Time for a new blog post! It's been a while, but my guess is I will be writing posts once a month or so. We have a lot of work to do for the program now. A lot of reading, research, and papers. Sometimes it feels a little overwhelming, but then again this is a Master's program. A lot more is expected of us than when we were lowly BA students!
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| Learning the history of the Conservation Center |
The month since my last post has been full of activities, work, and learning. A few weeks ago our entire program took a trip to... Akko! Specifically we went and visited the International Conservation Center in the Old City, my home base when I was here two years ago. The trip focused primarily on conservation in Akko and Israel, and Shelley (my former director) was the best person to be our guide. The tour started at the Conservation Center, where Shelley gave an introduction to the building, to Akko, and to conservation in Israel as a whole. After seeing the work done in the Center, we walked through the streets to the port and then to the office of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). There we were given a brief introduction the excavations and conservation of the Crusader fortress where the museum is today. Then, when we arrived at the Crusader Museum, Shelley gave us further introductions to the building, before letting us wander on our own for a while. When we were done in the Fortress we ate lunch at one of the many hummus places around the Old City. After a quick walk through the shuk we took the Templar Tunnel back to the bus.
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| Part of the group in the courtyard of the Crusader Museum |
We all had a good time on the tour. It was definitely a quick trip, and nothing was new to me. However, it was great to see Shelley and spend some time in the Center again, and I always enjoy another trip to Akko! Sharing my old home is also something I enjoy, and I'm sure others enjoyed it as well. You may remember from a previous post that I mentioned that I am contributing to the archaeology department's blog as well, and I wrote a piece talking about our trip to Akko. It should be published soon, so check this link frequently for a more detailed look and from a different perspective!
http://archaeology.tau.ac.il/internationalMA/?cat=3
Some interesting news from my time here is that recently I have begun working with some of the staff members of the Central Timna Valley excavations. I haven't been doing anything exciting, just busywork and technical work. Things like renaming files so everything is standardized and consistent, or copy-pasting information from one document to another. Nothing unique or innovative, but it allows me to see how reports are constructed and what goes on after excavations. It also gives me a closer look at the materials and the sites. I know more about the finds and excavation squares now than I did during the excavation, and I better understand what was happening. I am definitely enjoying helping out with this "boring" work!
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| The Rockefeller Museum |
This past Thursday our program went on another trip, this time to some archaeological museums in Jerusalem. The goal of this excursion was to replace one of our pottery classes, so we did some work in addition to touring the museums. We started the morning at the Rockefeller Museum. After an introduction to the museum, the library, and its history, as well as a brief walk through parts of the exhibit, we got to work with the pottery. The objective at the Rockefeller Museum was to identify and describe pottery from the Philistines. When we were done at the Rockefeller we went to the Albright Institute, a center for American research into Near Eastern archaeology. After a brief tour and lunch we finished our day at the Israel Museum. One of the museum's newest exhibitions details the history of Ancient Egypt's control over Canaan, and we were tasked with identifying and describing pottery from that period. When we were done we had some free time to further explore the museum, such as watching the video about the Exodus that featured our esteemed Professor Israel Finkelstein.
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| Beer jars from Egypt |
This past month, like many months before and many months to come, was full and difficult. Over the next month I have a lot of work to do. Two seminar papers, several research proposals, as well as some smaller assignments. I won't have much time for fun and games, but I hope to enjoy myself a little bit in the upcoming weeks! This Friday the holiday of Passover starts, and I'm looking forward to spending it here in Israel! Chag Same'ach חג שׂמח!
Attached here is the link to all of my photos, for those that don't look at or don't have Facebook. It includes all the photos I've taken while I've been here in Israel, including some of the less spectacular ones that I choose to omit from publishing on Facebook. The link will work no matter how many photos I add, so saving this link will always show you the most up to date files.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rzg8dgcag9yjjx7/AADeP0ft-J6r_xxApFqm7p1xa?dl=0
