Thursday, June 5, 2008

Second Week at Bethsaida: Material Evidence

Hello, again! Our dig director, Rami Arav and the lectures have been dilegent about helping each of us volunteers understand the role that "material evidence" plays when it comes to identifying a paticular culture or cultural behavior. Pottery, glass and other artifacts have played a critical role in our experiences at the Bethsaida dig.

As we have moved the rock and dirt at our assigned areas (remember my area is C) and locus within the area, we have run into hundreds of pieces of pottery and other things such as bone, glass, flint etc. Each person has his/her own bucket for rocks/dirt and there is one bucket that is for the "find."











At the end of the day the buckets of shards or bone or whatever id found is allowed to soak in water overnight. The next day, the previous day's finds are sorted...










Discussed... catalogued...



...and then photographed.







Roussau and Arav in Jesus and His World contend that forms and styles of ceramic ware were seldom repeated so they could serve as a way of dating at an archaeological site...certain styles are dominant during certain time periods. For instance, Bethsaida is seeing a lot of Iron Age 2, Hellenistic, Roman and Galileean pottery of all types. In our pottery reading sessions, we learn to spot certian periods by glaze, by color, by size, by thickness, by handles, by rims, by bases and much, much more! What happens to the shards of pottery? Look at what skilled restoration ...








can end up with!!!






























No, those are NOT my jugs, craters, oil lamps, but I can dream!




Until next time...SAFE TRAVEL!




Gloria

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