Season Summary and Farewell

After a very, very long day of flying last Friday I have finally started to readjust to Minnesota time and weather. Everyone from our team has made it safely home, and I have finally put all my junk away! I do apologize that it took so long for me to publish this last entry, but here it is. Looking back on the previous month, I will always see my days in Israel as full (from before sunrise to after sunset!) of activites, hard work, at times relaxing (evenings, pottery scrubbing time, and naps of course!), and days which went by very quickly. It was certainly one of the highlights of my life so far (which isn't that long I guess, less than 20 years). It was certainly my most unique experience as well. Most of all, it was enriching for me as a Christian to be able to connect events that happened 20 centuries ago with real places.

2005 season summary:
(Based off of Dr. Schuler's end of the season lecture)

To the southeast of the church there are several walls that we discovered during the last week of digging. Next year's team will excavate these walls and attempt to furthur explain the function of our church as part of a larger complex.

Square B4-- the "south vaulted chamber", was a massive room indeed. Dr. Schuler has calculated that we removed some 68 cubic meters of dirt and rock from this room. There was about a 2 meter difference in elevation from where we started and the floor at the bottom! As for the purpose of this room, it was most likely a diakonicon. A diakonicon is a room where gifts for the church were displayed. The benches in the room and the niche in the wall would have been shelves for these gifts. The purpose of the cistern in this room is not clear. It does appear to have been part of the design of the church. (Some of the other cisterns were probably made, used, and sealed off before the construction of the church.) The cistern in B4 is relatively close to the chancel, the holy area, and may have held healing water, wine for veneration rituals, or a similar purpose. Also notable is that despite the size of this room, it has only one entrance. Moreover, its door would have locked from the inside. It is quite probable that someone would have slept in this room to guard the gifts that were stored and displayed there.

As we were moving some rocks out of the way to prepare a new square for excavation next year, we saw another wall sticking out of the grass. This area, south of the church and west of B4, could be another room, or possibly some sort of walkway for the complex.

In the far southwest of the excavation area we found a large cistern, larger than the other ones in the church. Its depth is over 5 meters, where the other cisterns were only 3 meters deep. This cistern was probably not in use at the time of the church, and was probably dug in the Roman period or even before that. Farther north in the “E” row are 2 partially excavated rooms. Interestingly, we found a lot of cooking pottery there, but no cooking installations. (Cooking pottery is dark and burnt looking on the outside from being near, or in, a cooking flame.) One speculation is that these small rooms might have been monastic cells. These rooms may be excavated fully in the future.

Square E2 is a mystery. Where there should be a church atrium, there is simply nothing there, no paving, nothing! We dug a small section of this square deeper than the surrounding areas (this is called a probe). In the probe we found stones that may have been base stones for a floor, or they may be the top of a much earlier wall. We don’t know. One thing is certain: since there is an opening on the church’s west side--something must be there! Only more digging can answer this mystery. Isn’t archaeology great!

Square D0 (on the north side of the church) is where we found our first cistern of the year. What is unique about this cistern is that its plaster coating is grey, as opposed to the pinkish plaster used by the Byzantines. Obviously this cistern was not part of the church. The strange positioning of a column in this square also points to the existence of some earlier structure on the site. Lastly, this square contained part of a stair case along the north outer wall of the main church. The fact that the wall is rather thin would suggest that there was not a tower here. Perhaps the stairs were for a platform, maybe a second story of a later domestic building built on the ruins of the the church. It has even been suggested that the stairs led to a balcony in the church, but there is no evidence either for or against that theory.

The small room to the east of D0 contains a piece of aquaduct pipe and some stone features. This room probably saw domestic use at one point. To the east of this room is a blocked doorway, behind which is another small room with a beautiful, well-preserved mosaic floor. This room also has a door leading into the chancel area of the church, but the function of the room is unknown.

Cisterns, cisterns, cisterns?
Two of the cisterns were probably in use at the time of the church. Those are the cistern in the rear of the church that was discovered last year, and also the cistern in B4. These two had heads on them, while the others were covered or blocked off.

Next Year:
Will likely be the last year at the NE church. Next year’s team will attempt to remove the masonry sunk tomb in the center of the chancel. Now I did this calculation myself, the limestone “coffin” in this tomb is probably over a ton! There’s one good reason to stay tuned to next year’s dig: to see how they do it! Next year’s work will also include some additional digging in the chancel area, and the team will attempt to probe down to the bedrock. More digging will also be done on the west side of the church (the area where there should be an atrium but there is none.) The area adjacent to square B4 with the peculiar wall will also be excavated.

For those who may shy away from the prospect of joining the dig due to its back-breaking labor, Dr. Schuler plans to have one group next season that will only do conservation work. No need to be strong or have great stamina or resistance to heat; you would get to sit down, lay down even, and do intricate hand work in the shade!

Dr. Schuler’s next project:
While trekking through the grass in Hippos, Dr. Schuler discovered another church in the domestic quarter of the city. Some features are visible, and it may even be a tri-apsidal (3 apses) church. The bad news is that there is a lot of work to be done before this church can be excavated. A lot of rubble must first be removed, and a road for the backhoe must be made too. Ideally next year would bring multiple teams under the direction of Dr. Schuler, possibly a Canadian team and a team from Concordia Irvine. The goal is 20 to 25 people, a big jump up from 15 or so people this year! The dates for next summer are roughly July 2 through 27. Maybe you can help provide one of the two “D”’s that are needed to make next year’s goals happen: Diggers and Donations!

And for those who are interested, a new and updated schematic of the Northeast church will soon be available online, probably by the end of September. From the virtual dig site, click on the link for “hippos dig”. Under the "excavation reports" there will soon be a 2005 report, where you will be able to find daily reports and the new schematic, I believe. And if you are at all interested in the finds of previous seasons, that information is online as well.


