New Course "Handling the Past: Analysis of Archaeological Finds"

I am excited to announce that we have enough students for the course which Sally Stewart and I have developed for the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies (UofT SCS) "Handling the Past: Analysis of Archaeological Finds".

We are team teaching an artifact analysis course on the St George Campus in the Anthropology Lab of the University of Toronto.  During the course we will introduce students to the methodology of archaeology as practiced in Ontario and the assemblages one encounters.  Sally as the prehistorian of the two of us, will be the point person for the prehistory of Ontario and Toronto, and I (Meg) will handle the historic or post contact periods and materials.

The primary source for the prehistoric period materials to be handled during the course will be the Surma site, a rescue excavation carried out by Prof J.N. Emerson with field director Wm. C. Noble in 1965 for  the Anthropology Department of the University of Toronto in the soon-to-be-parking-lot of the Queen's Hotel owned by Mr and Mrs Robert Surma in Fort Erie, Ontario.  The prehistoric remains date to two main phases: the Archaic Period 2,000-1,000 BCE, and the Woodland Period 700-1350 BCE.  There is also an historic component of the site dating to 1812 CE.  For more information on the site, see the article in Ontario Archaeology Vol 9(1966) by Emerson and Noble:  http://www.ontarioarchaeology.on.ca/publications/pdf/oa9-5-emerson.pdf

Most of the historic materials which we will be handling during the course will derive from the two sites which have been excavated by the Anthropology summer field schools: the 315 Bloor Street West site excavated in 2010 and the Lime Ridge Memorial Site in 2011-2013.  The first took advantage of the renovations being carried out in preparation for making 315 Bloor Street West the Munk School of Global Affairs. Excavations were carried out around the front and sides of the existing building.  The second site lies on the East bank of Taddle Creek south of Hart House Circle around the Lime Ridge Monument, erected to honour UofT students who fell during that battle in 1866, sometimes known as the Battle of Ridgeway, the largest of the Fenian Raids.

We originally developed the course to dovetail with another course, an archaeology field school to be held at the Koffler Scientific Reserve at Joker's Hill, a property north of Toronto which was given to the University of Toronto by the Koffler family.  Unfortunately we did not get enough students for that course which was to be held in July 2013.  We were going to use it as a companion course to analyse the artifacts and materials found on at Joker's Hill, but through our sponsorship by the University of Toronto Archaeology Centre and the On-campus field school of the Anthropology Department, we have a wealth of material to draw upon and keep our students happy and busy.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Prof Michael Chazan, director of the University of Toronto Archaeology Centre for his support both logistical and intellectual, and the directors of the Anthropology Field School, Prof Ted Banning and Dr Sarah T Stewart for access to the materials from the 315 Bloor Street West Site and the Lime Ridge Monument Site.

Alison Terpenning of the UofT SCS has written a blog about the course which you can read at:
http://learn.utoronto.ca/life-at-scs/archaeology-course-offers-insight-into-ontario-history

The course starts on Tuesday September 17th, 2013 and classes will be held in the Anthropology Building  at 19 Russell Street on the St George Campus of the University of Toronto.  If you are interested there are still spots available so check the course out at:
 http://2learn.utoronto.ca/uoft/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&cms=true&courseId=24223528

The New Show "Mesopotamia Inventing Our World" at the Royal Ontario Museum

            I just had a wonderful experience going to the special exhibit Mesopotamian: Inventing our World Exraordinary Treasures of Sumer, Assyria & Babylon at the Royal Ontario Museum (June 22 2013 to January 5, 2014).  It is truly a remarkable experience to have the opportunity to see some of these wonderful works in Toronto.  The show spans the history of Mesopotamia from the 4^th millennium down to the capture of Babylon by the Persians, and explores the major trends during this long span including the rise of writing, development of complex societies, the nature and iconography of Meopotamian Kingship and Empire, and Mesopotamian Gods and Religion.

