Young archaeologists: Julia and Emilia

Julia Burdajewicz (boor DIE ah vitch) is in a vat — kind of a giant bathtub more than two meters* deep. She calls it her “plaster disaster.”

The vat is empty. But 1,400 years ago it was filled with — grape juice.

If you let grape juice sit long enough, it turns into wine through a process called fermentation (fur meant AY shun).

Julia, age 21, is studying to be a conservationist, someone who tries to preserve what archaeologists find. She is working at an impossible job — trying to preserve the plaster that covers the inside of the vat.

The student from the city of Warsaw in Poland is sitting on steps leading to the bottom of the vat, part of a church in the ancient city of Hippos. People at the church made wine, probably to sell. “This was a pool for collecting grape juice to make the wine,” says Julia. “It has a special waterproof plaster. Three layers.”

Her tool kit includes dental picks, forceps and glue. On this day close to the end of the season in July 2005, she is applying bottle after bottle of glue to the plaster.


FILLED WITH DIRT

Over the centuries, the vat filled with dirt. Now that archaeologists have dug it up, the plaster will fall apart unless it gets protection from wind, rain and heat.

Julia has been coming to excavations with her family since she was a little girl. Now she wishes for more time. The dig is coming to an end and it’s almost time for her to leave.

“I like to do everything the best I can and I don’t have time for it,” Julia says sadly. “I know I’m leaving some pieces, some places, that should be conserved and protected. This is the worst thing for me.

“Look at it,” she says, worrying about the plaster. “It may fall before next year. That’s why I think there should be a month after the excavation only for conservators. If I could sit here and work for another year in silence I would be very happy. Right now I’m so stressed.”

In fact, she’s not even thinking about an obvious mystery. If we are sitting in a tub of grape juice — why is there no purple stain on the wall?

Julia shrugs. “Maybe they had here white wine,” she says — wine made from green grapes that would leave less of a stain.


‘AMAZING THING’

When she was 14 years old, Emilia Jastrzebska (em EEL ya yast SHEMB ska) was walking along an old Roman road that passed some ruins in Libya, a country in north Africa where she lived with her family.

“It’s an amazing thing,” thought Emilia, “that I’m walking on the same road that some ancient Romans were walking.”

That was the moment she decided to become an archaeologist. Now Emilia is a student at the University of Warsaw in Poland, her home country. She has been on five digs in two seasons — three in Israel and two in Poland, her home country.

At Hippos in 2004, after the Polish team found what it thought were tombs, Emilia excitedly went to work helping clear the soil from the rock-lined chambers. But after days of work, the truth was clear — the tombs were empty. No bodies.


BABY SKELETON

Emilia was disappointed. On another team in 2004, however, she found human burials at a site in far northern Israel called Tel Roim (tell roh EEM) West. The site dates to a time called pre-pottery Neolithic — that is, before people were using pottery, more than 5,000 years ago. One of the burials was that of a baby.



Last year after Hippos she dug at another site called Misliya (mis lee AH) Cave, which dates to the middle and lower Paleolithic — older than the Neolithic. Excavators found flint tools and animal bones. In the photo, Emilia, on left, and Julia show hand-axes found at Misliya.

In June 2006, Emilia is digging with a team from the Montana State University at a new site called Tel Zahara in central Israel, near an ancient city called Beth Shean (bait shahn). Excavators hope to find out more about village life from long ago.

Emilia, age 21, likes digging in spite of the hard work and the sweat and dirt. “Something happened here more than a thousand years ago,” she says at Hippos. “I can be part of uncovering it.”

When the digging season is over she returns to her studies at the University of Warsaw in Poland. Which does Emilia like better — studying or digging? “Digging!” she says. “That was an easy question.” — Marc Hequet


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* To change from meters to feet 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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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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WHAT DOES THAT WORD MEAN?

Here’s a list of words from the story about Julia and Emilia:

Fermentation is a chemical change in which yeast changes sugar into alcohol.

Forceps (FORE sepps) is a tool that surgeons and dentists use to seize and hold. Dentists pull teeth using a forceps.

Plaster is a mixture of crushed limestone, sand and water that hardens as it dries. People have plastered walls and ceilings for thousands of years.

Conservators (con SERVE ah tors) preserve what archaeologists find.

Pottery is made from clay and baked. People have used pottery for thousands of years. Archaeologists find out much about ancient cultures by studying pottery.

Neolithic (nee oh LITH ik) is a period in history when people used stone tools.

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CAN YOU DIG IT?

Take this quiz to find out what you learned about Julia and Emilia:

1. How deep was the vat in which Julia was working?

2. Why does the plaster need protection?

3. How was she trying to save it?

4. How old were the bodies Emilia helped find at Tel Roim?

5. What do excavators hope to find at Tel Zahara?

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MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE

Here’s what was happening elsewhere on the planet about the time someone was making wine at the church at Hippos in 600 CE*:

The Olmecs of what now is Mexico carved huge stone heads weighing up to 16,300 kilograms** and standing 2.7 meters high.

Islam (iss LAHM) began as a religion. Its followers, Muslims (MUH slims), believe that in about 610 CE a man named Muhammad (muh HAM mahd) began to receive messages from Allah, or God, in the country that now is Saudi Arabia.

The first windmills were built in the country now called Iran.

Aksum (AHK soom) was a powerful kingdom in East Africa in what now is Eritrea, northern Ethiopia and parts of Sudan and Djibouti.

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The information in "Meanwhile, elsewhere" is from World Book Encyclopedia and other sources.

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* CE means “common era.” It’s the same as AD or “anno Domini,” Latin for “in the year of our Lord.” BCE or before common era is the same as BC or “before Christ.”

