Day Thirty

Week Five is all about finding ways to have fun.  Having retrieved the shade- cloth necessary to provide shade for Melissa as she took pictures of Grid 47's Roman period basilica floor, Ben and Patrick cut loose with a little dancing.  If only we could animate the picture!

So, in Grid 47 we are busy digging constructional fills associated with the odeon, our late 2nd/early 3rd century Roman theatre.  We are also digging a probe that is telling us more about the 1st century Roman basilica and bouleterion put out of use by the construction of the odeon.  finally, we are continuing various projects to prepare the area for conservation and restoration.

In Grid 38, they are enjoying the assistance of a Grid 47 crew headed by Busby and the new crew is working on LB layers.  The regular Grid 38 crew has been dealing wth 60 loom weights, which are used in weaving, they found on a beaten earth floor which dates to the Iron Age. 

And in Grid 51 they keep excavating their floors in fine grids which are 1 x 1 meter squares.  Why do they do it that way?  Excavating in such small areas allows the supervisors to know exactly where an object came from on the floor.  It's very important information when trying to reconstruct activity areas and other such patterns.  Their floors all date to the Persian period.

Day Twenty-Nine

No doubt about it, it is Week 5!

In Grid 47 we are digging probes looking for more information on the Roman and Hellenistic sequences.  What does that mean?  It means we select an area of the grid where we think we can gain some valuable information by digging and going as deep as we can in that particular spot.  What do we hope to find?  Well, in one of our probes we hope to date the Roman basilica and bouteterion put out of use by the construction of the odeon, theatre, we are currently excavating.  In the second probe we hope to learn more about the earliest architecture in the grid, a large Hellenistic period building.

 There was a strange and unusual sighting in Grid 47 today.  Michael, the microarchaeologist came to take samples!  In this case, he isn't sampling floors but rather the cement on our walls as we try to distinguish whether we are dealing with gypsum or lime mortars. 

Larissa uses small tools -- a porcupine quill to be exact -- to excavate a horn core that just happened to be near a cow skull which you can see towards the front of the picture.

Day Twenty-Eight

Kate likes her waffles with gummies of course.

Internet connection isn't so great today which is making it difficult to blog.  A big week is ahead.  Grid 38 is going to be digging a probe looking for the Bronze Age in addition to their regular work.  Grid 47 is going to be digging several probes in order to better understand the Hellenistic and Roman sequences.  And Grid 51, well they are awash is a sea of fine grids as they work to excavate floors in the Persian period building. 

Four weeks down, only two more to go.  Wow! 

Day Twenty-Seven

Recovered from the barrage of buckets thrown at his person earlier in the week, Josh looks on as one of his volunteers works through some Iron Age dirt.

It was a work day today and the grids worked on a variety of projects.

In Grid 51 it was waffle breakfast day.  The grid and its guests enjoyed waffles and coffee in the field.  A rare and delightful treat to be sure.

In Grid 47, supervisors set the pace early as they worked to knock down the cement bedding of a mosaic floor.  Stratified Roman period material -- some of the best on site -- was the other main focus and a lot of progress was made.

Volunteers throw sand in Sqaure 74

In Grid 38 today, they worked to backfill one of the previously excavated areas.  The Israel Antiquities Authority requires expedition such as ours to lay down a layer of sterile sand, sometimes with modern coins included, before "backfilling" an excavation area.  Backfilling occurs in areas where exavation has been completed and no more work will be done.  The sand is put down so that in the future, if someone decides to come back to Ashkelon and excavate, they will know they are in an area that has already been excavated.  Complicated, yes but the sand, with or without coins, is a great way to tell future archaeologists they should work somewhere else.

How many different ways can you enjoy waffles in the Grid?  Today was a great day to find out.  Kate Birney, grid supervisor of Grid 51, has long dreamed of having waffles in the field.  One of the advantages of using computers in the field is that the excavation areas all have electricity.  Grid 51 in fact uses a generator.  They long ago mastered the art of coffee brewing in the field and this year with the help of Sam and Marie Kate's dream was realized.

So, how do you enjoy your waffles?  Dr. Master, co-director of the excavation likes them plain.

Pascal likes them with nutella.

 And what about Dr. Kate Birney?  Stay tuned...

Day Twenty-Six

All in good fun...

Be honest, who hasn't thought about throwing buckets at Josh a time or two?

