The day began with loading the bus at 7:30am before breakfast at the Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi dining hall. A wonderful Israeli-American breakfast with fresh salads, fried eggs, cheeses, tuna, and granola. We boarded the bus and Steve took over the microphone for a few minutes to announce his suggestion of the word of the day: “liberal.” He even provided his own creative translation in Hebrew.
We then headed to the natural pools at Sachneh National Park in the Beit Shean Valley, not far from the kibbutz. We swam in fresh water so clear you could see the bottom even in the deep parts. There was a natural cave to swim into, a waterfall to stand under, shallow parts, and deep parts. It was a welcoming spot for a variety of Israeli families to escape the heat of summer, including Muslim families with the women wearing full body swim suits, Orthodox Jewish families, and secular families of all sorts. The water was cool but not cold and just about everyone went for a dip.
After driving off we made our way northwest to pick up Highway 6, Israel’s only toll road, to head south for our archeological dig. It is the fastest road in the country and took us within a few hundred feet of the West Bank, including the city of Qalkilya and the Jewish settlement just next to it. David explained to us about the wall alongside the highway, separating the highway from the West Bank. The drive to the archeological dig was long, giving us all time to relax and nap and get to know each other some more.
We had brought bag lunches along and so needed only a short stop for lunch and bathrooms near the site of Tel Maresha where Archeological Seminars runs their program for amateur archeologists such as us. Arriving at Tel Maresha, we were met by our guide, Avi, who proceeded to use several baseball caps placed on top of each other on Benjamin’s head to explain that a Tel is the mound that results from several different civilizations building on top of each other. Avi continued his entertaining style of guiding throughout our visit to Tel Maresha, ensuring that even the most skeptical and the most distracted among us both had fun and learned something.
The most significant civilization at this site were Edomites at the time of the Chanukah story, approximately 2500 years go. The ground is made of soft rock covered by a shell of a hard rock. So, the Edomites dug through the hard rock and dug out the soft rock to create caverns that they used for work and storage. They even kept doves and pigeons underground by digging out crevices in the wall for them to build their nests and providing holes to bring light in. We got to see the graffiti they left behind on the cavern walls but were strictly advised not to leave our own. When the Edomites fled the Maccabean army, they destroyed the houses they had built on top of the caverns and shoved the debris into the caverns to destroy those as well. Archeological Seminars is funded by groups such as ours who come in to experience an afternoon of archeological work and occasionally find something of importance.
We began by digging in the dirt in one of the rooms of a cavern and found shards of pottery, shells, and animal bones. Avi estimated they need to dig through about 10 feet of dirt and artifacts to get to bedrock and that this takes approximately 10 years. After a half hour or so, the schlepping part of the afternoon began, during which we each brought a bucket of dirt up the steps. We then sifted the dirt to find smaller finds than we were able to identify while digging. All the finds we made today will be cleaned and processed to determine if they are significant. If not, they will be given to future visitors to Archeological Seminars.
After we had gone through all the dirt, we had the choice of seeing a new cavern just as it is when first discovered or seeing a cavern that is fully dug out, down to bedrock. Most of us chose to experience the new cavern and proceeded to lower ourselves through grain silo holes and squeeze through nearly filled up passageways on our knees and our backs, lit only by Shabbat candles placed along the route. At the end Avi described the best finds they had discovered at Tel Maresha and allowed us to take a few processed pottery shards home as souvenirs from the time of Judah Maccabee.
Afterward we got back on the bus for a couple of hours to go to Kfar HaNokdim Bedouin Ranch for a camel ride and Bedouin dinner. The camel rides were very exciting, especially while the camel gets up and down. Some also rode donkeys. After the ride and a little wash we had Bedouin tea and coffee with our guide who told us about Bedouin culture, both traditional and modern. Each Bedouin man is allowed, by Bedouin tradition, to have up to 4 wives! This was followed by a Bedouin style dinner with communal dishes for the table that everyone takes from. It was not so different from an Ethiopian dinner in which the food is served on top of Injira bread. In this case the food was served on a flat pita bread.
After our dinner and family photos with the sun setting behind the desert dunes, we got back on the bus to go to Arad and our hotel for a brief rest before our early rise tomorrow to climb Masada.
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