Research Phase

Yes, again we spent the day pulling weeks and cutting bushes. The weather was the clearest I can recall for July. Whenever, I got tired, all I had to do was look up…

As I cleaned the area west of the atrium, I ran across a broken lintel stone. Facing up and having been washed clean by the rain were three crosses.

Perhaps it was from one of the entrances of the church, or from some other part of the compound. The form is quite simple, attesting to the poverty of the community. Such pieces make the weed pulling worthwhile.

I offer one additional photo, because the day was so beautiful… the CSP logo flying over the dig site. Yes, we are at Sussita again.

It was a second day, a hot second day, for pulling weeds and cutting brush. Not much exciting there. But while resting briefly I noticed something I had not seen before. It has to do with the lintel of the doorway we will probe later in the season.

This decorative lintel on the House of Tyche was an entrance from a small street. To the left of the lintel stone is another decorative stone. Today for the first time I noticed a notch in the upper left of that stone.

What was the purpose of the notch. Did it perhaps hold a torch lighting the entrance at night. I set a trowel in the notch to suggest that a torch might have been placed there to light the entrance at night.

I will have to find comparanda for this interesting feature. It is certainly more interesting than all the weeds we pulled today.

It was a rainy winter this year in Israel. That is good. The Sea of Galilee has risen 3 meters. However, so much rain has left the dig site full of weeds, grasses, and brush. It will take several days to clear this material (there are only two of us) before we can start scanning. Lots of hot and hard work.

I am settling in at Kibbutz Ein Gev getting ready for the 2019 season. Helping me this summer during the first two weeks will be Rob Schrader, a third-year student from Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne. Dr. Michael Dorner will return to work with us during the last two weeks.

We visited the NIP this morning. The generous rains this season (the Sea of Galilee is up some 3 m since January) have yielded an abundant crop of weeds and brush across the NIP. So, we will spend the first couple of days just in brush and growth removal.

I also took Rob today to Kursi, Capernaum, and Tabgha. There is a partially reconstructed basilica at Kursi and a fully rebuilt one at Tabgha. These will help Rob “picture” what we will document this year at Sussita.. The shorebird above is from the north transept at Tabgha.

I was last at Sussita in January of 2019 with a group of students from CSP. I am excited to return later this week to study our work on the Northeast Insula Project. A slower pace will allow for more observation and reflection. I will post updates here on a regular basis.