Saturday, November 21, 2009
wow, the adventures that I have been able to embark on in Israel. The last field study that we were on was to Jordan. This was an amazing place, both beautiful and historical. First of all, Jordan had very few Biblical sites, but many ruins of Ancient Greco-Roman cities. We went to places like Pella, and Gedara, Gerash...all very beautiful places, and I learned much there. My Highlight however was Petra. Petra being the cities which is carved from the faces of cliffs, the most famous being from Indiana Jones the last crusade. Needless to say, Jordan was amazing. Now I find myself with 2 weeks left fighting to enjoy every ounce of this trip. As I write this I am lucky enough to be staying at the Sea of Galilee, one more quick blast through the country. My friend Tom and I have been spending the day touring the country with a rental car, and filming a video for Tom's ministry which is scripture (memorized) spoken across the Holy Land. So we have been filming Tom as he quotes scripture, whole chapters and books, it's incredible, and traveling to amazing places. We continue tomorrow before returning to Jerusalem, and the last week of class. Anyways, This is what I have been doing for about a week now, and I promise to write about my adventures through the next week, take care
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Today was an exceptionally special day, and I was able to do something I'll never be able to do again. In my Archaeology class we got the opportunity to spend the day at Lachish. Our professor is Dr. Gabriel Barkay who is one of the most famous Archaeologists and well known for his discoveries. Dr. Barkay is probably the most intelligent man that I have ever met. He spent 15 dedicated to excavating Lachish which is longer than I have been in school, kind of a weird thought. Anyways, we spent the entire day observing the various pieces to the site and it was really cool.
We started at the bottom of the site, and to be hones it was brutal, we sat in the dirt, on rocky ground for almost 2 hours while he lectured on the History of Research on Lachish, and the History of Excavation at Lachish. So after a couple hours at the bottom, we finally began moving to the site itself. As we moved up he showed us the different layers to the walls of the city, which part was original and what had been built up later. There was a distinct painted line on the build of the wall indicating where the original wall stopped. Moving farther up the site we came to the gate to the city which was pretty cool, we could see the sewer system dug into the ground, and what remained of towers at the entrance to the city. What was really cool was seeing how the mud brick had been preserved from fire destruction. The city was destroyed and then burned, but the fire hardened some of the mud brick in the wall which remained in tact. We spend alot of time learning about the layers to the excavation. for instance, there was a palace at the high point of the city, the lowest layer was layer A, then layer B, and then what we could see was layer C. For each of these layers a palace existed for a period of time before being destroyed.
Another cool spot we got to see was a well that was excavated. The well was actually completely covered before it was found, which is kind of scary considering it was 45 meters deep (hopefully no one fell in while digging it up). The well was discovered in the 1930's during a British excavation. It was later, about 1970, that Dr. Barkay began his excavation of the site. The coolest part of the day was hearing the little tid bits from Dr. Barkay and all the stories he had to tell.
All in all I was very happy with how the day went, and am thinking of going for my P.H.D with all the information that I learned today, well not yet but maybe some day.
We started at the bottom of the site, and to be hones it was brutal, we sat in the dirt, on rocky ground for almost 2 hours while he lectured on the History of Research on Lachish, and the History of Excavation at Lachish. So after a couple hours at the bottom, we finally began moving to the site itself. As we moved up he showed us the different layers to the walls of the city, which part was original and what had been built up later. There was a distinct painted line on the build of the wall indicating where the original wall stopped. Moving farther up the site we came to the gate to the city which was pretty cool, we could see the sewer system dug into the ground, and what remained of towers at the entrance to the city. What was really cool was seeing how the mud brick had been preserved from fire destruction. The city was destroyed and then burned, but the fire hardened some of the mud brick in the wall which remained in tact. We spend alot of time learning about the layers to the excavation. for instance, there was a palace at the high point of the city, the lowest layer was layer A, then layer B, and then what we could see was layer C. For each of these layers a palace existed for a period of time before being destroyed.
Another cool spot we got to see was a well that was excavated. The well was actually completely covered before it was found, which is kind of scary considering it was 45 meters deep (hopefully no one fell in while digging it up). The well was discovered in the 1930's during a British excavation. It was later, about 1970, that Dr. Barkay began his excavation of the site. The coolest part of the day was hearing the little tid bits from Dr. Barkay and all the stories he had to tell.
All in all I was very happy with how the day went, and am thinking of going for my P.H.D with all the information that I learned today, well not yet but maybe some day.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Wow, it's been a while since I've written a post (I'm sorry). As we approach the last leg of the semester, it is getting pretty busy. We had a four day field study to Galilee followed by an exam this morning. Hebrew is getting pretty tough now that we're dealing with verbs and translating whole phrases, and this weekend will be focused almost completely on Archaeology. So, it the midst of all the craziness, I am still able to have some down time.
Alright, down to business, the four day field study. We started our trip off with a lengthy, but exciting, visit to Caesarea which is on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Caesarea was a city built by Herod the great and was done extravagantly. We spend time looking at an old theater, we walked out to the port, we walked into the sea a little, and saw an amazing palace. Caesarea was a great visit...BUT, the day turned sour when I had an accident. We visited this aquaduct that Herod built which was about 20 feet tall. So we all climbed up and took pictures on it, which was fun. But, after taking pictures I decided to get a picture of me jumping off it from a lower part which was about 12-15 feet. As I jumped a rock followed me so when I landed it landed right on my head, leaving a nice gash. After loosing alot of blood and cleaning out the wound, we discovered that the injury was not as bad as it could have been, praise God. Later that day we visited Hazor which was really cool, and some of the valleys surrounding the area. The bus rides were really tiring especially since we had lectures at each site, and then had to hop on the bus for the next site. That night we stayed at a hostel at Ein Gev which is on the coast of the sea of Galilee. Let me just say, we ate like Kings that night with cooked Chicken, potatoes, carrots and lots of desert. To add to the mix, I was able to sit in a bar/lounge and watch soccer which was great. It was really warm being next to the sea, and sitting outside later that night was great. Looking across the sea at night was nice because all we could see was the city lights from Damascus, and some of the other cities.
