Day Ten

It was a little less hot and humid today which made for a much more pleasant day of digging.

Before we get to the news of the day, here is a view of the volunteers while on the Rampart Walk during their field trip to Jerusalem last Friday.

Images of Grid 38 provided by Shimi.  Thank you!  Walls are coming down and scarabs are being found!

Lots of fun to be had in Grid 38!

In Grid 47 today, as is true most days, we were busy finding new walls.  The new walls we uncovered today were particularly interesting.  In Grid 47 we are working to uncover the full extent of a late-second century/early-third century  C.E. Roman odeon, a small, roofed theatre.  Underneath the odeon is a first century C.E. Roman period basilica with attached bouletarian.  The walls found today come from that earlier building and belong to a part of the building that might have housed an archives.  We are hopeful a little more digging might reveal a floor to go with the walls.

Today we also worked on excavating material belonging to the Crusader period, 1153-1187.  The large plastered basin visible in the center of the picture may be a wine vat.  This vat is part of a Crusader period reoccupation of a building that dates to the 10th century.

 

Fun times in Grid 51!  Yes, that's right -- snake eggs in the baulk!  Dana is working hard to find them a good home.  One which will be far, far outside of the grid.

Remember, if you are looking for Nichole's blog, you can find it here!

Day Nine

If you are looking for Nichole's blog you can find it here.

It was another fun day in Ashkelon.  Hot and humid, just the way we like it!

It doesn't look like much right now but that's a mosaic floor under the trowel.  It is the third mosaic floor uncovered in Grid 47's current excavation area.

Also in Grid 47 today, there were new walls, a new cobble-lined pit at least five and a half feet deep and lots of fill -- dirt poured into unoccupied buildings to help prepare an area for new construction.

Grid 51 found a beautiful Persian stamp seal yesterday.  Today they further revealed Persian and Hellenistic period floors.  Stay tuned for more pictures soon.  (I'm hoping to do another post when I get more pictures.)

In Grid 38, they've been busy dismantling walls and finding whole vessels.  It's always exciting in the world of the Philistines.

Day Eight

Hi Everyone!  A quick note for those of you who will be following Nichole's blog.  She is getting her own special blog which will be visible on the digashkelon.com home page in the next couple of the days.  You can access it now, however, by going to digashkelon.com/kids.  She is already hard at work and eager to report on her adventures so please check her blog often!

Busy Sunday!  It started without any electricity -- always a great way hunt for and select your favorite tools!

If there is a word of the day, it is hot!  Winds are blowing up from Saudi Arabia and a nice blanket of humidity has settled over the region.  Good thing we have shadecloths and lots of water!

Find of the day: a pilgrim's cross.  Very cool.  Found in the last 10 minutes of the day.  Isn't that always the case?

Day Seven

The key to a successful Saturday in the Dan Gardens Hotel?  An early breakfast.  Again today, a members of the staff were in the lobby eagerly awaiting the 6:30 am opening of the dining room doors.  Hotel breakfast, as we like to call it, is far and away the best meal offered at the Dan Gardens Hotel.  It has everything that you could want and more.  There is a cereal bar, a cheese bar, a fish bar, a salad bar, a pastry bar, and egg and other yummy hot foods bar -- you name it they have it.  Two cups of tea and a few hours later its time to wander upstairs to get back to work.

 Now for some pictures from the week.

Staff members work to uncover a mosaic floor first excavated in 1998.  Measuring approximately 8 x 8, the mosaic is multi-colored and includes both geometric desgins and images of metal vases.

Earlier in the week, Laura, a square supervisor in Grid 51, surveyed her team of volunteers as they worked to get the grid clean and ready for excavation.

Greatest dig shorts ever?

 Adjusting to dig life can be, well, a big adjustment.  You wake up at 4:30 am, throw your clothes on, shove a little food in your mouth and head out to work while it is still dark.  And the work?  It can involve everything from swinging a big pick and carrying rocks to scrapping with trowels and sweeping with brushes.  All of it is done outside with all the heat and humidity that one could ever hope for and then some.  The first day when volunteers go out suffering from jet lag is especially difficult.

Our annual workshop day helps to break up the first week of work offering volunteers a day of learning and the staff an opportunity to work on ongoing projects.

Co-Director Daniel Master leads of discusses the Canaanite Gate during his tour of Early Ashkelon on Workshop Day.

Volunteers listen to Alethia's presentation on zooarchaeology during Workshop Day.

