Today we went to the dig site and it is great. It overlooks a large valley with large rolling hills and the valley kind of winds around.
Shepards and their sheep can be seen on the hillside. A village is up on one of the hills in a distance. Where we are digging is covered in olive trees which is nice for the shade. The tombs seem to be dug into the side of the hills. So it is interesting getting up and down the hill with all the gear. There are no real trails and the grass is high. It is very rocky as well. We first will have to dig down, then horizontally into the tombs. One looted tomb is like a big cave with dug out places all around the side to slide in a body. Apparently after a while they remove the bones and place them in pits in the floor so that they can be reused.
Today I worked on excavating a quarry site in front of a tomb, we are working back to it. There was another recently looted tomb that we sifted alot of the dirt and are digging down about 6 feet to map and measure it. There are still some bones in there, but we have to dig down to it. We have some workers that shovel and carry the dirt. I have used my trowel, pick axe and a larger axe today so I will be going to get some extra Advil tonight. The weather was great. We stopped at 2pm and it was just starting to get really hot. We found some pottery sherds mostly and evidence of the tomb robbers.
There appear to be many many tombs around. Apparently they wanted them high on the hill so that everyone could see them as they walked the road below. Status symbol kind of thing.
They serve us a breakfast about 10 am. Falafel, hummus, beans, veggies and pita bread. Also hot tea, I did try the tea, with enough sugar it is drinkable.
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