Monday, 6:30pm Israel, 10:30am in Minnesota
Spent the entire day in the farthest northern reaches of Israel, high up on the border area with Lebanon and Syria. Very beautiful, very mountainous, winding roads and switchbacks that provide incredible vistas everywhere you look.
It was an Archeology Day today, and our group leaders and professors, Sr. Barbara and Rabbi David, have a special love for the science and art of digging up old ruins. They have both the expertise and passion to speak for hours on the subject......and that they did. It was an eight hour rolling lecture which was informative, detailed, and brain-numbing. An exhausting day of seeing different sites (Tel Dan, Hazor, Qurizan), and having an incredible amount of information downloaded to us while walking, climbing, even riding on the bus between sites. I feel like I have just sat through an entire semester of “Archeology 101”.
It was an Archeology Day today, and our group leaders and professors, Sr. Barbara and Rabbi David, have a special love for the science and art of digging up old ruins. They have both the expertise and passion to speak for hours on the subject......and that they did. It was an eight hour rolling lecture which was informative, detailed, and brain-numbing. An exhausting day of seeing different sites (Tel Dan, Hazor, Qurizan), and having an incredible amount of information downloaded to us while walking, climbing, even riding on the bus between sites. I feel like I have just sat through an entire semester of “Archeology 101”.
A lot of Old Testament folks spent time here, and have left traces of their existence. A lot of people from ancient times even before that. If you have seen one re-constructed village, you begin to feel like you have seen them all. Then, the nuances of dating, of research, of extrapolating data and discoveries all come into play, helping to lead to scientific conclusions about architecture and history and social dynamics that are fascinating – it’s amazing stuff. I enjoyed it, but my head is swimming and legs are begging for recovery. After awhile, climbing up to a Canaanite village dating from 2200 B.C. doesn’t strike one as being much different than an Israelite capital city of a kingdom from900 B.C. To the uninformed, that is. When you get into it, I guess it really can take you away into a thrilling realm of playing detective. I can admire that.
It’s a lot of rocks.
It’s a lot of rocks.
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