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!