Back in the Field

Last Friday, I drove the familiar route east from Jerusalem toward the Jordan Valley. The road passes through a tunnel under the Mount of Olives and emerges into the Judean Wilderness. It descends quickly from 2500 feet above sea level to 1400 feet below sea level. I headed north along Route 90, which parallels the Jordan River. Despite being a desert area, the valley is tinged with green this time of year. The more time I spend in the Jordan Valley, the more I appreciate its rugged beauty.

My destination was Fazael. This is my third year digging at Fazael. It is a cluster of sites dating to the late Chalcolithic period. Shay Bar directs the excavation there, and for the past several years, a team of metallurgists has participated in the dig, since it seems that there was some sort of metal production going on at the site.

Dig camp

The dig team was small this season, and I enjoyed the group dynamic. It was nice to see old friends and meet new ones. We stayed at a camp in a nearby farming community. By now, I am familiar with the camp. I have stayed there for multiple digs. It was a relaxed dig season. We didn’t leave for the site until 7:30 each morning. It was nice to sleep in a little.

It rained for the first few days of the dig. The weather fluctuated rapidly between sunny and rainy. Sometimes it drizzled and we could keep working. Other times, the rain poured down, and we took shelter under a pop-up gazebo that we set up for that purpose. The soil has a high clay content there, so instead of the water soaking in, it puddled on the surface. That meant that the rain didn’t affect the excavation too much. Although we tried to avoid digging muddy soil, it was pretty easy to get past the thin layer of mud and find dry soil to excavate.

For the next few days, the weather was warm and sunny. The water puddles evaporated, and we started using sunscreen. We set up the pop-up gazebo to provide shelter from the sun.

I helped with registration, using GIS to plot finds on the site plan. The metallurgy team had a successful season with a lot of interesting finds. They kept me busy registering small items and soil samples. They carefully removed blocks of soil that they will prepare in the lab to examine under a microscope. This way, they will be able to analyze the micro-stratigraphy at the site.

Local Bedouin shepherds grazed their flocks on the slopes surrounding the dig. Each flock consisted mainly of sheep, but there were often a few goats mixed in. Each shepherd had a donkey and a team of dogs to herd the flock. Occasionally, a new lamb was born, and the shepherd carried the newborn lamb back to their camp, with the mother sheep following along, bleating loudly.

It was a short dig season, but very enjoyable. It was nice to spend my days in the outdoors, working with fellow archaeologists, and making connections.

Sunrise over the Jordan

The desert blossoms in the rainy season.