Tel Games 2011

It is always fun trying to guess what Adam is going to arrange for the latest addition of Tel Games.  This year, as in each previous year, he surpassed our wildest expectations.  And really, some of them were pretty wild.  Adam never tells anyone what the Games are going to be.  He likes to surprise us, keep us on our toes.  This year all we knew going in was  that to participate you had to bring two pairs of socks.  That's right, two pairs of socks...

What, you wonder, could you possibly need two pairs of socks for?  Well, after taking half an hour to explain the rules of the Games -- last year it actually took longer to explain the Games than it did to play them -- we knew!

Here, you can see Adam holding a particularly unattractive clay man -- more about him in a moment -- and the Tel Games trophy with the name of last year's winner, Maria, displayed proudly on a broken potsherd stuck to the trophy.

So, what would this year's winner have to do in order to get their name on the trophy?  Nothing less than survive a zombie invasion!  One unleashed, perhaps unsurprisingly, by archaeologists who unwittingly dug up the ugly clay man you see above, thereby unleashing an unspeakable terror upon The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon. 

Tel Games 2011, Archaeologists vs. Zombies.  Who.  Will.  Win. 

And the socks?  Ammunition for the humans.  Hit a zombie with a sock and they are forced to reanimate themselves which takesthem out of the game for a few moments.

There were more rules than that but really, while it did take Adam less time to explain the Games than it did to play them this year, frankly, I can't remember half of them.  The long and the short of it is the humans had to get inside Grid 47, the spawning ground of the zombies, build a sandbag wall barrier and rebury the clay man at which point they had to chant "Nebuchadnezzer destroyed Ashkelon in 604 BCE."

Honestly, the humans never had a chance but it was fun to watch them try!

 

An early human vs. zombie encounter.

A safe place from which to watch the action.

Zombie Philip and Zombie Kate take down Scott.

The humans race towards Grid 47 where they need to bury the evil clay man.

 

A human vs. zombie melee in Grid 47.  Zombie Josh crush!

The victorious zombies celebrate their win over the intrepid but inept humans.

And then decide it would be a good idea to eat the photographer!

Some Fun Pictures

The last day of digging is behind us.  Up next?  Cleaning.  It is hard to belive that the season has passed so quickly!  It is a given that some of the most exciting work of the entire season happens in the last week, the last days, even the last minutes as we race to leave the grid in good shape for the winter (hard to believe we are already thinking about winter).  The digging is always fantastic that last week and this year was no exception.

 In Grid 47, one of our most interesting finds was a well preserved cistern.  We did a little work this past week to see if we could determine its limits.

So far, we have determined that you can fit two full grown volunteers inside at the same time.  Actually, I think at one point we had three inside!

Over the course of last week, the cistern became our therapy chamber.  Feel the need to sweat a bit?  To have the sweat drip down your arms as you lift heavy blocks?  Well, the cistern is the place for you!  David certainly agreed -- that smile isn't staged.

What does the cistern look like from the outside?  Well, think of an upside down spaceship crashed into a mound of dirt and you'll have the right idea.  And in case you still can't picture it, take a look at the right side of this picture.  The big round thing behind the wall is the cistern.

One more week to go!  Really, it is hard to believe!

As Requested

As promised, here is a guest post from Dr. Moshier.  He sent some links along with the text and photos but I can't get them to work -- my apologies, I'm pretty sure it is past my bedtime.  I'll try to make the links available tomorrow. 

Enjoy!

The Final Battle of Ashkelon

One of the perks of digging at Ashkelon is the beach. Ancient Ashkelon was a major port along the Mediterranean coast. Residents of modern Ashkelon enjoy the beach for fishing, swimming and surfing. But the sea offers both benefits and dangers. A winter storm this past December 2010 whipped up waves that crashed against the Israel coast, causing damage to marinas, beachfront properties and many archaeological sites. Waves up to 40 ft (12 m) high and winds up to 60 mph (95 kph) battered the shoreline. The sea cliff of a very narrow stretch of beach north of the Ashkelon marina was badly eroded during the storm. The discovery of a Roman statue that washed out of the cliff made international news.

Tel Ashkelon did not escape the storm’s wrath. Most spectacular was the further destruction of Islamic-Crusader structures originally built to defend the ancient city along the coast. These before and after photos show the loss of prominent installations on the south rampart of the city.

