The buried doorwayto last summer

Kristina Neumann thinks the best find on the first day of the dig Sunday was — a doorjamb.

It may lead her to new clues about the South Vaulted Chamber.

A doorjamb is pretty boring. But it’s a good way to start the season at Hippos.

We found the big stone with its L-shaped edge as we were scraping away soil and rocks in the top 20 centimeters* of the square next to the South Vaulted Chamber.

A doorjamb is part of a doorway. A door closes tightly against it.

Our doorjamb may be from the door between the South Vaulted Chamber we found last year and the room that we’re digging this summer. In this picture, the South Vaulted Chamber is in the background. The room next to it is still full of dirt.




WISHING WELL?

The South Vaulted Chamber is a mystery. Kristina, a history major at Concordia University in Mequon, Wis., will lead the excavation of its cistern this month.

In the cistern, she hopes for more clues. “It was used to collect the water next to the saint,” says Kristina. “Maybe it was almost something like a wishing well.”


HEALING ROOM?

We wonder if the South Vaulted Chamber was a healing room. Pilgrims may have drawn water from its cistern to take with them.

Another door from the chamber leads into a church — where the sarcophagus of a tiny old woman lies.

Christians thought that the bones of holy people helped the sick get well. Sick people could have entered the church, stopped to say a prayer by the sarcophagus, and then gone into the South Vaulted Chamber.

What would have happened there? Maybe people dropped coins into the cistern — almost like a wishing well.


MAGIC AMULET

Last year in the South Vaulted Chamber, near the cistern, digger Linda Miller found a magic gold amulet.

On it was written the word pepte (PEP teh). In Greek, the language of Hippos, that means digest. A sick person may have believed the amulet would cure a bad tummy ache.

The South Vaulted Chamber is a big room, 6.23 x 5.63 meters. It has benches along the wall wide enough for people to lie on.

Was it a kind of hospital? We don’t know. We may know more after Kristina and her team excavate the cistern.

But first we’ll let Kristina (in front in the first picture) make notes by the beach with Amanda Bundy of the University of Concordia in St. Paul, our dig photographer. — Marc Hequet

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* To change from centimeters to inches and to make other metric conversions, you can use this site from the state of Washington: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Metrics/factors.htm

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Marc Hequet writes about Concordia University’s excavation at Hippos and other digs as well. Students, teachers and families are welcome to make use of the material as part of a curriculum. Contact Marc with questions via mhequet@sprintmail.com


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WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Here’s a list of words from this story:

The South Vaulted Chamber is on the south side of the church. The ceiling is long gone, but we found what’s left of the vault in 2005.

Cisterns (SIS turns) are places for storing water — very important at Hippos because of the long dry season.

Pilgrims (PILL grims) are people who travel to holy places.

Sarcophagus (sar KOFF ah gus). A rock box for a dead body.

Amulet (AM you let). A magic charm to protect whoever wears it against disease.

Digest (dih JEST). What your stomach does to what you eat.

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CAN YOU DIG IT?

Take this quiz to find out what you learned:

1. What is a doorjamb?

2. Why were cisterns important?

3. How big is the South Vaulted Chamber?

4. The ceiling of the South Vaulted Chamber is caved in. How do we know it had a vault?

5. Is the South Vaulted Chamber bigger than your bedroom?

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MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE

Here’s what was happening elsewhere as people were visiting the South Vaulted Chamber in about 600 CE*:

The oldest hospital still in existence is the Hotel Dieu in Paris, founded during the 600s CE**. Earlier, nuns and monks had started hospitals for sick travelers, the poor, the blind and the crippled.

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** CE means “common era.” It’s the same as A.D., which means “anno Domini,” Latin for “in the year of our Lord.”

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Information in “What Does That Mean” and “Meanwhile, Elsewhere” is from World Book Encyclopedia.