Week 2 was an exciting week.  The volunteers continued to remove lots of dirt & rocks to slowly uncover evidence of structures.  It seems that the 1st 2 weeks are often spend removing top layers in preparation for the excavation weeks to follow.  Good work volunteers!  A number of interesting finds turned up - a large stone fishing anchor that must weight at least 50 kg. (110 lb,) & very beautiful stone balance weight, probably iron age.  Notice the pic below of bronze stirrup & the stone balance weight.

Rami brought in a back hoe & dug out the area to the east of the city gate plaza & the iron age main city road.  After excavating down he found the base of a tower (see below) belonging to the 10th century city.  This tower was gigantic, measuring 9 X 9 meters (~40 X 40 feet) at the base.  After the city was partially destroyed the city & the tower were rebuilt & stood until the 9th century city was destroyed & razed in 732 bce.  This tower extended east  of & connected to the outer city gate which stretched across the main city street.  It certainly must have prominently stood over the city entrance like a sentinel.

At the start of the 1st week work started to excavate at small corner next to the city outer wall in A east at the northern end of the main city street.  As work progressed during the 2nd week it was found that this area contained a small late bronze age wall that was dated by the pottery shards.  A beautiful metal bowl was found that was given to Orna Cohen for cleaning.  Next to the bowl was the bottom 2/3 of a jug & inside was a marvelous juglet, complete but somewhat broken.  See the pics below & in the Special Pics page.

A bronze toga pin was unearthed in area C.  See it after cleaning in the below pic.

Link to all the pictures I took this season  - CLICK HERE

Note : Interesting archaeology blog - http://archaeologydigs.blogspot.com/

Human interest - http://www.communitycorrespondent.com/kptm/, search for Judith Schwartz