Wednesday, MAY 28
We arrive at Tel Shiloh to start work by 6 AM.
A section of the northern wall was removed and another built over it. We removed the later Roman era wall. Now we want to find out if the original wall extends beyond this area. We really want to find the corner of the monumental building.
Ellen made a number of good finds in our area today. Three coins and a piece of jewelry. We’re digging the Roman era layer.
Here’s a coin. I’m not allowed to publish pics of our best stuff.
Here’s the new square we started today to find the corner of the monumental building.
Thursday, MAY 29
This morning we continued our quest to find the wall and corner. We are working inside a 2.5 meter by 2.5 meter square.
I spent some time dry sifting. Here’s a nice pottery handle I found. Reading pottery styles is one of the most reliable methods of determining the age of a layer.
At the dry sifting station we dump gufas of dirt onto a suspended screen and shake it.
Then we pick through what’s left, looking for pottery, bones, flint, or other objects. We bag the remainder and send it to wet sifting.
By end of day we made significant progress. We’re seeing a promising outline of a wall. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have some solid conclusions on the cornet, and from that, dimensions of the monumental building.
Some of us took time to see the red heifers kept at Shiloh. They are Red Angus, and came from Texas. They are kept in anticipation of performing the purification sacrifice described in Numbers 19.