Today was the fourth day at the dig at Lachish and there is now only one more dig day until the weekend.

We had set our alarms for 4:15 as we have to be on the bus at about 4:40 for the drive to the dig site.

We first walked up a long trail to the top of the tel and then down to our site.

Here you can see that it is still barely light when we arrive at our squares.

This morning we spent the time before our first break cleaning up one of the areas from last year, but we were soon in our own square hard at work.

In the picture above Hunter is cleaning around stones that have begun to appear as we slowly dig down into our square.

Once you start to see stones you begin to think about what they might be. Did we just find a wall? Is it a collapsed wall? Is it simply a pile of rocks that someone made? How does it tie in with other stones in the area?

These are questions that take time and more digging. Tomorrow we will dig deeper and see if the picture is clearer.

In the early afternoon we clean up all our tools and then take the long walk back to the bus. By then we are very tired and looking forward to the ride back to the kibbutz for lunch.

One thing that I like this year much better than last year is the food we get for lunch and dinner. The food here is really good. We are staying at a new place and overall it is much nicer. The food especially.

Did I mention that the food was much better?

Now to get some sleep. The 4:15 alarm is getting closer by the minute.

Steven