Ben Gurion Airport - Part 2

So...as I was saying yesterday.

I was standing in the queue to check in for my flight...I gave myself plenty of time so the flight was only three hours later.

There I am standing in the queue minding my own business when I was pulled from the queue by an Israeli security officer...when I later asked him why he picked me he said I looked suspicious (some of you might agree). I was taken into a room for questioning...well actually it was more an interrogation than questioning.

They interrogated me about my whereabouts...where I went and why, with whom, for how long, and for every answer I gave I had to prove it with photos and receipts and also every answer I gave resulted in another set of questions. Then another security person would enter the room and ask the same questions again whilst the first security person disappeared with my passport. No matter how innocent you are, you begin to get a bit nervous especially when they call you into another room to remove your clothes and to swab your body to check for explosives. Whilst this is going on my bags are being taken apart and also swabbed, scanned and x-rayed for who knows what.

Two and a half hours later...that's right two and a half hours later they finally let me go just in time to catch my flight.

Don't mess with Israeli security!


- Posted from my iPad

Location:Roodekrans

Me...Israeli security...and the INTEREGATION

I don't have time now but tomorrow I will tell you of the scariest experience of my life with Israeli security forces...all I will say is it involved me getting naked!


- Posted from my iPad

Location:Belladonna Rd,Roodepoort,South Africa

On my way home

At the airport and ready for home...my brother is undertaking a journey of his own today, from Zambia to Namibia, travel safe Pierre.

P.S. Happy birthday Andre!

Location:דרך הממריאים,נמל תעופה בן גוריון,Israel

Goodbye Israel

I am on my way back home tomorrow, I had a very nice day in Tel Aviv...


For now goodbye Israel and Mediterranean summer and hello Joburg winter...

Location:מאפו,Tel Aviv,Israel

The End of the Journey...for now!

Well they say all good things must come to an end, and unfortunately I have reached that stage of the journey. I have arrived in Tel Aviv where I will be staying for the next two days before flying back to South Africa.
I am walking around the old city of Jaffa today...

















This old city towards the southern end of Tel Aviv Yafo has a tremendous history...unfortunately I don't know anything about it, so I will leave it at that!
I am having breakfast at a lovely Israeli restaurant here in the old city...this is a typical Israeli breakfast



I will write again tomorrow.

Location:עולי ציון,Tel Aviv,Israel

My final day on the dig

You will remember me saying that the geo-magnetic survey showed an oval shape and that they suspected it was an oven of some sort.
Well guess what we found on my final day...












Yip we found the oval shape that they saw on the survey...and they (the professors) think it is the oven (in archaeology you always have to say..."you think it is" you know just in case you are wrong).








Some more remains of a glass bowl we found




These bones were in the "oven"...




The jury is still out as to exactly what kind of animal it belongs to.
Well, I had a fantastic time, met some wonderful people, and will really miss my time spent on the dig.

Location:בזל,Herzliya,Israel

Day 4

We had a really nice day again today, after excavations in the morning (where we found a crusader period gold earring) we did some pottery washing and classification...











Now most of this pottery dates from around the 8th century (byzantine or ottoman period) so it is not that old...only about a 1300 years but the fact that we are still finding some fantastic samples is really extraordinary.

Then today we found something which is very unusual and not many have been found in this site and that is an intact oil lamp...


This and the gold earring is my favorite so far.

My time here in Israel is slowly coming to an end and this has been a soul enriching experience and this little oil lamp is for me a visual reminder of the promise in the bible that...

Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105 GNT)

Indeed I can say that this has been true for me!

P.S. if you look on YouTube and search the word ... arsf...then you will find a video clip of British soldiers marching through the crusader castle during the first world war.

Location:בזל,Herzliya,Israel

Day 3

One of the nice things about this experience is that I get to meet very interesting people. There are four of us assigned to grid w...a girl from the university of Tel Aviv; a Phd student from Germany; a crazy Englishman...and me. Today I also attended a very interesting lecture by Dr. Lidar Sapir-Hen a Archaeozoologist on how to interpret bones (in an archaeological setting, not sangoma bones)








Notice the mosaic floor (top middle) some pottery (bottom middle) and the handle of a Byzantine period pot in the top left corner.




This is the top of a glass bottle that I found...




The handle of that pot in the earlier photo...




Just look at this stunning piece of pottery from the Crusader period, so it is very old, notice the yellow glaze and pattern...




This is glass in limestone...beautiful colour!. We also found another coin but again I am not allowed to show you that on a public domain...but will show you when I get home.

