Day 3 & 4, June 13th & 14th, 2012

Day 3, June 12:

One side of the grid

Today I woke up at 4:15 again to get ready and we were on out the door and on the bus by 5.  I grabbed a crate full of mason’s trowels and patishas and headed out to the grid.  About 10 m. from the grid, I ate shit.  I fell, and apparently it was quite epic.  I felt my ankle roll and kind of threw the crate of supplies and let myself go (this ankle is still so weak!!).  I tried to hang out at the dig for a while but the pain got pretty intense and I had to head back to the pottery compound.  However, for the few hours I spent at the site, I learned a bit about OCHRE, which was pretty interesting. 

Later, Tracy gave us a very interesting history of Ashkelon up until it was destroyed in 1192 by Richard the Lionhearted.  I can’t believe how much history Ashkelon has.  I wrote a lot of notes during the lecture but can’t walk to get them right now so yet again, will have to elaborate more later (yes, more details – Madeleine, just for you!).  I do remember her explaining that the Muslim empire spread here by 640, just 8 years after the Prophet Muhammad died.  I didn’t realize that it spread to Ashkelon and across so quickly! 

Day 4, June 13:

I left off on OCHRE yesterday, and I will come back to it at some point in this post...

Today we had workshops all morning.  I was really bummed out because two of the options were tours of the park and I was unable to do either of those because of my ankle.  So, instead I stayed in the pottery compound and did the workshops that were there.  

We started off with zooarchaeology, which is the study of bones, or if you want to get technical about it, the study of faunal remains.  We learned about all of the different types of animals that are found and some of the many things that one can learn by studying bones found at archaeological sites.  For example, you can see changes in animals when they begin to be domesticated, like in pigs.  Wild pigs have longer snouts and their teeth tell the story of a more carnivorous diet.  Once pigs were domesticated, their diet changed and over time, their teeth became more like ours, representing a more omnivorous lifestyle.  We also learned a bit about the 1400+ dogs that were found buried in grid 51.  Can't wait to learn more about those.  

Adam's XRF workshop was very cool as well.  The XRF (X-Ray Florescence) machine can test items to see what they are made of.  It is really useful for testing items to see what they are made of without destroying them.  It helps to date items and determine the technology used to make them.  He showed us how it works, using a coin and was able to determine the main metals that the coin was made of.  He also asked us if we had anything that we wanted him to test so I had him test my necklace.  Thanks, Hadaya... now I know for sure that my necklace is silver :)  

Bridget showed us how they do bone analysis by grinding up small pieces of bone and putting them in an acid solution.  The bone dissolves and the minerals are left behind which they can then test.  There was a lot more to it than that but I am tired and need to stop for the night.