Week One of Excavation--Area E | 6.22-26.2008

Well, it's necessary that I include at least a small amount of information concerning the area of Abila in which I currently excavate. Area E designates the late Byzantine basilica Umm el Ammad (The Mother of Columns), located at the bottom of the Qweilbah wadi, or valley, at Abila. It is an unusual three-apsed, cruciform church with over thirty basalt and limestone columns lining its interior. I've been working south of the church structure in (officially) Square 78, removing backfill and sediment deposited by a massive earth quake that actually devastated Abila in the mid-eighth century A.D. Work hasn't been nearly as meticulous as it typically is, not as much data to record or artifacts to keep. Thus far, I've found a rusted/corroded spear head, the top of a small Umayyad oil lamp, a lot of glass and larger diagnostic potsherds, and three preserved rat skeletons. My supervisor is Dr. Bob Smith of Roanoke Bible College, whom the Jordanian workers affectionately call Abu Shaitan, which literally translates “The Father of Satan.” The man is, to say the very least and with all fairness, a slave driver. Strangely enough, I somewhat enjoy moving arabay, or wheelbarrows. Like mowing a lawn, it allows me time to think and pray, both of which I enjoy considerably.