Location:הנשיא יצחק בן צבי,Herzliya,Israel

Day 2

It is just getting better...you will not believe what we found in our grid with the metal detector...gold! We found several coins including some gold coins. I took some photos but unfortunately I am not allowed to put them on my blog, or in the public domain...but I will show you my photos when I get back to South Africa...for those that are interested. Just some information...we found:
1. A Byzantine gold coin (i.e. the late Roman period)
2. An Ottoman period musket ball
3. A Byzantine period earring and bula (i.e. seal or stamp)
4. Lots of pottery and glass from the Byzantine period and perhaps even earlier


I am allowed to show you this...if you look very carefully then you will see an inscription in the mosaic. It is in Samaritan and it says "to the one true God and then the persons name..." it was a Samaritan wine press


I told you they like their red wine over here.

Apollonia was named after the Greek god Apollo...and the big dream is to find the temple of Apollo...but as yet it is still buried. And for now I am supposed to find ovens and not temples.

Location:בזל,Herzliya,Israel

Apollonia Arsuf Dig Day 1

This is the most amazing experience EVER! I am part of an archaeological team from Tel Aviv University and Tubingen University in Germany. Digging in Apollonia Arsuf.
History...Apollonia Arsuf was originally a Persian or Phoenician settlement around the 5th centuryBCE, then The Greeks and the Romans and then the last time this place was occupied was the medieval period or crusader period (around 13th century). Wow that was a very brief synopsis...Perhaps too brief. Here is more detail:
The town was settled by Phoenicians in the 6th or 5th century BC, and named Arshuf after Resheph, the Canaanite god of fertility and the underworld. It was then a part of the Persian Empire and governed from Sidon. Phoenicians of Arshuf produced precious purple dye, derived from murex mollusks, which they exported to the Aegean.
During the Hellenistic period it was an anchorage town, ruled by Seleucids and renamed Apollonia, as the Greeks identified Reshef with Apollo.
Under Roman rule, the size of the town increased. It was an important settlement between Jaffa and Caesarea along Via Maris, the coastal road. In 113 AD, Apollonia was destroyed partially by an earthquake, but recovered quickly. The harbor was built, and trade with Italy and North Africa developed.
During the Byzantine period, the town extended to cover an area of 70 acres (280,000 m2). In the 5th and 6th century AD it was the second largest city in Sharon valley, after Caesarea, populated by Christian and Samaritans, having an elaborate church and a prosperous glass industry.
In 640 AD, the town was captured by Muslims, and the Semitic name Arsuf was restored. The town's area decreased to about 22 acres (89,000 m2) and, for the first time, it was surrounded by a fortified wall with buttresses, to resist the constant attacks of Byzantine fleets from the sea. Large marketplaces appeared, and pottery production developed. In 809 AD, following the death of Harun al-Rashid, the local Samaritan community was destroyed and their synagogue ruined.
In 1101 Arsuf fell to a Crusader army led by Baldwin I of Jerusalem. The Crusaders, who called it Arsur, rebuilt the city's walls and created the Lordship of Arsur in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1187 Arsuf was captured by the Muslims, but fell again to the Crusaders on September 7, 1191 after a battle between Richard I of England and Saladin.
John of Ibelin, Lord of Beirut (1177—1236) became Lord of Arsuf in 1207 when he married Melisende of Arsuf (born c.1170). Their son John of Arsuf (c.1211—1258) inherited the title. The title then passed to John of Arsuf's eldest son Balian of Arsuf (1239—1277). He built new walls, the big fortress and new harbor (1241). From 1261, the city was ruled by the Knights Hospitaller.
In 1265 sultan Baibars, ruler of the Mamluks, captured Arsur, after 40 days of siege. The Mamluks razed the city walls and the fortress to their foundations, fearing a return of the Crusaders. The destruction was so complete that the site was abandoned. In 1596, Ottoman tax registers recorded a village there with 22 families and 4 bachelors[1] and later a village called al-Haram existed adjacent to the ruins until it was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
There that is better...I am sure nobody probably read any of that but anyway.
What am I doing?
They did geo-magnetic survey to see what is below the surface and discovered a few new areas which we are working on. There are 3 new areas that will be opened up, or grids in archeological language. This is my grid and it is believed that there is an Byzantine oven here...so I am hopefully digging up an oven!




If you can see the red pegs in the ground...that is my grid...grid w 8200 loc...(that is the official title of my grid) oh and the view is not to bad either!




