directly north of mine, and I’m now working over there, hoping to find a continuation ofthe same cobbles. It’s really rewarding to see that your square isn’t just filled with bedrock andto actually find signs of past life (other than bits of pottery). At the end of last week Mattstopped us all before breakfast to show us the outline of walls and cobble, showing us that thecontexts are starting to come together to paint a bigger picture. After staring blindly at dirt forweeks and mindlessly sifting through pottery it was a nice reminder that archaeologists doactually sometimes find large structures and possible homes that give you a much morecomplete picture of what you’re digging in. I’d say it’s been a fairly successful two weeks find­wise and education wise, not to mention a successful week health­wise considering theamazing workout that comes with pickaxing and hauling dirt.

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The gorgeous wall and pavement that I helped uncover. It's kind of surprising how much work it takes to articulate thatmany confusingly patterned small stones.

­­Harley

Posted 11th June 2013 by Harley

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8th June 2013Earlier this week, Katie and I took our first stab at Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI)with some of the incised potsherds from the 2011 season. RTI is a method of photographicanalysis that allows us to see minute features on an object through changes in vectors oflight. RTI works by capturing lighting data from a series of pictures with different lightingsituations, and combining them in a viewing software (our software is provided by CulturalHeritage Imaging [http://culturalheritageimaging.org/] , and is free!). When photos of an object

Experimenting with RTI at the JVRP

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are inputted into this software, the user can move the light around­­as if shining a flashlightanywhere he or she wants on the object­­in order to see details of depth, surface texture, andso on. For a video showing this process with a Medieval manuscript, see here[http://vimeo.com/30213656] .

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On Monday, Katie and I led a demonstration of the JVRP’s RTI method for the credit coursestudents. Above is one of the sherds we worked on. We used a small LED light wand with adiffuser to highlight the object in a series of positions on an imaginary dome around it. Eachtime one of us moved the light to a new position, the other took a photo from a computer (weremotely control the camera, because neither the camera nor the object can move during theprocess).

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A small, shiny ball was placed next to the object and included in the frame of each photo, asyou see above, so that when the images were fed into the software, the software was able torecognize the direction from which the light had come. We were then able to select theimages which offered the most information. After demonstrating this with the sherd in theabove picture, the students tried it themselves, and produced this awesome image, whereyou can really see the depth and texture of the object (click on the picture for a larger view):

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We will use RTI at the JVRP when we believe that we cannot obtain all of the desiredinformation about an object with plain sight alone. Good candidates include incised potsherds,stone objects which have been worked, and bones which may bear marks from cutting orother human activities. RTI gives us a more detailed view of incisions, percussion marks, andeven layers of differing materials on a single object (such as paint on pottery). We can't waitto get started on the objects I've just catalogued from the 2011 and 2012 seasons!

Posted 8th June 2013 by Jen Thum

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8th June 2013My name is Erika and I’m a staff member here at the JVRP. This year we’re starting up aflotation system to gather macrobotanical remains. So far we have floated about 10 samplesfrom the field. In order to teach the volunteers and students the process of flotation, I had amock sample from our garden that was floated. The process of flotation is very important forarchaeology. Plants basically affected every part of the ancient peoples’ lives. By collectingthese samples we can infer many things about the lives of the ancients who lived here. Inorder to collect these plant samples, soil samples need to be taken in the field, from astratified contexts such as pits and floors.

On the volunteer’s first day I held a tutorial on flotation using our mock sample. They learnedhow to measure out a soil sample, mix in into water, and pour the sample out into differentsize mesh screens to collect the different size sample. A smaller mesh is used for the flot/light

Flotation at the JVRP

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fraction which is where the macrobotanical remains end up, such as seeds, bits of charcoaland any organic bits. The second screen captures the heavier material in the sample likebone, rocks, bits of pottery and any other small bits that might be missed in excavation.

Students and volunteers will have the chance to float a sample for themselves starting thisupcoming week. Flotation is part of afternoon work and will be done everyday as long asthere are samples that need to be done. Once more samples are processed we'll also betaking a closer look at the heavy fraction as part of afternoon work as well.

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I’m very excited to be starting this project up here at the JVRP because in truly increase theamount and type of data that we gather from the field. This week we will have a lot of samplesto process which will hopefully produce a lot of macrobotanical remains that will tell us a littlebit more about the area that we we are excavating and the people that once lived there.

