Memoirs of a taxonomist

Go straight to E1. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 800 shekels.

Today we advanced to the next square to the south. Nothing more than hacking out the remainder of last year’s work to uncover the styling bait. But what a day!

As usual, the first several inches of dirt are where most of the scorpions are found. That’s another thing that is funny – all the measurements were done in metric not imperial units. I think the Americans are more Canadian that they let on.

Anyhoo, I gave up trying to save all the acrabbim. I learned that if I cried “chayah basedeh”, these little creatures would pay the price with their life. It’s such a classic behavior: "Kill what you are afraid of – fear what you do not understand". Sometimes, taking the time to understand takes too much time I guess. So I resolved to silently catch and release the ones that I turned up.

Glenn grabbed a photo of the first one we turned up. I am eager to see it on the photo CD that Dr Schuler spoke of. I didn’t get a lasting look at it before it was done in, but it appeared to be from the genus Nebo – usually living in a habitat with more vegetation than what was on the excavation hill. Odd. The other type was a tiny white dude. Tabitha said she had one sitting on her glove (note that it did not actively seek to zap her). I turned up a similar unit from the bottom of a rock. Most were casting them as babies, but they could have been a type of troglobite (no eyes, no pigment). Again, didn’t see it too close too long before it got squashed. Hopefully, Glenn got a snap of one of those too.

While caution is warranted towards these little soldiers, we would do good to think about our approach toward them. Scooping it into a bucket and pitching it into the bramble bushes .vs. hack it to pieces. Hmm – and we call them animals? On one hand we are mandated with zero ecological impact while we are up on the hill. On the other hand, we kill what indigenously lives in the ecosystem we are to help preserve. It sounds like we are tossing out the earthly stewardship baby with the personal safety water.

On the lighter side of life, I found an Aztec amulet, but it wasn’t fashioned out of gold and it was grossly out of context. So I thought it best to quietly be rid of it and save some anxiety and more grey hairs. (ok, ok I’m just kidding – it really was made of gold).

Though the progress in E1 is steady, I am learning more about people than I am about dirt and rocks. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds. BTW – 3 days and a wake up.

That’s what kind of day it was today.

In Christ,
'o δοuλος