If you look closely at the two photos you can see that the high waves washed away more than 3 ft (1 m) of the cliff.

Apparently, the intensity of the 2010 storm repeats about every 30 to 50 years. The Crusader defensive seawall at Ashkelon gives us a clue to the dramatic rate of beach erosion. This photo shows all that remains of a structure that probably extended along most of the beach at the tel. Granite columns reach out of the wall toward the sea like cannons. But, the columns were originally embedded within the seawall to give the structure extra strength.

Four to five ft (about 1 ½ m) of the wall have been pealed back by wave attack over the past 900 years. But, this wall now sticks out more than 32 ft (10 m) beyond the edge of the adjacent sea cliff, so cliff retreat has been much faster than is evident by the horizontal columns. We believe the beach cliff has retreated much more than 40 ft (12 m) over the past two millennia. And with that, the sea has stolen from us many historical treasures that were buried in the tel.

Why is the sea cliff of Ashkelon so easily eroded? The lower half of the cliff is held up by soft sandstone called kurkar, the remains of sand dunes, possibly tens of thousands of years old. Kurkar is the most common building stone found in the excavations at Ashkelon. We have noted that the stone is harder along the sea cliff. At Ashkelon, the kurkar sandstone is covered mostly by what archaeologists call occupational fill, the muddy sand and debris that make up the tell. This is what the archaeologists remove to reveal ancient buildings and artifacts. Fill is even softer than the kurkar. Our study of the beach cliff shows the stratigraphy of the tell, with successive layers of occupational fill over kurkar bedrock.

When storm waves pound the base of the cliff, the energy of the waves and infusion of water into the soft material causes it to act like a thick liquid that is quickly swept to sea. This action undercuts the cliff so that it rapidly slumps into massive cones of sediment and debris. Waves continue to remove the slumped material and undercut the cliff until the storm fades.

 

While storm activity is devastating to the coast, we took advantage of the fresh exposures along the cliff to learn more about the natural history and archaeology of Ashkelon.

The Government of Israel plans to protect archaeological sites along the coast with breakwaters, beach replenishment and structures to cover some of the soft sea cliffs. Yet, experience along other coasts around the world suggests that these efforts will only slow the inevitable impact of sea storms here. The possibility of sea level rise forced by global climate change can only make things worse.

The remains of epic military battles to claim Ashkelon over the millennia have been exposed by careful excavation. The final battle of Ashkelon will be won by the relentless grind of sea waves.

Stephen O. Moshier

Team Geologist

July 5, 2011

Deep Thoughts

Just a couple of fun pictures to post.  I imagine something along these lines...

Wylie and Walton, deep in thought, pondering the stratigraphic mysteries of Grid 38. 

The volunteers of Grid 38 admiring the mental acrobatics being performed in front of them.

Thanks to Emily for sending these pictures along. 

Tomorrow I will post a guest blog entry from Dr. Stephen Moshier who has sent along a fascinating account of the storm damaged cliff  that he, David, and Jake surveyed this summer.  You won't want to miss it!

Community Day

Last Thursday we had the opportunity to host a group of local Ashkelonian students, their teachers and parents as well as Parks Authority workers for a day of digging on The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon.  For many of us who participate in the excavation we are drawn by the exotic location, the opportunity to shift through thousands of years of history.  For many of the local residents, we, the archaeologists and the students who pay to do this, are exotic, inexplicable beings who root around in the dirt picking up ancient trash.

And what wonderful trash it is as many of our visitors discovered.

 

In Cafe 51, Israeli students were paired up with volunteers who showed the newcomers the ropes.  The students learned all about tool safety, how to use everything from a trowel to a big pick, and about the proper collection of ceramics and other materials.

In Grid 47, Community Day included some Fruit Break entertainment.  For one day only, the fantastic duo of Josh and Alabama John performed "Tova has some Chickens" on the stage of the odeon to the delight of the massess watching from the cavea (seating area). 

For an encore Josh and John were joined on stage by some of the Israeli students who then performed "Tova" in Hebrew!

All in all, it was a fun day which allowed us to get to know each other a little better.