Once again, thank you for following along on my blog. When I asked Dr. Schuler, “What’s the best thing about Israel?”, he replied, “Learning more about Christianity.” I’ve done some of that! Hopefully you’ve learned quite a bit from these glimpses of the trip that myself and fellow bloggers have written. I thoroughly enjoyed almost everything about the trip, including writing this journal. And what I used to see as a 2000 year gap in the history of our faith, I now see as a long chain of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone before us, who had their own churches, their own rituals, their own Christian culture, and the same salvation that is now ours in Christ. Let us follow in their footsteps, even to eternal life with Christ.

Last Day

Today was the last day we had to hike up that hill and get dirty and exhausted. I'm glad it's over from that perspective. On the other hand, we have become very accustomed to the daily routine and attached to kibbutz life. At the site today we "cleaned up" the site (picked up rocks from around the site and swept walls and features). We also took many pictures, and Dr. Schuler took his end of the year photographs of the site. We brought all of our tools back to the shed as well. For lunch, we had one final meal in the dining hall. I slept quite a bit this afternoon, after a late night at the pub the previous night, during which Kat, Andrea, and had a fun discussion with Woytek, one of the Polish students. After napping this afternoon, Mark and I put on our running shoes for one final run north along the shore. My mileage total for running in Israel is 156, or about 250 km. After running I swam in the lake one last time, and it was rather wavy today. On the raft I talked to a 19 year old Israeli guy, a soldier, whose name was Kaisa (not sure of the spelling, but that's how it sounds). Next came our final dinner at the fish restaurant down at the lake. (It was fun, but honestly I could have gone for dinner at the dining hall one last time, especially because we had already paid for those meals.) I did some final shopping at the gift shop, and right now I'm typing. I still have to pack, read my bible by the lake one last time, and go the pub one last time. Tomorrow will be an early start, but that's fine with me, since I'm scheduled to be back in Minnesota before dark Friday night!

I still plan to write a season summary, based off of my notes from Dr. Schuler's final group lecture. Stay tuned for that, as it should be my last post.

So long from Israel, and thanks for following along!

Israel, land of ten thousand rocks

Last week our group found a small Corinthian capital while digging. (A capital is a decoratively carved stone piece that sits on top of a pillar/column) It needed to be brought back to the lab at the kibbutz, to be analyzed and so that it wouldn't be stolen from the dig site. There was no way we were going to get it to the bus half a mile away. Yoval, who drives up to the site every day in his truck with our food and water, drove up to our church, and the capital was loaded into the back of his green truck. Now of course the capital would have to be unloaded too, so Marc H, Mark K, and I rode down the mountain with Yoval. "Rode down the mountain" entails the bumpiest, rockiest trail in the woods you've ever seen. (This was the Roman/IDF road) Yoval said in with his Hebrew accent, "The capital, I think it is Ok... I don't hear any...uhh...suspicious noises from the back". To cut a relatively insignificant story short, the capital did make it back to the kibbutz in one piece, as did the truck, as did I!

Normally dinner is pretty much the same food as breakfast. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day here. Friday is different. The Jewish Sabbath actually begins at sundown on Friday and lasts until sundown Saturday. To celebrate the beginning of the Sabbath they have a special dinner, called the Shabat dinner. They usually serve chicken legs (drumstic + the rest of the leg) and always serve wine for the Shabat. Most notably, some practicing Jews will dress up for the dinner; basically their clothes make them look Amish. That's the best way I can describe it.

Sleep: Most of the people from our group usually take some sort of afternoon nap before pottery cleaning. I'm really glad we have time for naps, because our bodies get pretty "whooped" (as Marc H likes to say) from digging, and with a 4:00 wake up time we don't get quite enough sleep. The fact that I'm writing at 9:40 means that tonight, like most nights, will be less than 6 hours. I may be a little short on sleep, but then again I didn't come to Israel so I could sleep in until noon every day!

Today Mark K. and I ran north through the banana fields and found ourselves at Gofra Beach, a long and rocky beach where many Israelis like to come and have a picknick or a fire or even camp. Past the beach we ran on a truck trail through the grass, with a beautiful close-up view of the lake on our left and a "minefield" on our right! (It was a fenced-off field with signs that say "danger, mines"). Only in Israel, only in Israel!

In the evening today all of the archaeology teams boarded a large boat for a short cruise out into the middle of the lake and back. It was a good opportunity for pictures of the kibbutz beachfront with the Hippos hill in the background. We were given watermelon, wine, and loud blaring American rap music. Put positively, my thoughts are that at least we had the opportunity to take the boat ride; I'll take the good with the bad!

Thought of the day: I really don't mind any aspect of digging, whether I'm carrying buckets, filling the buckets, picking rocks, carrying big rocks, or sweeping floors. However, digging trenches around the outsides of rooms is not fun at all, mainly because of the complete lack of shade. Ugg. I guess I really don't mind at this point, because tomorrow (Wednesday) is our last day of digging; Thursday is cleanup, and Friday I go home!

Tonight I led the group in a short devotion. The text was Luke 5:1-11, in which Jesus tells Peter and company to "let down the nets for a catch" after a fishless night, and they bring in more fish than the boats can handle. Jesus then calls these men to follow him and "catch men" from that time on. We have learned first of all that fishing was done at night, because fish can see the nets during the day. The disciples would have been reluctant to try to catch fish during the day for this reason. Second, they had just cleaned the nets and probably did not feel like having to do it again. Third, Israel is hot during the day! Nevertheless, they obeyed Jesus and look at the amazing results. Their astonishment is quite clear in the story. After this they left their whole lives behind to follow Jesus. It was a life-changing day for these disciples, but we can see from their miraculous catch of fish that God has great things in store when we listen to him and answer his call.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday night) we will have a lecture in which Dr. Schuler will tell us his thoughts about what we've found, what we've uncovered, the significance of our finds, and his excavation plans for next year's team. I plan to summarize that discussion in my blog. (Right now though I plan to "excavate" my bed and put it to good use!)

Last week already?