            The first section deals with writing and displays some very small objects.  These clay tablets and stone cylinder seals richly reward examination as they have been carefully chosen to show the development of writing from pictographs to cuneiform, and then provide examples of every type of document there is from the sublime (Epic of Gilgamesh) to the mundane (talleys of beer!).  Related to the documents are a wonderful collection of cylinder seals which have been chosen well to complement the themes of the show, allowing the visitor to understand that all the visual arts were closely related.

            The Ur room, displaying finds from the Royal Cemetery of Ur excavated by Sir C. Leonard Woolley and his wife Katherine from 1922 to 1934 for the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum (now the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology), dazzles with beautiful jewellery weapons and other objects which were interred with the dead for the afterlife.  My personal favourite object is the oval golden drinking cup from the Queen’s grave PG800.  The  long narrow spout must have been used as a straw to drink beer.  The exhibit showcases numerous scenes on cylinder seals showing divinities drinking from long straws.  The chased decoration on the delicate vessel is comprised of chevrons and double zigzags.

            One of my favourite antiquities has made the journey to Toronto from Detroit to be part of the show.  The exquisite statue of Gudea King of Lagash was acquired by the Detroit Institute of Art the year I first went to the University of Michigan in nearby Ann Arbor as a graduate student.  This amazing statue made of paragonite captured the media’s heart and I made several trip to the DIA to see it with students, friends and family.  The quiet calm of the piece also has a wonderful sense of power despite its small size.  The artist used the natural veining in the stone to suggest the woolly hat and fold of the mantle.  It has its own space and the curators appropriately chose it as the area to discuss the nature of leadership.

            Close by, the statue of Ashurnasirpal II 883-859 BCE stands proudly at the entrance way to the later materials belonging to the Assyrian Empire.  The statue is identified by an inscription on his chest naming him and giving all his titles and honours. The figure has a calm and powerful dignity even after so much time.

            The show stoppers are the large scale fragments of the palace reliefs from the palaces of the neo Assyrian kings.  There are many interactive components and animations which explain and literally bring the reliefs to life.

            The show ends with a discussion of Babylon through time.  There is a lovely model of the entranceway to the Ishtar Gate and the ROM’s lion panel of glazed bricks from the Southern Citadel dominates the room.  The discussions of the hanging gardens and the tower of Babel are interesting reading.

            A show of this chronological and geographical scope could easily have been confusing and jumpy and I have often found that Mesopotamian materials are difficult to grasp in museum galleries which do not have enough materials to convey the full sweep of history.  But here the curators of the show have avoided the usual pitfalls and centred the material on broad themes central to the understanding of Mesopotamian material culture and history.  While loosely chronological, they have not been slaves to that organizing principal and allow you to build your knowledge gradually.  Having now seen the show twice, I can say that it is a show that is comprehensible  in a single visit (albeit a long visit as there is tons of material to read, videos to walk and interactive graphics to explore), but it really rewards a second visit when you can look at the materials with all the themes in mind.

            Throughout the show there are small and extended references to the history of the archaeology of the area and the present state of the area’s sites and museums.  These tie the complementary exhibition Catastrophe! Ten years Later: The Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past developed, written and produced by the Oriental Istitute of the University of Chicago, into the dialogue and when those images are contrasted with the brilliance of the objects on display in the Mesopotamian show, the losses are  more keenly felt.

            All in all, I think it is a marvellous show and intend to take advantage of it being here in Toronto by visiting it many more times!

           

Back from the Dead!

It has been ages since I have logged into my blog and reported anything but that is going to change. It is not that I have not been involved in archaeological pursuits.  I have been on the executive of the Archaeological Institute of America Toronto Society for many years and seem to get more and more involved!  Last year I helped get National Archaeology Day going in partnership with the Royal Ontario Museum. I was back in Israel last summer for a short season (final?) of excavation of the PHAB at Tel Kedesh (Persian and Hellenistic Administrative Building).  And I am working with Sally Stewart to get a field archaeology course going for the Archaeology Centre and the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto located at the University of Toronto's property the Koffler Centre Scientific Reserve at Joker's Hill.  I will be writing more on all these topics in the following weeks.