South Beach

This summer we are excavating in three grids, Grids 38, 51 and 47.  In addition to the work in those grids we are running several other projects worthy of mention.  I even hope to get some guest posts from some of the scholars and students doing the extra projects.  We are near the end of a 5 year long quest to sort and mark millions of Persian period pottery sherds in preparation for the publication of this material.  Michael Toffolo is running a soil chemistry project otherwise known as micro-archaeology.  (I'm not always sure what it is he does -- exactly -- but it sounds really cool.)  For several seasons Dr. Steve Moshier from Wheaton College has been here during the summers doing a core-sampling project.  This year he also did some work along the beach at the southern end of the site where significant storm damage had made a large cut in the cliffside.  Two stalwart students, David and Jake, helped Dr. Moshier in his efforts to draw and interpret the material.  Dr. Moshier has promised me a guest post.  In the meantime, here is a couple of pictures to tide you over.

While they were working on South Beach it wasn't uncommon to see David and Jake walking back, as "quickly as they could", toward the bus with the ladder balanced on their shoulders.  Dr. Moshier would usually be trailing behind them pushing a wheelbarrow as quickly as he could lamenting the absence of more minions, I mean students.

Hard at work.

Dr. Master climbed the ladder to take a look at the dirt.  It is not often we get to see such brilliant colors, when the stratigraphy practically pops!

I take these for smiles of satisfaction and why not?  After several weeks of work on the cut, standing in the hot sun with the breeze slinging sand at them all day long, I think they have more than earned their smiles of satisfaction!

Coming soon, a guest post from Dr. Moshier!

The Next Three Weeks

Three weeks down, three more to go!  It's a busy week this week.  National Geographic comes to film for a program they are doing on the Philistines.  On Thursday we are having our first ever Community Day which will see a group of 40 or so students with their teachers and parents join us for a day of digging.  Check back at the end of the week for some pictures and an update on this exciting day.

In the meantime, I believe I mentioned that there was something cool just behind Steve in the picture of him in his "potty pit."  At long last, you can see what we have all been fascinated by since Steve found it!

This was the first look we had.  Turns out, Steve had found a drain.

 The kids were pretty sure that they were looking at a snake slithering its way through the drain.  We assured them it was just a large root that had clearly thrived in the organic material filling the drain.

 

It is a major drain.  One that we call a "walk through," meaning it is big enough that you could walk through it to clean it.  We have yet to hit the bottom but we are hard at work trying to figure out where it is so that we can get the drain's full dimensions.

Here you can see Deland, our surveyor, trying to get a read on the drain and how far it might be go.  The power of GIS is awesome!  We have started dismantling the walls of the vertical shaft which probably served as some type of sewer intake.  It connects to a tunnel with an east-west orientation.

I must admit, finding built space underground that is still intact is very, very cool.  Never mind the fact that drains are always full of very interesting objects (once you drop something in, you aren't usually eager to fish it back out).  I'll definitely update the blog when we learn something more.

I think that is it for now.  A word of thanks to Steve's family who, he tells me, regularly reads the blog.  Enjoy!

Cafe 51

At long last!  Known as the "Hospitality" Grid for the sublime tunes that echo through the grid as well as the coffee brewed every morning at 8:00, Grid 51 is, at long last, ready to be presented to the world.  So, without further ado, some pictures.

Not convinced that Cafe 51 existed?  The same can be said of some of their volunteers too.  I imagine a conversation that went along these lines...

"Uh huh."

"Really, it's right here."

"Uh huh."

"I'm serious, it's right here!" (Picture Larry gesturing with vigor.)

Here are Kate and Sarah pondering the vast mysteries of Grid 51's stratigraphy and, I think it is fair to say, this grid has some of the most dense stratigraphy on site. 

 

Here, a consultation about one of Grid 51's most interesting finds of the season.

This season Grid 51 is dealing with everything from Crusader/Islamic (mostly Islamic) to Byzantine, Roman and Hellenistic.  They know where 604 BCE is and just this week they located the 11th century! 

That interesting find?  You can see it here.  The current understanding is that it is a Byzantine period wine press.

 

Can anyone say BAR cover? 

And now for some volunteers...

Most of the time you can see smiles on the faces of Grid 51 volunteers -- you'll never hear them admit it gets so hot their eyeballs sweat! (But they do!)

At least they manage to look cool through it all!