At the conclusion of week three, we said goodbye to 3 members of our team: Mike, Linda, and Rachel. The team feels much smaller now. Well, of course it does; we are now 21 percent smaller! My own departure feels like it is rapidly approaching. I leave the Kibbutz to go to the airport at 5:00 (I think) Friday morning. Basically, I now have 4 days left, and all 4 are busy workdays. After that it's over, except for a lot of flying! It's funny to imagine that Friday morning I'll be driving across Israel to the airport, and I'll be back home in Minnesota in time for dinner! Ok, maybe a late dinner. My guess is I'll get home about 10:00 at night. For those who don't know, Israel is 8 hours off of Minnesota (Central) time. Flying home will extend my day Friday by 8 hours!

Who knows what will happen at the dig during this last week. I have shifted to a different square. With B4 officially done, Mark K. and I have moved to square E2, which is in the back of the church. My new "team" is Mark, Arny, and I. Now normally an atrium would be found in this area of the church, but our church is so strange that we don't know what we will find. Right now we are removing a "floating wall", that is, a wall built on dirt, not on a foundation. Perhaps being able to see the flooring underneath this wall and dirt will help us learn something about the structure of this oddball of a Byzantine church. That's the plan anyway.

Meanwhile, the team in square B0 is almost done exavating one of the small rooms in the row of rooms north of the church santuary. They have found some nice Mosaic floor already, which raises a good question: why was this small, difficult to access room decorated with Mosaic flooring, and what purpose did the room serve? Perhaps the answer to that question will come into light over the next few days.

The remainder of the team is now working on preserving the Mosaic floor sections in the sanctuary that are still intact. It appears very tedious. The little 1 cm by 1 cm tiles all have to be scraped with an exacto knife and cleaned and blown off and whatever else they do. At least they have had the excitement of discovering something significant: several cross patterns in the Mosaic.

Also of interest at the dig site as of late are Dr. Schuler's cistern explorations. He climbed down to explore the cistern in D0 a couple days ago. Eventually he brought Andrea down with him to measure and draw the shape of the inside of the cistern. He also let any of us who so desired go down into the cistern for a quick look around. Obviously I took a turn in the cistern, and I'm glad I did. Later, Andrea and I looked at her drawings, did some math, and estimated the volume of the cistern. My calculations came out to about 16 cubic meters. Of course, that is a rough, rough estimate.

Today, Dr. Schuler descended into the E4 cistern, which is by far the largest of them all. The ladder couldn't even reach the floor, so he had to jump off, I guess, to reach the floor, and he had to a special climbing rope system just to get back onto the ladder! I think the depth of this cistern is 5 to 6 meters, compared to about 3 meters for all the others. Tomorrow I will no doubt be calculating the approximate volume of this massive cistern.

Random fact at the dig: Our group has developed an addiction to chocolate spread at breakfast. I'm proud to say that every day I make myself a chocolate sandwich! Don't worry, we still eat plenty of eggs, fruit, and vegetables too!

Random running update: yesterday (Saturday) I ran about 13.3 miles in the evening (just farther than a half marathon). I ran south on the highway to the junction near the southern tip of the lake. It feels very good to get that one under my belt. Also, as of my run today, I have logged in 50 miles this week! I'm going to miss all my new running routes that I've made over the last month. Being able to run here has been great! This week I'm taking Monday and Friday off, which means I only have 3 runs in Israel left. It's funny, there's not really anything about this trip that I can complain about! It has been the opportunity of a lifetime (thank you especially to Mom, Dad, and Dr. Schuler for making it possible), and I will try to savor these last few days as best I can.

Happenings at the kibbutz

Laundry: We just had our last laundry day. Laundry day is Thursday. Before we would leave for digging we would put our dirty items in garbage bags, tie them, and leave them out on our porch for pick up. A truck would come by and collect the clothes while we were away at work. ALL of the clothes for our group and the Polish and Israeli teams would be washed in one, maybe two loads. I wish I could have seen this gigantic washing machine! Upon returning to the kibbutz, we would "pick up" our laundry, which involves picking through everyone's clothes until you found yours! Beware of washing light color clothes too. One kid picked up a beautiful purplish blue dress shirt from the laundry room. Actually, it had been a white shirt before it was washed! I myself have not had any of my clothes lost or stolen, which is good, but as for the provided bed linens, well, there may not be any left for you if you pick up your laundry too late. In summary, laundry here is some sort of odd feeding frenzy. I'm just thankful that I don't have to wash my workclothes by hand; sweat and dirt make a nasty combination!

The Raft: Andrea and I have swum to the raft numerous times since the kibbutz first put it together sometime last week. One time was during the heat of the day, when many kibbutzniks (people who live on a kibbutz) were out there too. Teenagers hanging out, a couple middle aged guys just sitting there enjoying the sun, and a dozen or so Israeli kids playing tag or something in the water around and under the raft. They were counting and talking and screaming in Hebrew. It was a very different feeling, knowing that you are a complete outsider in their world. They live in a culture similar to our own, but also entirely unique. As I thought about my preconceived notions of what their country was like, I can only imagine what they think the United States must be like.

Hike to Hippos #2: On Friday Dr. Schuler, "Dr. Mike", Linda, Arnie, Hawaii Mark, Andrea, and myself arose early to make the ascent up to Hippos. It was somewhat miserable, definitely uncomfortable even at 5:00 in the morning with no wind and higher than normal humidity. We made it though, drenched with sweat as we were. I took dozens of pictures of Hippos, of our church, and of the NW church. The group took measurements of the locations of wall and pillars and such, which will serve to help Andrea draw the layout of the church accurately. We were not there for long though, and we hiked back down, sometimes on the trail and sometimes cutting corners using cow paths. We even came across a group of cows standing right in our way, but as we approached them they scattered. As I walked back down the hill I just couldn't stop thinking that the landscape and vegetation, and especially having to open and close barbed wire cattle fences, reminds me of central South Dakota, though perhaps rockier.

