Big picture

I found Sarah McCullough on the roof of a building at Hippos. Soldiers built this building about 40 years ago.

Sarah is a student at New York University. She was helping Brian Cannon, our dig architect, to shoot levels.

What does that mean?

Sarah looks at a bubble in a tube on the stick so she knows when she is holding it exactly straight up and down.

Brian, far away down the old Roman road, looks at a target on the stick through a telescope.

Brian’s telescope shows exactly how high up Sarah’s target is. He knows exactly the height of the stick she is holding. And so he can tell exactly the level at the bottom of the stick.

That lets Brian figure out the elevation of different places on the site.

Elevations tell us how parts of the city work together. For example, if two floors in different squares look the same and have about the same elevation, they may be part of the same building or even the same room.

It’s important to know the elevation of various places along the road. We want a complete map of the city.

Brian and Sarah worked together to look at the big picture. That reminds us: It’s a good time for us to look at the big picture too.

The dig is over. On Friday, we fly home.


DIRT FRENZY

Our dig ended at precisely 11 a.m. Israel time on July 26. We spent one more day cleaning up, but not digging.

But our digging ended with a dirt frenzy. Mark Schuler, our dig leader, wanted to get to the floor of our mysterious building in Screwball Square.

We made it. Now we have a better idea of what the building was. Of course we’re not positive yet. Mark’s current hypothesis is that it is living quarters for nuns. But stay tuned. A hypothesis can change depending on what we find next season.

This season, we found a coin and a gold belt buckle. And we made progress toward understanding the people who lived here.


NIKA THE DOG COMES HOME

Michael Eisenberg’s dog Nika ran away, frightened by the missile strikes in Haifa. But the story has a happy ending.

Nika, a black, 20-kilogram* German-Labrador mix, had a microchip implant. The electronic chip placed under her skin tells a veterinarian who owns her.

When missiles exploded in Haifa, poor Nika was frightened and ran away.

Some people found her and brought her to a vet. The vet was able to read the name of Michael and his family on the chip implanted under Nika’s skin.

So Nika now is back — “frightened,” says Michael, “but home.”


STRANGE FEELING

It is a strange feeling to prepare to leave. We can still hear the missiles exploding in the distance almost every day. We have gotten used to it.

In fact, Joanna Stankiewicz of the Polish team doesn’t like it that she has gotten used to the explosions. She can’t understand why people want to hurt one another.

Joanna, who is from Poland, is staying in Israel until the end of September. We hope she will be safe.

We Americans and most of the other Poles are going home to safety.

Our friends from Israel are going home too — but not to safety. Someone asked Michael if his family was safe and well.

“They are not safe,” Michael said. “But they are well.”

We hope they will be safe soon. We hope that the missiles will stop falling and people will work things out. We hope when we come back to dig in 2007, the Holy Land will be a safe place for everyone. — Marc Hequet


Marc Hequet writes about Concordia University’s excavation at Hippos and other digs as well. Students, teachers and families are welcome to make use of the material as part of a curriculum. Contact Marc with questions via mhequet@sprintmail.com

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*To change from kilograms to pounds and to make other metric conversions, you can use this site from the state of Washington: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Metrics/factors.htm

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WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Elevation (el eh VAY shun). How high something is.