Tel Dan: Day Three

  Photos to follow

Up at 5 AM; out to the bus by 5:30 AM; and at work by 5:45 AM. Our group is now functioning more like a team and we are slowly excavating layers of dirt to the adjacent ancient tower and footpaths.  Working together, our intergenerational and inter-cultural conversations pass easily among us. We eat breakfast in a makeshift camp by the site together with the three groups and so get a chance to see what the others are uncovering.

We are near the Lebanese border and have heard bomb blasts in the distance during the evenings. The Hezbollah guerillas and Israeli army encampment sometimes trade artillery barrages, although we understand that the Israelis fire at any movement from the border, which could sometimes just be just an animal. There is heightened tension in the country due to the kidnapping this week of two Israeli soldiers by Hamas, and so there may be Israeli troop movements into the Gaza and Ramallah in search of the soldiers. This is part of life here. Reality came closer to our dig today when one of the volunteers discovered an unexploded mortar shell at the other dig location. The Israeli bomb squad was called and they detonated the mortar. We heard the loud explosion and continued our work. 

After work and lunch we took a field trip to the Banias Park and Falls. I had hiked the Banias with my cousin as just a nature walk. This time I heard David Ilan tell us about the Roman ruins and the archeology contained in the Banias area. We viewed the remains of the Temple dedicated to the G-d Pan, which is pronounced Ban in Arabic— that is how Banias got its name. Touring sites with an expert archeologist, we understand much more; it inspires me to explore other countries such as Italy, Greece and Turkey where historic ruins are woven into the fabric of those societies as it is here.

There is a Pastor from Michigan on the trip about my age.  He came to join his son, who is a Phd graduate student from Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. The son was going on the dig for course credit and asked his dad if he wanted to join him. The dad said yes—for one month they are on this dig. What a wonderful thing to do together! Each day I wear a hat and T-shirt with the inscription of either a school or a company my sons have been associated with. It is a way of reminding me of their presence in my life, and in that sense they are here with me. I also left San Francisco with about a dozen plastic bags of digestive and systemic enzymes my lady friend Ellen gave to me, so I would stay healthy on my trip. I take those enzymes each day. When I do it reminds me of the kindness and health Ellen provides to the world through her work, and in that way her love and presence is also with me every day on my journey. 

Tel Dan: Day Two

Photos to follow

Today was our first full day of digging. We cleared the site by the gate of weeds, loose rock and began the excavation of the top of a 5500 year-old wall adjacent to the gate. About twenty people painstakingly cleared the area with brushes, hoes, dustpans and pails. At day end I was carrying sandbags of dirt up a hill.

We were all covered in dust and sweat, but most of us were actually quite pleased to be engaged together in our work. I was sweeping rocks when a family with a guide visited our area (tourists with guides regularly come to Tel Dan, since it is one of the major historical sites in Israel). I asked where they were from and they said San Francisco. Of course, we started to identify mutual friends, and I was amused with how even in Tel Dan there can be one degree of separation.

Now that we are working together and have had meals, lectures, and recreation time, the group is beginning to feel like a community. The three focus areas for the dig (the Gate, a set of houses from the pre_christian era, and a new area just begun for excavation) each have leaders who are experienced, knowledgeable, and caring, so we are well supervised. This is pretty hard physical labor that becomes increasingly taxing as the heat increases late morning. I recall working on Kibbutzim in 1972-73 in similar conditions, and am pleased that while 34 years older and 30 pounds heavier, I can still work outdoors. One great difference is that then we had no air conditioning during the hot summer months. Now each room has AC and an afternoon nap is a joy.

Tonight David Ilan lectured on the history of Tel Dan and the topography of the region. Most people are taking this course for college credit, and I am here for myself; it felt great not to worry about what would be on the test.

I have had many interesting conversations with students, faculty, and volunteers. Since I teach in university and have contact with adult students, I am very comfortable asking about their interests, career paths, and motivations. In some ways the dig at Tel Dan feels like a cross between my Kibbutz and graduate student days at Denver University. Engaging in physical labor and getting to know people like on a Kibbutz converges with the intellectual stimulation and subject focus of graduate school. It is nice to be here.

Tel Dan Dig: Day One

 

(Photos to follow)

So who comes to work on the archeological digs in Israel? From the cross-section of people here it is clear most of them share a passion for archeology, anthropology and biblical history. Most are Christian graduate students in biblical studies and archeology from North American universities, including Hebrew Union College. Some are volunteers such as me who range from an English teacher in Seoul, Korea to a retired couple from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  The group is fairly evenly mixed by gender and age, with many having participated in other digs in Israel. All want to be here, so there is a high level of interest and enthusiasm for the dig.

Our first day we toured the Tel Dan site and Dr. David Ilan, chair of archeology from Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem gave a marvelous orientation. As a teacher, I am enthralled to be a student with a master who can bring his subject alive. David took the stones, pottery, and excavated foundations and brought them to life with references to biblical passages, history, sociology, anthropology, and good humor mixed with provocative questions. While knowing little about archeology, I became aware of what I was looking at, and how archeologists can weave theories from what they find.