Whole bowl found in a Hellenistic street in Grid 51 -- not during Workshop Day.

Day Six

It was a quiet day today.  A Friday off in fact.  It is something that doesn't happen very often.  Today the volunteers were off on a field trip to Jerusalem where they stopped by the Israel Museum, enjoyed a boxed lunch picnic style and then walked the walls of the Old City.  A great introduction to a fabulous city.

A quick note on the absence of pictures caused, unfortunately, by some technical errors yet to be solved.  Once they are taken care of you can expect the blog to be flooded with pictures of the excavation and our progress.

Find of the day or yesterday really: partial figurine of a man with a cape and upraised arm.

Day Five

The end of Week One was marked by a cold, damp, foggy morning more suitable for London then Ashkelon. 

Here, the total station stands as a silent sentry as the fog rolls in blanketing us in a gray, misty sky.  And then it burned off and the day got hot.

In Grid 38 today, they were busy dismantling walls, finding figurines and discovering the walls they were excavating were actually the walls of a large drain.

In Grid 47, there was more evidence for the third wall.  Though heavily damaged, in one segment it was completely cut during the construction of a water cistern, it is still there, inching closer to the stage wall.

In Grid 51, they excavated whole vessels found in a Hellenistic period street and they are attacking the early Hellenistic period with gusto. 

Stay tuned for a longer blog entry this weekend -- with lots of pictures of loved ones -- once some computer issues are resolved.

Day Four

Today was the second annual Workshop Day. 

Students could attend five of seven workshops including walking tours of Early and Late Ashkelon, XRF Analysis  (pictured here), Microarchaeology, Sedementology, Survey/Total Station and Zooarchaeology.

While the students were busy at the workshops, a team of supervisors worked to uncover a Roman period mosaic located on the North Tell.  Look for pictures soon.  Server issues are causing a great deal of trouble right now and a more detailed accounting of the day will have to wait.

Day Three

Grid 51 is digging!  Now all three grids are fully engaged in moving big dirt!

Whole Islamic period oil lamps continnue to pop out of the ground.  Another one was found in Grid 47 today.

In Grid 38, the hard but equally enjoyable job of dismantling walls has been keeping everyone busy.

Tomorrow we are out of the field as we hold a day of seminars for the students.  There will be walking tours of the site and workshops on a range of subjects from petrograpphy to OCHRE.

Should be fun.  Look for pictures tomorrow!

Day Two

Lots to write about today.  It was a good day.  A bit more humid than we all might like but nothing to complain about -- at least too loudly.  (What's a little humidity compared to waking up at 4:30 to go do eight hours of manual labor?)

Grid 38 started excavating today.  Work included the dismantling of a wall that staff and volunteers subsequently carried stone by stone to the dump.

Square Supervisors Ben and Shimi -- loving life in Grid 38.

In Grid 51 -- the only picture of which insists upon uploading upside down in spite of all my efforts to upload it correctly -- it was day to of cleaning.  Tomorrow, Kate (the Grid Supervisor), tells me they will start diggin.  Tomorrow, i hope to have pictures of the grid that are right-side-up.

In Grid 47 we start digging which is surely a new world record for the grid.  We started a probe to look for more of the monumental Hellenistic period building uncovered under the east pier of the odeon's stage.  We started a second probe to determine the exact relationship between an Islamic period cistern and the third wall of the theatre's seating area.  And then, up top, Robyn started digging and as always found more architecture and lots to confuse us.  Great day!

Look for more about Grid 51 tomorrow!

Loading this quickly before heading off to the pottery compound for more work.  Please excuse any typos/grammatical errors!

Day One

The picture is blurry (and the windshield more than a bit dirty) but then so is your brain at 5:00 in the morning when the bus leaves for the site.

The volunteers arrived yesterday, settled in for a night of sleep -- punctuated by a power outage in the hotel -- and woke up bright an early for the first day of work.

The day started, as do all dig days, with a wakeup call at 4:30, something invariably greeted with groans and the stark disbelief of someone who could use another three or four hours of sleep.

Once dressed, volunteers and staff headed down to the hotel lobby for "first breakfast" which consisted of bread and assorted jams, a pastry or cookie (if we're lucky) and coffee or tea. 

After that, it was the quick ride out to the site where the first to arrive find the pottery compound, our facility on site, empty and rather dark.

