Legio X

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Isn't she beautiful?!
And to think, she is just a terracotta antefix.
Made by the Romans here in Jerusalem between the 1st and 3rd centuries of the Common Era.

Our lovely mask-shaped roof edge decoration--or antefix--was used like this, on the covering tiles of a tiled roof.

But the reason this post is going to ABC Wednesday's X-day is because of what is stamped on these old tiles:
LEG X FRE which means TENTH ROMAN LEGION, FRENTENSIS.
When the Tenth Legion, stationed in Jerusalem, was not engaged in destroying the city it was busy building up the infrastructure of the area.

As the exhibit is described in the Israel Museum

In peacetime, Roman soldiers were employed in public works.
The most hated of these were the back-breaking construction projects: paving roads and building fortresses, walls, dams, and aqueducts.
The legions would record their labors for posterity with Latin inscriptions carved in stone.
The produced their own building materials in special workshops, stamping them with military symbols to prevent their sale on the open market.

The tiles shown above were made at the kilns discovered (and preserved!) under what is today Jerusalem's International Convention Center.
Notice the sandal-print of a poor Roman soldier who goofed and stepped on the tile as it was drying!

Here is another Roman numeral X.
The limestone stone reads LEG X FRE COH IIX.
It is the inscription of the Eighth Cohort of the Tenth Legion Frentensis.
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(For more about Jerusalem's Roman history you can click on my labels Tenth Legion, Romans, Roman kiln, Roman pavement, Roman theater.
Or, see Wikipedia about Legio X Frentensis.)
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UPDATE: As Rob reminds me in a comment now, it was the Legio X Frentensis, headed by Peter O'Toole--oh, I mean Roman governor of Judea Lucius Flavius Silva--that laid siege to Masada in the years 72-3.
And also that the Tenth Legion had a garrison at the present-day Arab village of Abu Ghosh, just outside Jerusalem. They chose to build a fortress there because it was close to the Roman road going from Emmaus to Jerusalem.
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Pottery, like puzzle pieces

 P is the letter of the day at ABC Wednesday. Have a look; it's fun.

 

Pre-dawn, or at least pre-sunrise, is when we start work at summer digs in Israel.

 

Potter's mark! I was lucky here; it is rare to find a potsherd bearing the mark of the potter himself. More than 4,000 years old, it is.

Back at camp, pottery-washing involves scrubbing hard with water and a nailbrush. It's also a good social hour for the volunteers.

Eventually the bags and bags of finds are brought to the laboratory in Jerusalem.

 

Pottery restoration takes patience, good memory, diligence, and skill.

 

The way my friend Gabi pieces the pieces back together is an art!

 

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 UPDATE: If you like antiquities, don't miss Meead's new post about the legend of Serach bat Asher and her place in Persia.

Dig and ye shall find

Back by popular demand--archaeology.
Our latest dig, at a Canaanite burial ground in what is today Jerusalem, has turned out to be rich in finds, mainly clay vessels, human and animal bones and teeth, and a few artifacts (posted earlier here).
Here are some of the most interesting examples of the Middle Bronze Age pottery.

Yes, sometimes you just have to carefully poke with Phillips screwdrivers. And patience.



You feel pride and excitement in succeeding to bring out a perfect, unbroken 4,000-year-old juglet.

Whatever was placed in the pithos (food, for example) when it was buried along with the dead, as provisions for the journey, is gone now. Replaced by earth usually.

I got to empty one pithos, like this man is doing above, very carefully and slowly.
Finally I had to stick my arm in to reach the last of the dirt. A funny feeling, not seeing or knowing what might be hidden in there--something that bites maybe?!
I had to search each handful and found tiny little bones, of a mouse probably.

Two emptied, brushed, tagged pithoi and one happy young excavator.

Canaanite cemetery

Welcome to our bloggers' ABC Wednesday, today featuring words beginning with letter C.

In connection to the excavations where I've been working for a few months, we have already talked about cranes, our container storeroom, a cat, and a cow's tooth.
Today we add a cheerful element of the workplace:

CAMARADERIE!

Issa, Abu Kamal, Abu Samer, and Yusef--four of my thirty workmates.

"C" is also for CANAANITE vessels in a burial CAVE.
Here Rahed has just discovered some Middle Bronze Age pottery quite high up in his cave.

By the end of the day (Monday) he had discovered ten (!) jugs in that one little area.

Before we removed them, our director, archaeologist Zvi, used the big camera to shoot the official photo of the finds.

The Canaanites lived in the land more than 4,000 years ago.

R is for reconstruction (ABC Part 6)

Restoration

Mary's Spring in the old village of Ein Kerem.

When a historic building has to be moved to a new location, it is taken apart stone by stone and then put together again. In Hebrew this process is called "shiatuk." Reconstruction in English?


Restoration of ancient pottery in the lab.
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A unique pot

Somebody in Bet HaKerem had a lot of glue and a lot of patience.