One final note about today, the end of our first three weeks.  Many of our volunteers are "part-timers," here for either the first three or last three weeks of the season.  Tonight (or tomorrow morning depending on how you look at it) those here for the first half of the season head home.  A big "THANKS" to everyone who joined us in excavating!  We can't do it without the volunteers.  Really, cleaning up after the mechanical equipement takes large numbers of minions!  In all seriousness,the vast majorityof our work is manual labor and for that we welcome anyone who wants to be part of the team.  All of our volunteers have worked hard this summer and we thank them for their time and efforts, their willingness to engage in seeminly ridiculous tasks such as sweeping the dirt (so their supervisors can see it better) and their enthusiasm. 

Bon voyage.

A Quick Hello

Just a quick hello.  I was all set to do a more extensive post on Grid 51 -- I do have pictures in hand -- but due to technical diffiuculties (read: the picture files are too large) I will have to postpone that effort. 

Today, a couple of pictures of what we affectionately call "South Beach."  Over the winter some very bad storms significantly damaged the shoreline of Israel.  As many of you may know, a section of the cliff near the Ashkelon Holiday Inn collapsed and out spilled a large Roman period statue of a woman.  Well, results weren't quite so dramatic on the tel but there was damage and in one area it revealed a fresh section of the cliff.  It is possible to see walls, floors, big fills and much, much more.  Dr. Moshier of Wheaton College, who has been working on the South Beach project, will be doing a guest post in which he will provide much more information.

It may be hard to appreciate how "new" the dirt looks but towards the bottom of the cut you can see bands of yellow kurkar and brown dirt.  Those are just a few of the layers that stand out in the fresh cut.

Equally impressive are the remains of the medieval fortifications which tower over the beach.  They are slowing sliding onto the beach but still manage to look quite intimidating.  Surely Ascalon was an imposing sight when seen from the sea in antiquity.

And just for fun...

The process of dumping the dirt in Grid 38 is a very intense process.  It culminates with a supervisor duel to see who can throw the most buckets of dirt over the retaining wall and into the dump.  I image Josh often wins -- there is little finesse to his throw -- but Wylie has great form as seen here.

Work is going well. 

The t-shirt design has been picked. 

We are almost at the end of our first three weeks. 

Look for some guest posts in the next week.

Time is flying!

Waste Management at Ashkelon

I have seen Grid 51 and can report that it does exist.  I don't yet have proof but I have been promised some which should arrive in the not to distant future.  I do know that they are hard at work excavating Islamic period robber trenches -- which consistently produce some of the best Islamic period ceramics on site -- as well as earlier Roman and/or Byzantine period architecture.  Just this past week they uncovered a fabulous basin with mosaic flooring which has led to all sorts of interesting questions. 

Our dig photographer assures me she has over 300 photos of Grid 51 and will be sending some of them my way soon.  I may even enlist a volunteer from the Grid to write about some of their work -- just to make things a little more interesting.  As always, stay tuned.

Meanwhile, back in Grid 47 we can't seem to stick a pick in the ground without uncovering some more of the later Islamic period reuse of the odeon.  It all started when Adam came to dig with us for a day...

Adam joined volunteers in Ryan's square working in the area of a mosaic floor that had been cut and damaged by later activity.  We originally thought the cut might have been made by a robber's trench.  In other words, by people looking for rocks to use in the construction of new buildings.  Turns out, that wasn't the case at all.  It wasn't too far into the day before Adam and the volunteers believed they had uncovered a well. 

It was a good theory. 

And it took us another day or two to determine it was an incorrect theory.

Here you can see Josh standing in the "well" which cut through and damaged the earlier mosaic floor. We discovered, as it turns out, as we got deeper down and the pottery we collected from within the pit started looking a little yellowish and a little greenish that it wasn't a well.  The pit was, in all liklihood, a sump or catch basin or some such construction associated with waste collection and/or storage.  And it was a big one.  In this picture Josh's head still sticks up above the upper courses of stone.  He has dug further down since then and found some interesting objects in the process: glass, bone, pottery (including an almost complete juglet) and a mysterious, very cool object that we have not yet identified (how is that for a tease?).

Josh's pit is not the only construction we can associate with waste management in the grid.  And, as it turns out, it isn't the only "treasure" pit either.

