Archeological Dig - This makes my back hurt!

Over the last week I have been following on Facebook the daily experiences of a friend in Corinth Greece volunteering at an excavation site. The site is called the Lechaion Harbor Project (5th Century BC to 6th Century AD). We stopped near this site in 2021 and flew the drone over the remains of a large basilica. We did fly over the shoreline looking for harbor remains from above but could not see anything at that time. (Pictures below)

My friend’s experiences include a lot of digging and sifting. He also mentions information on the working shifts, heat and sand fleas. He has found a few tiny shards of tile, three pottery bits and a piece of charcoal. But today he found a coin! Coins can be very important in dating the layers of history that have accumulated over time.

Somehow I must confess that I probably had a more naive romanticized version of archeology. I have often thought of volunteering at a dig (and I think I still want to despite heat and sand fleas). Bugs seem to really like me!

I am sure there are many hot and physically demanding days with nothing to show for the work except a perfectly dug square hole (referred to by Mark lovingly as the “pit of despair”).

Some hard days, followed by some days of unearthing beautiful treasures that in very meaningful ways add to history and our understanding of the context of God’s people and the story of salvation.

Thanks be to God for the strong backs and dedicated servants who have gone before us and volunteer today!

My friend has mentioned some cool use of drones on site (this of course caught my attention) - I could see donating my drone services!! Please?! Send me. Send me.

Everything on site seems very technical, precise and scientific: ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography, drones for geolocation and elevation recording, and carbon 14 dating. But in the end it still comes down to dedicated work, a strong back and a lot of shoveling and sifting!

But really, sand fleas?

Mark:

https://www.facebook.com/mgvhoffman?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Lechaion Project

https://www.facebook.com/LechaionHarbourProject?mibextid=LQQJ4d