Digging in Israel

July 13, 2008
With only two days left our itinerary began to lighten up. This morning a few people desired to stay behind and rest. The Wertheimer’s went on their own to Hadassah Hospital for a personal tour around the entire complex. Our day began at Beit Guvrin or Moresha for an archaeological exploration. In this area a huge number of human made caves have been discovered. They represent the remains of an Edomite community of Hellenistic times, approximately 150 years before the Common Era. When the entire community was about to be destroyed, the inhabitants collapsed their homes into the caves they had dug under their houses (functioning as cellars, personal olive oil presses, etc.) to make them unusable to the enemy. For years Israelis have been excavating these caves. The organization, Archeological Seminars, have guided thousands of volunteers to dig out the caves. Artifacts, mostly from the 2nd century BCE, are plentiful and continue to tell the story of this ancient community.
We were met at the site by a thoroughly delightful young woman, Miranda, who not only was an archaeologist herself but our guide and did so in a captivating manner. She was funny and cheerful with tremendous enthusiasm. The caves are large lit up rooms with good ladders and stairways to enable easy access. We were given a short overview and then began digging with small picks and spades. We put our artifact finds in a “find bucket” and the rest of the dirt and rocks into other buckets to be taken above and sifted to see if any other smaller items were there. I think everyone in the group found something, and usually pieces of pottery. Some of our best finds were a piece of iron and an ostraca, i.e. a piece of pottery with writing on it. We were having so much fun digging they almost had to drag us back above to do the second stage of sifting. More pottery, pieces of bone shells and carbon remains were found. The highlight was a large tooth that our resident dentist Steve Korn said was a bottom molar, either animal or possibly human. Our visit to Moresha ended at the pottery shed where we were shown photos and artifacts of greatest significance to the site. The most prized artifact was the oldest extant marriage ketuba. We all left with our own samples of shards not considered significant to the site.
Next stop was the Tank Corps Memorial and Museum at Latrun. There we watched a movie (what a unique experience) of the significance of the site to families who have lost a soldier in the tank corps. The old Taggert Fort / Police Station is now a museum with exhibits ranging from short biographies of Jewish soldiers in World War II to a Yatzheit room – the face and rank of every deceased tank corps soldier is displayed on the anniversary of his/her death. We spent some time outside viewing the myriad of tanks on display, both Israeli and those captured by Israel. The latest cutting edge Israeli tank is the Merkava (“chariot”).
After a light lunch at the site, we returned to Jerusalem to “chill out” until our 5:00 p.m. presentation. Our presenter from IRAC (Israeli Religious Action Center) was Rachel Canar, an American who made Aliyah 2 years ago, specifically to work for this organization. Rachel offered a broad outline of the center’s involvements. Their cases focus mainly on the rights of the Reform movement and reform rabbis in Israel, as well as advocacy for the poor and underserved, and the “agunot” (chained women) in Israel. An informative 1 ½ hours for all.
Dinner on our own. Laila tov!