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I made it to Tell Shimron! Today was our third day of Surveying. Our first day was a bit rough, we ran into multiple problems. For one, all the "benchmark" markings from last year had worn off, so we had to try and set them again with the GIS Station. That allows us to know right where we are on the tell, and set up an accurate grid. Now that we are in the swing of things, we are able to survey quite a few of the grids in a day.
Each grid is 20x20m, but we only do reconnaissance survey on 10x10m of each grid. This means that for 10 minutes we walk over the area and collect any pottery on the surface. We begin at about 5:15, and take a breakfast break at 9:00. After lunch at 1:30 we wash pottery, and the professors and archaeologists read it. Reading pottery means they go through and determine what time period is prominent etc. It is amazing to see how well they know pottery, and how they can tell from a tiny sherd what it used to belong to.
Our first day was extremely hot, and there is very little shade anywhere on the Tell. The last two days have been much cooler which is nice, but it also has rained in the mornings, making everything wet, muddy, and cold in the wind. It was not too bad though, probably better than the hot sun. In afternoon the sun came out more and warmed things up.
Besides the group who I studied Ground Penetrating Radar with, there is a group here doing a project at the base of the tell. this is JVRP, Jesreel Valley Regional Project. They do lots of Surveying ing the Jezreel. There are also some staff members from Ashkelon helping out for a wheek before their season starts.
Asside from the surface survey, we have dug several 1x1m test pits, to see better what sort of pottery is in the tell under the ground surface. I only got to help with two of those, but since we only go 30cm down anyways, it is usually not too exciting.

I am enjoying my time, but starting to miss home! Still, I'm thankful to be here, and really enjoying seeing the beginning of the excavation being laid out.

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