Ben Gurion itself was rebuilt two years ago. It used to be such a nightmare getting through security on the return trip. Now it is very streamlined and relatively easy. 

 Arial View of Bethsaida
I am a director of the Archaeological Excavations at Bethsaida, which is one of the most important digs going on in the world at the moment. One cannot go to a Religious Conference on the Bible without the name Bethsaida coming up. It is mentioned in the New Testament more often than any other place except Jerusalem and Capernaum.  It is a town so often associated with the ministry of Jesus and was home to several of the apostles.  Bethsaida was lost for nearly 2000 years. At the time of Jesus it had been a prosperous fishing town but had been destroyed by the Romans in the 66-70 Roman Wars. It had not been re-built and was only rediscovered by Father Bargil Pixner in 1967.  Excavations started there in 1988. I have been connected with the Bethsaida dig since 1993. 

What changes I have seen in the place in that time! Each year we seem to find something extraordinary and then next year it fades as something new replaces it. For instance we were once so excited about finding the throne room of King Talmai of the Gesurites, and inside a jar handle containing the name Maacah. King David came to this place to find a wife, and they had a son Absalom.

“Sons born to David in Hebron…Absalom, son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of the Gesurites” (2Sam 3:3) 

In 1996, we found the temple built by Herod Philip to Livia Julia the wife of Caesar Augustus. He was one of the sons of Herod Great and had been educated in Rome where he seems to have developed a relationship with the Empress. We have found a coin with his head engraved on it, the only picture of a Herod in existence! The temple was built in the year 30 a.d. after Livia Julia died. We found a small statue of her and an incense shovel which was used in ritual.  The temple was dedicated on the eye of Tiberius’s birthday (five months after the death of Jesus) and the purpose was to make this city a Roman one dedicated to the Roman gods.  Now we can hardly find the temple among the other stuff. 

In 1994 we found a large piece of shard in a fisherman’s house with a cross clearly engraved on it. This received world attention. Now we scarcely mention it. In that same fisherman’s house we found numerous anchors and fishing equipment and a kitchen with a stove and a grinding stone and implements for making wine. The occupant of this house had his own wine cellar. 

There was much speculation when we found a large key (but no door) in another fisherman’s house. We promptly named the house the Vatican. When the Pope came to Israel in 2000 we presented him with a facsimile of the key. In that house we found wine jars that had been imported from the island of Rhodes (the Bordeaus of the time, they made the best wine.) People who lived here were hardly living on the edge.  Fishing was a fairly prosperous occupation. Fish was the main source of protein. 

How excited we were to find a physician’s house in 2001.  What sort of unguents did these little jars contain? What cures were accomplished in this house. Jesus cured a blind man at Bethsaida by taking him outside the city and smearing mud on his eyes!  Optomologists take note!  Now we pass it by unnoticed.

And in another Roman house we picked up a beautiful filigreed golden earring and the clasp for keeping a Roman toga together. So, she lost her earring and he his toga! What was going on here? 

We excavated the city gates dating to the 10th century B.C. in 1997. They were the largest ever unearthed in Israel. At the entrance on a “high place” we found a stele to the Moon God (it can now be seen in the Israeli museum). In ancient times the moon was considered more important than the sun. It brought light into the darkness. People paid their respects to the city god before entering the gates. Did David worship here? 

This town was destroyed by the Assyrians in 732 B.C.  How awe provoking to collected soot from that fire. 

“At that time Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help…… so King Tiglath pilneser of Assyria came against him and opposed him instead of helping him.” (2 Chr. 28:20). 

The fire set by the Assyrians was so hot that the brick melted (something theoretically impossible). Several years we tried to re-enact that fire and brought a fire expert over from Oxford to help.  We made the mud bricks and built a little house, but it would not burn no matter how much we huffed and puffed. 

Now we have found city gates from a century earlier and another city wall! And a new Roman road lined with several graves form the first century. Why? 

Of course most of our time is spent removing rocks and more rocks and more rocks and sifting through buckets of earth and finding mounds of pottery and sometimes rings, earrings, grinding stones, anchors, spear heads, coins.

Last year, my son and daughter removed piles of dirt and found little. The next week, right under where they were digging, we found a wine cellar with 13 jars of wine!  We have unearthed the only street on earth that we know Jesus walked.  And we run along it hardly thinking!  Tourists come by busloads to see it. Five of the apostles and possibly seven (according to journals of medieval pilgrims, and I have read them all) come from this place. So much of the ministry of Jesus is associated with Bethsaida. Here he cured the blind man and may have fed the multitudes and performed many “mighty works.” One can almost see him still hovering over it.

