The first day of the second week, I came across my first significant find: a rock floor. Although the floor likely dates to the 20th century, it marks a huge relief for my team, who thought there would be no end to the rubble collapse. Still, the floor only covers the Southeast corner of the square, leaving the majority of the area packed with modern dirt fill. In the coming days, we’ll plow through it all in order to reach ancient soil. As rewarding as it felt to scrape my trowel along a level strip of rock, I won’t mind destroying the foundation in pursuit of 3rd century treasures, which (in my opinion) are long overdue.

Of course, there is a possibility that nothing interesting lies underneath this floor. If nothing else, this floor represents a tick-mark in the time scale from which we can safely conclude that everything underneath dates to a different, older age. The creators of this floor divided the soil for us, like strawberry filling on a clean layer cake. We just hope that there is indeed another (Byzantine) flavor underneath. I suppose we’ll soon find out.

Square 3,8, before I found the floor. The two stones at the base of the image are presumably ancient stone doors from the Byzantine period.