Dancing at the dig site

.
The month-long fall season of our excavation in Tiberias ended last week.
On Thursday we were digging from 5:30 until 13:00, then a little snack and several hours of pottery washing. We rushed back to the hotel for a quick shower, then walked back to the site for our evening FAREWELL PARTY.

Roi, the dig administrator, took on the role of Grill Master. Hot dogs, chicken wings, and skewers of meat and chicken hearts.
The portable gas-fed Weber grill worked wonders.

There was lots of posing, e.g. my area supervisor Asaf and me.

Our very young and capable staff: Katia, Shulamit, Yuli, and Asaf.

The men are the paid workers, Bedouin from northern Israel.

Dig director Dr. Katia Cytryn-Silverman presented a certificate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to each volunteer.

After the meat, salads, pita, humus, tehina, wine, beer, and Coke, this volunteer married couple brought out a birthday cake.

The younger Bedouin gathered off to the side. One man sang while another played a double flute-type instrument that has been know in the Middle East since antiquity.

The flute sounded like a bagpipe minus the bag.
Click on the photo and you'll see the boy's cheeks full of air.

The old-time music really got our blood racing! Everyone was clapping to the beat and the Bedouin danced the debka.

Here is a very short video for you to get an idea of the music. Like it?

.

T-i-m-b-e-r !

.
As you may have surmised, we completed the archaeological excavation a few weeks ago. It is good to have some time off before the next dig starts. It is still so hot; summer goes on and on. But for the sake of closure, here are some scenes from the final day.

What we did was the required salvage dig before construction of yet another highrise apartment building could start. The building contractor, anxious to begin, wasted no time in sending in his crew to cut down the one tree we had on the site.


The thick limbs were sawed up and carted away as firewood.

Our shade netting had been taken down and then the shade of the tree was also gone.
The direct sun was SO hot as we raised clouds of dust, sweeping clean every meter of rock with broom heads.
Stone always has to be swept clean before archaeologists take the final photos.

By noon our guys were literally dancing with joy that our work was at an end.

Debka

The debka is a lively Arab folk dance with lots of bouncing and stomping. Darajat has its own debka troupe. Here their teacher leads them through the steps in the school yard.

The next day the youngsters performed for us.

Males and females may dance the debka but traditionally, they do so in separate groups.

Here they are not only dancing together but also holding hands! Well, Darajat is a very progressive village in many ways.

The small boy in front is the raas, the head of the group, a good leader.

You'd never know it was a chamsin, with 100 degree heat. The young people went on jumping with boundless energy, enjoying themselves.

The pride of the dance troupe and of the villagers watching them was very moving in itself.
I tried hard to restrain my happy-tears. BRAVO!
.