And it was in the darkness that volunteers had to first find the container which holds the tools for their grid and then had to collect said tools all while making sure they didn't poke themselves with the pointy ond of the pick they just picked up and swung over the shoulder.

Tools, wheelbarrows, water bottles and computers in hand everyone then headed off to their grids and their first day of work.

Day One is always about cleaning up after the winter and it means a seemingly endless amount of "Scrape this," followed by "Sweep that," followed by, "I think you should scrape here some more," and every so often, "Watch the prickly bushes." 

Day One is also about getting acclimated to the sun, the heat, the physical labor (and on some days even sitting out in the sun seems like labor), and the routine.  Happily, all three grids made a great deal of progress on cleaning today and the word is that Grid 38 may start digging tomorrow with both Grids 51 and 47 following by Tuesday.  Great news for everyone and the content of the blog as we will report regularly on what we are finding.  Stay tuned for more.

An Evening Out

 We celebrated a successful preseason yesterday evening by enjoying a wonderful -- and quiet -- dinner at the Ashkelon marina. 

Located just a fifteen minute walk from the hotel, the marina and its many restaurants are a favorite refuge of staff and volunteers alike.  Particularly on weekends when the hotel is full of vacationing Israelis.

Dinner was a meal of pizzas and salads and a quiet perusal of the boats in their slips.  Well, quiet until a young brother and sister decided to play hide and seek right around our table.

If you peer closely enough, you may be able to discern the red painted trim of the Dan Gardens Hotel just above the treeline on the left side of the picture. 

Volunteers have started trickling in, supervisors are busy making final prepartions for tomorrow morning and a cool breeze is blowing.  It's another beautiful day in Ashkelon.

Quote of the Day: "Everyone happily greeted the arrival of Dana's french press -- and Dana too.  But mostly the french press."

Welcome

The Dan Gardens Hotel stands ready as the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon prepares to welcome volunteers for the 2012 field season.  We have a lot to do from finishing the excavation of a Philistine era house and a Roman period odeon to delving further into the buildings of Hellenistic and Persian period Ashkelon where they stand overlooking the sea.  So far it has been perfect digging weather with plentifyl sunshine and low humidity.

In addition to field excavation, we are actively working on a number of research projects including Persian period pottery, Islamic glass and Islamic pottery, Hellenistic occupation levels and more.  There is no shortage of  work for everyone.

Sunday should be great!

If you are arriving in Israel tomorrow, just a reminder, there will be two shuttles transporting volunteers and staff from Ben Gurion Airport to Ashkelon.  The first leaves at 4:00 pm and the second at 7:00 pm.  Our volunteer coordinator, Megan, will be on both shuttles.  If you want to take a shuttle you need to find Megan.  She and/or other members of the Ashkelon staff will be waiting at a coffee shop that is to the left once you have exited customs.  You can recognize it by its lime green chairs.

The hotel lobby was quiet this morning but tomorrow evening it promises to be full.  We'll see you then.

Compound Day

Today most of the group was in the field.  Kate went off with the GIS team to work on Grid 51 while the remainder of the group was in the compound working on a variety of projects.

Busby, fresh off the plane Wednesday morning, had a marvelous time repacking the glass collection.  He still has a way to go but the end is in sight.

Next to him Josh spent a fun filled morning sorting primary and secondary contexts in the Persian period. 

Not to be outdone, though not pictured, Megan spent the morning tracking MC to record in OCHRE. 

One more day of quiet before the volunteers arrive!  I think I can speak for everyone when I say we are quite excited for their arrival.  Lots to do and not a great deal of time in which to do it!

You May Notice Some Changes

 

Just a quick note today.  We are hard at work expanding and improving the digashkelon website.  The changes are small right now but over the course of the season there should be some surprises.  Check back frequently to see what's happening on site in Israel and on the website.  We anticipate good things.  Meanwhile, we beg your indulgence for any messiness as we work to upgrade the website.

(The Lab garden looks fantastic and is a wonderful refuge from the daily grind.)

Grid Inspection

With the arrival of Dr. Kate Birney in Ashkelon all three area supervisors are on site and today we toured the grid with Co-Director Daniel Master.

Grid 38.  One of the topics of discussion today was further refining collection techniques for the microarchaeology team. 

And where to dump dirt, a question we often spend an inordinate amount of time discussing.  The good news for those volunteers sent to Gri 38?  Josh expects only a day or two of cleaning will be necessary before digging will start. 

