My Pilgrimage: June 13

Indiana Johnson’s second day of digging was…lots of work with no payoff.

We had to get up at 4:30ish so that we could have Morning Prayer at 5:15 and leave for the dig at 5:30.  That’s entirely too early.  As I mentioned to others, to show how early that was, the Astros were in the sixth inning…of yesterday’s game.  None of us were too excited about being there.  When we arrived, we had “first breakfast” which was basically coffee (not for me), cereal, and fruit.  Then, we got to work.  Today, I wore my knee pads hoping that would allow me to be more comfortable in the various positions.  It ended up being a bad decision.  The reason we start so early is so that we can get as much work in as possible before the heat of the day.  So we worked straight until “second breakfast” (we’re hobbits) at 10:00.  At that point, I was nearly finished leveling the area I was working on.  After breakfast, I asked the archeologist how I was doing and what I should do next.  She said it was pretty good, I just needed to clean up around the wall I’m working next to.  Oh, and dig down “10 more centimeters” (it’s one of our favorite phrases on the trip since we hear it so much, along with “only 5 sheckels” and “just one more thing”).  She saw I was not too happy about the prospect of digging more in that area.  I said, “that’s all I’ve found,” pointing to a couple of tiny pieces of pottery.  Her response: “the absence of evidence is still evidence.”  I told her, “that’s almost convincing.”  That being said, it does kind of work for the Resurrection.

So for the next couple of hours I started working further down.  I did find a possible piece of flint, which is kind of cool.  Meanwhile, other people were finding coins, including four in one site.  I have come to accept that everyone in our group will find something this week…except me.  We finally broke for Mass and lunch at 12:45.  So all told, that’s almost six hours of digging today.

Oh, and about my knee pads.  Twice when I got up to dump out my dirt, I could not feel my right leg.  It was only after the second time that I realized, the knee pads were not only making me hotter, they were cutting off the circulation in my legs.  I walked over to the area where we eat and took them off as quickly as I could (difficult with boots on).  I immediately felt better, and could more easily sit while working.  I will not make that mistake again.