The Pleasure of Ruins

When I was eight years old, my mother bought me a copy of the Thames and Hudson 1964 version of Rose Macaulay’s The Pleasure of Ruins with wonderful photographs by Roloff Beny. I poured over the images, especially the black and white ones. It was not until much later that I noticed the text being special as well.

Dame Rose Macaulay was famous as a novelist and academic but also for a series of books which celebrated the pleasures of the everyday: Personal Pleasures (1935) followed by The Minor Pleasures of Everyday Life (1936). It was natural for this avid travellor to follow these two with Pleasure of Ruins in 1953. This was by far her longest book and she took 4 years to write it, travelling to her favourite sites in the Mediterranean, Near
and Middle East. Even before her death in 1958 she had discussed creating a pictorial version of Pleasure of Ruins, with an edited version of her text combined with photographs by Roloff Beny whose book The Thrones of Earth and Heaven (1958) she had greatly admired. In collaboration with Macaulay’s executor Constance Babbington Smith, Beny produced this new version. He expanded the focus to a worldwide gazeteer of sites and spent a year circling the globe creating the images.

Roloff Beny was born in Medicine Hat and went to the University of Toronto and spent the last 30 years in a flat overlooking the Tiber in Rome. He was a gifted artist in other media and it is this artistic sensibility which infuses his photographs with poignancy and emotion. He knows how to perfectly capture the beauty of the ruined fragments of the past.

Both Macaulay and Beny were interested in the intersection of history and ruination which ancient sites displayed. Both evoke the sensation of visiting these sites today and seeing nature reclaiming the land. When reading and viewing their books, one feels that they are taking you by the hand and guiding you through places which
have not been seen by man for millennia.

Happiness is a Pile of Rocks

Recently a friend* asked me “What makes you happy?” At first I was stymied and my mind drew a blank. Then a myriad of images flooded my mind. Once I had sorted through the images of friends, family, beloved pets, sunlight on water and dewdrops on roses, by far the largest category left were memories of happiness found on archaeological sites

What is it about ancient sites and even not so ancient ones that elicit so much pleasure? They are often intrinsically beautiful, often dramatically situated. Sometimes it is the very age that beguiles. One wanders through their spaces and feels surrounded by the people who have been there before, the original builders and inhabitants as well as the archaeologists who reclaimed them.

One of my favourite happy-inducing sites is the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi in Greece pictured above. I have had the pleasure of travelling there first as a teenager with my mother. I have been there alone and with groups. I have been there in blistering sun and blustering rain. I have been there when the fog rolled in and one had no trouble imagining the god speaking to his priestess. One glorious afternoon I sat on the steps of the god's temple and watched nesting falcons feeding their young on the cliffs towering above. At all such times the academic facts and figures slip away leaving one in a place where past and present meld.

Notes

*My friend is Victoria Ollers, the Associate Publisher of the new magazine in development What Makes You Happy. The first issue will be released before Valentine’s Day 2012. Check out .the information at http://happyhappyhappy.ca

UofT Fieldschool Revisited - YouTube Links

Check out the two videos which have been created by the Archaeology Centre of the University of Toronto, highlighting the LimeRidge Memorial site on the University of Toronto campus. Ted Banning is interviewed and speaks about the nature of the site in one, and the workings of the fieldschool in the other. They were filmed by Matthew Walls and Joanna Pokorny.
They can be found on the Canadian Archaeological Association's YouTube group canadianarchaeology. Look for:

Ted Banning Interview June 2011 UofT,
ANT 306 Field School UofT.mp4

Thanks to Mima Kapches of the Ontario Archaeological Society for directing me to these videos.