Posted 8th June 2013 by Erika Niemann

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5th June 2013

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As promised, a picture of the sunrise from our hostel roof. Our weekend in Jerusalem turned out to bequite nice, although it was a shame we couldn’t visit the Temple Mount proper. Apparently the onlymes for non‐Muslims are Thursday and Sunday mornings when we have to be on site. There wereplenty of other sites open so we had no problems finding things to keep us busy while we were in thecity. We are currently trying to sort out our next travel session, which may end up being a day trip toHaifa and Akko, since Jerusalem ended up being so exhausng.

A Special Feature

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Stephen with his dirt mound creation

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Matt and Atticus in the square

Wehad a visitor come to our square on Sunday, our archaeologist‐in‐training Acus. He joined us in oursquare for a while, helping out with his trowel, pache and wheelbarrow. Even though he was only 2and a half he put us all to shame idenfying EBI poery sherds and managing to locate Nazareth fromatop our spoil heap. I almost think Ma brought him on site to make us work harder and prove ourworth as archaeologists. Aer mini‐Indiana Jones le it was back to business as usual: pick‐axing,running buckets, terriaing and arculang secons and features. The next big surprise came at the endof the day when the directors brought us all popsicles and drinks. The treats turned out to be just whatwe needed aer a hard day’s work in the scorching Israeli sun. We have goen snacks every day since,from Ma, visitors and our co‐volunteer Stephen who sadly had to leave this week. His early morningenthusiasm will be seriously missed, although his ramp on the dump hill ended up being more of ahassle than it was worth as it has cut down the number of people that can use it at any given me.However, I must admit, it does look prey swanky.

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The drainage system in section

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Our wall

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EZ91!

Monday was an evenul day in my square as we finally idenfied a feature. The wall, bung an outcropof bedrock, was the first signifier of actual selement we had found in my square and it did wonders toboost our morale. Earlier in the dig we had been convinced we had found a wall, but were sooncorrected by our directors for jumping to conclusions about a pile of disorganized rubble. As it turns outthat pile was just plowed up wall segments, so we turned out to be right in the end. Finding evidence ofa structure definitely makes up for the lack of awesome pots and ram horns in our square and the inialdifficulty we had with geng all the rocks out. The one downside to discovering a permanent feature isthat it requires a new locus, photos and levels which can take some me to set up. This meant that wewere put on bucket duty for the other squares and ended with all three of us compeng to see whocould ferry the most buckets. By the me we had to clear up we were carrying four buckets at a me.Luckily Tuesday we were able to spend most of our me moving dirt in our own square and arculangthe wall. We even found a French drainage system that abued it. Today Ma explained to me that thefeature was a terrace wall used for agriculture probably in the Roman/Byzanne period, with a layer ofsmall stones that extends beneath it as a rock drain. Admiedly not enrely as cool as the Early Bronzeage house complete with evidence of plaster walls, discovered in the squares over on the western side

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of the site but it is definitely nice to be able to put our finds into context. Can’t wait to see what wediscover next…

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The white line delineates the robbed stones of the house's wall

‐ Annelies

Posted 5th June 2013 by Annelies Van de Ven

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2nd June 2013Today was the first day back on the dig after the weekend. The majority of us went down toJerusalem, so the adjustment to waking back up at four was rough to say the least. Even thebus was late to get us this morning, so I think the driver sympathized. However, the pace didnot slow down for our tired muscles. We are finally getting down near occupation level, whichmeans that we’ve begun to find more and more things. The majority of finds are pottery,which initially sounds pretty exciting. I quickly learned—as in, by day two—that pottery isactually one of the most frustrating finds. Once you get closer to occupation level, the bits ofpottery are seemingly endless, infinitely covering the ground, making it nearly impossible toquickly and efficiently dig. Not only does it make digging more time consuming, we are theones who have to spend the afternoon washing the buckets and buckets of muddy, smallpieces. My square alone had five buckets of pottery so pottery washing is not something to betaken lightly. However, as tedious as pottery can be it is still incredibly exciting to know thatyou might be close to finding an ancient place where someone once lived or worked orwalked. The tedium is definitely outweighed by the excited anticipation, and finding large partsof vessels or bones from long dead meals makes the back pain and blisters worth it in myopinion.

Every day I also have the pleasure of collecting and sorting the small finds (anything otherthan pottery) from all of the squares. While it definitely takes up a little time and effort, it’sactually quite interesting to see everything that’s found each day. It’s also a pretty great wayto chart how much progress we’ve made. During the first few days of digging I could fit all ofthe finds into one bucket without any problem. On Thursday there were two fairly full buckets

Pottery and Finds

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and today I had four overflowing buckets of finds. The amount of things we are already findingis pretty overwhelming when you consider the fact that it’s only the second week. There arealso a lot more artifacts like beads or stone tools instead of just unworked flint and smallanimal bones. Hopefully these are good signs that we’ll have a lot of interesting finds ahead ofus as we trudge on! And hopefully our backs are up for the work…

­­Harley

Posted 2nd June 2013 by Harley

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2nd June 2013

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The Director with Cyrus, our youngest volunteer.

