S9: Week 4, Day 4 — Arriving to the End of Our Excavation Season

We are quickly arriving to the end of our excavation season. Our bodies and sleep time have adjusted to the routine. We dig from 6:00-1:00, returning to Migdal for lunch. After a short siesta, we wash pottery, which is left for a day to dry and to be read by Motti Aviam. The process of reading pottery is an opportunity to identify overlooked small treasures. This evening Motti identified a Herodian knife-pared lamp nozzle from Area G. These were only made in Jerusalem before 70 CE. This means that someone walked to Jerusalem and returned to Bethsaida with a small lamp to remember their time in the Holy City. Three of our members from Area G shifted today to Area D. Sara uncovered a small glass vase from the Roman period. Other glass pieces were also found. At the other end of Area D they lifted the stone floor from the Hellenistic period and found two coins, one Hamonean. Coins found in a sealed locus help to date the stratum. At the end of the day in Area G we found a small round stone ball, which could either have served as a weight or a sling. It has been a good two weeks of discoveries that help us to fill in the history of Bethsaida from its beginning in the days of the Hasmoneans, through the first century, until the time of the basilica and monastery in the Byzantine era.