University of Toronto Fieldschool

Two weeks ago I visited my friends Sally Stewart and Ted Banning who were co-directing a fieldschool on the University of Toronto St George Campus. It was an Archaeological Methods and Theory course offered by the Anthropology Department and the Archaeology Centre. This year they were digging behind the Gerstein Library, on the western edge of Queen's Park just above the Taddle Creek.

This grassy knoll is the site of the Limestone Ridge Memorial Monument, commemorating the seven UofT students who died on June 2nd, 1866 in the Battle of Limestone Ridge, also known as the Battle of Ridgeway.

The Battle of Ridgeway was a victory for the invading Fenians, largely veterans of the US Civil War, against a Canadian force of largely inexperienced militia from Toronto and Hamilton. The monument was dedicated on July 1st 1870, a fitting Canada Day celebration as it was the first time that a fully Canadian force defended Canada from a foreign invader.

The 17 UofT students were trained in procedures in keeping with Ontario's Heritage laws and so did survey, mapping, shovel-shining, drilling and controlled stratigraphic excavation in one-meter squares. Amongst the finds were coins including a 1880's dime, pottery, and animal bones including a quantity of lamb bones in one square. A pipe stem fragment is decorated with a Mason's symbol. This is early in both the exploration of the site and in the analysis of the finds but the finds may represent a farmstead on the banks of the Taddle Creek, commemorative feasting in the vicinity of the monument or merely composting of gardens associated with the monument.

This is the second time that Ted and Sally have been able to dig on campus, allowing students to incorporate getting field experience with their regular lives. Hopefully they will be able to dig here again next year and further our knowledge of this intriguing part of the UofT St George Campus.

"Wonderful Things"

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!

Louisbourg, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

At the end of August I was traveling in the Maritimes of Canada with my sister-in-law, Flavia Morden, and we visited the site of Louisbourg on the east coast of Cape Breton. Two days before our visit, Hurricane Bill had pounded this coastline with punishing waves and torrential downpours, but we enjoyed clear skies and a gentle breeze.

The site is a reconstruction of the French fortress of Louisbourg, first established in 1713. It was the third busiest seaport in North America during the 18th century. Because of its strategic importance it was successfully beseiged first by New England troops in 1745 and then by British troops in 1758. It was abandoned by the British in 1768.

The reconstruction of the site was started in the 1960's under Prime Minister Diefenbaker and became the largest reconstruction project in North America, with nearly one quarter of the original walled town having been rebuilt. First the site was excavated as most of the stone buildings had been robbed away, leaving only their foundations. Then by comparing these results with the detailed accounts in archives in France, England, Scotland, the US and Canada, the fortifications and buildings were reconstructed. In many cases, we know exactly who built each structure, have the original architectural plans and know who lived in them.

Today one arrives at the site in buses provided by Parks Canada in order to keep the sprawling parking lots necessary for the hundreds of visitors away from the site. During its heyday, one would have approached the fortress from the sea, like through the seagate, Porte Frederic, seen in the photo above.

Not only military personnel occupied the fortress and the view below shows several houses on the main street leading up from Porte Frederic, including from left to right, the Hotel de la marine, A L'Epee Royal, and the Maison Benoist. Some of the houses are furnished with period furniture, reconstructing the lifestyles of the various inhabitants, while others are fitted with information displays on different aspects of the life of the community: building techniques, trade, fishing, and military life.



During the summer, the town is populated again by reectors who garden, tend livestock, cook, wash clothes, chop wood, tend fires in period dress. So much is known about the original inhabitants that many of the reenactors know not only the names but the lives of the people they are reviving.



Being a fortress, the military had a visible roll to play both in the past and today. Walking through the fortress, the barracks, the military bakery and the smithy, one talks to officers and enlisted men and enjoys accounts of their lives while living here. It is thrilling to be able to watch muskets and cannon being fired. History really comes to life in this amazing corner of Canada's Eastern shore.

