We are a small but mighty crew this year at Marj Rabba. Joining long timers – Yo, Mo, ACH, and AD are rising seniors archaebotany student JF (UCONN) and 2 former W.F. Albright Institute Interns (the College of Wooster and Columbia U), and recent CUNY grad JR. Here are some action shots of the crew.

AD – lawyer, soon-to-be LLM student, registrar, database manager!

GB and BH at Montfort

BH – The College of Wooster

Genius ACH multitasking in the field – ipad and tablet in hand.

GB – Columbia University

JR – recent CUNY grad

JR on her first dig!

JF – University of Connecticut

JF happy in her work!

Mo and Yo – everyone wears a hat!

Yo in the field

THREE CHEERS FOR THE 2014 MARJ RABBA TEAM!!

This time to the Crusader Castle of Montfort. Located in the Upper Gailiee, Monfort has spectacular vistas of the gorge of Kziv Stream and the deep green densely forested mountain slopes – mostly oak trees. Built in the 12th century, the castle was originally for agricultural rather than military purposes. For further insights and reading see Adrian Boas (2008): The Montfort Castle, a New Survey, Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel, No. 120.

AD on the path

Local vistas

ACH

Apologies for the delay in updating our activities at Marj Rabba, it has been a busy week. One of the goals for this small season was to locate the floor in Room 1 and to define better the associated structures (including floors) to the east of the room. We have had a lot of success this week as careful excavating has uncovered at least three flattened pots, possibly sitting on a floor.

Flattened pot lying on a floor??

Flattened pot lying on a floor??

Flattened pot lying on a floor??

Sometimes to get a good image of the pots in situ we have to make our own “shade”.

Make shift shade!

Today we visited some Chalcolithic sites as one big happy family. First we stopped at Tel Teo.

A man in tall grass, checking out Tel Te’o

Tel Te’o is a very tiny tel. A small portion of the site was excavated in advance of road development. The Tel Te’o publication states that there is evidence of the Pre-pottery Neolithic B, Pottery Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Early Bronze IA, and the Early Bronze II. It was fairly hard to see anything on the surface due to the long grasses and thistles. We did see some basalt and pottery and some large stone walls on the surface

The gang at Tel Te’o

Some folk stayed at the road side to get an overall view of the tel (“I thought that tells were huge and you could see them from anywhere” direct quote from one of our excavators).

We found a skeleton!

After Tel Te’o we made our way to Rujm el Hiri, which is a standard weekend visit for the Marj Rabba crew. This year we found a cow skeleton – a poor cow that was quite old and suffered from some calcification on its bones.

Girl power at Rujm el Hiri

Rujm el Hiri is an ancient megalithic monument, consisting of concentric circles of stone with a tumulus at center. For many the site is believed to be an ancient observatory and stellar calendar. Today we saw evidence of this in the form of coloured crystals left on the basalt structure. Perhaps folk were visiting during the summer solstice?

Talking about the landscape

Jocelyn R. checks out some crystals left at the site.

Joyce F. prepping for the walk back to the van.

After two site visits we stopped off on the way home at the Golan Brewery – makers of the Bezelet (basalt) Beer.

Rewards after a morning of Chalcolithic sites.