Weds July 12, 2006
The big news today was a coin: a small bronze coin so corroded that it looks like a tiny disk of white plastic. It was found in the same cistern as the piece of gold that was unearthed last week. We all rushed over to see it, when it came to light--and then were disappointed with its less-than-spectacular appearance. Hopefully it'll be more impressive when it's properly cleaned and displayed. All that sort of work is done by the University of Haifa, before the results are published. Hopefully we can find a way to make sure that our seminary gets a copy of this year's report!

Another exciting find today was a pair of absolutely gorgeous "capitals"-- the top section of Roman columns. They didn't surface in our part of the city, unfortunately, but on another part of the dig, a little to the west of us. All the same, we were delighted to see them. They're very well preserved and are elaborately carved with acanthus leaves and flourishes-- some of the very best examples of this type of work in Palestine, according to Arthur Segal, the dig director. How cool!

Within our own group, today's consensus was that we haven't worked this hard for a long, long time. Thankfully yesterday was pretty easy, as I noted then, but today was just tough slogging. No two ways about it! We continued opening that new square that we held the groundbreaking for yesterday, and at first it was nothing but rock-hard dirt and jumble. Then, after a while, it was rock-hard dirt and rocks. Later still, we started to see a pattern in the stones we were uncovering. By the end of the morning, we had two pretty clear-defined walls: one running east-west, the other north-south. What's missing is a good corner-- there's sort of a void where its stones should be. Right beside that area, though, there's a clutter of big stones all in a heap, which suggests that the corner itself crumbled at some point, maybe in an earthquake, maybe in some military action during the time that Hippos/Sussita was an Israeli outpost.

Speaking of military action, that's today's main theme, given the "incident" on the northern border with Lebanon-- about 30 km from here. We heard jets flying overhead all morning, and the crump of bombs dropping somewhere in the distance, but didn't think too much of it. We've heard and seen fighters flying over the Sea of Galilee a few times already, and there's a military firing range just above us on the Golan Heights, so it seemed natural that that's what was going on. It was only when we came down for lunch that we heard what had happened.
Other than hearing the news itself, there don't seem to be any consequences for us here at Ein Gev. Perhaps when we travel, there might be a few more checkpoints than usual on the highways. But nobody really expects anything else to happen that will have any effect on us at all. Israel's way of handling these things is to respond as decisively as possible in the military realm, but ignore them as much as possible in the civil realm. Or so it seems, anyway. Life must go on! And this is hardly the first time that Israelis have faced these kinds of crises. It's new and, yes, a bit worrisome for us who live in uninterrupted peace and security... but I think that's primarily a reflection on our insulation from how most of the world lives.

Our team is starting to shrink, after peaking yesterday at 24 people. Today, Father Michael Patella left; he was here for just a couple of days, to check out the possibility of linking up his students from St. John's College in Collegeville, Minnesota, with this dig. (Side-note: Dan Barr referred to him a while ago as "Father Kneecap"-- which was almost too clever, earning him more blank looks than laughs.) Tomorrow, Dr. Bob Holst leaves-- the president of Concordia University-St. Paul, who's been here for about a week now. He's been on our digging team and we've enjoyed a number of really good conversations. Also tomorrow, Clint and Joyce leave for a few days on their own before they fly back to Edmonton on Monday. And then on Friday, it's time for Dan and me to leave as well!

Will we be glad to leave? Yes and no, I expect-- as is usually the case for me at least when I travel. It's fun and exciting to see new places, do new things, and meet new people, and this kind of work really seems to suit me well. It's physical enough to be a total change from what I do all year long at the seminary (reading, teaching, meetings...). But it's also mentally challenging enough to supplement and build on all of that other work (filling in gaps and helping me understand the Roman world more fully). On top of that, it's spiritually rewarding too, reading and thinking about Scripture in the places its events happened. All of this gives me good reason to anticipate some sadness when it's time to head home.

On the other hand, of course, it'll be great to be home-- to see Brenda, Jonathan, and Kevin; to sleep in past 4:00 am; to have a bit of a physical rest; to be back in a more familiar environment. There's no joy quite like a homecoming.

Look for another posting tomorrow-- maybe the last, unless I add a summarizing one sometime later.