The next morning we got to eat a great breakfast, and with real coffee (enough said, my morning was great). From there we hopped on the bus and headed to Dan. Dan was different than I expected, it was beautiful and kinda reminded me of home. There was really nice walking trails to the site, fresh water rivers, creeks, and nice big trees. Not just that, but the site itself was really cool. The best part of Dan was seeing a complete building that was still intact from the ancient times, and it was huge. Day 2 was spent visitng some more sites, but day 3 is the best of all.
The start of day 3 couldn't be any better, I mean this was the best day I have had in Israel yet. We got to sleep in, that was great, I drank real coffee with expresso, wow, and then we got a boat ride on the sea of Galilee. Could this day get any better. Well, yes it could, and it did get better. Anyways, on this boat we went out to near the middle and viewed the horizon line and pointed out some important information. The boat ride was great because it was warm, alittle windy, but bright and beautiful. After getting off the boat we went to the city of Capernaum, where Jesus lived, worked, and ministered for a period of time. Capernaum was another city on the coast, and here there was a synagogue with a base made of Basalt rock. The Basalt base was the original base exisitng in Jesus say, other features has been rebuilt. After Capernaum we went to Beniass where there was an old synagogue where Jesus would have taught. It was here that I got the chance to sit in the seat of Authority in the synagogue (the original seat), this is where Jesus would have taught from, very cool. Finally, we went to the cliffs of Arbel. There we got to climb down and see caves that we carved out in this side of the cliffs.
Day 4 was a good day too, we saw Beit Shan, Nazareth, and went swimming. Nazareth was cool, but not what I expected, it was really dense and you could not really distinguish the old city that would have exisited in Ancient times. Beit Shan was great to, it was the most complete city that I got to see, and so I really got a sense of what cities may have looked like back then.
Well, I've taken way to much of your time, hope you enjoyed reading, and enjoy some of the pictures.
Alright, down to business, the four day field study. We started our trip off with a lengthy, but exciting, visit to Caesarea which is on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Caesarea was a city built by Herod the great and was done extravagantly. We spend time looking at an old theater, we walked out to the port, we walked into the sea a little, and saw an amazing palace. Caesarea was a great visit...BUT, the day turned sour when I had an accident. We visited this aquaduct that Herod built which was about 20 feet tall. So we all climbed up and took pictures on it, which was fun. But, after taking pictures I decided to get a picture of me jumping off it from a lower part which was about 12-15 feet. As I jumped a rock followed me so when I landed it landed right on my head, leaving a nice gash. After loosing alot of blood and cleaning out the wound, we discovered that the injury was not as bad as it could have been, praise God. Later that day we visited Hazor which was really cool, and some of the valleys surrounding the area. The bus rides were really tiring especially since we had lectures at each site, and then had to hop on the bus for the next site. That night we stayed at a hostel at Ein Gev which is on the coast of the sea of Galilee. Let me just say, we ate like Kings that night with cooked Chicken, potatoes, carrots and lots of desert. To add to the mix, I was able to sit in a bar/lounge and watch soccer which was great. It was really warm being next to the sea, and sitting outside later that night was great. Looking across the sea at night was nice because all we could see was the city lights from Damascus, and some of the other cities.
The next morning we got to eat a great breakfast, and with real coffee (enough said, my morning was great). From there we hopped on the bus and headed to Dan. Dan was different than I expected, it was beautiful and kinda reminded me of home. There was really nice walking trails to the site, fresh water rivers, creeks, and nice big trees. Not just that, but the site itself was really cool. The best part of Dan was seeing a complete building that was still intact from the ancient times, and it was huge. Day 2 was spent visitng some more sites, but day 3 is the best of all.
The start of day 3 couldn't be any better, I mean this was the best day I have had in Israel yet. We got to sleep in, that was great, I drank real coffee with expresso, wow, and then we got a boat ride on the sea of Galilee. Could this day get any better. Well, yes it could, and it did get better. Anyways, on this boat we went out to near the middle and viewed the horizon line and pointed out some important information. The boat ride was great because it was warm, alittle windy, but bright and beautiful. After getting off the boat we went to the city of Capernaum, where Jesus lived, worked, and ministered for a period of time. Capernaum was another city on the coast, and here there was a synagogue with a base made of Basalt rock. The Basalt base was the original base exisitng in Jesus say, other features has been rebuilt. After Capernaum we went to Beniass where there was an old synagogue where Jesus would have taught. It was here that I got the chance to sit in the seat of Authority in the synagogue (the original seat), this is where Jesus would have taught from, very cool. Finally, we went to the cliffs of Arbel. There we got to climb down and see caves that we carved out in this side of the cliffs.
Day 4 was a good day too, we saw Beit Shan, Nazareth, and went swimming. Nazareth was cool, but not what I expected, it was really dense and you could not really distinguish the old city that would have exisited in Ancient times. Beit Shan was great to, it was the most complete city that I got to see, and so I really got a sense of what cities may have looked like back then.
Well, I've taken way to much of your time, hope you enjoyed reading, and enjoy some of the pictures.
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