El Araj Excavations Day 10 (Week 3/Day 1). Our new team of 40 student volunteers arrived on Friday (6/29). Saturday they were introduced to the region around El Araj with a 4 hour jeep tour in the Lower Golan and the Bethsaida Valley. This morning we were up at 4:15 and at El Araj by 6:00. The folks from Session 1 did a great job and have left us well positioned to make some significant progress these next two weeks. After an introduction to the site by Motti Aviam, we began our work. Effort is being made to continue down in various squares through the Byzantine strata to the Roman levels. Numerous artifacts including pottery and coins are being unearthed. These can assist to date the strata. In the afternoon back at our residence the students washed pottery. This was followed by a session with Motti reading pottery to date and identify the significance of the archaeological remains. The final picture in this post is a better one of the coin found last Wednesday. It has a discernible head and legend. There is a chance it will be cleaned and identified before this season is completed.
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