It's the end of our first 2013 excavation week at Tel Megiddo East, and what a great weekwe've had! This was the first of six weeks of excavation, the first four of which are at the siteof Tel Megiddo East, the Early Bronze I flagship excavation of the JVRP, and the last two ofwhich will be at Legio, the camp of the Roman VIth Legion Ferrata.

This year we kicked off our summer with a pre­season tour[http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/introductory­tour­details.html] of sites in northern Israel. Ifound this to be a key component of our summer strategy as it gave time for my Pennsylvaniawinter­white skin to develop its annual sunburn and then fade out into a golden tan before allof the volunteers arrived. We had a great group of folks on the tour, twelve in all, lead by RobHomsher, Margaret Cohen, Melissa Cradic, and myself (JVRP Staff[http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/people­and­groups.html] ).

Director's Post 1

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2013 Tour Itinerary

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Margaret discussing the Mishnah at Sepphoris

You can see the details of our itinerary here[http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/introductory­tour­details.html] , but the primary aims ofthe tour were to provide a broader context for our excavations at Tel Megiddo East and Legioby visiting sites from a broad spectrum of time (Early Bronze through Islamic periods) and toshow physical examples of archaeological excavations, conservation, and public presentation.We visited oft­traveled sites such as Tel Dan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Dan] and Hazor[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Hazor] , but we also trekked to great sites off the main touristpath, such as Sussita (Hippos) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussita] and Belvoir[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belvoir_Fortress_(Israel)] . More than parade students around sites tosee "famous buildings", we used these sites as jumping­off points for a variety of issues ­ geology and geography, curating of archaeological sites, stratigraphy, development of theMishnah, ecological impact of ancient humans, and so many more.

Also by remaining in the north, we hoped to tell a story about ancient Israel that wasn't Judahcentered. I think everyone appreciated this point of view.

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Tel Megiddo East Area C from Tel Megiddo

While Rob, Melissa, Margaret, and I spent the 20th to the 25th on the tour, the JVRP staff wasbusy back at Ramat HaShofet preparing for the arrival of the volunteers. Adam Prins waspoint on this, with Nick, Erika, Katie, Stephanie, Becky, and Jen all playing important roles.This was the first season I left some very important tasks for others to take care of (I'musually a micromanager!). Great job, guys, and thanks!

The volunteers arrived on time for dinner on Saturday, May 25th, with only a few minorhiccups in travel itineraries (some which involved luggage on different flight plans than theirowners). While the students spent Sunday in orientation and introductory lectures, Adam andI worked on site setting up the excavation grid. This season we're continuing our work from2011 and 2012 expanding our exposure of the EB I settlement in Area C up the slope (forprevious season's reports see here [http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/tel­megiddo­east.html] ).

Already in this first week, we've begun to expose EB I walls, at least one of which is part of afairly large building. A number of animal bone articulations in the garbage outside thestructure indicate good contexts. We're hopeful for some exciting new information about thecity of the Great Temple builders!

In addition to the excavation, we're also excited to be working on a number of new initiatives,the details of which you'll be hearing about in upcoming blog posts ­ including the JVRPRegional Archaeological Database Initiative [http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/news­and­media.html] a collaboration with UC Berkeley's Center for Digital Archaeology[http://www.codifi.info/] (CoDA) to produce a regional database for archaeology in the JezreelValley; and the integration of XRF into our field methodology[http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/news­and­media.html] .

Stay tuned for more blog posts by volunteers, staff, and myself over the next few weeks!

Matthew J. AdamsDirectorJezreel Valley Regional Project

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Melissa leads the discussion of Pan's Grotto at Baniyas

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Matthew elaborates on the frontier of the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the First Crusade

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Explicating the Nile Festival mosaic at Sepphoris

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Rob points out Tel Hanaton and ponders the curious fate of the Babylonian envoy that passed by here in the AmarnaPeriod

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Rob and Matthew getting their stories straight...

Posted 2nd June 2013 by Matthew J. Adams

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30th May 2013

The first few days of digging are finally behind us. It is actually surprising how fast the week is going.Only one more 4am and we get our first weekend off, probably to Jerusalem. I think at the moment overhalf the group is going. I am just hoping to see the sun rise on the Dome of the Rock. Hopefully by nextweek I’ll have some photos of that.

