Photo Gallery
Week 8 has finished; 1 more week to go to the finish of Bethsaida '05! The group was small, so the Roman area that Dr. Savage was working on was closed off and only the northern section of the iron age street leading to the main city gates and the area around the outer city wall were worked on. It was discovered that the outer city wall was 1.6 meters (~65 inches) thick; which amounts to 3 royal cubits from the iron age.
Lots of dirt, rocks and boulders were removed from the street and it appears that the volunteers have gotten to about 80 cm (2' 8") above the ancient cobblestone street. Two anchors were discovered in the rubble. They're both about 50 cm (20 inches) tall and probably weigh about 50 kg (110 pounds). The anchor at the lower left is shown with a rope through the attachments holes as it would have been used. The 2nd anchor (shown in the photo gallery) appears to have not been completed, as the hole does not protrude uniformly though the basalt rock and its irregularly shaped. Finds such as these anchors remind us that Bethsaida was a ancient fishing city. In ancient times the lake water came up to the slopes of the city; which was confirmed by geological tests in past years. As has happened in many lakes, inlets, outlets etc. the geography has changed because of silting in, floods, earthquakes etc. to change the shore line of the body of water; in our case pushing the shore line more than a mile (1 1/2 kilometer) from Bethsaida. An interesting pottery sherd was found decorated with a palm branch. Dr. Arav explained that the palm is a Roman symbol of victory. Carrying this theme further; Palm Sunday is the triumph of the Christian messiah returning to Jerusalem
The 2 pictures at the bottom right show Paul Bauman with myself (Shai) flying a weather balloon filled with helium on a windless morning. Notice that there is a camera attached about 6 meters (20 feet) below the balloon. The camera was in a rig that Paul designed and built. The rig contained a radio controlled receiver which could point the camera and trip the camera lens with a signal from a remote transmitter that we held at ground level. The balloon was flown a number of times up to altitudes of about 150 meters (500 ft) and many pictures of the site were taken. We look forward to seeing these pictures. Quite an exciting morning !
Last week it was reported that a part of a figurine had been found in the Roman area where Dr. Savage's group was working. A photo of it is shown below and in the photo gallery.
Pictures can be enlarged by going to the photo gallery & clicking on the desired picture.
Note : Interesting archaeology blog - http://archaeologydigs.blogspot.com/