Rabbi Richard Freund arrived with a small group of eager diggers, a couple being repeat customers. This brought the total number of workers to ~30, so Rami was able to work 9 different loci, all the the "A" west area. Two loci were newly opened, the top level made up of modern fill material, including a rusted iron bed at a depth of over 1/2 meter. The volunteers worked hard removing many, many buckets of dirt & rocks & threw the material away without sifting. As previously noted this preparation work is necessary & benefits the group that will be working there the next week/season.
The Roman pit, originally found last year, was extended northward to get a more complete idea of what it was. While removing debris, a beautiful Roman juglet was uncovered (see pic below). Good work diggers !! Near the bottom of the pit a layer ~30 cm (~1 ft.) of material was found that Rami believes might be human excrement. Could this be the toilet for the temple ? Many bags of samples were saved for analysis. Look below to see what the pit looks like.
A number of coins were uncovered during the digging & the sifting. I tried cleaning 3 of the using lemon juice, which is a mild acid. The small coin cleaned quite nicely & it appears to be a copper Islamic coin. The 2 larger coins were partially cleaned & they appear to be copper, but no further identification was possible. These coins & the subsequent ones found were sent to the Israel museum in Jerusalem for professional cleaning & identification. See Kelen holding the coins she found & pics of the coins themselves.
A beautiful molded Roman glass bead, black with a white stripe is shown below proudly displayed by the 3 young ladies who found it. Good work ladies. We seem to have forgotten the good work that Steve & Ron are quietly doing at the back of chamber 3. A layer of burned grain was uncovered which probably was from 732 bce, when the city was destroyed & razed. Samples were taken for analysis.
Next week, the 6th, will end this exceptional season of excavating Bethsaida; but aren't each & every season exceptional ? Stay tuned for the final weeks discoveries.
Pictures can be enlarged by going to the photo gallery & double clicking the desired picture.
Note : Interesting archaeology blog - http://archaeologydigs.blogspot.com/
Interesting human interest - http://www.communitycorrespondent.com/kptm/, search for Judith Schwartz