Students stand at the four corners of what is probably a public building. From left to right: Carlos Lugo, Rachel Gregory, Eddie Padrino, Sam McFarland

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Second Letter from Nazareth

Sunday June 4, 2017
Dear Family and Friends,
Today is Pentecost Sunday for Christians, the month of Ramadan for Muslims, and a few days past the feast of Savuoth (Weeks) for Jews, and we are now at the midpoint of the dig.It seems improbable that time could move so swiftly.We must start thinking about how to close down excavations, and I am anticipating returning to Laura and sharing the rest of my summer with her.The work, however, is immune to such longings.It still demands precision.For its part, precision requires that we care about what we’re doing.That is part of the human element I talked about last week.
In the life cycle of the Shikhin Excavation Project, it is also time to start thinking about when to halt, or to interrupt, excavations in order to publish.Digging not only uncovers buildings and objects, it also reveals more questions, and we have to decide which ones we will try to answer.In the end, sometimes we conclude that we will publish what we have. I am learning t…
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Fifth Letter, from Jerusalem

19 June 2016
Dear Family and Friends,
This Father’s Day turned out to be special.I hugged my dad this morning and we wished one another “Happy Father’s Day.”Then I left with a group of students and others for a tour of the Old City designed to take us to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and then to the Russian Mission in Israel, down the Via Dolorosa, and thence to the Pool of Bethesda compound, which includes the Church of St. Anne, the mother of Mary. The Russian Mission houses some antiquities at the eastern extent of the original Sepulcher compound, some of which date to the time of Hadrian and others to the time of Constantine.According to Christian tradition, Jesus walked bearing his cross on the “Way of Sorrow.”If he did walk this route, he was several meters below the level of the current street.
Because today is Sunday, various masses being held by different branches of Christianity made some parts of the Sepulcher off limits to us.These included the tomb itself and the t…
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First Letter from Nazareth

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Sunday, May 28, 2017
Dear Family and Friends,
It has been a busy 11 or so days in Israel, and I missed my deadline for my first letter.I have been pleased with the people and the weather: both are suited for our operations.
This year I feel acutely the void left by my parents, Jim (“Abuna”) and Carolyn Strange.This is not because we cannot operate without them.After all, expeditions all over Israel get by without either of them setting foot on their sites.It is because of who they are to me and to the dig.I feel it most, not at breakfast, which my mother brings to the site, or at pottery reading, for which I rely on my father’s expertise, but as I pass by their room while knocking on doors at 4 a.m. I hope for their return in 2018.
The early crew arrived on Tuesday May 16 and quickly got to work the next day.They prepared our store room, oversaw the delivery of tools and toilets to the site, began digging the southern half of a square that we opened last year, shot i…
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