Israel Flashback #5

Journal entry dated 18 May.

Today we went to many different tells and cities mentioned in the Old Testament.I guess what influenced me the most today was how brilliant people were back then. I recognize that this says more about my pride and the pride of my time. We think that we are so much smarter and know more than what people did back then. In some ways this is true, but the fault lies in that we think we are better than people back then. For instance, at Lachish they had a channel that served as a sewer taking the sewage out of the city. At Mareshah, they built their city under the top of the hill--actually inside the hill--because it would be cooler than out in the sun. Their engineers were brilliant! Their works have lasted thousands and thousands of years. It makes me wonder how long parts of our generation will last.

My favorite part of today was looking for and finding potsherds at Lachish. There are centuries and millenia of history there, and it is starting (or has been) rising to the top. We were all able to find pocketfuls of potsherds. I even found one that had a rounded edge--a rim! Hopefully, Bryant Wood will identify the time period. I didn't want to focus on anything else but hunting and discovering. I could have stayed out in the hot sun a few more hours looking for fragments. I was glad and excited that I could identify what a potsherd was. Life dream of archeology--check!