Andrea Berlin, Co-director of Tel Kedesh

A couple of weeks ago I talked about Sharon Herbert, one of my directors at Tel Kedesh. Now I have the pleasure to introduce my blog to the other director of Tel Kedesh, Andrea Berlin. Andrea and I were both graduate students at the University of Michigan and she has gone on to fame and glory and is now a professor at the University of Minnesotta in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies. She did her dissertation on the Coarse Wares from Tel Anafa, an excavation directed by Sharon Herbert. Since then she has worked on Hellenistic material all over Israel as well as in Egypt, Cyprus and Turkey, most notably (for my viewpoint as a classical archaeologist) at Troy!

Above you see me and Andrea on the Tel at Kedesh after she gave me an update on the site.

Banias

Last weekend we also went to Banias, another site which is on the slopes of Mt Hermon and is another source for the River Jordan. It has a natural cave carved out of a dramatic rock face. All this natural beauty made it logical that the site should be dedicated to the god Pan when the Ptolemies controlled the Upper Galilee. Pan was the Greek god of herds and wild spaces and was closely associated with Arcadia in Greece. It was usual to chose a cave or wild space in which to worship him, so this cave and rock face with the nearby spring was a natural space.

Above is a view of the spring at Banias.

View of the Temple Terrace at Banias which was built up in front of the cave which one can see in the background. The first temple was built right in front of the cave mouth by Herod the Great (at the time of the Roman Emperor Augustus 27 BCE - 14 CE) and later constructions expanded east across the terrace.

In this picture, Andrea Berlin, our fearless leader explains the excavations of the temple terrace which she participated in for four years during the late 1980's and for which she published the Hellenistic pottery.

Tel Kedesh Group Shots or "Mr DeMille, these pots are ready for their closeup!"

Peter Stone and Meghan McFarlane setting up the shots, observed by Andrew Boos.

A selection of cookware, semi fine and spatter ware vessels.

A group shot of the Semi Fine Wares.

When on an archaeological dig, one can get so immersed in the day to day details of the project that one can lose sight of why we are doing all this... to publish! There are many ways to publish material: preliminary reports, final reports, giving papers at professional meetings and lectures to the general public. One of my professors at Texas A&M, Richard Steffy, said as he wearily prepared for yet another lecture tour, that he would know when his work was finally published when people stopped asking him to give lectures! To that end, one needs lots of good illustrative pictures of the site and its finds.

This past week Peter Stone who is publishing the pottery, prepared with conservator Meghan McFarlane, a series of group shots of material which was excavated by Ameera Elrasheedy in 2008 from an important context in the Hellenistic Administrative building at Tel Kedesh, but only repaired in 2009 by Meghan and Suzanne Davis.

Safet, Capital of the Upper Galilee

On Thursday Miriam Segall suggested an excursion to Sefat (or Safed)as she had visited the city on a tour of Israel 2 years before and wished to revisit a silversmith who she had met then. She invited Bonny and I to accompany her and we took off after lunch.
The drive from Ramot Naftali is beautiful in the hills of of the Upper Galilee. Safet is the hometown of Jewish mysticism or 'kabala' and was an important centre of learning in the late Medieval Period. Now the old city has become a centre for art and handicrafts.
The old city occupies the high ground which is capped by the Citadel whose ruins are set in a wooded park. Miriam, Bonny and I wandered through the old city and soaked in the atmosphere of the narrow streets. We visited a few artists studios and Bonny and Miriam both bought works by Simon Schlutskin.

A door transom decorated with two symmetrically placed lions with three doves flying above.

Another door in old Safet with the same heraldic lions with doves flying above.

View into a courtyard in old Sefat.

