Backhoe Day

Today was an interesting day of digging. We had a backhoe come in and dig out a small portion of the tel right in our area. Though it may have seemed to most of us that its’ purpose was to create dust, the backhoe dug a narrow trench down about 10 or 15 feet in order to investigate the tufa layer that abuts a wall in our tel, to see if the layer is natural or manmade.  Though from what Chai and Uri (our archaeologist supervisors) saw today it seems that the tufa is indeed manmade, the answer is still unclear. Besides giving us a clearer view of just how far down our walls go, there was another advantage to digging with the backhoe. Among the vast amount of dirt that was cleared by the backhoe Ami Mazar, the boss of the dig, found an almost fully intact figurine which was missing only a head. It was the most important and interesting find that has been excavated from our area of the tel thus far. The figurine is a very important find for understanding more about what went on at rehov.

For all but those who worked on sorting through the dirt that was picked up by the backhoe, besides the distraction of the backhoe and the dust it hurled in the air, today was a normal day. We continued digging through more layers of our usual spots. We are all a bit tired from the hard work we have been doing every day but our spirits are still positive. Though we are enjoying the experience of excavating we are all very excited to return home to comfortable beds, clean cloths, the food we have been missing, and most importantly the people we have been missing.

The Figurine