Today after a worship service and breakfast we started off to the dig.

We first walked from our hotel to the nearest light rail station and then took the street train to the Central Bus Station.

We loaded into a bus at the station and then headed off to the kibbutz where we will be staying during the dig.

The grounds of the kibbutz are beautiful and I am sure that I will be taking a lot of pictures during my stay.

After a great lunch it was off to the dig site at Tel Lachish. We first had an explanation of the site while standing where we had this wonderful view of the ramps and gates of Lachish.

We made a stop by our square from last year. It is now overgrown and pretty much unrecognizable as they dug in the same place for another four weeks after our time at the dig last year. However, there were a few things that I still recognized.

When we arrived at the site this area was simply bare ground. This afternoon we filled sand bags and defined the edges of our 5×5 meter square and started digging down into the past. We are on a slope, and are currently flattening out the bottom of the square so we can dig down layer by layer. We are already finding some interesting pottery shards .

It has been a very long day and tomorrow starts early. On Sunday we start in early afternoon and work till sunset. On Monday – Thursday we leave the kibbutz at 4:40 and dig until it is time for lunch back at the kibbutz.

More about the schedule later.

I am very tired and a little sore. We moved a lot of dirt and stones today. I also walked close to 12,000 steps today.

Now for some sleep,

Steven