Spiritual thoughts: I love being able to read the Bible here, right next to the Sea of Galilee, after dark. I can look up and glance in the direction of Capernaum, I can see the hills where crowds flocked to here Jesus speak, I can say "Nazereth is just up and over those hills" or "this is the lake that Jesus would cross in a small boat with his disciples" or "somewhere in these hills a demon-filled herd of pigs rushed into the water to drown, while a possessed man was now free: free to live and preach the goodness of God to the pagan Greek Decapolis cities". God changes things. Even by sending one man into the world, who never even really "got around" much in the Roman world, the whole world was changed by him. Millions and millions and millions have been brought into salvation through HIM, and these events I'm reading about this ancient book, the bible, happened right over in those hills, right in that lake, right HERE.

Relics, cult of the saints/martyrs?: Ask most Lutherans what they think about preserving relics , and the honoring of saints and martyrs. Dirty looks maybe? "That's why we had the reformation, to get rid of that Catholic junk" perhaps? There are two sides of the story. Yes these practices have been abused throughout history. Salvation had become something to be purchased, while at the same time the church's wallet began to bulge because of this lie. Salvation cannot be bought, nor attained through the intervention of saints, or touching their bones, or whatever. Salvation is freely given through Jesus Christ! But... that is no reason for us to forget those who have gone before us in the faith, whose examples can still encourage us in our own walks of faith and guide us through our own struggles. Their struggles have become or struggles, God will bring us through as He has brought them through, and the same salvation they have been given is ours as well through Jesus Christ. At our Northeast church in Hippos, saints were held in very high regard. A family and an elderly woman were given the honor of being buried in chancel of the church, a very "holy area". They were honored by the anointing of their bones with oil. Their bones became sacred relics. They were not forgotten, and future generations of Christians from Hippos were no doubt told their stories. They thus had a connection to those who had gone before them in the body of Christ and, importantly, were encouraged in their own faith. Perhaps these practices aren't so blasphemous as they appear. One of God's great gifts to His followers is the people He surrounds them with. The Christians at Hippos certainly had these connections, these bonds with their fellow believers, both present and past. We can certainly do the same today, that is, uphold people as gifts from God, as examples, as guides, as stepping stones even, and as companions on our journey of eternal life in Christ.

End of Week 3

Time sure flies in Israel! We are now at the end of our third week of digging. One more week left. Actually, the "work week" is not exactly over for everyone, since Dr. Schuler has asked some of us to hike with him to the dig site tomorrow (Friday) morning for measurements, and drawing, and such--documentation. So not only do we have to wake up at the "normal" time on Friday, we also have to hike up the rugged off road trail to get there! The hike takes one to two hours, I believe. The trail crisscrosses up the front, or west side rather, of the the hill. It was once a Roman road leading to the city's less heavily used west entrance, but more recently it has been used as a road for the Israeli military. Hippos is a very strategic site, and it's military history stretches all the way from Greek and Roman times to the mid 20th century, when Israel faced off with Syria and other neighboring countries. Anyway, this should prove to be a decent workout of a hike, but the good news is that we'll get back in time for breakfast!

Meanwhile, back at the church... After 3 weeks of work the enormous vaulted chamber, the room called B4, is finally done! I believe the final size of the room turned out to be 6m by 7m or something like that, as opposed to the normal 5x5 square. This room may have been used for the presentation of gifts, or for the honoring of saints/martyrs. It has a plaster floor, and two large arches once supported its roof. It has numerous benches around the perimeter, a cistern in the NE corner, and some sort of alcove in the south wall. It's only entrance is on the north side; it directly opens into the south isle of the church. I wonder how many tons, literally tons, of dirt and stone we have removed over the past three weeks! Most recently, Hawaii Mark and I have been toiling out in the sun clearing away rocks and dirt on the outside of the room. In essence, we are digging small trenches so that the outsides of the walls will be visible. Why? To see if the building ends at the corner of the room or if the wall continues on. Guess what, I found that the east wall does indeed extend to the south, though that section appears to be an addition, not part of the original church. Future Hippos volunteers can thank me for that as they toil away on a new square to the south of B4! On a serious note, this does strongly point to the idea that the church was actually some sort of larger complex, possibly even a monastery.

The squares in the atrium (back) of the church, that we have also been excavating, have proven to be quite interesting. They have found part of a city street, a very large (5m deep, compared to the others which are 3m) and old cistern, numerous walls in confusing positions, and even some sort of platform. This raised platform may have been part of a temenaus (that's probably not how it's really spelled), which is a Greek worship space, part of a temple complex for pagan worship. Our church may have been built on top of that site as Christianity began to dominate the Byzantine period (the eastern Roman empire). That is, of course, only a theory. Interesting though.

Lastly, the row of rooms to the north of the church have shown us some interesting things. The westernmost room of that row (D0) was where we first found an unexpected cistern. Many of us have since climbed down the ladder into this cistern for a brief look around: smelly, claustrophobic, and dark! The staircase in D0 unfortunately has not revealed anything about the structure of the church. Who knows, maybe Dr. Schuler will have a revelation about it one of these days! There are several small rooms to the east of D0, which have produced an interesting structure of some sort, as well as some small sections of Mosaic floor. The structure is a part of a tube standing vertically in the corner of the room, a few feet tall. It is plugged in the middle though, and some pottery sherds have been retrieved from its inside. We have jokingly named it "the Bishop's toilet", as Hippos had a handful of Christian bishops reside there. This "tube" may actually have been part of the plumbing of Hippos; the city's Roman engineering, amazing as always, included a 2 pipelines from springs in the Golan Heights, which used gravity and siphon action to transport water 20 miles I believe, to the city! Wow! sections of this plumbing can still be seen along the city's main street, its "Decumanaus Maximus" (main east-west street).

Mosaic preservation has begun in the nave (center of the santuary) of the church. Members of our team, along with preservation experts from the Polish team, have been working on these fragile floor sections for several days. Honestly, I'm really not sure what they do or how they do it, but I know that it involves lime. At one point beautiful mosaic flooring would have covered the entire floor of the church, and brilliantly white plaster with wonderful artwork would have graced its walls. A glorious image of Christ may have appeared up above, on the dome in the very front of the church. A chancel screen, which is a thin, highly decorated, yard high sheet of stone, would have separated the more holy chancel (altar area) from the less holy nave. The side isles, were members would have stood, would have been considered even less holy. Christ is glorified at the very top level of this very spatially oriented "pyramid" of holiness, if you will. This concept is common to the construction of all Byzantine churches. I'm sure you can still see different levels of reverence in the sanctuary of your own church. Interesting, yes?

