Yesterday and last Thursday we - a group of students - went to Tel Tibna, where we excavated last summer (see related posts 1, 2, 3), to learn archeological surveying methods. We split into groups. Some groups surveyed unexcavated areas, picking up whatever findings they could find - coins, indicative pottery shards, stone objects and so forth. The other groups set out to survey hewn structures. I was part of a group that surveyed a small mikveh on the lower part of the Tel - not the one we found last summer. Another group surveyed a loculi tomb with 9 loculi (here's an example of a loculi tomb from elsewhere), and the last group surveyed a small water reservoir.
Here are some pictures from our work on the mikveh:
The mikveh before we began working:
The entrance after clearing out decades of garbage and mounds of stones:
Findings from the first day of work (a bone, non-indicative pottery shards, two tesserae and an old (but modern) metal bowl):
The entrance to the mikveh after the second day of work (turns out there were a lot more layers of garbage than originally thought...):
The inside of the mikveh at the end of the second day:
Our draft of the mikveh's plan from above and from the side (the arrow on the bottom-left points north). Line art will be drawn over this in Photoshop and that'll be included in the official survey publication (whenever that may come out):
Here are some pictures from our work on the mikveh:
The mikveh before we began working:
The entrance after clearing out decades of garbage and mounds of stones:
Findings from the first day of work (a bone, non-indicative pottery shards, two tesserae and an old (but modern) metal bowl):
The entrance to the mikveh after the second day of work (turns out there were a lot more layers of garbage than originally thought...):
The inside of the mikveh at the end of the second day:
Our draft of the mikveh's plan from above and from the side (the arrow on the bottom-left points north). Line art will be drawn over this in Photoshop and that'll be included in the official survey publication (whenever that may come out):
