This is FalafelGreetings from Northern Jordan,
We have begun our excavation now. We have completed our first 2 days. We get up about 4AM have some breakfast and dead to the Archaeological site about 5AM. We work until about 1pm. At 9:30 we take a 1/2 hour break called second breakfast.
For Breakfast we have cream of wheat, bread and sometimes cheese, and tea.
For second breakfast we have a hard boiled egg, bread, cheese, a tomato or cucumber maybe a plum.
When we return from the field we have lunch about 1:30 or 2pm it is usually the biggest meal of the day. We usually have rice with some "stew" to put over it. We also have a "salad" of chopped cucumber and tomato with parsley.
After lunch we can shower (in a make shift shower that is really a toliet with a hose hooked up). Then we can wash our clothes usually in a bucket and hang it up on a line. After that we try to take a nap and then work begins in the lab at 4pm and we eat dinner at 6pm.
The toliets have nothing to sit on they are a hole in the floor. You must put the paper in a small basket because it will clog up the plumbing.
We live in a small village about 2000 people just a few miles from Syria and the Golan Heights. It is a traditional village so we must dress in a modest way at all times.
Dinner is lighter and usually is bread and cheese and vegetables sometimes some falafel (a chick pea "hushpuppy").
After supper sometimes we have lectures or meetings then we have lights out by 10pm.
So it is hard work. We live, work and sleep in a Girls High School. It is not like our American High Schools. It is mainly a concrete block building with concrete floors. We sleep on foam mattresses which are about 3 inches thick. One main problem at night is the the heat and the mosquitos. If you open the windows which makes it cooler then you have many mosquitos. If you close the windows you dont have as many mosquitos but it is much warmer.
It is sunny and hot everyday. The tempatures have been about 95 or so each day, and in the 80's at night. The sun can be brutal as you work on on the Tell (excavation site) there is no shade to be found so you are in the sun all day from 5AM to 1PM.
We have about 30 people on the dig team most from the US many are college students who have no archaeological experience so we have to train them how to excavate and keep records int he notebooks.
I work in Area A on the main tell Tell Abil. I am mainly excavating a Byzantine Church which was built in then Late Byzatine period 6th century AD (in the 500 hundreds AD).
It has 3 apses in the front or east end of the church and an entrance way with 3 doors. Out in front of the building is a plaza or entrance way (outside) It is covered with a mosaic floor with a diamond shaped pattern. It is mostly white with black and red lines forming the the pattern.
We are excavating 7 or 8 squares this summer in Area A. I hope we can answer some questions so I can prepare a final publication of the church.
Well I better finish up for now and get back to camp. The internet cafe is about a mile walk from the school.
I will write more later.
John Wineland
Harta Jordan
We have begun our excavation now. We have completed our first 2 days. We get up about 4AM have some breakfast and dead to the Archaeological site about 5AM. We work until about 1pm. At 9:30 we take a 1/2 hour break called second breakfast.
For Breakfast we have cream of wheat, bread and sometimes cheese, and tea.
For second breakfast we have a hard boiled egg, bread, cheese, a tomato or cucumber maybe a plum.
When we return from the field we have lunch about 1:30 or 2pm it is usually the biggest meal of the day. We usually have rice with some "stew" to put over it. We also have a "salad" of chopped cucumber and tomato with parsley.
After lunch we can shower (in a make shift shower that is really a toliet with a hose hooked up). Then we can wash our clothes usually in a bucket and hang it up on a line. After that we try to take a nap and then work begins in the lab at 4pm and we eat dinner at 6pm.
The toliets have nothing to sit on they are a hole in the floor. You must put the paper in a small basket because it will clog up the plumbing.
We live in a small village about 2000 people just a few miles from Syria and the Golan Heights. It is a traditional village so we must dress in a modest way at all times.
Dinner is lighter and usually is bread and cheese and vegetables sometimes some falafel (a chick pea "hushpuppy").
After supper sometimes we have lectures or meetings then we have lights out by 10pm.
So it is hard work. We live, work and sleep in a Girls High School. It is not like our American High Schools. It is mainly a concrete block building with concrete floors. We sleep on foam mattresses which are about 3 inches thick. One main problem at night is the the heat and the mosquitos. If you open the windows which makes it cooler then you have many mosquitos. If you close the windows you dont have as many mosquitos but it is much warmer.
It is sunny and hot everyday. The tempatures have been about 95 or so each day, and in the 80's at night. The sun can be brutal as you work on on the Tell (excavation site) there is no shade to be found so you are in the sun all day from 5AM to 1PM.
We have about 30 people on the dig team most from the US many are college students who have no archaeological experience so we have to train them how to excavate and keep records int he notebooks.
I work in Area A on the main tell Tell Abil. I am mainly excavating a Byzantine Church which was built in then Late Byzatine period 6th century AD (in the 500 hundreds AD).
It has 3 apses in the front or east end of the church and an entrance way with 3 doors. Out in front of the building is a plaza or entrance way (outside) It is covered with a mosaic floor with a diamond shaped pattern. It is mostly white with black and red lines forming the the pattern.
We are excavating 7 or 8 squares this summer in Area A. I hope we can answer some questions so I can prepare a final publication of the church.
Well I better finish up for now and get back to camp. The internet cafe is about a mile walk from the school.
I will write more later.
John Wineland
Harta Jordan
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