Archaeologist for A Day: Bucket List

After losing two close family members in the past few months, I've become a lot more aware of my own mortality. A number of years ago, when I hit sixty 60, it hit pretty hard that I had already lived much more than half my allotted time.  According to the traditional Jewish blessing, עד מאה ועשריםת ad me'ah vi'esrim, until a hundred and twenty, I had hit the halfway mark. But considering that my parents died in their 80's and 90's, and my brother was younger than me, I really have to take advantage of all opportunities. So this year when there was an announcement in our weekly newsletter about being "Archaeologist for A Day," I signed up. This was a Friday morning activity of just two hours, but still...

Living barely a mile from one of Israel's most exciting archaeological sites, Shiloh Hakeduma, the proven site of the Biblical Tabernacle, has its advantages. Wearing a serious sunhat and well-slathered with sunscreen, I was as prepared as I could be to work in the dig.

And of course just like any professional and/or amateur archaeologist, I had been hoping to find "something" that would make the boss/supervisor/head of site smile with interest. Pieces of jugs and bowls are rather old hat ordinary for someone like me, who has been in Shiloh for thirty-five 35 years.

But the truth is that even I was surprised to find something even more interesting, this knife piece. I'm waiting to hear of its significance. When it was passed to Reut Ben-Arye, the head archaeologist, she came back very excited and asked who had found it. "ME!" I happily said.

Will I volunteer again? I hope so, Gd willing.