Dan and Beersheba were the respective Northern and Southern borders of ancient Israel.  Both had sacrificial altars that rivaled Jerusalem before Solomon built the first Temple. Here at Dan they have uncovered ruins of an altar. This site was not exclusively inhabited by ancient Israelites, but by several peoples. It was part of the trading route to Damascus from the coastal plain and had habitation at least from the 3700 BC- 400 AD. The Israelite tribe of Dan conquered the town at the site known as Laish; after that conquest it became known as Dan. When the Assyrians conquered this area the Israelite tribes that lived in this Northern part of Israel were removed and became the “lost tribes of Israel”. Although there is evidence that many were transferred to Dan where they continued to farm the Hula Valley.

I am assigned to the group working on the entrance gate to the city, the oldest known gate in the world from around 1500 BC. The fortress wall built prior to the gate may be from 3700 BC. We will be excavating the ancient fortress wall during the time I am here. David Ilan related a fascinating theory. People not from this region built the gate. They made it from unfired mud, which was a Mesopotamian method of construction. The gate kept getting washed away from the high level of precipitation in this region, so the gate was covered over and a stone gate was built in a different location. By the fact that the gate was a failure, and was then covered over, it was preserved and never destroyed. But the fascinating part of the story is that the time period of the gate construction was the same as when Abraham left the Mesopotamia and came to Israel. It is doubtful that Abraham was in Dan, but it is probable that tribes from his region came Dan around that time.

In the evening we went to the small museum which houses some of the pottery finds at Tel Dan as well as a slide presentation on the abundant wildlife that inhabits the Hula Valley. One of the great advantages of enrolling in this university program for the dig is the quality education we receive. A real bonus is the stimulating conversation with the other participants.

Bible comes alive through archeology. My bible study at Kol Shofar synagogue was excellent preparation for what I am seeing here in Tel Dan.

Nimrod Fortress and Banias Falls

Photos to follow

Avraham and I walked early in the morning to a part of the Banias Stream that flows near the Hermon Field School where we are staying. There is an overturned Syrian rusted tank right by the stream and the stream banks are idyllic.

The Nimrod Fortress is one of the best-preserved ruins in Israel and was built in the 13^th century by the Moslems to defend of the region from the invading Crusaders. Perched atop a ridge on Mt. Hermon the fortress and can be seen from many miles away; the fortress top provides a spectacular view of the Hula Valley. We walked through the fortress and down a secret passage of steep stone steps. This is a great treat, both for its architectural splendor as well as the magnificent views from many of the ramparts.

We then spent the rest of the morning by the Banias Stream Park, one of the most beautiful reserves in Israel. I remembered Ein Gedi near Masada from previous trips as being a great water oasis. But the Banias has some of the most spectacular water flow and beautiful walking paths I have seen in Israel. The Banias Falls rivals anything I have seen in the Sierras for flow strength. The trail is very well marked (unlike many of the other trails we have walked in the Golan) and anyone coming to this region should not miss the Banias. Combined with the Nimrod Fortress it makes a perfect balance of historical ruins and magnificent nature preserve. As with many of the water sights in Israel, there are lots of Israeli teens in groups who walk the trails. They add vitality to any hike.

During this visit to Israel I have eaten in some pretty good restaurants. We had lunch in the Dag A Ha Dan (Fish on the Dan River). It had a great setting by a flowing stream, with live roosters clucking about adding to the rural charm of the place. I had one of the best charcoal grilled fresh trout dishes ever with loads of small platters of different salads. The food portions in Israel are huge and one of the great extras is the salad assortment preceding the meal. Each place has specialties, and theirs was outstanding. I have heard from other tourists that the restaurant food in Israel has improved greatly and I have been pleasantly surprised at how good the food is at reasonable prices in many of the places I have eaten.

I have hiked great trails and seen the waterfalls that make the Golan such a naturalist’s paradise. Now we prepare for the 74 visiting participants of the dig and this afternoon we unloaded the truck with all the equipment for the dig at the Tel. The Israeli Arab students have arrived with Omar and Ali and we warmly greeted each other.

So now the programmatic part of my journey in Israel commences with the incoming of the dig participants to the Field School. Tomorrow, June 26 we begin with a tour and lecture on Tel Dan, one of the longest running digs in Israel where they have already uncovered ruins back to 1500 BC. We all begin our work tomorrow and I am assigned to one of three groups.  Our digging is from 5:30 AM- 1 PM and then again from 4-5:30 PM to wash the pottery shards and clean whatever we will uncover.

My immersion in archeology is about to begin. For the next week the community of people from McGill University in Canada, Hebrew Union College in Ohio, Asbury Seminary in Kentucky and the Arab Israeli teens, and volunteers like me will become a community of endeavor to painstakingly unearth 3,500 years of some of the history of Tel Dan.