This is the before picture, I will show you our progress, I am part of a team of five.
I had a fantastic day...here are some photos of what I found today. It is pottery shards from probably the Byzantine period i.e. medieval times.




Oh did I mention I found this, notice the painted pottery and the glass




The square pieces are tesserae or small cubes used in the mosaic floors...awesome!




Helping out the team on the second of the three new dig sites, I am on the 3rd grid.
Anyway I will write more tomorrow...I am to tired now.

Location:הנשיא יצחק בן צבי,Herzliya,Israel

Let the digging begin..

The bottom brown sign points the way to the dig site. It is a site that is open to the public, and I believe one of our jobs will be to take tourist round the dig site explaining to them the history of the site...I better start studying!

I have just met my roommate - Sam

Very interesting....that is all I will say on that topic for now!

We officially start digging tomorrow morning at 7am

Will tell you all about it tomorrow.

Location:אריה בן אליעזר,Herzliya,Israel

Caesarea Maritime

Caesarea maritime, what a place. During the Persian rule (586-332 BCE), the Phoenicians built a settlement on the shoreline. It becomes interesting for us Christians when the city was under Herod's rule in about 30BCE - he built a large port city and called it Caesarea (after his hero - Caesar Augustus). It was a magnificent city for its time, with a temple, a theatre, amphitheater, markets...it took him about 12 years to build.



The later crusader period entrance to the city


There was an aqueduct that brought water from about 10km away (sorry no photo it was too hot and I had no more energy to walk there)


Mosaics was a very popular way of decorating and beautifying an important area...and this was a bath house for the wealthy and important








Do you remember that stone inscription with Pontius Pilate's name on, from the Israel Museum, well that was found here.


Herod's royal sea bathing area


The amphitheater area where chariot races and games where held.

This city is of interest to us as Christians and you can read of it in Acts 25. In 58 CE Paul was accused of causing a riot. He was sent to Caesarea to be tried by the governor, being a Roman citizen he demanded to be heard by the Emperor in Rome, so he set sail from here to stand trial in Rome.

Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders brought their charges against Paul. They begged Festus to do them the favor of having Paul come to Jerusalem, for they had made a plot to kill him on the way. Festus answered, “Paul is being kept a prisoner in Caesarea, and I myself will be going back there soon. Let your leaders go to Caesarea with me and accuse the man if he has done anything wrong.”
Festus spent another eight or ten days with them and then went to Caesarea. On the next day he sat down in the judgment court and ordered Paul to be brought in. When Paul arrived, the Jews who had come from Jerusalem stood around him and started making many serious charges against him, which they were not able to prove. (Acts 25:1-7 GNT)

Location:Caesarea,Israel

Israeli Culture...?

Here are a few things I have learnt about Israeli culture and have had to get used to...

1. Don't bother getting out of bed before 9am...NOTHING goes on, or is open before 9 in the morning
2. Don't bother going to bed before 9pm because things only getting going then...sabbath is a good example of this. The place will be a ghost town and then suddenly at about 9pm everything is open and everybody (young and old) is out on the streets buying, eating and just generally "hanging out".
3. Don't ever again complaint about South African drivers...including taxis. Wow these people are crazy on the roads!
4. It would seem every country has a racism or prejudice problem...even here. There is not much love lost between the Jews and the Arabs; the "secular" and "religious" Jews; natives and immigrants...and the list goes on.
5. Cats...olives...pickles...if you don't like them don't come to Israel, they are all over the place.


6. If you like red wine...come to Israel there's lots of it!
7. Whatever you do...don't come to Israel in the summer, unless you want to lose some weight then it's the perfect time to come.

- Posted from my iPad

Location:בזל,Herzliya,Israel

The Beatitudes

I have had a wonderful time here in the region of Galilee. I have spent the last few days reading and meditating on the Beatitudes in Matthew's gospel. I find the Beatitudes most disturbing...I struggle with them.
Jesus saw the crowds and went up a hill, where he sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them:
“Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor;
the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!
“Happy are those who mourn;
God will comfort them!
“Happy are those who are humble;
they will receive what God has promised!
“Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires;
God will satisfy them fully!
“Happy are those who are merciful to others;
God will be merciful to them!
“Happy are the pure in heart;
they will see God!
“Happy are those who work for peace;
God will call them his children!
“Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires;
the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! “Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers. Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted. (Matthew 5:1-12 GNT)