We work hard, starting the day at 6 a.m. Digging in the dirt at that time of day, one gets to know people pretty well. There are no secrets. We stop for breakfast at 9.   A picnic out in the open; lots of tomatoes, cucumber, fresh bread, cheese, meat, chocolate spread. Yogurt in a dozen flavors, oranges, water melon (no Starbucks this!), and at 11 we have the famous Popsicle break. One had never really tasted popsicles until you eat one at Bethsaida (we muse on whether Jesus had something to with this!) 

We sing as we work and tell stories and listen to each other’s lives.  Each group develops its own “esprit de core” and lasting friendships are created.  At 12.15 we pack up our tools and take the bus, back over the Jordan to our kibbutz for a fabulous lunch by the kibbutz itself are beautiful, situated on the Sea of Galilee where it all took place. It has a fine restaurant and an enticing swimming pool. And doves swarm wisely overhead carrying messages we cannot decipher. 

Pottery reading is done at 4.30 and we learn how to identify pottery and other artifacts. Supper is at 7 and this is followed by a lecture at 8 in the bomb shelter.  In between we manage to have a quick gin and tonic for the adults (this has become almost legendary!). And we sleep soundly from 9 to 5.  At week –ends we tour around to see places, Canal, Nazareth, Supports, Caesarea Maritime which the great Herod built, and we wade in his swimming pool! We pray on  the Mount of Beatitudes, have mass at Taiga, go to Capernaum, picnic at  Chorizema and visit other places unheard of in the gospels but never forgotten once you have seen them….Kursi, Quatzrim,  Beths Shean, Hippos. They make the gospels come alive.

We visit Masada and see Herod’s three other palaces, swim in the Dead Sea and go to Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were produced,  and Jericho to drink the spring water, on our way to the holiest city on earth, Jerusalem. Here, we lodge in an ancient convent built over the Antonio Fortress where Pilate condemned Jesus.  We are exposed to religion we never knew existed: the singing and dancing at the wailing wall as Jews welcome the Sabbath; the Muslim  constant call to prayer from the mosques; the Copts with their  three hours masses in the church of the Holy Sepulcher; the 200 Armenian altar boys at each afternoon service at the church of Saint James; Franciscans parading  along the Via Delarosa;  Germans,  Spaniards, Italians chanting  at the Holy Sepulcher; Maranites, Ethopians, Greeks vying with each other for space,  while  bearded Byzantine monks do their best to prohibit one going  anywhere. 

For most worshippers however, their best energy is reserved for bargaining with the shop keepers peddling their wares in the souk (the Old City.) and savoring falafel and schwarma and exotic pastries. So it goes. 

One hears little about the intermingling of Jews, Arabs and Christians in the American newspapers. All work together at our kibbutz and create wonderful works of art. Many do business with each other.  My friend Absalom, who exports fruit, has a partner who lives in Gaza.  Jewish and Muslim children spend weekends camping together. Most people speak Hebrew and Arabic as well as English of course.

Anyway, this time I have noticed quite a few changes. Orthodox Jews (a small percentage of the population) are making their presence more felt. They swagger around Jerusalem in their ridiculous garb, giving the message “this is our land and out of it you go.”  On Friday night there were hoards of them pushing their way through the Muslim quarter on their way to prayer, arrogant and spiteful. Last year a group of them arrived at our dig and starting trashing the place. We got rid of them by sending a scantily dressed female to their midst!  Sabbath laws are strictly enforced, no bus service or even touching the button on the elevator. All hotels must have single beds only (men and women do not share the same bed). 

Kosher laws have become strict. I used to look forward to my cappuccino at lunchtime but this year it was not permitted. Rabbis check the place occasionally to see that milk and meat are not served at the same time. At breakfast we no longer are permitted meat and cheese but one or the other. At Capernaum, someone threatened to report us because we did not have an Israeli guide to show us the holy sites (I, of course, have been guiding all these years).  The ministry of tourism used to provide us with free entry to archaeological sites since we are all volunteers for the Israeli government. This is no longer done.  And most odd of all, many of the catholic churches are closed to pilgrims on Sundays! I do not know why this is so. Some new government regulations I suppose. 

We went to an exhibit of the Shroud of Turin at Notre Dame. Most interesting. I have always dismissed the shroud as a fake and indeed the church has said nothing about it.  However all the science applied to it in recent years, trace it back to a crucified man in Jerusalem put to death between 29 and 32 a.d. (coins from this time were put on his eyes); he was flogged numerous times and pierced with a lance through his side, had a blood type AB  and was 5’ 8” tall . Intriguing to say the least. For me of course there is speculation as to where the linen came from. We have found lots of linen spores at Bethsaida and it is evident that they had a line factory there. Oh well. 

Come with me next year. 
Elizabeth