Just south of Josh's pit, and you can even see Josh in the upper left corner of this photo, is another sump that was excavated by Scott.  This sump was actually discovered last season -- as all such things do it sits directly on top of the line separating two squares -- and partially excavated.  Scott completed the job last week and in the process collected a large amount of pottery including many pieces of Islamic period glazed wares.

There is more...

When we expanded the grid prior to the start of the season we exposed more of the second and third walls of the odeon's seating area.  While cleaning the area up we discovered an installation built in between the two walls.  The interior of the stones looked like they had been burned and there were smalls bit of charcoal leading us to believe that we had uncovered some type of installation used for burning.  We put Steve to work expecting him to clean it out quickly so that we could move on to the next project.  The dirt doesn't always cooperate, however, and our "quick" little project turned into something else.  As it started going deeper and we started pulling up the type of conglomerates that are often found coating the sides of drains we realized that we were dealing with another sump, catch basin or similar type of construction.  And then came the yellowish and greenish pottery and there could be no doubt, more waste management.

As with the other two pits, this one was full of things to find: restorable jublets, an almost intact juglect you see Steve holding, carved bone, coins, a bead, glass and lots of fish bone.  What came out of this drainage shaft was not the most interesting thing about it though.  While going down, and he hasn't reached the bottom yet, Steve found a gap between two stones.  What is behind that gap is the most interesting thing about Steve's pit and I'll write more about it just as soon as I have some photos...

Lest you think "potty pits" are all we dig in Grid 47, I can happily confirm that is not the case.  Right now we are dating all of these constructions to the later Islamic period reuse of the area of the odeon.  Along with these waste management system elements, we also have one for water.  It too is a fabulous construction which you can see below.

The cistern is the thing that looks like a spaceship that crashed into the dirt towards the left side of the picture.

 And while we work to uncover and interpret the late period material overlaying the odeon, we are still working to identify key elements of the odeon and map its full limits. 

Check back and check often.  Coming soon, what is behind the rocks in Steve's pit?  What does Grid 51 look like, who works there and what are they finding?  And we'll check back in with Grid 38 which is also finding some very interesting material.

It's a busy season at Ashkelon and we're having lots of fun!

Work

It's been a busy week and a half -- or whatever it actually is -- since the season started.  Frankly, I don't know how it is for everyone else but for me the days pass without any recognition which day it is except that it is a work day.  Or, not a work day.  Nine times out of ten if you asked me which day of the week it actually was, I would have to think about my answer.  And that tenth time?  I'd probably get it wrong!  I work, I eat, I work, I eat and then I sleep!

There is much to report.  Last week we had a day of seminars where students and staff alike had an opportunity to learn about some of the technologies we use here on site.  To the left, Adam Aja is talking to some volunteers about metals.

Once upon a time, staff members on the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon had to draw, map and take levels on everything we found by hand -- this required lots of patience and a willingness to do math.  It also involved stadia rods, benchmarks and other such things.  Today, things are very different and we are totally high tech.  The excavation has a team of surveyers who do all the work for us using GIS.  It really is a wonderful thing -- a big THANK YOU to Deland, Katie and Ben -- and to the write you can see Ben teaching a volunteer how to use the total station.

What do we find more of than anything else on site?  Besides sun and dirt that is...  The answer is pottery and looking to the right you can see Philip teaching a group of volunteers and staff all about petrography.

Of course, it's not all fun and play -- I mean studying.  We are doing lots and lots of work.  And not just in Grid 47.  The other two grids, Grid 38 and Grid 51 have been hard at work too.  Below, I'm including some pictures from the past week and a half.

 

 Josh, Grid Supervisor in 38, demonstrating awesome trowel technique all while smiling and keeping up a witty banter with his volunteers.

More work in Grid 38 where baulk cutting is serious business.

Deland.  Walking.  (This is just a really cool picture.)

Back in Grid 47...

Lots and lots of rocks to move around in Grid 47.

You will notice, as I did while going through the latest batch of pictures given to me, that there is no Grid 51.  It is here, people are working in it and I hope to have pictures real soon.  Really, I do.

The Hotel

One of the perks of working on the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon is our living situation.  I wish that I could say we trudge back from the field, up and down hills, through a swamp, and around a mountain but we don't.  We live in the Dan Gardens Hotel and every day an air conditioned bus -- okay, a bus -- picks us up at the hotel and drops us off at the site and then reverses the process at the end of the day.  It's pretty cushy.  I admit it.

