We have completed our first week of excavation. I thought that today I would highlight some of the things we do we each day plus some of the special things that happened today.
This is the site we have each morning. We get up at 3:45 AM. Then we load on two microbuses after breakfast. When leave when it is dark and the drive takes about 45 minutes to the site (the return in the afternoon takes about an hour because of traffic). We go from riding on a paved road, to a gravel road, and final to a dirt road to the site.Above is the view from the the bus that I rode on this morning. You can see the other bus on the dirt road shead of us. I always ride "shotgun" in the bus that Salah drives.
After about 30 minutes we reach the village of Umm Hamat and we pick our the local workman, who squeeze into Salah's bus with us. This is a picture looking back from my "shotgun" seat. You can see Dr. Ted Carruth, of Lipscomb College, on the left, and just behind him is Tim Snow, of Catholic University of America, in the white hat. On the far right is Valdecy Da Silva, of Colegio Biblico. Just behind Valdecy is Dr. Gerald Keown, of Gardner-Webb University. The haze is the dust from the road that fills the bus.
We arrive at the site before sunrise, so we can have good lighting for our daily photographs of the progress of the excavation. We also have the benefit of working in the cool of the day. We have been fortunate to have good weather so far. It has been in the mid-90's most days, but today it hotter with less wind and the high was about 110. The wind is coming from the east instead of the west (as it normally does) that means that the wind is coming from across the desert so it is much hotter. I hope it changes back soon.
Today I am going to focus on Area B which is where a massive gate is located. This gate dates to the Iron Age II period (925 - 539 BC). The gate complex was decorated with beautiful volute capitals. Here Dr. Ted Carruth of Lipscomb University (one of the members of the KRP consortium) proudly poses with one of the massive monolithic limestone stones that once towered (about 16 feet high) over the entrance to the gate. The stones probably toppled in an earthquake and you can see it is in four pieces.
This is one of the captials that we found during an earlier season, at least 6 of these hugh limestone capitals adorned the 4 chambered gate complex.
This is a possible reconstruction of the chambers of the gate.
The Dig Photographer Tim Snow, of Catholic University of America, takes overview photos of the gate early this morning. Our main job in this area today is moving some of the large stones which are tumbled in the gate and block our digging.
Archaeologists normally work with small picks, brushes, and trowels but at times we need to bring in heavy equipment to move massive stones that we need to preserve so that someday this gate can be reconstructed. In the photo above I am helping our crew wrap a large rope around a large limestone block so it can be elsewhere. Work in Ted's square was blocked by several large stones.
After we carefully attach the ropes, the stones were lifted by a large front end loader and placed elsewhere in the site so we they can be used for reconstruction at a later time. I am glad to report that our relocation of large building stones was a success. Thankfully no one was injured during the process and the stones were not damaged either.
After successfully moving these stones, there is a pause for a photo at the urging of Salah. Here is the picture of one of our drivers Salah (on the left) with Melissa Spong, a student at Johnson Bible College. Melissa works with Ted in the gate area. Abu Ayman is on the right. He guards the site night and day while we are there. He is also an expert at removing stones. His fondness for and skill at breaking large stones with a sledge hammer has earned him the nickname "Abu Hajar" which means "Father of the Rocks."
After returning to camp we clean up and eat lunch, then we have a rest period which is following by at work time at 4pm when the pottery is washed. Then we have pottery "reading" where we identify the pottery we have dug up . (more on this another day).
Lunch is served in the building on the left (a renovated 19th century Ottoman hospital) but we eat dinner together on the veranda with a great view of the medieval walls of Karak Castle.
This is the view from the veranda where we eat. Note the arrow slits in the wall where defenders of the castle could fire at anyone who attacked the castle.
We also get a wonderful view of the setting sun each evening. This was our view tonight. The sun sets over the rift valley and the Dead Sea, those are the mountains of southern Israel.
It is late once again but at least I get to sleep in tomorrow( if I can). We do not eat breakfast until 7AM then we leave on a tour of northern Moab at 7:40AM.
John Wineland
Karak, Jordan
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