Our highly esteemed Land and Bible teacher, Bill, recently took us on an archaeological excavation for two days! It was definitely a great experience! One I don’t think any of us will be forgetting any time soon!
Day 1: Sunday
The first day we were excavating dirt from under the southeast corner of the Temple Mount. It was really exciting because this is the only part of the temple mount that has been excavated. No one is allowed to excavate there any more. As the story goes, some Muslims decided to take some bulldozers and take out the dirt from under the southeastern corner of the mount. Archaelogical warning #1: Don’t ever take out really old and historically significant dirt with a bulldozer. It makes archaeologists mad. These muslims apparently did not care about the dirt they were taking out. They took out all this dirt and just dumped it in the Kidron Valley nearby. Finally, some University students noticed what they were doing, and basically said “Hey, you can’t do that!” They reported it to the proper authorities, and the muslims were stopped from doing their evil deed. The archaeologists were still mad however, because they now had no reference point or dirt “layers” to help them date the items found in this special dirt. They can still find really important things and date them, it’s just a lot harder. So, they rescued the dirt from the Kidron Valley and brought it to an excavation site on the northern side of the Mount of Olives, where they are now sorting through it. This is where we spent our day.
Jennifer sifting through "rocks"
They had three different stations set up for us to work at throughout the day. The first one was sifting through the small rocks looking for anything that basically wasn’t a rock. Some of the most common items found were: pottery, mosaic stones, bones, glass, and marble.
Jennifer and Michelle working together
Jenn and Brigitte working together
It took us a little while to get the hang of it…let’s just say that when we started…everything looked like rocks. But by the second or third time we were able to identify some of the previously mentioned items. It was really exciting to think that we had just found a piece of pottery that was possibly two thousand years old!
Melinda found a piece of glass possibly from the bottom of a jar
The Jenns found teeth!
Jennifer and Michelle found a tooth (root and all!) in their sifter, and a few minutes later, Jenn and Brigitte found another tooth in their sifter. It was really exciting! And kind of funny! The workers couldn’t figure out why we were so excited (probably because they find stuff like that every day).
Ancient teeth
We were told by the archaeologist that they were both animal’s teeth. He also said the animals were herbavores (only eats plants). Jennifer thought that maybe the tooth she found was that of the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the triumphal entry…but then the archaeologist said it was a little too small to be a donkey’s tooth…she was disappointed.
Byzantine Coin
There were a few items found by us (the students) throughout the day that the archaelogist said would go to a museum. This coin was one of those items! Let’s just say that Melinda and Angela were excited since it was found in their sifter! The archaeologist thinks that the coin was from the Byzantine period.
These buckets are where we put the "good" pieces
After we finished going through our sifter, we would take the “good” items and put them in these buckets. The leftover rocks got dumped in a wheelbarrel to be taken away. Then we would start on our next “batch.”
The second station was a HUGE pile of large items (rocks, etc.). Basically we were told to pick a spot and start sorting through it. They showed us what was worth saving and what was “throw away” material. Sometimes it was still hard to tell…okay, a lot of times. 
Brigitte and Michelle looking for "treasures"
Ces, Mike, and Drew working hard
The third station was sifting through actual piles of dirt. We had to sift through the dirt to get out what we knew must be “precious stones.” The guys shoveled the dirt into buckets, and then the girls took the buckets and dumped them into the sifters. The sifter part was basically a three step process.
Meghan and Jenn doing step 1
Step 1 was basically just shaking the sifter until all the dirt fell out!
The Jenns doing step 2
Step 2 was dumping the sifted rocks down the chutes.
The final destination of the rocks - step 3
The rocks would then come out into buckets. These buckets would later be taken to be sifted again (like at our first station).
The archaeologist in charge of the dig
The archaeologist in charge was very good at explaining things to us and helping us understand the world of archaeology better.
Listening to explainations about archaeology
Day 2: Monday
Our second day of archaeology experience was very different from the first. We did not do actual sorting of ancient items as before. We spent the day doing manual labor. This excavation is located just south of Old City Jerusalem in the City of David. Some of you may remember reading in the Bible about the Gihon spring. In ancient times, this was Jerusalem’s main water source, and is also associated with Hezekiah’s tunnel. Well, that’s where we were excavating, right next to it. The bags in the picture below are all the bags the workers had filled with the excavated dirt that needed examining. They needed our help to get all these bags out of the “dig.” We formed a human chain assembly line to get the bags from inside the dig out to the street where a dumpster was waiting to be filled by the bags. This dumpster was not a trash dumpster, but merely a way to transport all the bags to a location where the contents in the bag could be researched.
All the bags we had to carry out to the dumpster!
Meghan and Isaiah carrying a bag of "treasures"
Isaiah Schlegel (Bill’s second son) was thrilled to come with us on our excavating adventure! It was his birthday, so he got to take a break from school and come with us for the day.
Passing the bags
The line outside to the dumpster
After seeing the piles of bags that had to be transported from inside the dig to outside in the dumpster, some of us decided to count how many bags we moved. Our grand total at the end of the day was…drum roll please…1,307 bags (weighing approx. 10 - 20 lbs. each)! We filled up two dumpsters full with bags. It was a lot! Along with the bags, we also had to move some very big rocks outside. Apparently these rocks were “modern,” useless rocks and needed to be thrown away. So, we moved them outside and made a big pile. We also started counting the rocks…but it got a little confusing to the counters when multiple people were throwing rocks on the pile at the same time. So, as close as we can figure, there was a grand total of 550 rocks moved as well.
Jennifer standing on a huge pile of rocks
The three of us right between the excavation dig and the entrance to Hezekiah’s tunnel (the children in the background were there for a tour of the tunnel).
Inside the "dig"
We finished our job at about 3 pm and then Bill took us down into the shafts and tunnels where the archaeologists are finding walls and other historical things.
Bill taking us through the excavation site
In the tunnel
Just to clarify…these are not the water tunnels of Hezekiah that we went through previously in the semester…these are different tunnels in a near location.
Walking through the tunnel
After coming out of the tunnel and while waiting for our bus to come, we stopped for a break on a grassy area for some “Becky” snacks and drinks. It had been a tiring day and we were all ready to go back to the moshav and shower! Everyone was basically covered in a layer of dust!
Hanging out and resting on the grass
Brigitte and Michelle chillin' on the rock wall
The last picture of the day
Both of the days spent excavating were filled with learning many new and interesting things about archaeology. We were blessed to have the opportunity to excavate at current digs and see first hand how they work. I must say that after only working for a few hours compared to a full time archaeologist that works all day every day, I have a new appreciation for the tediousness of the work and how much patience they must have to do it! We can really be thankful for all the work they have done, and the benefits that have come from that work.
We praise God for how He has been working in our lives and teaching us through this awesome experience here in Israel. Soli De Gloria – Glory be to God!