Sometimes dreams do come true.

This one's for you Shimi!

A longer post will come soon.

Day Twenty-Five

Preparations for tonight's festivities are under way.  Megan and her team are at work setting up the Finds Display.  Dr. Master is writing his lecture and everyone is eagerly awaiting dinner by the pool.

More will follow soon.

Here are some more pictures.

The pictures are rough but they give you an idea of some of the objects laid out for display tonight.

First up, a series of small finds from Grid 51 including a stamp seal made from agate and a game piece.

From Grid 38 there is a fantastic collection of Philistine pottery.

And from Grid 47 a collection of pottery, including a juglet recovered from the sewer, and an Arabic inscription.

To all our friends and family back home, we'd like to say,

Happy

Fourth

of July!

Have a wonderful holiday!

Day Twenty-Four

Another hot and humid day in Ashkelon! 

Things are busy in Grid 51 where volunteers have been excavating inside the Persian period building that covers much of the grid.  To the left, volunteers work in one of the building's rooms.

One of the most interesting facts about the building is that it has mudbrick floors!

Yesterday in Grid 51 Nichole uncovered an Egyptian alabaster juglet on a late 5th century Persian period floor.

Meanwhile, yesterday in Grid 47 Patrick climbed out of the probe he is digging to do a little picking.  Ben looks on as Patrick display his skills in the art of dismantling walls.

Day Twenty-Three

There are two things we love in Grid 47 more than anything else.  Here Mei and Neil contemplate one of them, walls.  We have Hellenistic period walls constructed out of large blocks laid horizontally and then vertically in alternating courses.  We have large Roman period walls, those of the early Roman basilica and bouletarian and those of the later 2nd/3rd century odeon that are constructed out of cut ashlars over which cement was poured.  And then we have Islamic period walls, such as the one in the picture, constructed out of stones stolen from the earlier Roman walls.  The latest walls in the grid came from a Crusader period wine vat.

What we do not have are a lot of floors. We currently have two exposed floors, both are mosaic floors which date to the Byzantine period.  One is made of plain white tiles, the second of marble and ceramic tiles.

 The other thing we love? Dark places under ground.  From the sewer and the well to the sumps and stone lined pits, dark places under ground have a strong pull on the imagination.  More than one volunteer in the grid has expressed a willingness to jump in, even not knowing what might lie below.  Yesterday, one of our new volunteers, Zach, announced that he had a hole and we all looked on eagerly.  Sure enough, there was a hole.  What it is we don't yet know but we will have fun the next couple of days speculating until we excavate far enough to get the actual answer.

In Grid 51 work continued on Persian period floors.  In Grid 38 work continued on the Philistine era house under excavation.  We'll try to have pictures tomorrow to update everyone on the work going on in those grids.

Day Twenty-Two

When Adam is near, walls disappear!  Today in Grid 47, Adam helped to remove a wall that had been constructed on an earlier mosaic floor.  As always, his help was much appreciated.  (This is third or fourth wall Adam has helped to remove this summer.)

Today was an exciting day across the site as new volunteers enjoyed their first day of work.  Two returning volunteers, Helen and Philip, made their presences felt in all of the best ways.

The next few days promise to be busy as our patron arrives and we host a finds display and reception on Wednesday.   Some of the most interesting discoveries of the season to date will be on display and dinner will be out by the pool.  All in all a wonderful way to celebrate the 4th.

Day Twenty-One

If you haven't yet checked out Nichole's blog you really should.  You can find it here.  Nichole posts a new video almost every day and they are a lot of fun.  Watch them to see your favorite supervisor or volunteer in action, to learn about what we do on a daily basis or to exercise your brain -- really, homework during the summer is okay -- as you try to answer some of Nichole's questions.  It really is a great blog and well worth your time.

Though it has not yet been featured, there is another very interesting project this summer.  This season we are fortunate enough to have Dr. Paula Wapnish with us as she works to finish the excavation and processing of dog burials from Ashkelon's Persian period dog burial ground.

How is that possible you wonder?  Many  undisturbed burials were excavated in a special way if it was found intact.  Some burials were plastered over, like the cast you get on a broken arm, and then undercut so the burial could be lifted from the ground all in one piece.  This process meant that the dog burials could be studied out of the field without slowing the progress of work in the field.

To the left, Joel works on excavating one of those dog burials.  Once finished, the bones are removed, measured and studied to learn things about age, sex, disease and more.