** 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

Gamla: Two mysteries — and a failed revolt

Gamla, a haunting ruin 15 kilometers* northeast of Hippos, came to a bad end. Two mysteries remain. The bad end, however, is no mystery. We know exactly what happened.

Just before the First Jewish Revolt in 66 CE**, Gamla (GAHM la) was a village of 4,000 or 5,000 people. Refugees fleeing from the fighting in the revolt probably doubled the population.

Diggers found seven coins made at Gamla with an inscription reading “For the redemption of Jerusalem.” An eighth coin was found far to the south in the Judean desert — probably carried there by someone fleeing the disaster at Gamla.


FIRST, THE MYSTERIES

More about that in a moment. First, the mysteries:

“We have a completely new kind of Jewish public building from the first century,” says Danny Syon, senior archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority and an excavator at Gamla.

Until Gamla, archaeologists thought the only public building they would find in such Jewish villages was the synagogue. Gamla already has one synagogue. “Now,” says Syon, “we definitely have a public building — and we don’t know what it is.”

We do know that the 15 x 16 meter Gamla structure is a public building because of its three long central aisles leading to a podium — an area higher than the surrounding floor from which people could make speeches. The two side aisles are divided into rooms. “It might be a court,” says Syon.

The building style is “very impressive,” he adds. The structure has four columns and is built of large stones, larger than those used to build houses. “It cannot be a domestic building,” says Syon, “and it doesn’t have a large enough space for a congregation, so it is not a synagogue.”

Josephus, a Jewish historian who commanded Jewish forces in the revolt, reports that he set up courts in villages when he came to this area from Jerusalem. The Bible’s New Testament, however, says that courts were held in synagogues. Sometimes punishment was carried out in synagogues as well — whipping.

“So it could be that in some communities the synagogue served as the court, and maybe in others there was a specific building,” says Syon. “In Gamla, we have a building that might be just that.”


VACANT LOT?

Here’s the other mystery about Gamla: A part of the middle of the town that was full of people in the first century BCE** was abandoned about the end of the reign of King Herod the Great, who died in 4 BCE.

What happened to the mystery neighborhood? We don’t know. Was it cleared out by war? There is no evidence of fighting.

Whatever the reason, the 50 x 30 meter area was abandoned and never resettled. “It was an empty lot,” says Syon. “And that is a big enigma.”

What we do know is that, years after the mystery neighborhood was abandoned, a Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire failed.

Roman soldiers fought rebels throughout the Holy Land. In Gamla, Romans commanded by the future emperor, Vespasian, attacked Gamla by climbing across the roofs of the houses in such numbers that the roofs collapsed.


ARROWHEADS AND CATAPULTS


The Romans retreated, but attacked again later and destroyed the town.

Archaeologists found arrowheads and other evidence of the battle just inside and just outside the town’s wall.

Weapons also include ballista balls — stones that Roman catapults hurled against the walls to knock them down. Syon found about 2,000 ballista balls against the walls where they fell — and a pile inside the wall as well. The defenders may have gathered the smooth stones to throw back at the attackers.

The Romans eventually crushed the revolt. Fighting finally ended in 70 CE. Today you can climb the steep 330-meter hill where a busy village once stood — and think about that long-ago war and the mysteries of Gamla. — Marc Hequet

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

** CE means “common era.” It’s the same as A.D., which means “anno Domini,” Latin for “in the year of our Lord.” BCE means “before common era.” It’s the same as “before Christ.”


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WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Here’s a list of terms from the story about Gamla.

First Jewish Revolt, from 66-70 CE, was a failed effort by the Jews to throw off rule by the Romans. The Jews revolted again from 132-135 CE — and again failed.

Refugees are people fleeing from war and other disasters.

Redemption (re DEMP shun) means to save something.

Excavators(EKS kah vay ters) dig up ancient sites.

Synagogue (SIN uh gog) is a place of worship for Jews. Jesus worshiped at synagogues in his hometown of Nazareth and other villages.

Columns (COLL ums) support the upper parts of ancient buildings. Columns allow builders to make buildings larger.

Material culture includes pottery, tools, buildings and other things left by ancient civilizations.

Enigma (en IG muh). A mystery.

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CAN YOU DIG IT?

Take this quiz to find out how much you learned about Gamla.

1. When did the First Jewish Revolt begin?

2. How do we know the large building in Gamla is a public building?

3. How do we know it is NOT a synagogue?

4. An American football field is 120 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide. One yard equals 0.91 meter. Is Gamla’s abandoned neighborhood bigger than a football field? Or smaller?

5. How do we know there was a battle at Gamla?

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MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE ON EARTH

Here’s what was happening elsewhere about the time of the First Jewish Revolt:

Mayas flourished in Central America. Ruins of a great city of the Maya are at El Mirador in northern Guatamala, with some of the Maya’s largest pyramids.

Ming Ti, an emperor of the Han dynasty, introduced Buddhism into China in 58 CE.

St. Peter, a founder of Christianity, may have been executed in Rome in 67 CE.

Nero (NEER oh) was the Roman emperor from 54-68 CE. Some blamed him for setting the fire that destroyed much of Rome in 64 CE. Nero, however, blamed the Christians, and executed many. Roman leaders feared his cruelty and eventually revolted. Nero took his own life in 68 CE.

Vespasian (Ves PAY zhun), the general who put down the revolt in Palestine, became the Roman emperor in 69 CE. In his reign the Roman Colosseum (kol uh SEE uhm) was built. Its ruin still stands in Rome.
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The information in "Meanwhile, Elsewhere" is from World Book Encyclopedia and other sources.