The Final Week At Megiddo
After that exhausting two-day weekend, 4 a.m. on Sunday came way too early in the morning to dig. The good news of the day, however, was that our Area supervisors threw us a barbeque/bonfire at night on the edge of the kibbutz. Sure, they got yelled at by some of the kibbutz residents who thought we were going to burn down the entire place, but we got some pretty good hotdogs, beer, and sweet potatoes.
Refueled on good food for the week, we continued digging our way down. I got transferred out of my square on Monday to help take down some of the remaining baulks for our area. The goal for the week was to remove all of the baulks so that the entire square was showing the H9 level (the level of destruction previously mentioned) so a photograph could be taken. In the end, we got extremely close, but the new batch of volunteers are going to have to take down the last foot of one baulk and sweep the area before photographing it early this next week.
Overall, our area was a pretty good success. The square I mainly worked in went down at least an entire meter (which equates to 16 cubic meters of dirt/pottery/artifacts removed) and I helped to remove two baulks (another 10-12 cubic meters of dirt). The final view of area H was pretty impressive and I feel as though I really left my mark on the area. It was a lot of work, but well worth it.
During the week, some interesting artifacts did appear. In my area (but not my square) a bronze ax head was found; and in Area K, a small gold amulet was found by John (who I had travelled to Nazareth and Akko with the weeks before). It’s not exactly Indy loot, but it was still rather fascinating.
Then on Thursday, I said goodbye to all my new Megiddo friends, many of whom I will see back at GW in the Fall. Rafi and I then made the bus journey to Haifa where we are currently staying with his aunt and uncle. The first full day (Friday) we managed to sleep until 1 p.m. in an effort to catch up on some sleep. We spend the day lounging about, but explored the city a little. Then today we spend a good amount of the afternoon at a Shabbat lunch with a neighbor and then sometime at the beach by the Mediterranean. We tossed the baseball around for awhile (which made us appear uber American) and then went for a swim. The problem with swimming at this beach: jellyfish. While walking the beach we saw at least 50 jellyfish on the shore, but for some reason did not connect that the same jellyfish might be in the sea. Anyway, within five minutes of swimming, Rafi and I managed to sting up our legs pretty well (him worse than me). I had never been stung by the jellyfish before, and I really never want to be stung again. Oh well, I guess you live and learn. The evening was spent on food, Scrabble, and repacking my suitcase for a trip to Jerusalem tomorrow and the eventual journey home early Tuesday morning. I still do need to find a scale and I’m crossing my fingers both bags are under 23 kilos (50.6 pounds).
This will probably be my last blog entry from Israel, as the hostel in Jerusalem probably won’t have internet. Check back on Wednesday (July 9th) when I hope to write a final wrap up of my entire trip and have the link to my pictures posted online.
Thanks to everyone who has been reading, and I hope you’ll check out the entry later this upcoming week!
