My Israel birthday was wonderful! I watched the sunrise, as is becoming my custom, on the Sea of Galilee and was actually in bed by 9:30 (despite my birthday, I still had to wake at 3:55am).

Today was very hot. I continued to work in square F2 and am thrilled to say that I found a small artifact!

Note from Dr. Schuler – “Jacob LaCroix made the first significant discovery of a small artifact at the Hippos Excavations. He holds in his hand part of a copper chain for a polycandelon a decorative lamp used in Byzantine liturgical spaces.

A typical polycandelon would hold three to seven glass oil lamps, thus the name ”poly-candelon.” The fragmentary medallion in the middle of the chain is a copper disk with four l-shaped sections cut out forming a cross.

This polycandelon is the first liturgical implement discovered in six season of work on the Northeast Church at the Hippos Excavations”.

With that inspiration – the remainder of the day was very exciting. Later, one of the managing archeologists from the Univ of Haifa helped us find a number of nails and led pieces with his medal detector.

This afternoon I chatted a bit with one of our Australian teammates named Fred. Fred is very intelligent, artistic and well rounded gentleman who is a retired flutist and who serves as a priest in a Melbourne. We had a great and exciting conversation about the Old Testament and Holy Communion. Our lab was filled with activity this evening – but by now most have run off to sleep.

Our day began again at about 4am. We gathered in our parking lot, caught the bus most of the way up our hill and then hiked the remaining ¼ mile to the site. Although it is only the second day, we are all beginning to develop a nice rhythm. We work until about 11:45 then head back to the kibbutz – by that time we are very dirty and have been swimming to wash; then off to lunch, a nap and meetings or pottery cleaning at 4:30pm.

The rest of the day is ours to do as we please with it. Today, after lunch and before a nap I visited the small market shop at our kibbutz for a few supplies and small gifts for friends and family. This afternoon we will be cleaning our found pottery by the sea. Today is also my birthday and a few of us hope to patronize the pub this evening to celebrate. I am having proplems with photos and will post more asap!

Things are very good!

This morning I woke at 3:55am! Our bus departs with all the international team members each day at 4:45am. Today I gave myself some extra time to have coffee on the dark shore of the Sea. I watched the twinkling lights of Tiberius in the distance and tried to call my friend Justin (Justin – you hung up on me!).

The dig site was buzzing with the various teams and officials trying to set up our sites. After some initial prep work we had a short address from Arthur Segal the Polish head archeologist from the Univ of Haifa in Israel we began to dig away. I am working in a space called a square my zone is F2.

We work carefully under the hot sun – shave the dirt by 10 centimeters at a time. I am very tired. I will post pics of the dig site ASAP now that we are mostly settled. Our afternoons have a nice amount of free time in the afternoon – we swim, walk around and work in the lab.

 Small CSP group at MSP

Our dig site

Church at mount of beatitudes north shore

Relaxing in church gardens

Our group has all collected and we are in Israel! Travel was smooth with only a minor delay in Atlanta. The flight (all 11 hours of it) was reasonably comfortable in our huge 777.

Our first day in Israel was a mixture of trying to get our orientation and touring sites around the Sea of Galilee. All three of the international archeological teams are renting accommodations from a kibbutz directly on the Sea of Galilee. A kibbutz is basically a Jewish intentional community or commune with small business, farming, a coffee shop, pup and a restaurant. Kibbutzes exist in several places around Israel. The entire concept is really interesting and very political. Our kibbutz is about to celebrate its 70 year anniversary. You can imagine the political situation when it was founded – Israel was first recognized as a nation in 1948. The men and women of the US team each have our own houses reminiscent of small, humble rental cabins – like what you would find in northern MN.  

It is wonderful to put places to the Middle Eastern and biblical stories that have existed only in my minds eye (with the help of national geographic and small photos) in a first hand context. My first thoughts – I absolutely love it here!!! The people here live some of the oldest land successfully cultivated by humans – the fertile crescent; if that wasn’t remarkable enough – it is spectacular to see the people today chatting it up on cell phone, wearing fashionable skinny jeans while walking in the land that has seen influence from the worlds biggest forces and philosophies.

Shalom!