The big deal in Shikhin: ancient lamps!

The most exciting finds from Shikhin in the past few digging seasons have been lots of lamp fragments as well as lamp molds and a kiln for firing them. 

This shows that lamps used to be produced here.

 

All of these are broken fragments of lamps that we found in one day! They have been cleaned and set out to dry.

 

 

Miss Kay is a classy Southern woman in her 80s who has been coming to Shikhin for years. She is the artifact registrar. 

She was my seat mate in the front of the van, and I can testify that she is spunky and has a great attitude even at 4:30 am.

 

 

Someone in another square has just found a lamp mold, and here our directors Drs. James Strange and Mordechai Aviam are examining it. 

They promise ice cream to anyone excavating a find like this, and the volunteer involved made sure they remembered!

 

 A few days later we uncovered an almost completely intact lamp. 

Isn't this exciting?

 

 

A local archaeologist who is also an artist fashioned his own modern copies of the lamp molds. 

He also constructed a kiln by copying the design of the ancient one found at Shikhin. 

He asked the volunteers to make several hundred lamps using the molds. Here volunteer John, a retired professor of music composition and cello, is creating a little oil lamp from the mold.

We brought our new clay lamps to the artist's home where he fired them in his kiln. It worked!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, this picture shows lamps that were found at Shikhin in previous years. They are from the Roman period. 

Notice the beautifully intricate designs.

Field trip to the Galilee

On the weekend our group took a field trip to a few prominent archaeological sites around the Sea of Galilee. I was really excited about it and was not disappointed!

Our first stop was at the ancient town of Magdala. 

This is the synagogue that was only discovered in the last ten years when construction workers were building a hotel. The carved stone box is thought to be the lectern that would have been raised on four legs. 

 

Steps leading down a mikva, or ancient ritual purification bath.

 

Some think that Mary Magdalene may have been born in Magdala. For this reason there is a modern chapel built here which is dedicated to the women who followed Jesus. 

I loved this enormous portrayal of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment, at foot level. Our director here is explaining. 

 

Upstairs in the same building. 

It's not very visible here, but with gorgeous backdrop of the Sea of Galilee through the glass. The podium is a fishing boat, and the mast doubles as a cross!

 

 

Next we stopped at Capernaum, which is actually Kfar Nahum (Village of Nahum). 

This is the fishing village where Jesus made his home during his ministry.

At the entrance. Notice the homeless man's feet.

 

Remains of the ancient village, built in the typical black basalt stone of this area. 

The synagogue, built of the lighter limestone, is in the background.

Possibly a manger. 

 

What the ancient synagogue may have looked like. 

Jesus may have delivered his Bread of Life sermon (John 6) at the site of this synagogue. 

 

The Sea of Galilee at Capernaum. 

That's a bit of a misnomer, as it's actually a lake. "Lake Kinneret" is a better term.

 

For lunch we brought a picnic from the hotel. 

We stopped under a beautiful bowery adjacent to the Greek Orthodox church of Capernaum. We had a vineyard above our heads!

 

Every square inch of the walls and domed ceilings of this magnificent church were all covered in the most vivid colorful frescoes. 

Can you tell what story is being told here?

This fishing boat from the first century AD was discovered a few decades ago in the Sea of Galilee. I had never seen it. 

It is an extremely rare find as wood usually decays quickly. 

They soaked it in a wax bath for 12 years, to preserve it, before placing it on display!

Model reconstruction of the fishing boat.

Pottery Washing

OK, maybe this won't be the most riveting entry. But I think it's interesting!

We found large quantities of broken pottery fragments, and they're covered in thousands of years' worth of dirt. So somebody has to given them a good scrub before they are "read" to determine whether they offer us any important information about dating or culture. 

 

 

I asked somebody to take a picture of me and got this! She did get my foot. 

But it's not a bad picture because you can see our bucket of brushes and a fruit bag. One of the retired volunteers brought several hundred fruit bags that we use to hold the shards. This keeps the finds from each individual locus (distinct archaeological layer) separate, and they're ideal for allowing the wet pieces to dry when placed in the sun. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's another attempt!

I really like cleaning the pottery and being the first person in millennia to see the fragments' vibrant colors emerge. Often they are a deep, burnt red, like sierra. 

Some of them are black, covered with soot that leaves my hands greasy and black. The cooking pots are red with black streaks from sitting in flames. 

There's something therapeutic about the simple, rhythmic strokes of cleaning without having to think about anything. But that's probably because I don't do it much!

Walking in Nazareth

 

Mary's Well: another traditional site where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. There is an underground spring here.

Greek Orthodox church

 

 

Church of St. Gabriel

 

With view from in front of the church (OK, it took me a long time to hike up here). The hill in the distance and to the left is Mount Precipice, the traditional place where villagers attempted to throw Jesus from the precipice.

 

The Synagogue Church, where traditionally Jesus first read from the Torah in the synagogue.

St. Joseph's Church

Adjacent to the Church of the Annunciation is St. Joseph's Church, ensuring that we are honoring Joseph as well as Mary.

This is according to tradition the site where Joseph's carpentry once stood. Whether or not this is accurate, it was recognized as a holy site already in antiquity. 

 

And here is Joseph. It seems that pilgrims rub his knees for good luck? Or maybe that's as high as they can easily reach since this is a tall statue. 

Happy Father's Day to Joseph!

Nazareth Village

 

Nazareth Village is an open-air museum featuring actors who live on site. It recreates a village as it would have appeared in the first century AD. It would have been just outside of the center of ancient Nazareth, perhaps a 15-minute walk away.  

Sheep were kept in natural alcoves in the rock.

 

 

A 2000-year-old olive tree on the premises. It is believed that the word Nazareth is derived from the Hebrew netzer, meaning "shoot" or "young branch" (as in "the shoot of Jesse.") 

 

 

Ancient burial cave.

 

 

Archaeological remains at the Village revealed seeds showing that there was once an ancient vineyard there. More recently, a modern vineyard has been planted, as can be seen above. 

There are also rock-hewn remains of a floor that was used for crushing the grapes by treading on them barefoot. Below that is a basin into which the liquid would have flown. 

Jesus used everyday scenes and objects around him to illustrate his parables. Who knows, maybe he was referencing this vineyard in the farmland just outside of his hometown when he related the Parable of the Vineyard? 

A fig tree. They will ripen in the fall. 

 

This is a building containing an olive oil press. The olives were placed inside the cavity, and a donkey was attached to the beam. This was the first pass. 

Then the olives were crushed with heavy weights attached to another set of beams. The first olives to be crushed here were called the "first pressed" and were of highest quality; this oil was used for sacred purposes, as in the temple at Jerusalem. The second press was used for medicinal purposes. The third pressed oil was sold as lamp oil and to make soap. 

This is the home of a potter and his family.

A carpenter.

The carpenter's home.

Spinning and weaving.

Lamb's wool was naturally either off-white or brown. Other colors had to be dyed. This was done with onion, saffron, pomegranate, and other fruits and vegetables. 

Blue and purple dye came from murex sea snails and took vast amounts of labor and time to produce. They were so expensive that only royalty could afford to wear them. 

My favorite building was the full-sized reconstructed ancient synagogue. A synagogue was a community center that may have served as a school, hostel for travelers, and other purposes as well as a meeting place for religious services.

When Jesus began his public ministry, he read from the Torah scroll in the synagogue in Nazareth. I joined a random Christian tour and here the guide is demonstrating. 

Ancient synagogues in this area were mostly built with the same floor plan, featuring stepped seating along three walls, columns supporting the ceiling on the the same three sides, and windows at the top.