June 9th
Wake up at 4:30 a.m. to join the
excavation party and visit the site. The digging is done from 6 a.m. to noon, as it is way too hot to work any longer under the sun. It is dusty, back-breaking labor, tedious, repetitive, and to us, completely fascinating. We videotape and take many photographs, and get to meet some colorful characters among the volunteers and Biblical scholars working on the dig. One of them is Nick from Montana, a real cowboy who learned about the excavation in a Bible study group and got so excited about it that sold his horse and his shepherding dog to pay for his trip “to do the Lord’s work.”
The realities of time and history become apparent in this place not only for the obvious unearthing of an ancient city but because the process itself happens over such a long time-span: they have been digging for 17 years, and there are barely the contours of a few buildings visible amidst piles and piles of rock and dust. Reversing time takes time too!
No comments:
Post a Comment