More to come from Kibbutz Ein Gev and the 2005 Hippos Excavations!

3rd Week Begins

With week three our team grew to include three new members, Arny, Jim, and Glen. We continued work today in squares B4, E4, and B0. It looked like it was going to be a day of removing destruction fill mainly, but..... As members from my square, B4, were working, they uncovered a golden amulet and several other pieces in the very corner of our room (which is called the south chamber). That's right, gold was found among the tons and tons of dirt and rocks we're in the process of removing! This is a piece of jewelry, probably worn around the neck with a necklace. It is tiny, about the size of a coin, and I find it hard to believe that we found it! What is more, there are half a dozon or so Greek letters imprinted on it. This is very significant from an archaeological perspective. It may tell us something about the church, about the people there, about the people of Hippos, about Hippos itself, about Byzantine Christianity, and\or the dating of that part of the church. Experts in Poland, the United States, and our own professors Schuler and Middendorf are working on it. I'll let you know if we learn more. Any information would be very useful, since there is very little information circulating around about any of those topics. We are slowly putting together pieces of an enormous puzzle of the history of faith beginning with Jesus, to the apostles, to Paul, to Roman Christianity, and eventually to our world today. We thank and remember the faithful who have gone before us, who have helped make sure that "my words will never pass away".

RUNNING REPORT

OK, here it is, documentation and description of the first 2 weeks of running in Israel. This is a perspective that you will not get in anyone else's blog but mine! Hopefully you'll appreciate its uniqueness, but please feel free to skip this post if it simply doesn't interest you.

Friday: I arrived in Israel on the 1st of July 2005, a Friday. It was evening, and after a long plane flight without any sleep, it was time to go to bed.

Saturday: was my first full day in Israel. It was then that we had our tour of sites around the Sea of Galilee. We returned to Kibbutz Ein Gev with plenty of the day to spare. I asked my roommate Mark Kaetsu, also a runner, if he would like to try running Israel for the first time. I had brought with some powdered gatorade, and I mixed it up and poured it in small bottles. They were 12 oz bottles, small enough to carry in hand while running. I put on my running short, jersey, sunglasses, and white running hat, and we headed out the door. Dr. Schuler was OK with our running, as long as we were always careful and took fluids with us. There is one main road (a highway) that goes by the kibbutz, and it runs north and south. We headed south, running on the shoulder of the highway, since we could not run on the road itself or in the ditch. It was hot and sunny, with a moderate level of humidity. After 20 minutes of running south, we turned around to go back. The return run only took 19 minutes, though it was rather tough toward the end, due to the heat. Going south on the highway would turn out to be the easiest route we found because of its shaded sections and lack of hills. 39 minutes, apx 5 miles.

Sunday: The first day of digging. Dr. Schuler advised us not to run today so that our bodies could get used to digging. After a hot and strenuous morning, we swam in the Sea of Galilee in the afternoon.


Monday: The way our daily schedule is set up, the only free and convenient time to run is early afternoon. (This not the case on Fridays and Saturdays, when we can run in the mornings, early enough to avoid the heat.) We ran north on the highway early in the afternoon. It was very hot, and the faint breeze we had on the way out seemed to die on the way back. To make matters worse, the north route had no shade whatsoever, and the terrain was moderately hilly. One word describes how today's run felt: terrible. Finishing it though was an accomplishment, something to be proud of! 39 minutes, 5 miles.

Tuesday: The road that goes up to the dig site at Hippos is one long uphill. The road has several switchbacks and it climbs about a quarter mile into the air to get to the top of the hill. Today Mark and I ran 2 miles out and two miles back to the Kibbutz, about 1.5 miles of which were steady uphill. The road is very steep. We were breathing heavily, and my legs were burning. After 17 minutes, we turned around at a switchback corner overlooking the kibbutz and the lake. Coming back was easy, and only took 15 minutes. I am definitely not used to hills of this magnitude in Minnesota. I challenge you to find a 1.5 mile hill in the St. Paul area! 32 minutes, 4 miles.

Wednesday: Ran south on the highway. It was hot because we ran in the afternoon again. My body acclimated quickly to the heat during the first week. Today's run had a nice breeze which allowed us to run a little farther on the highway than we had the first time. 48 minutes, 6 miles.

Thursday: Today I took a nap in in the afternoon, and when I woke up it was almost dinnertime--too late to run. So I skipped dinner and ran at dinnertime and ate some food in my room after I got back. At 6:00 in the evening the sun is already quite low (it sets just after 8:00 here), so the intense heat was not a factor that late in the day. Nevertheless, the run was intense as I ran the Hippos hill again, but farther than I did on Tuesday. 38 minutes, 5 miles.

Friday: Today I ran offroad east of the highway. All the fields of crops there have adjacent dirt roads so that farm vehicles can access the fields. We did not open or jump any fences or anything, but still, would anyone care that we were there? The test came as we ran by a field worker riding a tractor. He looked up at us and then kept on working. I'm sure it was immediately clear to him that we had no business with the crops, that we were harmlessly "passing through". 42 minutes, 5 miles.

Saturday: The Jewish Sabbath. Mark and I woke up early when it was still slightly dark. This was a long run day, so we ran north on the highway for 40 minutes before turning around. We ran conservatively on the way out, but picked up the pace on the way back-- 36 minutes. There were many cyclists out on the road today who were also taking advantage of the cool morning air. Biking must be very popular here, but we have not yet seen any other runners. I am begining to think though that Mark and I are the the only runners in the whole country! 75-76 minutes, 10 miles.

Sunday: The only comment I made in my training log for today is "very hot". 35 minutes, 4 miles. Week 1 in Israel: 39 miles. (My "training week" goes from Monday through Sunday)


Monday: Another "VERY hot" day, but with a decent breeze. The average daily temperature is still rising at this point in the summer. However, my body is adapting and is becoming very good at keeping cool, even when it's 95 degrees and sunny! 40 minutes, 5 miles.