Then it was on to Grid 50 where Kate was pleased to see the condition of the dirt and to note that fewer animals had taken up residence in the grid.  She anticipates hitting the mudbrick floored Persian building early in the season and then finding glorious things further below.

In fact, the first amazing discovery of the season was made this very morning!  Here, Josh, Kate and Dan discuss the chronology of a large opaque container and a finer green implement found near it

The bowl Kate is holding is quite nice too.

Finally, it was on to Grid 47 where, happily, the shadecloths are hung.  Cleanup here will take more than a day or two but we should be digging soon enough. 

Here, Dan is showing Kate the proposed reconstruction for the odeon.

The morning ended with the annual tool draft.  Josh, Kate and I selected our tools, stocked our containers and we are all set to go Sunday morning.  Only a few more days now!

The Tower is Down

 Less than a week to go until the season starts! 

Today was our first day in the field doing prep work for the season.  The fun started in Grid 47 where we tackled the Stone Tower, two years worth of stacked stone that need to be moved ahead of end of season photos.

It's not a job for the faint of heart.  Lots of sun and only a little ;water -- the park was having water issues -- but a very nice breeze.  On the balance, a good morning.

The first stone was lifted around 7:30 in the morning.

The last stone was moved around 11:30.  What's left requires sledgehammers.  Ahh, the fun we had.

A big Grid 47 thank you to Josh, Ben and David!

Tomorrow we will be hanging shadecloths, organizing the pottery compound and continuing our various research projects. 

Container Archaeology

Top 5 reasons we love looking through the Leon Levy Expedition storage containers:

5.  Seeing the hard work of volunteers of seasons past.

4.  Finding shiny things (the technical term for artifacts)

3.  The hidden allure of dark, dusty, blazingly hot metal containers

2.  Close encounters with the container's wildlife population

And the Number One Reasons we love the containers and their contents,

1.  Finding forgotten treasures and bringing them to light

Thursday was a fun day working in the compound consolidating the Islamic period glass material.  What an amazing collection!

Today the pace was a little slower as we worked on various projects in the Lab.

The hotel looks to be full this weekend, as usual, with families enjoying the sunny beaches of Ashkelon.  It's a good time to pick up a good boo, lay low and relax a week ahead of the season's start.

The Hotel

Every year the Dan Gardens Hotel reinvents itself with varying degrees of success and this year was no different.  Some of the changes are quite tangible and a real improvement while others are less successful.  On balance, however, any hotel that wants to make our beds, do our laundry and feed us is alright by me.

We approve of the new or recently uncovered (it was always there under the green plastic covering) pool deck with the white tiles.  The striking blue of the pool is also a pleasant sight.

Picture yourself jumping in after a long day's work in the grid.  Not a bad way to cool off, not bad at all.

Not to be Forgotten

Stopped by Grid 51 which has already had some of its jungle cleaned up.  It is surrounded by a virtual forest of weeds curtesy of the wet winter but the path to the dump is clear!

The GIS team was out in the field today doing their first run through.

Processing of the Islamic period glass continued.

And as always, the Lab was the place to be as work continued on Iron I pottery, coin processing and general prep work.

Clean Up Begins

The first wave is here and the cleaning of the grids is underway!  We landed yesterday morning and then went right to work in an effort to keep ourselves awake.  Yesterday it was an inspection of the grids, a trip to the pottery compound to pull some pottery to display to a tour group coming through in the afternoon and an afternoon of, "Are you awake?  Stay awake."

Today we got to work on the usual list of pre-season chores.  Assessing and updating the computers, registering objects that were conserved and/or restored over the winter, cleaning the grids and starting research projects.  Robyn, a square supervisor in Grid 47, was hard at work today pulling glass of the Islamic period in preparation for working up the material for inclusion in the Islamic period publication.  Next up?  Some OCHRE and whatever project comes next.  Later this week we have the deconstruction and moving of the epic stone tower in Grid 47 as we prepare to finish excavation of the odeon.  Good pictures coming soon!

To get an idea of what we came back to, here are a couple of pictures of the grids we viewed yesterday.

Here, Josh inspects Grid 38 where he will be surpervising the excavation of a Philistine house.  Overall, he was pleased with the condition of the grid after a particularly rainy winter although he did express some concern about animal activity. 

Grod 47, site of the Roman odeon, looks good all things considered.  During the winter the grid was accidentally flooded with a meter and a half of water when a pipe burst.  It doesn't look too much worse for the wear, however, and once everyone gets here cleaning shouldn't take too long.