Alexa-Israel 2011: Tiyul!

Alexa and roommate Stacy

Alexa and Madrachim Lior

This morning we got up super early for an archeological dig. This is our first Tiyul (field trip.) We drove about 45 minutes. When we got to the caves we stopped at a fully excavated on that had no roof. This cave turned out not to be a cave but a contraption for making wine. The water flows from the top into one hole where all the dirt comes out, then it flows down into another hole and is clean. The grapes are crushed at the top so basically it is grape juice.

How we learn

The Cave we dug in

The second cave we went to was also fully excavated and we learned that is was a Jewish burial site from the 2^nd burial time period (about 2000 years ago). Next we went to a non excavated cave that we had to crawl through! It was extremely dark and small. We learned that those caves were from when the Romans were in charge of Israel and the Jewish people revolted. The Romans were imposing pagen ideas in the state of Israel and that is why the Jews revolted. At first the revolt was working but in the end, it didn’t work out. The cave had so many holes and it would be pretty easy to get lost. Next we went into a cave that we started to excavate. This cave was 1,700 years oldWe took buckets and shovels and started to dig.

Alexa with a skull of a dog

Next came sifting through the sand that we dug up. When sifting we found important items for dating such as pottery chards, glass, handles of pottery, coal, and I even found some bones. As we sorted the items we found, a bunch of us found a skull! I picked it up and identified it as a skull because of the ridged swiggly lines on the bone. I asked the guide, David, who said it was most likely from a dog. Then we went to see the Byzantine burial cave. It was different from the Jewish one because it had to columns in the middle with crosses engraved on the top.