Our first week of our first campaign to Tel Lachish is over. Almost 30 volunteers and staff from 14 different countries and 3 continents began cleaning and excavation of David Ussishkin’s (Tel Aviv University) Area S on the western edge of the Tel. Here, the former expedition excavated down to Stratum S-3, dateable to the Late Bronze Age IIA. So far, we cleared two squares down to the Stratum S-3 walls and we will continue to go down in the next week. Our squares are in the capable hands of Ann-Kathrin Jeske and Vanessa Becker (both University of Vienna), while Lyndelle Webster (Austrian Academy of Sciences) is sampling the area for short-lived material suitable for radiocarbon dating. Week 1 also presented us with some nice imports and small finds, such as Cypriot White Slip Ware, Mycenaean pottery, some beads, and one possible Assyrian sling stone of the 701 BC siege by Sennacherib.
Photos by Jellie
Tracing Transformations 