Tuesday: 37 minutes, 5 miles.

Wednesday: A good run at a strong pace, north on the highway. Felt much better than the first time I ran north on the highway! 40 minutes, 5 miles.

Thursday: Today's run was a great accomplishment; I ran all the way up to "downtown Hippos" at the very top of the hill! The last mile uphill was quite a struggle though! I ran at the very end of the day. The hard work made the sunset across the lake more rewarding. Sunset?!?! I hurried back down the road before I completely lost my light. In the dim twilight, I could see dozens of bats swooping around in the air; the night was just about to begin. After that brief scare at the top, I made it back to the Kibbutz before it got too dark to see. 60 minutes, 7 miles.

Friday: After sleeping in for the first time since I got here, I felt very refressed. I ran through the field trails Southeast of the kibbutz at 11:30 in the morning. The sun (did I mention that it's sunny every day in Israel this time of year) was overhead, but the air still retained some of its evening coolness. 40 minutes, 5 miles.

Friday #2: A slow jog, right after the Friday evening Shabat dinner. It was getting dark, so I ran around the Kibbutz for a while and discovered the small Kibbutz harbor, north of the beach, seaside restaurant, and gift shop. 33 minutes, 4 miles.

Saturday: Long run in the morning. Today I decided to run up the Hippos road all the way to the top of the Golan heights, about 5 miles out and 5 miles back. Even with a 30 second break every mile or so, I was breathing very heavily and my legs were burning. Even so, I came up behind and passed a group of about a dozen Israeli bicyclists! They had a very funny, baffled look of disbelief on their faces! I did make it all the way up to the highway that goes along the ridge at the top. From there I could look farther east and see the next range of hills. Somewhere over there is the Syrian border. The Golan was taken from Syria by Israel in the 1967 war, I believe. It is not recognized internationally as part of Israel, but is occupied by the Israeli military nonetheless. Anyway, the 5 miles of downhill coming back were much faster and easier on my lungs and leg muscles. However, the pounding on my skeleton was more than what I'm used to. Today's run was a great accomplishment for me. 82 minutes (45 out, 37 back), 10 miles.

Sunday: I plan to run a very easy 4 miles today (30-35 minutes) so that my body can recover. That will put the weekly total for week 2 at 45 miles.

Week 3: I plan to continue to build my weekly mileage through this week and then back off the 4th week. Tentatively 50 miles during the 3rd week and 35-40 miles during the last week of the excavation.

In general, I love running in Israel. I have definitely seen more of the landscape than I would have just by digging and touring!

July 15

The weather has been brutally hot here as of late. Temperatures in the daytime can rise to 100 degrees, with the full force of the low latitude sun beating down on everything and everyone. The evenings and early morning are quite pleasant though, when the air feels warm but not oppressive. If you looked at the schedule for a typical day, you may have seen that we work at the site from 5:00 in the morning until noon. Originally I had wondered "why stop at noon?", but now I know why! Thank goodness for air conditioning back at the kibbutz!

Much of the land near the shore of the Sea of Galilee is used for fields of bananas, dates, and other fruit. Some of these fields are completely enclosed by a giant mesh tarps, which serve to preserve humidity that the wind would otherwise carry away. To the east of the agricultural areas, the land starts to climb upward to the Golan Heights. It is very rocky and full of hills. Surprisingly, there is a lot of plant life here, though it will be brown until the rainy season begins. Grass, shrubs and thistles are abundant. The view of the Golan Heights is spectacular, especially from the dig site at Hippos.

River Trek: Several days ago Erin, Kat, Andrea, and myself boarded a bus along with members of the Polish and Israeli teams. We were going to a place where we could swim in a spring of water, somewhere in the hills. Supposedly there was a pool where the water was 3 meters deep. Well, they took us to a small stream somewhere just north of the Sea of Galilee and told us that it was a forty minute hike to the pool. We started walking alongside the stream, but soon the path ended and thick vegetation started to close in on both sides of the stream. Before we knew it we were wading right down the middle of the stream! The streambed was full of large rocks and hard to see, making for a very slow and tedious progression. As the depth reached our knees, we realized that some of us had digital cameras in our backpacks. The group leader, Michael (assistant to Dr. Arthur Segal, excavation coordinator) provided us with plastic sandwich bags to put our cameras in. What in the world did we get ourselves into? At one point the water was up to my waist. Eventually we stopped. The leaders realized that we were lost, so we turned around to go back to the bus. It was a great, crazy experience that I will always remember, but it was a failed excursion, nevertheless. Due to our not swimming, we had some extra time, so they drove us to the very top of the Golan Plateau near the Northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee. The view was great, being almost twice as far above the lake as we are Hippos. We drove back, only partially dissapointed by not finding the pool; the journey was just as memorable as the destination would have been!

More from Israel

Digging: today my team from square B4 made some considerable progress. Since we are excavating a room adjacent to the church, Dr. Schuler made the decision that we should enlarge the square, essentially dig outward until we find the south and east walls of the room. After much sweat and burnt calories, we removed hundreds of pounds of dirt and rocks until we found both of these walls. Our side room is much larger than the original 5 meter by 5 meter square. Having an area roughly one fourth of the sanctuary, we assume that this room had some important function, but we will not know until we dig down to the floor. That will take a lot more time and more removal of material, and because our square is so large we will be "recruiting" another member from a different square to help out. Who knows what else we will find there. So far B4 has found a cistern, a pilaster, and today we found some sort of alcove in the south wall, which may have once held a reliquary or other small object at one point. Also, we have uncovered four arch bases (two on each side of the room that is), which obviously would have been part of 2 arches which held up the ceiling. Meanwhile, square C0 (now they have moved on to B0 I believe) found a door to the north of their sanctuary-adjacent room. That one door could possibly lead to enough work for a whole season of digging on the north side of the church! How big is this church complex? At any rate, it can't go on forever to the north, because the church is seated 30 meters away from the north edge of the city; defined by a sharp cliff! Square E4, which is located in the rear atrium of the the church, has found some sort of paved surface next to their "tile floor". It is, however, about half a meter above the level of the floor, and it is definitely not a wall. Hmmm.