One of the interesting things they found this summer was that a complete knife was buried near the head of one of the dogs.  According the Dr. Wapnish there was no evidence the knife was used on the dog and so the mystery deepens.

The dog burials of Ashkelon are one of the most interesting discoveries ever made by the expedition.  More than 1000 dogs of all ages, from a day old to old age, both males and females were carefully laid out in pits and buried.  There is no evidence for disease, no evidence they were sacrificed and little understanding of the reason for their importance though there are many theories.

The dog to the right comes from Grid 50, a spot which overlooks the Mediterranean, where the burials covered an area that had once been full of warehouses.  A wide open space, dogs buried in this area were laid out in natural repose.  In Grid 38, the dogs were not so fortunate and they were buried in more of a scrunched position, crammed into any available space in streets and courtyards.  This year's excavation of the dogs should help us better understand these burials and the importance of the dogs to the people of Ashkelon.

Day Twenty

It was another fun day in the compound!

One of the practicalities the expedition faces is what to do with the material accumulated over 20+ seasons of excavation.  The first task is always to process and properly store the various materials we excavate-- such as bone, glass, ceramics, metals and so on -- until someone is offered, and accepts, the opportunity to work on them.  For the past three or four seasons, Fridays have been devoted to helping appointed specialists process their materials and this week was no exception.

The major project of late has been sorting Persian period pottery -- by far the single largest corpus of material on site -- and the crates stacked up in this picture contain Persian and Hellenistic pottery from Grid 50.  Today volunteers worked on sorting the Grid 50 pottery into crates so that Kate and Josh can go through them and more easily find material that should be included in their projects.  At long last, the Persian period pottery is almost entirely in Josh's hands.

At the same time crates were being sorted, other volunteers were sorting already identified and phased Persian period pottery for analysis.  "Phased" means that the pottery has all been identified as coming from the same period of occupation in various areas of the site.  Volunteers were sorting the pottery into categories such as Phoenician amphora, cooking pots, Attic vessels and more.  It is the first step in building the typology.

 

 A new project has gotten underway this season and here you can see volunteers sorting glass for a chapter on Islamic period glass to be included in the Islamic period volume.  Volunteers worked on sorting diags and then entering information into a computer database.

And now the weekend is upon us!  It'll be nice to relax for a day before getting back at it on Sunday.

Day Nineteen

Wow!  Today was the last day in the field for those volunteers who joined us for the first half-season.  It was a fabulous, productive three weeks and to all our part time volunteers leaving this weekend, THANK YOU!

We don't know if any of this year's volunteers will return but every year a few get sucked in and decide archaeology is for them.  One such story is particularly fun as it went from one family member coming to Ashkelon, to his entire family joining him on this adventure.

Once upon a time, a young student from Wheaton decided to come try his hand at archaeology in Ashkelon.  And so Ben, the one standing in the middle wearing a white shirt and hat, arrived and was assigned to Grid 22 where the expectation was that a large building was just waiting to be uncovered.  Ground Penetrating Radar had indicated that a structure, perhaps even a temple, lay not too far under topsoil.

Over the course of three days Ben and his volunteers dug sand.  Well, sand and crumbled kurkar (local stone) with only a tiny of dirt thrown in and absolutely no architecture to speak of, not even one little wall.

In came the bagger, heavy mechanical equipment, to dig the area for us.  After a day with the bagger it quickly became clear that there was no architecture anywhere in the area.  Less than a week after it opened, Grid 22 was closed and Ben and his fellow volunteers were sent to another grid, Grid 47.

Once in Grid 47 Ben found himself faced with large walls, big pottery fills and extensive layers of cement.  He slogged through an entire season and decided it was fantastic though it was a hot, difficult season.

Ben loved it so much he came back the next year.  And the next year.  And the next year.  And then this year, he convinced his entire family to come!  They loved it or so I am assured.  When asked where they would like their family picture taken, the Felker's answered as most Grid 47 volunteers do, "In the sewer," and there they sit, Steven, Gail, Rachael, Lydia and Anna in the Roman period sewer that runs underneath the odeon in Grid 47. The Felker family toiled each and every day with enthusiasm and to them, Ben and all our first half volunteers we say thank you for a great three weeks!