Kaboul, Akko, Shfaram: Israeli Arab Perspective

(Photos to Follow)

  

The Israeli Arab group leaders Omar Asfur and Ali Ayoub for the Tel Dan dig invited Hal to lunch and he asked me to join him. We drove through the Galilee to the Arab area and there was no road sign for Kaboul nor were there street signs, so our hosts met us and we followed them through the streets to Omar’s home). There we were feted for three hours with a fantastic meal of Arabic specialties. Omar is a geography teacher with a Masters in Archeology and Ali Ayoud is a retired chemistry, biology and physics teacher. Together they lead 20 Israeli Arab teens participating as part of their Israeli scouting experience, for two weeks on the Tel Dan dig. I will be with them and the children on the dig. Hebrew Union College underwrites the Israeli Arab participation so they can come work with the Jewish Israeli children. Ali and Omar are part of the effort for Jewish and Arab teen activities to bring the two communities together. So these were extraordinary people, who have devoted themselves to reconciliation.

After our meal Omar escorted us to Akko where we reviewed the Turkish ruins. He said Akko used to be all Arab before 1948 and now it is mostly Israeli Jews. Omar also showed us where there had been a destroyed Arab village and water well outside his town of Kaboul.

Omar’s home is beautiful and charming. On his wall he displayed a fascinating Palestinian map; it not only identified the current Israeli and Arab cities and villages, but it also displayed the Arab villages destroyed during 1948 and what we call the War of Independence and what he calls the Nachba (Catastrophe). I listened carefully to Omar and Ali discuss their perspective, not as a Zionist or AIPAC political lobbyist for Israel to debate or challenge their assumptions, but to really understand how they see their situation. With the tour of ruins and their discussion, I think I do see how tragic the Israeli Arabs can view their lot in history. They see the ruins of their villages, the legacy of the Turkish Moslem rule as a past golden era that has been taken from them by the Israeli Jews. In a similar way, if a Jew in the year 200 AD would give a tour of ancient Israel under the Romans after the two rebellions, they would show us the ruins and recount how it used to be, but accept the Roman rule. These people could not be nicer to us, but in a sense the Israeli Arabs are caught between being part of the Arab nation they identify with and being citizens of the State of Israel in which they are mostly a separate national minority. They may speak Hebrew, but they dream in Arabic; it is very complex.

Ali then gave us a tour of the Israeli Scouts headquarters building he helped raise the funds for. From the roof, we looked over the town of Shfaram where Moslems, Christians, and Druze live together in peaceful co-existence. There is expansion of buildings in the city that mirrors the construction boom in the rest of Israel, although this is a poorer area with higher unemployment than most of the Israeli Jewish cities.

Ali took us into the JNF forest (the Jewish National Fund allows the Israeli Arab kids to use the forest at no charge which is a true community service) where his scouts and small children were recreating. He clearly loves the children and is very proud of what they are doing.

Ali is an entrepreneurial champion who is always thinking of new projects for the children and he is one of those people who you just want to be around because of his energy and positive attitude for life. I asked him how the Arabs outside Israel view the Israeli Arabs. He said they used to think of us as traitors, but less so now. He suggested that the Israeli Arabs should be the best ambassadors to the Arab world that Israel could have. If when the Israeli Arabs speak to their cousins in Jordan, Syria and abroad and can say their life in Israel is great, it would mean something. Right now the glass is half empty since many feel like they are second-class citizens. Yet, their living standards are clearly better than most in the Arab world and certainly better than any national minorities who are not Arab Moslems in Arab countries.

I left with a different appreciation of the “other Israel”; there is another narrative and experience. What we Jews see as the ingathering of the exiles and the miracle of modern Israel, the Israeli Arabs may experience as rule by a conquering nation. Their values based on honor and extended family/clan may be hard for us to comprehend, but they are centered in their own culture. I felt these people are really trying to improve their lives and communities, and are not stuck in a time warp or victimhood, even with their sense of historic misfortune. Their efforts for providing the 250 children in their community and about 2000 children in Israel with a positive life affirming orientation through scouting is mainly supported from the American and Israeli Jewish communities. I hope they continue to help transform these young lives; their experience, which I will share through the Tel Dan dig, is one of the ways these Israeli Arab teens can participate in a positive life in Israel; connecting through their efforts with the thousands of years of civilization which is their shared legacy.

 

Shabbat at the Hermon Field School

Both here and in Tiberias I enjoyed specially prepared Friday evening meals prepared for large groups of Israelis. Many Israelis go to field schools, hotels, resorts, and parks for their Friday evening Saturday weekend. You see families and extended family/friend groups get together for lively time together away from home. 

During these occasions you see Israelis at rest and play. They love conversation, and the men and women are together with their children in noisy, loud, dining halls for buffet style meals.

Many Israeli men and women often have a muscular, athletic appearance, probably the result of their military service. Certainly compared to us, most are in great shape. Yet, when I see them with their children and families, these men who are capable to kill in an instant, blow kisses to their children and frequently, as is the North African custom, will pinch a child’s cheek and kiss their own fingers in affection.

 Being here, I miss those I love in my life and wish they could have joined me to share these special moments. Friday nights are very special to me; being here among the Israelis makes my return home all the more sweet. I feel so blessed.