Digging has been hard and fun and odd and rewarding. The first day I remember pulling weeds off of the site and hacking at them with a giant hoe, the whole time sweating profusely and wondering, what did I get myself into? A 4:00 in the morning wake up time followed by six or so hours of hard labor is not that appealing, yet we have come to look forward to it. Finding walls and cisterns is exciting and makes for a worthwhile experience. There is a great sense of pride for what we do, especially when experienced archaeologists from the Polish and Israeli teams come over to see what we have found; often times they are more excited than we are! The occasional scorpion is another thrill (even though they measure only about 2 inches), and 3 hours work before breakfast makes our everyday morning diet of hard boiled eggs, bread, cumbumbers, tomatoes, and cold sauteed onions enjoyable morning after morning.

Lastly, I would like to respond to any questions you may have. My email is jamesp@csp.edu . How is my account of the trip? What do you still want to know? I hope you enjoy my objective desciptions, and hopefully this offers new insights into this trip, archaeology, and Israel.

Random fact: Basalt is much more dense than limestone. Believe me, after lifting hundreds of rocks you can feel a very significant difference! Our church is made almost exclusively of these two types of rock, and many walls and features are also covered by plaster.

Suicide Bomber in Israel

There was a recent suicide bombing in the city of Netanya, Israel. I simply would like to assure everyone that this did not occur anywhere near the Kibbutz; we are all safe. For those going on the Jerusalem trip this weekend, the trip is still on first of all, and they will not be anywhere near Netanya on this trip. Once again, there is no cause for alarm.

Monday and Tuesday

By this point on our trip we are well into the excation process. We are getting used to the daily routine, Israeli culture, and Kibbutz life in general. Let me describe for you briefly what a Kibbutz is like. There is a road that goes into the Kibbutz through a gate. Barbed wire fences provide security for the residents and us. Most of the buildings of the Kibbutz though are connected through a spiderweb of sidewalks, and it took some getting used to to find where we were going! There are dogs roaming around all the time, most of which just mind their own business. (One of them I named "carpet" because of its shaggy white, carpetlike coat of fur. And at one point I almost kicked him off the sidewalk because I thought he was a dirty piece of carpet!) This Kibbutz makes a lot of its money off of dairy products, so out back there are huge pens and buildings full of cows. There is also an ostrich pen! Nearby the residential area of the Kibbutz are fields of Banana trees and date trees. There is a good sized grocery market in the Kibbutz, and for the most part we can tell what everything is without knowing how to read the Hebrew wrappers! Israel also does not have a drinking age, so one could theoretically walk in and buy a beer as if it were a juice or a can of pop (theoretically). Our group had a little celebration on the 4th of July--nothing to draw attention to ourselves, no fireworks, just some food, beer, and Andrea and I whistled the national anthem.

The best part of the Kibbutz would have to be the beach. Now it's a good beach, but certianly not the best one I've ever seen. But... the lake is the Sea of Galilee, where Galilean fishermen once fished and where our Lord once sailed. Looking out over the water during a swim makes the imagination run, but in a real way. Jesus' words calmed these waves, crowds listened to Jesus' messages while he stood offshore in a boat, Jesus walked on water somewhere out there, and Peter fell in.

Time for notes on the digging for the day. First though, you need to be acquainted with the layout of our church. A schematic of the Northeast church can be found on the virtual dig site under "public pages" and then "basic info". Here you can also see the grid we use for labeling squares. From east to west the squares have letters, and from north to south they have a number, for example B4. A "square" is a 5 meter by 5 meter section of the site; a lot of dirt to move! We continue to find doorframes and walls throughout the church. Square E4 has found a doorframe and part of a road, which ran right up next to the church. In addition, and this is late breaking news, they found another cistern of some sort!! Dr. Arthur Segal of the Polish team, who coordinates the sites, simply said to Dr. Schuler jokingly, "You're really overdoing it!" It's true; four cisterns in and around our church is very, very odd and surprising! A newly opened square in C0 found the wall of a side room adjacent to the sanctuary. Meanwhile in my square, B4, we have been in the process of removing material, hoping to eventually reach floor, as well as intricate work exposing the rocks near our cistern. Today though, we started to actually extend the square to the south, attempting to reach the outer wall of our room. We (I) actually stumbled across a Roman Pilaster-- this piece would have originally been used in the construction of a Roman temple to the Greek gods, and it was reused in the building of our Christian church. It is probable that our church's site originally housed such a temple. Toward the end of the workday, my team did reach the wall we were looking for. We have a lot of material to remove, but this side room promises to be very interesting in the end! My daily survey work has also been going well, and my measurements have been very accurate as of late; within one centimeter. For the purposes of dating and relating levels in different parts of the church, precise elevation readings are critical.

That's it for now. Future entries may include descriptions of the landscape (including plant life and climate), more about our digging techniques in general and specific finds, a failed trek to find a swimming hole in a tributary of the Jordan River that the all the excavation teams at hippos did together, and a complete report on my running campaign in Israel (heat and hills gallore!).

Touring on the first full day

After arriving at the Kibutz and getting some sleep, we woke up for some touring on our first full day in Israel. This is where we went, and hopefully I didn't forget anything!

The ruined decapolis city of Hippos: this is where the church we are excavating is located. Ours is called the Northeast church. There is also a Northwest church (being excavated by a team from Poland) and a cathedral. Also visible is a Roman forum--a public meeting place and Roman streets with some stones still in place. Also visible are two buildings built by the Israeli Defense Force (the military) earlier in the century.

Kursi: a partially reconstructed byzantine church and the commemorative site of Jesus' driving out a legion of demons from a man, who entered pigs in the nearby hills and drowned themselves in the Sea. Remember, commemorative sites are NOT necessarily the exact locations of the biblical stories, but they are somewhere in the vicinity of where the events took place.

