Secret passageway?

Today we found a mysterious passage leading from the South Vaulted Chamber. Or past it. We just don’t know.

Mark Schuler, our dig leader, is a veteran excavator. As he stood over our square thinking about the big jumble of rocks we had dug up, he had a hunch.

Mark thought he saw a kind of narrow alley — a walkway passing the door leading to the South Vaulted Chamber.

Mark asked us to remove the dirt from that part of our square.

Sure enough, about half a meter* down it seemed we had a walkway. It turns a corner to go away from the South Vaulted Chamber.

Only 80 centimeters wide, the narrow walkway makes it hard for two people to pass each other. It leads around the corner of a tumble-down room where lots of big rocks have fallen.

We don’t know what the tumble-down room is for. And we don’t know where the passage leads.


In this picture, diggers Irene Abrams (left) and Darryl Schmidt clear dirt from the walkway.


TAKING THE LONG WAY

What’s going on? Mark is puzzled. He thinks our walkway is an outdoor passage. But why would people take this long way into the South Vaulted Chamber:

Enter from the main street of the city of Hippos.

Go past the South Vaulted Chamber.

Turn left, then right, then right again.

Walk into the church to visit the sarcophagus of the tiny old woman.

And then go into the South Vaulted Chamber for healing.

If our church is a healing center, that’s a lot of twists and turns for sick people.

Are we wrong about the healing? Is our walkway actually a secret passageway for monks or nuns who had promised to stay away from other people and everyday life?

And why is the passageway so narrow? Mark thinks he has an answer for that mystery: “The narrowness doesn’t bother me,” he says. “We have to remember that people were smaller in antiquity.”

Where does the secret passageway lead? We don’t know. We’ll keep digging. — 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:

Square. Archaeologists dig up old things one square at a time. A square may be about four or five meters on a side. Diggers start at the top and dig down a little at a time.

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

Monks and nuns are people who make a promise to God to live apart from ordinary people — and maybe stay away from ordinary people entirely.

Antiquity (an TICK witty) means times long ago.

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CAN YOU DIG IT?

Take this quiz to find out what you learned:

In a hallway 80 centimeters wide, could you and a friend stand side by side? Could you pass each other?

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MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE

Here’s what was happening elsewhere as people were scurrying along our mysterious passage:

King Arthur was a minor ruler in England. Arthur became famous as the main character in stories about his knights of the Round Table.

Harsha (HUHR shuh), an emperor who lived from about 590-647 CE**, ruled most of northern India. He inherited a small kingdom in the Ganges River Valley at age 16 and conquered neighboring kingdoms.

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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.”

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