Some of the obvious perks?  Air conditioned rooms.  Maid service -- fresh towels every day which, frankly is a good thing.  No matter how hard you scrub, it seems there is always dirt that sticks around to cling to the white towels.  Laundry service -- and no, I don't miss doing my laundry in the tub.  Lots of effort for very little return.  Really, not so clean even after all the stomping.

Another nice thing?  Food.  We don't have to cook for ourselves.  Granted, it is often the same thing but how can you complain when you don't have to cook?  You can't.  And there have even been some pleasant surprises this summer.  Strawberries and cream for dessert one night.  That was a wonderful surprise.  Of course, we get shooed away from tables reserved for "the other group" but we do get to sit at tables and the food is plentiful.

 

You could say that some of us even wait for dinner with great eagerness!

The hotel does provide great opportunities for relaxation and entertainment.  Ice coffee from the bar, people watching in the lobby, "Magic Land" which is a fabulous indoor/outodoor play area for kids of all ages and -- the pool.  On most days, the pool looks a bit like this,

And then there are days when it looks like this,

All in all though, no complaints here.  We could be living in tents, dumping water from buckets on our heads for showers and otherwise roughing it in ways that we can't even imagine!

Rumor has it that there are two other grids where excavation is ongoing -- Grid 38 and Grid 51.  Next up, pictures from those areas.  In addition, we'll highlight this past weeks day long seminar program where students got to learn about petrography, soil analysis, XRF and many of the other technologies we use here are Ashkelon.  We'll also highlight the changes at the Lab and much, much more.  See you then!

Cleaning Up

Two days in and cleaning is well under way.  In Grid 47 we have been hanging shade clothes,

 ... breaking large rocks...

... cleaning the dirt...

...building staircases and more...

Stay tuned for pictures from other grids!

Grid 47

Just three days ago Grid 47 was a spectacular garden...

Flowers and weeds everywhere.  We even had some beautfiul flowers growing out of one of our big walls.

And then we brought in the heavy machinery to expand the excavation area to the south, behind the walls you see below;

We also expanded to the east and ran into a little trouble.

In the end though, we moved a lot of dirt and are that much closer to the start of the season Sunday.  I'm just glad we don't have to move the mound of dirt left by the bagger (excavator).

Getting Ready

The answer to the most recent WWWW is, of course, the Grid that simply won't die!  The picture is of Grid 38 which is the longest continually excavated grid here in Ashkelon.  Located just to the west of the city center Grid 38 has proven to be a treasure trove in the Philistine through Byzantine periods.  What will this season add to Grid 38's legacy?

We should find out soon enough.  Today, heavy equipment moved in to start clearing a new square in Grid 38 to prep it for excavation.  The picture below is a terrible one but if you squint enough you might just be able to make it out a column drum sticking out of the baulk, the side of the grid.

The column drum is now gone.  As is a second one found lying next to it.  Josh, the grid supervisor, expects to encounter some Islamic period material before quickly moving into the Byzantine and Roman periods in this new square.  It is possible the Hellenistic and Persian periods will be reached although that seems less probable.

So what are the five reasons you want to dig in Grid 38?  Well, Josh hasn't given me any reasons but I think I can come up with a few on my own.  Here goes.

1.  It has the best pedigree; a million years of excavation and counting

2.  Work with Josh

3.  Three words: Roman oil lamps

4.  In case it wasn't mentioned before, you get to work with Josh

5.  A day in Grid 38 is a year-long advanced seminar on mudbrick architecture

There you have it.  I first worked in Grid 38 twenty-two years ago back when it was all Roman.  Spent a lot of time in sewers.  I wonder if we'll hit any of those this season.

Next up for the heavy equipment?  Grid 47.  Stayed tuned for a picture or two.

My Favorite Pot

Arrived on Monday.  The weather is perfect.  Not too hot, not too cold.  We have even had some cloudy skies.  It's nice to be here without the exteme heat we all know is coming.  Several other staff members are here as well and various projects are underway; stone, bones and pottery are all getting some attention.  The grids are being prepped -- right now they are all beautiful gardens -- and should be ready for excavation shortly.

I owe a shout out to the students of Hamilton Elementary School in Chicago as well as those at Mozart Elementary.  Congratulations to all the Hamilton 8th graders graduating this summer.  Good luck with high school!

