Yearning for Yarmouth

. For ABC Wednesday Y-Day, let's see some old pics from Yarmouth! . Tel Yarmouth is an Early Bronze Age site--that means from more that 4,000 years ago. The tel is in central Israel, not far from Beit Shemesh.

This photo is taken from the Yarmouth Facebook group's album.

. Sometimes, when they needed a photo of an important find in situ, right away, we volunteers (and some staff) would line up in a human wall and "make shade" over the object.

 

The best time for the expedition's photographer, though, would be right before sunrise.

Here the volunteers, most of them from France, wait for the Bedouin paid workers to put up the shade netting.

In my first season with the Yarmouth group, in 1993, we slept in big tents in the forest next to Emmaus, near Latrun.

In my 2006 and 2007 seasons, we were housed in spartan kibbutz housing.

Everything I needed was on, under, above, or next to my bunk bed.

Sleeping in the quiet forest was more fun. The bells of the Trappist monks at Latrun monastery were my alarm clock for 4:00 a.m. rising.

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The Yarmouth tradition was to have a nice glass of arak with ice after a hot day's work at the dig.

It was my first--and last--time to drink arak.

You never know what you're going to learn at a dig. :) It tastes quite good, actually.

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UPDATE 2020:  See all about Tel Yarmouth at Biblewalks.  

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