I have to admit geng up early is not one of my strong suits, but I think most people on the dig willagree that it is quite trying at first. Weirdly enough the first 3 hours of digging before breakfast, as the

Reflections on week 1

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sun is rising over mount Tabor, actually seem to be my most producve, aer that it gets hoer andharder to work. Luckily we have an amazing huge tarp that protects us from the sun, something I havenever encountered on a dig before. Although it is extremely hard to put up (and keep up) the shelter itprovides is completely worth it. At one point it was completely sagging and everyone helped us hold itup as we were stuck in the middle square. Pung it down at the end of the day with the enre grouphelping was also quite nice. It almost seemed like some kind of team building exercise, or a kindergartenclass under a children’s parachute… Not that our square needs much team building. We had nicknamesfor each other about 2 hours into the dig, a clear sign of a good square atmosphere. We all bonded overthe frustraon we felt at the rocks riddling our topsoil layer obstrucng a smooth path for the pick‐axe.Logically there was much rejoicing in our square when we were finally able to remove them and get thesquare leveled out.

The aernoons are quite relaxed at the moment as we don’t have all that many finds to wash. I amguessing that once we get out of the topsoil layer we’ll have much more to work with. Tuesday we alsohad a lecture from Ma about the reason that JVRP was brought into existence. Most of the talk endedup being about the Great Temple which prey much just made me extremely jealous because it lookslike it would have been an amazing site to work on. Not that this isn’t of course… just slightly less so. Idon’t think I have ever heard anyone say awesome and cool so many mes in a single conversaon, Ithink the word coolestest may have been used at some point when we were inially vising the site.

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[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/­Jcfh2QagA1w/UaYJKghmM­I/AAAAAAAAABQ/qp57EfHZsak/s1600/DSC00195.JPG]Itis interesng comparing this dig to my previous few field experiences, and hearing about those of theother volunteers. Each experience has been so different. Not just in terms of tools used (although I domiss my shovel) or the varying levels of technology employed in each dig (in which department this digfar exceeds any others I have been on, but at every level of excavaon, even the terms are different fromwhat I am used to. Context becomes locus and On the other hand the basic program of excavaon andprocessing is quite similar. I definitely think I could get used to this style of excavaon, it is verymethodical and efficient, plus the database system is possibly the best idea any dig project has evercome up with.

All in all I’d say we’ve had a successful first few days and I am definitely looking forward to the rest of ourme digging here!

‐ Annelies

Posted 30th May 2013 by Annelies Van de Ven

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28th May 2013

Waking up at four is not actually as daunting as it seems. Of course, I’m saying that after onlyone day and will probably rethink that assessment by Friday. However, for the first day I feltsurprisingly refreshed and ready to work in the wee hours. I definitely was not prepared forhow cold it gets here in the mornings, though! The change from a cold, dark morning to awarm, sunny day almost warranted a complete wardrobe change. Today there was a nicebreeze that kept us from getting too hot, which I’m sure will disappear as the summer goeson.

First Day on the Dig

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We only did three and a half hours of work today, but even after that the day seems todrag on much longer than any normal day should. The work today wasn’t even necessarilyhard, but I suppose any kind of hard labor at four in the morning would be pretty hard on aperson’s body. We cleared the brush away from where we’ll be digging, which is prettymonotonous and fairly hard on your back. By the time breakfast finally rolled around, I wasmore glad to see eggs and cottage cheese than I think is healthy. Maybe it was just myhunger, but the breakfasts here are absolutely fantastic. Between the cheese, nutella, andeggs I think we were all in breakfast heaven.

After breakfast we went on a tour of Tel Megiddo that was absolutely breathtaking.The amount of labor and engineering that people have put into building and excavating thesite is astounding. When Matt explained that they filled part of the cliff in by methodicallycarrying baskets of dirt, I was stunned. I could not imagine the amount of labor that wouldtake. In general, the site was just very impressive. One great highlight was this perfectly roundbasalt stone wedged in the ground of the “Great Temple.” I hardly understand how we areable to make such perfect stonework today, but the fact that people could do that thousandsof years ago is incredible.

All in all, was a very nice start to the dig. We worked a little, learned a little, and areslowly getting accustomed to the somewhat brutal hours. It was the first day I had ever beenon a dig, and it definitely made me excited to continue. I can’t wait to actually start diggingtomorrow!

­­Harley

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The beautiful basalt circle that Matt discovered!

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The gorgeous view of our dig from the Tel

Posted 28th May 2013 by Harley

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24th April 2013Welcome to the new JVRP blog! Watch this space for exciting updates from our students,staff, and director on the progress of our dig!

Posted 24th April 2013 by Adam Prins

Welcome!

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