To be honest every time I read those chapters in the gospel of Matthew it just reminds me of everything I am not and it leaves me wondering why God would want to use me. But as I walked along the sea of Galilee and remembered the calling of those first disciples, I am again struck by their ordinariness...and in that I find hope for myself.
Philip Yancey helps me make sense of the beatitudes.
For in them we have God's absolute ideal AND God's absolute grace. We have this tension between God's ideals and God's grace.
In summery I understand the Beatitudes to say this...Jesus came to give me abundant life and this means I must:
1. Invest in others
2. Take a courageous stand for justice
3. Minister to the weak and needy
4. Pursue God not self
- Posted from my iPad

Location:הירדן,Tiberias,Israel

Supper

In order to save some money and in keeping with the whole backpacking theme, I decided for the most part to do my own food.





This was supper the last two evenings.

Tomorrow is the sabbath here in Israel and so I have decided to spend the day at a quiet spot next to the sea of Galilee reading the gospels. It is so surreal reading the stories of Jesus ministering in galilee whilst sitting next to the sea of Galilee myself.

On Sunday I will be taking the bus to Herzliya where I will begin excavations with the University of Tel Aviv...can't wait.

Location:Tiberias,Israel

Hostel Tiberias

This is my accommodation in Tiberias...I am nervous!




It was the cheapest place I could find in Tiberias. As I walked up the stairs there was a river of water flowing down the stairs and I thought to myself...oh no! At least if I go missing people will know where to start looking. But after seeing the ancient town of Capernaum and the conditions that people lived in during the time of Christ, I suppose this hostel could be considered luxury. Well, maybe luxury is pushing it a bit.
- Posted from my iPad

Location:Tiberias,Israel

The sermon on the Mount, feeding the multitudes, teaching in the synagogue..and casting out demons!

I have had another fantastic day...I went to the towns where Jesus spend a great deal of time performing many miracles and doing a great deal of teaching.
Firstly, I went to the Mt. Of Beatitudes in Northern Galilee, this is the place where it is believed that Jesus delivered his famous sermon on the mount...Matthew 5




Jesus saw the crowds and went up a hill, where he sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them:
“Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor;


the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!
“Happy are those who mourn;
God will comfort them!
“Happy are those who are humble;
they will receive what God has promised!
“Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires;
God will satisfy them fully!
“Happy are those who are merciful to others;
God will be merciful to them!
“Happy are the pure in heart;
they will see God!
“Happy are those who work for peace;
God will call them his children!
“Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires;
the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! “Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers. (Matthew 5:1-11 GNT)
Secondly, I went to Tabgha, this the place where it is believed Jesus multiplied the fish and loaves of bread...







That evening his disciples came to him and said, “It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. Send the people away and let them go to the villages to buy food for themselves.”
“They don't have to leave,” answered Jesus. “You yourselves give them something to eat!”
“All we have here are five loaves and two fish,” they replied.
“Then bring them here to me,” Jesus said. He ordered the people to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. Everyone ate and had enough. Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left over. (Matthew 14:15-20 GNT)
Then I went to the town that Jesus lived and ministered in for some time, Capernaum (Matthew 4:13)...
Jesus and his disciples came to the town of Capernaum, and on the next Sabbath Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach. (Mark 1:21 GNT).
This is the synagogue in Capernaum








Note the black basalt layer...that is the original floor of the synagogue from the time of Jesus, the rest ws rebuilt in the 4th century




Here are also some photos of the actual town of Capernaum








Here is a photo of an olive press found in the town, which was known for its olive industry








Lastly I went to Kursi, which was one of the cities of the Decapolis, now this is the place where you will remember Jesus drove out the demons into the pigs...
When Jesus came to the territory of Gadara on the other side of the lake, he was met by two men who came out of the burial caves there. These men had demons in them and were so fierce that no one dared travel on that road. At once they screamed, “What do you want with us, you Son of God? Have you come to punish us before the right time?”
Not far away there was a large herd of pigs feeding. So the demons begged Jesus, “If you are going to drive us out, send us into that herd of pigs.” (Matthew 8:28-31 GNT)












Faith lesson...
May Jesus find us as as he did Peter and his fellow fishermen. He found them as they walked along the shore of the sea of Galilee and for them that happened as they were going about their everyday business. Jesus found them and called them as they were going about their day to day business and my prayer is that Jesus will find us as in our everyday moments...may we too hear his voice in the midst of our everyday moments calling us to follow him. I pray that we will all experience a renewed sense of call to the person and mission of Jesus Christ.

Location:Tiberias,Israel