Thursday, July 29, 1999
ISRAEL TOUR July 19 - August 2, 1999
Temple Adat Shalom Congregational tour hosted by Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz and Rabbi Mark Hurvitz and guided by Walter Zanger
participate in an archaeological dig at beit guvrin-tel maresha. cross the northern negev and eat dinner at mamsheet camel farm on our way to overnight in ein boqeq on the dead sea./p>
Nathan Figler reported on the day
We started our day by eating a typical Israeli breakfast. We boarded the bus and headed out of Jerusalem by the south through the new Jewish community of Gilo. We passed a road block into the land of Judah. Next to the road we saw an ancient Roman Road that had been built in the natural crevice between the hills. The new Israeli road was much harder to construct because they didn't want to disturb the Roman Road which was where a road Logically should have been.
We arrived at Beit Guvrin, a Kibbutz near an archeological site called Maresha. We climbed down into a cave which was being excavated and helped find early artifacts from the Pagan Hellenistic Period. We sweated and dug dirt and found some real neat pieces of pottery. Danny found the base to a wine amphora. After we filled about 40 to 50 buckets of dirt we built a schlep line to haul them out of the cave so we could sift through the dirt and look more closely for pottery shards, bones and other neat stuff.
Then some of us went crawling through tight spaces in caves. It was really fun and we had some close calls in getting through some of the holes. In a central cave we had a talk about the people who had lived there. They were called Idumeans. We found out that Herod the Roman appointed King of Israel was not actually [ethnically] Jewish but a friend of the Roman 2nd in command. We then went through another interesting cave/dig site. Alice lost her hat getting out of the cave in a dust devil. But then ran down the hill to retrieve it.
From there we went on to Tel Be'er Sheva. There we saw a deep well that was created during the bronze age. Also we saw a place that dated back to the time of the bible and a tower which created a panoramic view of the area.
We drove through a place called the Machtesh Gadol, the second largest machtesh in Israel. A machtesh is when mountains are formed with hard limestone on top and soft sandstone on the bottom. When rain comes, it eats away at the soft sandstone and collapses. The mountain slides which creates gullies and ridges. It's a good place to find ancient stuff.
Then we took a little stop in order for Mark to take a group shot. Next we hopped on the bus and went to Mamsheet.
There we talked about a people called the Nabateans and how they farmed with little rain in the middle of the desert. They had taken over east Jordan and set up trade routes from Yemen and Arabia to Gaza. They farmed by increasing the mountain runoff retention from five to thirty percent and had 10,000 square foot house which we explored.
We hopped back on the bus for a short ride to a Bedouin camel farm. There we had a traditional sweet tea and coffee. Our host explained Bedouin lifestyle and how they are Arabs and not Jews. Then we moved into a northern tent and they served us a dinner that consisted of delicious soft pita, rice and lamb. It was good. Then we left there and on a long windy journey to the Crowne Plaza hotel situated right on the Dead Sea.
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Acknowledgments:
Despite Everything - Davka
A Starting Point
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