ITS HERE...

the eye twitching that is. but here is why...... 15 days to go!!!!!!!

I think i have all the personal stuff I need here is what is left on the

General Equipment list: (i have the highlighted stuff)


Canteen/water bottle for personal use
Work gloves
Trowel (preferably Marshalltown (size 4/5) or WHS brands).
Small bag/knapsack for carrying daily equipment
Pocket knife
Sleeping sack/bag (for travel purposes, on the dig we supply sheets/towels)
Camera

ON the still need to do list.....

change some money out...
pack
find some bomb diggity sunscreen (any suggestions)
find some books to read while there (any suggestions)
pick up the last of the stuff on the above list
I know there is more (any suggestions)

Indiana Jones

They say the biggest let down when people go on their first trip is due to INDIANA JONES (this is very funny but very true people base their whole career path off a movie then are very disappointed), that the thrills in digging and even finding things are different than being chased by natives with poisons dart guns. I feel fairly confident that i don't have unrealistic expectations for this "adventure". I realize the adventure part is going and doing something for the first time NOT trying to stop thief's that are looting antiquities with a whip! I can't wait for the thrills of the trip like ordering tongue by accident, tripping over a huge rock, or even screaming when I see a wild animal! (That being said if Harrison Ford shows up looking like this in Israel and ask me to run away with him I might not come home...)

25 days to go......

but whose counting...... Here is a picture I found of the dig from last year! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

What to wear?

The answer is cotton shorts, pants, shirts, jacket, hat. Here was my problem I really don't have that many clothes that fit and those I do have i wasn't looking forward to ruining those so i gave myself a budget of $50 and decided to look in thrift stores. I hit the jackpot!!!

2 pair of pants

2 shorts

1 carpi's

1 Gortex rain jacket

1 cotton floppy hat

Grand total $25.00

(that's right i still have $25 left)

Things to do in Israel..

This is first and foremost a "work" trip but I hope to have a few days of to do some site seeing. So I started to do some research and realized that the list of places to see is more daunting than the recommend reading list! Here is a top ten sites to see list that I found..... I think I may have time to accomplish one of those....

Float in the Dead Sea



Tour the Old City, Jerusalem (this could take months)


Haggle in the Carmel Market, Tel Aviv


Snorkel or scuba in the Red Sea, Eilat


Visit Yad Vashem, Jerusalem


Stand at the edge of the Ramon Crater


Enjoy a sunset on Tel Aviv beach


Visit the mountain fortress of Masada


Marvel at the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa


Have a night out in the City That Never Sleeps, Tel Aviv

Trowel

I apparently do not know yet the importance of a trowel but since there were very specific instructions on what brand and kind of trowel to buy, details the rest of the items on the "need list" lack, I assume they are very important. So I bought it today and i even did it ONLINE. Jaw drop I know... Here it is and it even came with a holster.. FANCY. Below are the very specific instructions.

Trowel (preferably Marshalltown (size 4/5) or WHS brands). Since these are not available in Israel, try to purchase one for your own use to bring to the excavation. This can be purchased online as well, see: http://www.marshalltown.com/catalog/display_item.asp?edino=11121

BIG WORDS!!!

Holly mentioned that the there were words on the recommended reading list she didn't know well I have to say I was right there with her (so was my spell checker so i don't feel so bad)! So I looked it up and if you know me you know that's what i do I LOVE to look it up!!! I thought just some brief over views might help me remember them.. So I thought I'd throw them on here too!

The Chalcolithic (Ancient Greek: χαλκός khalkos "copper" + Ancient Greek: λίθος lithos "stone") period or Copper Age period, also known as the Eneolithic/Æneolithic (from Latin aeneus "of bronze"), is a phase in the development of human culture in which the use of early metal tools appeared alongside the use of stone tools. The Copper Age in the Middle East and the Caucasus begins in the late 5th millennium BC and lasts for about a millennium before it gives rise to the Early Bronze Age. Transition from the European Copper Age to Bronze Age Europe occurs about a millennium later, between the late 4th and the late 3rd millennia BC.

Radiocarbon dating, or carbon dating, is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 (14C) to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years

The Levant (pronounced /ləˈvænt/) (Arabic: ‎ ash-Shām, also known as المشرق (Mashriq)) describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by the Arabian Desert, and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, while on the east it extends towards the Zagros Mountains. The Levant includes Lebanon, Israel, Syria, the non-sovereign Palestinian territories, Jordan, and occasionally Cyprus, Sinai, and part of Iraq. The UCL Institute of Archeology describes the Levant as the "crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and northeast Africa" Picture from wikipedia...

(All definitions from wikipedia but verified through other resources to the best of my ability)