The Gap Between Now and Then

Here are a couple pics of where I've been and what I've been doing in the last week and a half.

For the most part, the pictures are in backwards chronological order. Mitassef, that's just the way they load.

1) On the stage of the theatre at Bet She'an. Immediately to the left of me is Mariana, the volunteer coordinator who returned to Mexico only hours after this picture was taken, and the second through fourth volunteers (from left to right): Paulina, Maria, Charlie.
2)At the top of the theatre with a view downward with Marcela, the chief archaeologist for the excavation.
3) On the stage of the theatre at Bet She'an. Behind me are rows of seats.
4) Bet She'an. The pyramid-shaped thing is the bathhouse. The columns are on a Roman road that cuts through a shopping (and possibly red light) district. The stairs in the middle go to the agora, passing where a Byzantine basilica and mosque used to be. To the left are the ruins of a fountain and possibly Roman temple. The big column to the right was a Roman temple. In the background to the left is another temple area, public lavatory, and theatre. Up the path there is a hill with the ruins of 5 Canaanite temples, built on the foundation of the last, and an Egyptian government building.
5) With the plush toy of the Israel National Park mascot in the gift shop of Caesarea Maritan. Isn't he/she so cute?
6) By the Mediterranean at Caesarea Maritan. To the left is the sea and fortress, to the right, a small hippodrome or arena of some sort.
7) Zoom in of the last.
8)In front of the Mediterranean Sea at Caesarea Maritan, a city built by Herod the Great in honor of Caesar on the Mediterranean coast. At Caesarea, there is a reconstructed Roman theatre, a hippodrome, a fortress and many other remnants of the Roman, Byzantine, and then Crusader city.
9) Next to a Roman column in what used to be a palace.
10)In front of a man-made cave on Mt. Arbel, to the west of Magdala. We misinterpreted the archaeologists on the first day and scaled the mountain to reach the massive cave on the top. I thought it was a wonderful hike - I doubt you'd hear the same from my weary comrades. And, yes, that's the hat that I wear during the excavation. I bought it for 40 shekels in one of the stores in Tiberias. I feel so cool when I wear that thing.
11)On a rock by the caves on Mt. Arbel. Below me are the two archaeologists Meztli and Estabalis. Behind me in the lower right-hand corner of the blue fenced box is the first-century synagogue. To the right of the road to the right of the box is the field we are going to excavate.
12)Pointing while on Mt. Arbel. To the right is our field.
13) On a rock in the shade of a tree near the cave at the top of Mt. Arbel. Great scenic view.
14) In the cave at the top, on the giant rock in the entryway.
15)Looking out from on high. In the bottom left, you can see the modern agricultural town of Migdal, about a kilometer from Magdala.
16)On a boat on the Sea of Galilee. On Sunday (a week from last Sunday), the day before we started the excavation, Fr. Juan came up and celebrated Mass at the site. We then went to Ginosar, where they recently found a 1st-century fishing boat (which we saw in the museum on the way out), and boarded a boat for a half hour cruise on the Galilee.
17)With the second, third, and fourth volunteers. To the right is Maria from Connecticut. Then, Paulina, from Mexico, who came into Jerusalem a week earlier. I showed her around Jerusalem for a couple days and then we came to Tiberias together on Thursday (the 1st). On the far right is Charlie, my roommate, from New York.
18) Same group, different order.
19) Now we've added Fr. Brennigan, a Legionary priest who is in the Holy Land for a couple weeks. He accompanies Fr. Juan up to Magdala whenever he comes. He almost converted Waseem, who takes care of the guardhouse at Magdala, after four days of vigorous apologetics until he found out that Waseem was already Christian, not Muslim - in fact, Fr. Juan baptized his three children. (Waseem is a natural jokester - he once spent four hours eating dinner with a family that he had thoroughly convinced that he was mute). Fr. Brennigan also was windsurfing on the lake a couple days ago and had to be brought back by a jet-skiier when his sail broke and sank. Overall, a holy guy. It's been great to hear many of his spiritual reflections in Galilee.
20)In the 6th-century synagogue in Tiberias next to the information center across the street from the Greek Melkite Church where we're staying in Tiberias.
21)Under an arch at the archaeological gardens behind the information center.
22)In the Garden of Gethsemane, under the olive tree where Christ prayed in the agony before the betrayal.
23) On the top of Mt. Arbel, the hill to the west of Magdala. Behind me is the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) and the field we are going to excavate.
24) Looking at the first-century synagogue that the Israel Antiquities Association excavated at Magdala on the Notre Dame Center's land. We are excavating south of the synagogue - we get the rest of the city.