As the dig came to a close, we had one final task on our last day: cover up what we found. One of the problems with archaeology is that it’s inherently destructive. You can only dig something up once. Sometimes, an exposed area is left for people to see. Other times it is buried again to preserve it. Our area was in between those extremes. First, we took some large rolls of material to cover over the major pieces of our area, steadying it with rocks and the jute bags that lined around our excavated area. Normally, this would be […]
Author Archive: Brian Johnson
Hard Rock
I’ve talked about digging up pottery and bones. Is that all? There’s more to find than that! There are a plethora of rocks to find, too! Rocks are numerous in Israel. Generally what survived was made out of rock, which was (and continues to be) a plentiful building material in Israel. However, not all rocks are useful. We dug through plenty of rocks which were not of any interest. Such rocks were called “floating”, meaning they were floating in the dirt and not attached to anything. We ended up with a sizable rock pile by the time the dig ended. […]
Bone Head
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. Ezekiel 37:1-2 Last time I wrote about digging up pottery. That isn’t the only thing we found during the dig. I frequently found bones, too. Why are bones useful to find? Let me give you a few examples! Bones show what […]
Pot Head
“Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground.Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? Isaiah 45:9 I dug up a lot of pottery at Tel Dan. Some sherds (broken pieces of pottery) are small while others are large. The most important pieces are those with distinctive attributes, like handles, bases, or rims. Most body pieces aren’t distinctive enough for good analysis. Why is pottery so important? Pottery is used to date what […]
Dirty Business
An archaeological dig involves, well, lots of digging. We have been moving a lot of dirt out of Area T1 at Tel Dan. Some of it goes to sifting, but most of it is dumped in a nearby pile (we do look through it while digging, but I’m sure plenty has been missed). We’ve been searching for an Assyrian wall that was assumed to go through the area because it was mapped in other places. The dig was a total of four weeks long and I was part of the last two. Watch the progression of our excavation! (Click for […]
A Day of Digging
Aragorn: Gentlemen! We do not stop ’til nightfall.Pippin: But what about breakfast?Aragorn: You’ve already had it.Pippin: We’ve had one, yes. But what about second breakfast?Merry: Don’t think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.Pippin: What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn’t he?Merry: I wouldn’t count on it. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring What is it like being part of an archaeological dig? Now that I’ve been doing it a week, here’s an example rundown of a day: 4:45 am – wake up, eat pre-breakfast in my room that I got the […]
Welcome to Dan
Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. […]
The Journey North
The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish. Judges 18:28b-29 I mentioned last time how the tribe of Dan had trouble controlling the territory allotted to them. Therefore, at some point a group of them went exploring and found the city of Laish, way up in the north. They conquered the city and settled there. Like the Danites, I’ve moved locations. On Sunday we took a train up the coast from Tel Aviv to Akko, then a bus from Akko […]
Joppa
To reach a port we must set sail –Sail, not tie at anchorSail, not drift. Franklin D. Roosevelt Before the tribe of Dan settled in the city of Dan, they had a tribal allotment like the other eleven tribes of Israel. Their allotment was in a small stretch along the Mediterranean and inland, west of Jerusalem. This is where they were supposed to settle. I’ve been in the inland part of their territory on past trips, but today I’m in Joppa, one city allocated to Dan (Joshua 19:46) that’s on the coast. Dan, however, had difficulty controlling the coast because […]
Digging a New Trip
I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you in the lack of bloggage the last few months. That will now change, which means a new trip. Yes, I am sitting in an airport, waiting for a Boeing 777 to take me back to Israel. This will be my fifth time there. It’s almost becoming routine. If I’ve been there so many times, what keeps drawing me back? There is more to see! More to experience! More to learn! What’s more, this will be a new experience; I will be joining an archaeological dig at the site of Tel Dan. For years I’ve […]