Recently a friend, Katherine, sent a clipping of this installment of the cartoon "Overboard" by Chip Dunham and it got me to thinking about the nature of treasure. When one thinks of pirates one thinks of dubloons and pearl encrusted necklaces. When one thinks of archaeological treasure, one thinks of king Tut's tomb and the fabulous wealth of that boy-king. In Dunham's cartoon he spends the first three frames setting up the joke by recounting the first words of Howard Carter when asked what he saw through the opened door of the tomb, "I see wonderful things!" The final frame is onboard the pirate ship and shows a couch being lifted and the sea-dog Louie is asked what he sees, and the happy transfixed expression on the dog's face wordlessly speaks "Wonderful things".
This humourously throws into relief a problem faced by most archaeologists. When the general public hears that an archaeologist has made a fabulous find in the field, visions of golden treasure dance through their heads but most often we archaeologists get excited by broken pot sherds, fragmentary plaster and grotty bits of corroded iron! Things that get archaeologists all excited often leave non-archaeologists scratching their heads and an excited recitation of the "find of the week" will leave the general public glassy eyed! Treasure is truly in the eyes of the beholder and the archaeologist finds treasure in trodden earth surfaces and the refuse of meals long gone, just as Louie the sea dog found the hidden cache of doggie treats and toys wondrous to behold!
This year at Tel Kedesh in Israel was meant to be a limited excavation season, with most of the emphasis on studying the material already excavated in preparation for publication. But of course whenever you put a spade in the ground, one has the possibility of finding "wonderful things". But this year our "wonderful things" are wonderful on many levels and would be classed as such by anyone who saw them.
In the next series of entries, I will discuss a number of the finds which were particularly interesting and valuable both archaeologically and intrinsically!