One of the things I'll be doing in the blog this summer is a section for students where I will focus on different topics of interest.  The first one this summer is cooking pots.  Take a look...

Cooking Pots

So lets talk pots.  Yes, pots.  My favorite pot is an orange Le Creuset hand-me-down from my mother-in-law.  I use it for everything.

I cook everything from chili, both turkey and vegetarian, to stews and any type of soup you can think of in it.  (Pistou is my particular favorite.) 

Cooking pots have changed a great deal over time.  My Le Creuset is enameled cast iron but that isn't the only material used to make pots.  Needless to say, they didn't have enameled cast iron pots hundreds and thousands of years ago.  Their pots were made out of different materials.

Take a look at the picture below. 

How do those pots differ from the picture of my Le Creuset pot?  How old do you think the pots are and what types of food do you think were cooked in them?  Send me some of your ideas -- you can do that by posting a comment -- and I'll have some answers for you in a few days.  Want to think a little more about it?  Ask your mom or dad which is their favorite pot.   What do they like to cook in it?

To recap, think about the following questions:

1.  How do the three pots differ from the orange cooking pot?

2.  How old are the pots?

3.  What types of food did people cook in them?

4.  What is your mom or dad's favorite cooking pot (Hamilton students -- see if you can find out Mrs. Lang's favorite)

5.  What do your parents cook in their favorite pot?

Send me your answers and your best guesses!

My thanks to Joshua Walton for the picture of the three cooking jugs.

Why Grid 47?

The top 5 reasons you HAVE to dig in Grid 47:

1)  Everything is BIGGER in Grid 47

2)  Music Wednesdays and the chance to listen to music genres you've never even heard of before

3)  It's only a 30 second stroll to clean bathrooms with toilet paper

4)  Breakfast is only a 20 second stroll away

5)  The opportunity to work with someone who has been excavating Ashkelon since before you were born

And if those aren't reasons enough, this summer promises to be a busy one in Grid 47.  Measuring approximately 40 x 30 meters, and due for further exapansion this summer, Grid 47 has more work to do then mere mortals such as ourselves can finish in one season (can you say job security).  Ultimately, the longterm goal is to expose the odeion, restore it and make it available for tourism. We are, and will be next year too, still in the "exposing the odeion" phase which is, frankly, the best part of the job.  Our hard work will allow future visitors to see one of the only Roman period theatres in southern Israel.

The Leon Levy Expedition first returned to the city center, and the site of John Garstang's 1920s excavation, during the 2008 field season in order to reinterprete the buildings, variously called Herod's Cloisters, a basilica or a peristyle with an attached bouleterion, previously excavated by Garstang.  What we found was that Garstang was largely correct in his general interpretation of the material remains although he was incorrect in some of the specifics.  In other words, he got much of the architecture correct, he just didn't understand exactly what he had excavated.  We now suspect that there was an Early Roman peristyle with attached bouleterion that was subsequently replaced by an odeion, a small theatre. 

We also found that Garstang failed to recognize the contined occupation and use of the odeion in the Byzantine and Islamic periods.  The exact nature of Byzantine reuse, whether the building still functioned as a theatre or was in fact repurposed, is as yet unclear.  In the Islamic period it is clear the theatre was out of use and probably not recognized as such.  What we see is the insertion of new walls inbetween the walls of the cavea as rooms and cisterns were built reusing the earlier odeion walls.  This evidence, together with several wells and other features, suggest the area may have been residential in the Islamic period.  As of yet there is no additional evidence for the large congregational mosque Garstang believed was built over the earlier Roman structures and which he identified during excavation.

Our goals this season are to excavate the later Islamic and Byzantine period occupation levels in order to fully expose of the odeion.  We also plan to dig several probes in order to better understand the full sequence, from the Hellenistic through Roman periods, of the monumental architecture in Grid 47.  Finally, if time allows we will turn to the expanded area of the grid.  Our hope there is that we will be outside the walls of the odeion and, therefore, able to investigate its exterior as well as what other architecture might be in its vicinity.

We have ambitious goals this season and it promises to be an exciting one.  Did I mention we are real close to the park's cafe where popsicles and cold Cokes are plentiful at the end of the day?  See you in a few weeks.

Statue recovered during Garstang's excavation.

Soon, the answer to the May 12th WWWW.