Work continues and in Grid 51 they have fully exposed a layer of collapse on a beaten earth floor.  The layer contains a number of broken vessels which, once excavated, will be given to the conservator for restortation.   It seems to be part of a destruction horizon that marks the start of the Hellenistic period here at Ashkelon.   At the bottom of the picture, you can see a Byzantine period well which cut through the floor and the layer of collapse.

We will try follow Grid 51's progress as they work through this material over the course of the next three weeks.  Please check back for more pictures next week!

Day Eighteen

It is crazy how fast time is flying!  Hard to believe the end of the third week is almost upon us.  Friday we will say good-bye to some of our volunteers, those who are here for the first half-season and Saturday we will welcome those joining us for the last three weeks of the season.  Sunday we will also welcome our patron Shelby White and her friends as they join us for a week of excavation.

Today was our second annual Community Day.  Each summer a select group of 25 middle school students is invited to spend a day digging with us.  While on site they learn about the history and archaeology of Ashkelon. 

This year, Grid 51 had 12 students, Grid 47 14 students and Grid 38 three students.  In each excavation area, the Israeli students were paired with excavation volunteers who taught them about excavation methodology (three weeks in and our guys definitely feel like pros), identified objects (usually bone, glass or ceramics) and then indulged the request for a guffa chain.  At least in Grid 47.  It was a fun day for everyone and much fun was had by all.

 The students worked on a variety of projects today.  Some worked on dismantling a mosaic floor.  Another group worked on excavating a levelling fill -- a large layer of dirt laid down in preparation for the construction of new walls -- where two lucky students uncovered a whole juglet.  The students in Grid 38 found a fabulous piece of Philistine bichrome. 

Stay tuned for pictures from Grids 38 and 51 over the next couple of days!

Day Seventeen

The picks were swinging, just like we said, and now the walls of 38 are down!

So too are the walls of 47 where the Crusader and Abbasid/Tulunid phases are almost removed thereby revealing more and more of the Roman odeon which we plan to start reconstructing once the season is over.

Today the volunteers went on a tell tour during which they visited all the excavation areas where they were able to learn about the Philistine, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and Crusader periods.

Just a short entry today as we gear up for Community Day tomorrow when 25 Israeli students will be joining us for a day of digging.  Stay tuned for pictures of all the fun!

Day Sixteen

The walls are coming down all over the ancient site of Ashkelon!  In Grid 38, they've spent two days dismantling a cement covered Roman drain with picks.  Needless to say, the picks aren't so happy about this development.  On this day two picks gave it their all as volunteers and their supervisors pounded away. 

Up next?  604 B.C.E. 

Demonstrating the nonchalance of a supervisor comfortable with breaking the pick he is using, Busby admires his handiwork.  His pick failed as he and several volunteers worked to remove the remains of foundation courses for a large Abbasid/Tulunid wall in Grid 47.

Adam joined us in bringing the walls down in Grid 47.  Here he and Scarlett work to dismantle the walls of a Crusader period wine vat.  Just a few hours later, Scarlett would uncover a four line Arabic inscription as she continued working.

Grid 51 has some of the most dense, intricate stratigraphy on site and here Kate teaches one of her volunteers about seeing the relationships between different features both made of dirt. 

As Alethia says, "That's pretty much archaeology."

Day Fifteen

There was a strange and unusual sight in Grid 47 -- so strange and unusual that the computer can't figure out the picture's orientation.  If you look carefully, however, and tilt your head appropriately you can see Busby working.  It's true.  There he is, carrying a rock.

In fact, Busby has met the goals for his square this season and now finds himself working with Robyn in her square.  This means he is off the computer and in the dirt.  Life doesn't get any better!  Really.

And best of all, Busby, Ben and Kristen were able to answer some important questions about the architecture in Grid 47.  Great work guys!

To the right, Eric prepares himself in the eventuality that he is allowed into the stone-lined cist in front of him.  It is actually quite an interesting structure and one which everyone in Grid 47 has expressed interest in exploring.  The lure of dark, dirty spaces under ground is very powerful here at Ashkleon.

Grid 38 is dismantling their drains -- we hope to have pictures soon.

Dana conquers the wall

Dana has now vanquished the wall visible in the picture to the left.  Work continues in Grid 51 and today they uncovered a layer of collapse (or perhaps even destruction debris) on a floor inside their mudbrick building.  Kate believes it is late Persian or early Hellenistic thereby making the find very, very interesting.