Visit to Tel Dan

One of the joys of being on an archaeological dig is the possibility of visiting other sites on the day off. Andrea, one of the co-directors of the Tel Kedesh excavations, loves to tour around and take her students to some of the points of interest in the Upper Galilee. This week she lead the group to Tel Dan and Banias (see the next blog post).
Tel Dan is situated at one of the springs which feeds the Jordan River on the southern slopes of Mount Hermon. It has been occupied since before the impressive Middle Bronze Age arched gate was constructed, and has impressive finds of both the Middle Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The archaeological ruins are situated in a lovely National Park and the nature trails wander through a wooded park and criss-cross over the streams. It is a lovely place to spend a hot summer day!
One of the important parts of the site is the High Place. When Jereboam led a group who dissented with Solomon's son Reheboam and came to the Upper Galilee, he had to solve the problem of where his followers would worship now that they were cut off from access to the Temple in Jerusalem. He established two cult centres, at either end of his territory. Tel Dan was the northernmost one.


The Tel Dan High Place is pictured above and you can see the area of the altar on the lower level to the left and the temple proper on the podium to the right. There are two main architectural phases with the early Iron Age construction and then a Hellenistic refurbishment.
Also dating to the Early Iron Age is the citadel gate. As you enter the city gate, you may have been confronted with a judge or dignitary of the city who would monitor who was coming and going. The evidence for this is a dais which was protected by a canopy. There is a foundation and carved stones which would have supported wooden posts. larry Staiger, excavator of Ashkelon has suggested that this foundation may merely be a olive press, but what an olive press was doing right in the passageway of the main gate is a mystery.

Undeterred by the controversy, Meghan, Hannah and I, The Shed Folk, are posed in the picture above on the judge's dais and are looking suitably snooty and judgemental!

Belle Voir Crusader Castle

Andrea Berlin and Richard Redding led our little band of intrepid tourists to see a couple of sites on our drive from Jerusalem to Tiberias where we were to spend the night. By far the most spectacular site was Belle Voir. Andrea drove Richard's car up the many switchbacks to the plateau on which the castle is situated overlooking the Jordan Valley. Here you see Andrea and Richard in one of the castle's remaining doorways.

The castle is well preserved with the outer wall rising obove the moat. Below you see me posing with Miriam and Bonny at the southeast corner of the castle where it rises above the moat near the cliff dropoff.

The picture below shows the situation of the castle perched on the cliff face overlooking the Jordan Valley. Across the valley you see the Golan heights and Jordan and Syria. At the north end of the Valley, Kinneret or the Sea of Galilee is visible in the haze.


Below is a view of the castle and the moat. The excavation of the moat provided building material for the construction of the castle. the dark stone is volcanic basalt and is the natural bedrock. The moat protected the castle from attack from the plateau and would have been crossed by means of a drawbridge.

The wind was blowing strongly on the beautiful sunny June day when we visited, giving us respite from the heat, but it must have been different story and not as pleasant for the crusader knights who had to man this stronghold in winter!

The Jordan Valley

During the mid-dig break, I had the opportunity to drive up the Jordan Valley from Jerusalem and visit the Crusader Castle at Belle Voir. As beautiful as the castle is, the reward for driving up the switchbacks is the breathtaking view of the Jordan Valley and the Sea of Galilee. Here is a picture of me at the lookout point. Later we drove on to Tiberias on the Kinneret and had a lovely dinner of St Peter's fish while watching the sunset turn the Golan fiery red.

Tel Kedesh and the Shed Folk

When most people think about archaeology, they focus on the fieldwork, the digging and the finding of artifacts in their context. But for me as registrar, my work starts when the artifacts come in out of the field and the process of recording continues. At Tel Kedesh this post excavation life of the artifacts has a team of people involved and below is a group shot of this group which I like to call the Shed Folk as we work in a converted garage shed!
In this picture I am on the left and as registrar, all non-ceramic finds pass through my hands when they come out of the field. Pottery has a different route and comes into the shed once the ceramicist Peter Stone, pictured kneeling on the right, has decided that they are worthy of inventory. I then pass these registered pots on to the conservators Suzanne Davis, standing on the right, and Meghan McFarlane standing in the middle. They mend the pots and treat the objects requiring specialized care. Once they have been cleaned and mended, they are ready for their closeup, and are photographed and then drawn by our artist Hannah Schnobrich, pictured standing second from left.
A special class of finds are the huge volume of animal bone which is studied by Richard Redding, pictured standing second from right. He washes and analyzes the huge quantity, which second to pottery is our most ubiquitous find from the excavation. This year he is teaching Emily Kaspari, pictured kneeling on the left, the ins and outs of bone identification.