A Little Reading Material

First things first, the answer to April 26th's WWWW (Who? What? Where? When?)

The answer is, of course, WALL AWESOME!  Those of you lucky enough to dig in Grid 51 will get to appreciate its awesomeness on a daily basis.  As for everyone else, we'll just have to admire it when we visit during tel tours.

On to something else...

Buried about half way down, maybe a little more, on the list of publications about the site is a link to a National Geographic article published in 2001.  Written by Rick Gore, with photographs by Robert Clark, the article provides an excellent overview of ancient Ashkelon.  Want to read more? The first link takes you to an excellent synopsis of the article along with some fascinating notes offered by both the author and the photographer.  In addition, there are some other interesting features that expand on information in the article. The synopsis can be found here.  If you want to take a peek at the full article you can look here.  If you are joining us this summer, or even if you're not, it is a good read.

Coming soon -- as promised -- the reasons you absolutely HAVE to work in Grid 47.

Meanwhile, WWWW.

And the Answer Is...

Think back to mid-March.  Ages ago, I know.  I asked if anyone could identify the following object.

It is believed to be a theatre token.  The token is lathe-carved bone.  On one side there is a depiction of the city's skyline which, some believe, echoes mosaic depictions of Ashkelon.  On the other side is a Greek word, Phamoles, which may be the name of a prominent family in the city.  Above the name is the Roman numeral VIII, while below it is the Greek letter eta.  It is thought the letter and number may designate the section of Ashkelon's theater reserved for the family.

All of that leads to another question.  Which theater was the token for?

Coming soon...

Casey's correct identification of April 26th's WWWW.  And, the five reasons you want to excavate in Grid 47.

You are Committed. Now What?

The start of the season is a little over a month away.  By now you may be thinking, "What did I get myself into?" Fortunately, we can tell you all about it.  This season, as in previous seasons, we will be excavating in three main areas.  Grid 51, located the furthest west almost overlooking the Mediterranean, Grid 38, located near the center of the site, and Grid 47, located east of Grid 38 almost within site of the Jerusalem Gate.  

You don't get to pick the grid in which you will work but that doesn't mean you can't learn a little about what you might be doing if you were, say, in Grid 51.  Or why, exactly, you might want to work there.  I asked Dr. Kate Birney, who directs the excavation of Grid 51, why someone might want to work there and she gave me 5 good reasons.

 

WHY you should dig in Grid 51:

--Access to 1000 years of pottery in a single grid

--Best Coffee on site

--Sea view at fruit break

--Home of Wall Awesome

-- FAWP 

Grid 51 is the only grid to offer the Full-body Archaeological Workout Plan (TM)

By integrating theory and technique, FAWP develops both major muscle groups (bis, tris, and thighs) for general fitness, as well as minor muscle groups (obliques, neck, wrist) for precision excavation of small finds! That gleaming bronze god you hoped to find in the dirt this summer... might just be you.

And what will you be doing if you work in Grid 51?  According to Dr. Birney,

This season Grid 51 will be continuing excavation in three areas:

Byzantine (6th c. A.D.) neighborhood bathhouse, which was totally robbed out during the Islamic period.  The bathhouse had floors paved with black and white mosaics or large terracotta tiles, and we will continue to work on the substructures and try to better understand how the rooms were heated and used.

Hellenistic apartment complexes (ca. 3rd c. B.C.)  The walls for these apartments served as the foundations for the later Byzantine bathhouse. Half of this building was excavated in the late 90s, and its courtyard produced a hoard of coins dating to the period just after Alexander the Great. What the eastern half holds, only this summer will determine....

Persian period duplex (late 6th/early 5th c. B.C.) This fantastically well-preserved building served as the foundation for centuries of successive building and reuse. It features floors paved with mudbrick (some carefully arranged with alternating colors), mudbrick walls preserved over 1.5m in height (!), and constructed doorways. The finds from the previous season included a variety of Egyptian jewelry and a grain storage room (complete with iron plowshare tip).

Intrigued?  Learn more about Grid 51 (and yes, Area 51 is too obvious) this season as Dr. Birney leads a team investigating the hottest spot in all of Ashkelon!

For the latest installment of WWWW (Who? What? Where? When?) we're sticking with Grid 51.

Enjoy!

The answer for the last WWWW coming soon!