At the Roman aqueduct near Caesarea; L-R back: Carlos Lugo, Rachel  Stivers-Bender, Joe Clark, Rachel Smith, Olivia Leftwich, Andrew Watkins; L-R front: Michael Leung, Adam Quinn, David Bayless, Maggie Johnson, Laura Snyder, Claire Oldfather

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Second Post 2013

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Third Letter from Nazareth Dear Family and Friends, Last week’s letter is my Father’s Day post.   I’m writing on Saturday because of a change in plans.   Today the high temperature will be 101 ° F/38 ° C in Nazareth where I am and 109 ° F/43 ° C at Kinneret College where I had planned to be.   No.   So tomorrow when it will be merely 85/29 up here and 96/36 down there, I and a few others will travel to our shipping container to organize artifacts and collect some for study.   Along with trimming balk, taking line level elevations, and pottery reading, no one makes movies about this aspect of archaeology.   We will have to reward ourselves with gelato afterwards.   Today, therefore, I write. Speaking of archaeology, the biggest surprise this year has been the Late Bronze age (1500–1200 BCE) pottery that has begun to turn up in the eastern squares of our Field I.   We only have about four or five sherds s...
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Second Letter from Nazareth Dear Family and Friends, I am writing later than usual this Sunday because of morning chores.   More about that momentarily. Last week I mentioned that I met Dad everywhere.   That is still the case, and I don’t imagine it will end.   I cannot ask him all of the questions I have about his experiences digging in the 1970s and 80s, why he dated certain pottery forms the way he did, or any of the other things only he could tell me.   Their number must be countless because I’m not running out.   I ask and not hearing his answer reminds me to grieve.   Did you ever hear him speak?   Maybe you know what I’m talking about.   At Kiddish last Friday Mom told me, “I miss his voice.” Morning chores began when Tom McCollough and I met Motti Aviam at an archaeological site north of the eastern end of the Beit Netofa Valley, near the ancient divide between “Lower” and “Upper” Galilees.   Th...
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