It gets pretty hot in the shed and we keep ourselves going with music! I have been able to make a list of music which I have been introduced to from other people's ipods. This year I forgot my speakers and so the shed folk would like to thank Charlotte Maxwell-Jones for lending us her speakers.

Sharon Herbert, one of the Directors of Tel Kedesh

At the end of last week I visited the site for the first time since I had come to Israel. Up until then, I had been dealing with the backlog of registry as I had arrived late. I love to see the site and see where all the objects are coming from which cross my desk.
Sharon Herbert, who is one of the co-directors of the Tel Kedesh excavations, is an old friend of mine and is the one who invited me to participate on the project back in 2006. Three years later she is back at it again for the last field season in this publication cycle and I am back to assist.
Sharon has dug in Israel since the 1970's when Saul Weinberg invited her to participate in the excavations at Tel Anafa, a small tel across the valley at the foot of the Golan heights. She took over that excavation and published not only the years when she directed the project, but the previous 10 years when Saul Weinberg directed. She then went on to co-direct the survey and excavations with henry Wright at Coptos in Egypt. then she came back to israel to dig her in 1997.
We are standing on the edge of the site, on the north side of the Persian and Hellenistic Administrative Building. I am the one wearing a Tilley hat on the right, Sharon is in the baseball cap on the left. Andrew Ossi took the picture with my camera.

Week Two and the Case of the Strange Find

Last week I started this blog with the help of Meghan McFarlane, one of the conservators on the dig this season. Today I had the help of Victor Morgan when I was trying to place a photograph behind my blog heading. I took the photo this afternoon of the discard sherds in oneof Ameera's trench units. It sums up for me the reality of digging as this is the kind of material that archaeologists mainly deal with rather than the golden statues of Holywood imagination!



But speaking of Victor and vivid imaginations reminds me that I should tell you about a strange find which crossed my desk as registrar last week. A bag arrived in my in-box with a weird tag as you can see on the left. What was stranger was the contents of the bag, seen above on the right. We are digging in the Hellenistic levels of the site and so turning up a Chalcolithic Mother goddess figurine would be highly unlikely. Of course this is Victor's creation with the goddess sitting on her base with two "offering" vessels in front of her. It seems that the goddess was not amused for the day after her false image was created, Victor fell backwards into a trench and sprained his wrist!

If you wish to get the real scoop on the excavations at Tel Kedesh, check out the dig blog at University of Michigan Kelsey Museum website . The Tel Kedesh blog was the brainchild of the chief conservator at the Kelsey Museum, Suzanne Davis, and has entries on all aspects of the excavation.

Week Two at Tel Kedesh, Israel 2009

This is my second day off on the Tel Kedesh excavations in Israel and Meghan McFarlane has just helped me set up this blog. Since she has experience with blogs (visit her blog at Involving the Senses), she has volunteered to initiate me into the joys of blogging!

This is the third season I have been involved in the Tel Kedesh excavations, serving as registrar. I came first to Tel Kedesh in 2006 and then again in 2008. These excavations were the first time I was stationed in the lab rather than working in the field and it was a great transition for me. But now I love working in the registry and seeing all the finds cross my desk from the entire site. I also love working with the conservators and artists as I feel we are a team which prepare the objects for their debut on the world stage of academia!

In coming blogs I will be sharing my experiences on the dig while I am here, and later stories of my past experiences in the field as well as my adventures guiding tours for the travel company Odyssey Adventures in Archaeology, a company for which I am a partner with Willie Rowbotham and Gayle Gibson.