AREA E - SQUARE 95 - DAY 9
Ah, don't you just love before and after shots!! Here you see good ol' Square 95 as it looked on that first morning of Day 1, followed by the site that would greet us the morning of Day 9. The column that you see lying down on the mound of dirt was the same one to your right in the original shot. At the time we had no idea of the existence of the "left" column (the short one seen here in the middle), nor the chancelery screen. And to have a floor that has been preserved as it was over the centuries, to be still in relatively good nick (picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows notwithstanding) is indeed a blessing!! Even the base of the chancellory screen and post is showing promise (see below) - be good to see what repair job can be done to attach their respective top sections.
Today we would be joined by Ana Silkatcheva, MA Research student from Sydney University, my old Alma Mater. She came by yesterday to check out the site, upon introducing myself inquired as to my Australian accent. She'd been living in Jordan for the past three years, married to a Jordanian. They actually met on a dig!! Ah, the stuff dreams are made of, eh? Russian by birth, grew up in Adelaide, was doing her dissertation on mosaics under Dr Kate da Costa, whom I'd met two months previously at the same conference where Dr Politis had given his lecture on Lot's Cave. In a later email to me, Ana said she had a laugh when she read my account of visiting said cave. It was hearing "Dino" that first inspired her to come to Jordan, and she was in fact working on that very site in Zoara which he co-directed.
Anyway, Ana would be coming on board drawing up Top Plans of the major squares on site - obviously our drawing skills were perhaps a bit, shall we say, sub. Today she'd be drawing up the top plan for the (baptismal?) pool, assisted by Jennifer. Ana had also very kindly offered to take Arabic lessons for those interested in the afternoons. Apparently when she first turned up on site, some of the locals were being what they would be when a pretty girl turns up on site. She in no uncertain terms informed them that she knew Arabic. That shut them up pretty quickly, I'm told. In all fairness I should say that the local crew treated her exceptionally well, and she became quite the ally for we whitey anglo non-Arabic speakers on those rare occassions when certain cross cultural issues arose
Back in Square 95 - pretty much nothing left to do but prepare for when our top plan would be drawn up. Dr Bob was keen to see if we could find anything further around this indentation area, the break in the floor designated as Locus 007.
By the looks of it, judging by the impression seen in the top right hand corner (Northeast), at one stage there would have been probably another chancellery post there, and judging by the groove one can see at the base of the column, this would have been connected to another chancellery screen.
Hannah and I would keep digging around the area of the indentation, to see if there might be anything worth salvaging still. We did, but not for too long - it was obvious tht there was nothing more of value that we'd find here.
Well, except for the odd oxidised nail and piece of roof tile.
One thing I haven't mentioned until now was the existence of another cistern, located a couple of metres north of where the west column had stood. This was slightly narrower in diameter than the one down which Luke had descended the week before. I doubt that any of us would have fit down it. Not sure what we would have found down there, looking at the photos, I could make out what look like some oxidised bits of glass. Hard to know at this stage what purpose this would have served.
In the meantime, Luke and Aaron were supervising work on Square 96, which was going great guns. The boys now had a system going, having dug a makeshift dirt ramp which allowed the wheelbarrows to collect the dirt and in tandem head to the southern aisle to deposit. So far nothing of significance found, the usual pottery, this piece of glass slag which I thought was kinda cool, and the occasional piece of glass.
End of the day, left taking this - probably my favourite shot of Square 95
Coming back from the dig, Courtland mentioned that Area G felt shockwaves from the bombing over the border today. Area E is pretty sheltered,so we hear and feel nothing. It's weird, apart from what little news you get, you would never know that, not so far away, a violent revolution is taking place and being suppressed. Dave made an announcement at lunch to let us know that we were in no danger, but should push come to shove, they have a plan in place for Abu Nassar to pick us up and take us down to Madaba. I don't ask too much, but I suspect in his position he probably has a fair number of anxious parents to placate.
Afternoon pottery reading - this is just a small sample of what was brought back from all the sites yesterday. As you can see, we're never short of a sample.
These pieces were found in Square 95, first time we'd found any that were able to be pieced together to form a coherant PART of a pot.
This tooth also came up in the mix, plus this piece of glass bead.
That night after dinner Dave holds his Evangeical Theology class for JBU students on the roof - Aaron and I sit in. We even take the test on the text which neither of us have read. I think I did OK...
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