Day Six - Back to Work

I never posted yesterday (Saturday). I did nothing as I was so exhausted all weekend that all I did was sit in front of the TV and watch the World Cup. I opted to sleep at home last night figuring that even if I had to get up just after 3am and drive to the Tel, I would get more sleep without the world class snorer I share my room with on the Kibbutz. I motored to the Tel and drove in with the buses. I spent the day on the Tel digging and listening to stories of how much the kids drank on their various weekend jaunts around the country. The alcohol dealers in Israel must be seeing a bump in sales and the Kibbutz store has had to increase its quota of beer and spirits. They are good people though, and I really like working with them. They cut me slack and give me special dispensation for my advanced years.

We come back to the Kibbutz at 1pm, have lunch, shower and rest for a while and at 4pm we wash pottery and clean bone. It's a low stress repetitive task and I like it. The bosses then "read" the pottery, which is very entertaining. A lot gets turfed, particularly as we were looking at the stuff from the cleaning of the squares. Then we have our field techniques class - today we practiced using the spirit level to determine heights of artifacts, floors and walls. Then dinner. I will write more about the food some other time, but it is most decent and wholesome. We all eat a huge amount as the work on the Tel takes it out of you. Then after dinner at 8pm is a lecture. Tonight Phillipe talked about gaming at megiddo - we find quite a lot of astrogali (knuckle bones used as dice back then). Now it's after 9pm and my eyes are closing even as I type. Goodnight, wish me luck getting some sleep.