Tabgha: A fully reconstructed Byzantine Christian church commemorating the first feeding of the multitude. Here we saw beautiful mosaic flooring (made of hundreds of small, colored, stone squares and held in place by plaster), including a depiction of loaves and fishes under the altar of the church.

Capernaum: The "home base" of Jesus' Galilean ministry. It is a Jewish village along the Northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and during Jesus' day it was probably about 50 meters deep and probably half a mile long, stretched out along the shore. Several large chunks of this town are fully excavated. A sense of awe came upon the group as we gazed upon houses and streets where Jesus almost certainly walked.

Mount of the Beautitudes: Another commemorative site, with a beautiful church building standing on the hillside. There was a great view of the lake.

Tiberias and Mt. Berenice: Tiberias is a hopping tourist town across the Lake from our Kibbutz. We would take a taxi and bus to and from Tiberias for a morning at the end of the first week of digging. Ancient Tiberias was visible along the road south of the modern city. High above Tiberias is Mount Berenice, with a beautiful view and a "pilgrim bench". Religious pilgrims would journey from the west to the holy land, and the view from Mt. Berenice would have been the first that they saw of the Sea of Galilee. Naturally, they would want a place to sit down and soak it all in, as we had done too.

Here ends the tour. The following day was Sunday, and also the first day of digging.

Random fact: Israeli culture is slightly more aggressive than what we see in America, and this feature emerges in the way they drive. It is common to pass with oncoming trafic: the person being passed moves onto the shoulder, the oncoming car does the same, and the passer goes right down the middle of the small two lane highway!

July 10; A discovery!!

As you know, the reason I went to Israel was to work at an archaeological excavation site, so I will start there. The routine goes something like this:
Wake up at 4:00
Be ready to go and walk to the bus around 4:30 in the morning
Board a large bus with my team and Polish and Israeli archaeology teams
Drive up a twisty mountain road and leave the bus at the drop off spot for the site
Walk about a half mile uphill to the site
Get to Work!
Take water breaks every 25 minutes
Breakfast with the other teams at 8:00
Work till noon, and get on the bus to go back to the Kibbutz
Eat lunch, swim, shower, etc.

What does "get to work" entail? Basically we dig down into the ground and remove large quantities of dirt and rocks (some of which take 4 people to move!), while at the same time paying attention to formations such as walls, and picking up pottery sherds. Well, today as my group from section B4 (The whole site is divided into a grid; Letter is east west and number is north south) was digging Erin uncovered a rock and saw a hole beneath it. It was a cistern: a storage chamber for water underground. This was a remarkable discovery. We have now found that there are 3 cisterns in and around the church, whick is actually very odd. Most churches would have had one. Since our group is working in a recently discovered room to the side of the church, this discovery may be able to help us figure out what the room was used for. It was a good day for square B4!

Welcome to Israel

Last Thursday I boarded a plane at the airport for the first time, along with Dr. Mark Schuler and Kathryn Schaefer, fellow members of the Hippos excavation team for 2005. Several hours later I found myself walking throughout the airport at Newark, New Jersey, searching for the gate for our next flight. We found the gate, as well as the rest of our team waiting for us. Our excitement was apparent as introductions were quickly made and friendships already began to form at that point. It was there that I met Mark, a student at the University of Hilo in Hawaii, and a fellow runner. It was clear from the start that we had much in common from our running backgrounds, and in fact we have been running together almost every day since we arrived in Israel, but that's another story!

So our team gathered together and waited to board the plane to Tel Aviv, Israel. However, two members of our team were not with us: Nancy from Nebraska and Mark H. from St. Paul, both of whom fell victim to schedule and cancellation decisions made by the airline company. Thankfully, they were able to make it to Israel within the next couple days. Those of us who were present boarded a Boeing 777 for a long overnight flight. I myself could not sleep at all in the positions afforded by the wonderful seats, so I simply stayed up the whole time. But, since the time zone is 8 hours later in Israel than St. Paul Minnesota, I did get to go to bed 8 hours early on Friday after staying up all Thursday night. In the end, it worked out and I was able to completely swich my sleep schedule over to Israel time within the next few days. Mark from Hawaii, however, took a little longer to adjust, since he had to change over about 12 hours!

We touched down in Tel Aviv about 9 hours later, after flying over Maine, parts of Canada, Iceland, Ireland, France, and Italy. At the airport we were able to stretch our legs a little bit by walking. All the baggage arrived, we got our tourist visas (3 months automatically), and security went well. Well, except that a guard requested that I put the duffle bag I was carrying through the x-ray machine. The bag contained a bunch of my clothes and the tripod for my surveying scope, so there was no trouble.

A very nice touring bus was waiting for us at the airport; it probably seated 40 people, but we only had 8! We drove north out of Tel Aviv instantly saw a much different landscape than we were used to: rocky and rolling hills, banana fields, and Arab villages--discernable by their high Minaret towers, from which a cryer calls the faithful Muslims to prayer. Certainly this would be a mixed culture, but think about it--this land has always had a mixed culture; even during the period of the Israelite kingdom there were numerous people groups and religions in the land.

Almost immediately our group saw the summer haze over the land, which makes for reduced visibility all summer long. Imagine a very faint fog, but one that does not burn off with the morning sun. I was also told that this haze disappears during the rainy season, which occurs at roughly the same time as the North American winter.

We arrived at Kibbutz Ein Gev on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee near evening. (A kibbutz is a communal settlement where, in theory, possessions are shared and needs are met by the kibbutz. In theory it is more like a small, closely nit village) Our rooms were very accomodating, with beds, linens, plenty of closet space, bathrooms with showers, and air conditioning. I finally got some sleep...

"Stay tuned" for more narration, stories, descriptions, etc.; including my experiences digging at the archaeological site and running in Israel!

Preparing for the trip

On Thursday of next week I leave for Israel. There are still a lot of things I need to do, read, buy, and pack before then! One thing I still have yet to do is to play around with the surveying scope and practice using it.

In one week and two days I will be on the plane, and the trip will be farther and longer in duration than any other trip I have ever taken! As things heat up and get more interesting, I'll let you know!