After a long night, happily everyone is safe and sound, it was back to work and across the board grids reported it was a safe and productive work day.  Good news all around.

It is hard to believe that we are almost finished with the first half of the season.  Our first session half-season volunteers will finish their adventure this Friday and new volunteers will arrive Saturday.  What will the next three weeks bring as we work to meet all of our goals?  Can't wait to see!

Day Fourteen

Connectivity issues are making it difficult to work on the computers today so just a short entry.  Things are quiet both inside and outside of the hotel which is wonderful news tor those of use who decided to stay at the hotel this weekend.  Your picture of the day is of a Grid 51 volunteer modeling what is probably a seal ring dating to the Roman or Byzantine period.  The ring is made of iron, perhaps mixed with some other metals, and once it is cleaned up we should know more about it.   

Day Thirteen

The picture of hard work.

Fridays are compound days and while we get dirty -- though not as dirty as Josh is in the picture to the left -- the work is generally not as difficult as excavation.  Work on compound days is devoted to ongoing research projects.  Today we worked on three different projects.  The first was Kate's Hellenistic pottery sort.  The second, Josh's Persian pottery sort.  What does that mean? 

Ahh, good question.

Every day we excavate, we collect pottery.  (Pottery is important because it is one of the main tools we use for dating the architecture we excavate.)  Every afternoon we wash the pottery excavated in the morning.  Then, once the pottery is dry supervisors "read" it meaning they identify the types and dates of pottery present.  Usually, once that process is completed the pottery is stored until a specialist expresses interest and comes to examine the pottery.  So, right now both Kate and Josh are working on specific pottery projects and the team is helping them make their goals.

The third project we worked on today was a rough sort -- or body dump -- of ceramics from Grid 50, an area excavated in the 1990s.  The pottery that we collect is catagorized as diagnostic -- rims, handles, bases and decorated bodies -- and non-diagnostic -- undecorated body sherds.  Today we were dumping the undiagnostic body sherds.  The diagnostic sherds will soon be examined by Josh and Kate.

Today we created a mountain of pottery.  There are 116 crates of bodies to discard and 76 crates of diagnostic pottery that will be examined by specialists in the future.  In other words, it was a very productive day.  We more than earned our weekend!  As did Shimi and Mark who moved every single one of those crates.  Thank you Shimi and Mark!

Day Twelve

It was a busy day for the Leon Levy Expedition.

Today in Grid 51 there was some grid maintenance along with digging.  The fence has fallen down?  No problem, David and Kate can fix it!

Pascal and Natty excavate an Islamic period robber trench cut into a Hellenistic building.

Jared carefully excavates what is now thought to be a shovel -- previously identified in the blog as "mysterious metal object" -- found abandoned on an early Hellenistic street.

Jared, Nichole and Adam examine the shovel.

It was also a busy day in Grid 47 where small finds were the word of the day.

If you look closely, you will see a piece of worked bone decorated with circles and dots.

Ben works to uncover the rim of a large glass vessel.

We also had some very special visitors in Grid 47 today.

Rafi and Kedem joined us in the field to do some work.  Kedem was quite pleased to find a small weight, pottery, bone and some glass. 

And while there are no pictures, word is that it was also a very busy and productive day in Grid 38.  Phase 17 is gone, Phase 18 is thin and they are well on their way to uncovering and excavating Phase 19.

Tomorrow is the end of Week Two and we'll be in the pottery compound working on various research projects.  Stay tuned to learn more about some of the projects we are working on this year.

Day Eleven

Definitely cooler and less humid today which made for much more pleasant working conditions.  Not a moment too soon either as several grids are heading into some big dirt moving projects.

Grid 38 has already moved a lot of dirt and Shimi's square which is to be full of architecture is now largely empty!

The same cannot be said for Ben's square which is full of more drains and/or sewer channels than any one square could hope to posses.  Here, Josh stands in one channel while pointing out a second.  The drains/sewers appear to be Roman or Byzantine in date and at least one of them continued to be used into the Islamic period before silting up and going out of use.

Meanwhile, in Grid 51 they have been busy finding mysterious metal objects.  We aren't sure yet what it might be but check back soon.  We should know more in short order.

Last but not least, in Grid 47 today we worked on removing fills.  And finding walls.  We did that today.  And floors.  We did some of that too.  All in all, a busy and productive day for everyone.

Can't wait until tomorrow!