Thoughts from Heathrow

It's 4:30 a.m., GMT, and a cast of thousands grumbles or sleeps its way through the night. Having spent the last 3 hours sleeping uncomfortably on an unpadded bench not well suited for a recumbent form, I am empathetic with those who continue to try to sleep.

I'm on my way back home. How did this happen, since the last time I slept overnight at Heathrow I vowed never to repeat the performance? Well, a series of unfortunate events conspired against my resolve.

The triggering event was a large storm that moved over Britain and on across the continent. This storm brought with it torrential rains, including a ½ hour gully washer that flooded all runways at Heathrow. As a result, flight operations at Heathrow were shut down completely for 3 hours. As a result of this 3 hour delay, all the planes that had not departed stayed in their bays. This gave no room for any incoming planes once flight operations resumed. Flights from overseas were allowed to land after the worst of the flooding had subsided, but they were stranded in queues on the tarmac.

Our flight arrived at 9 p.m., only ½ hour late, but it was 10:30 before the plane came to a final stop, and a half hour after that that busses arrived to transport us to the Terminal. At midnight, the serpentine queue that led to British customs had dwindled and I finally passed through. It was better in the queue, where I struck up a conversation with a woman and her son from Los Angeles. Another half hour retrieving luggage from amidst the hundreds of pieces of baggage, and I was ready to stake out a spot for sleeping. What impudent optimism! Yes, I am able to find a bench with a free seat, surrounded by a Dutch couple on one side and a large group of oriental people on the other (Korean? I can't tell the difference in the various oriental languages.) The Dutch couple appear to be able to drift off to sleep, but my other neighbors are happily chattering away, a cold draft chilled me whenever the nearby outside door was opened, and I seemed unable to squirm into a comfortable position between the seat, my daypack, laptop bag and the small suitcase.

About 3 a.m., I admit defeat, and move to the next floor up, taking the opportunity to change out of short sleeve shirt and cargo shorts into long sleeve shirt and pants. I curl up on the floor of an airport pub, and get a few winks in before waking up briefly, starting the above paragraph, and then lapsing back into oblivion. Sleep deprivation from the previous 6 weeks hits with a vengeance, and I fall asleep while in mid-sentence.

6 a.m., and I am startled awake by the announcement made by the manager of the pub in which I'm sleeping that the pub opens in ½ hour and everyone needs to get up and out. The dozen or so people who have taken refuge here join me in bleary-eyed exile, stumbling toward washrooms to freshen up. By 7 a.m. I am queueing up for American Airlines' check-in. I have joined half of the free world in this queue - by 7:30 we have barely moved ¼ of the distance to the counter. But as more employees stream in, the line starts going faster, and by 8:30, I'm through the line and on my way to the security check.

I pick up a copy of the last Harry Potter, and start reading it in line for security, get told that I need to drop out of the line until just two hours prior to my flight, get back in line at 9:30, spend the next 2 hours reading H.P. and glancing up at the departure information monitor every 3 minutes to find out which gate the flight departs from. 15 minutes before scheduled departure, gate 13 shows up on the monitor. With only the briefest reflection on how appropriate the flight number is, I go through yet another security and passport check, and our flight leaves at 12:40, only an hour behind schedule. Almost immediately, I fall asleep, and wake up somewhere over the Atlantic near Iceland, watch a movie , fall asleep, read H.P., fall asleep …

Jeanne picks me up at LAX , and two and a half hours later, I'm surrounded by my family, home at last.

Officially done for the year!

Well, it's over for now.
A gazillion backups have been done to CD, thumb drive, and two separate computers;
All the computer stuff I'm not bringing home has been packed up for storage. My suitcase is filled to the brim so that I worry a bit about the zippers popping open, and I'm just about ready to shut down the computers, which is my final task before going off to the airport.

Ron, Connie and Madeleine Tappy left this morning, Erin and I will hitch a ride with Ronen to Tel Aviv today at noon, Sherry goes back home this afternoon. I'm feeling pretty much sleep-deprived, and I hope I will be able to get sufficient sleep on the flights home.

The blogging this season has been what Barbara would call 'miserable miniscule scraps', and I hope to make it up by doing some reflection about the experience later.

The final numbers are in:

We have now passed the 'All Pottery Entered' milestone, and I have the final numbers:

Item	Quantity
Loci	227
Buckets	573
Guphas	7299
MC Readings	894
Pottery Readings	5447
Pottery Sherds	72178

Comparing with last year's numbers,

• MC Readings are up 89%,
  
• Pottery Readings are up 153%, and
  
• Total Pottery Sherds are up 269%
  

Zeitah data milestone

When proceeding through the dig season, I am aware of many notable milestones:

1. First day of 'real excavation' (as opposed to cleaning off weeds from the off-season)
2. First Pottery Reading Sheets entered into the database
3. First Material Culture log entries entered into the database
4. First report created of the bucket readings
5. The "end of third week" doldrums
6. Delivering the Lecture on Archaeological Computing
7. Last day of excavation
8. Last day the volunteers are with us
9. All Material Culture logs entered
10. All Locus Sheets scanned and entered
11. All Registered Pottery Drawings scanned and associated
12. All Registered Pottery Sheets scanned and entered
13. Final Bucket reports distributed
14. Final MC reports distributed
15. All Pottery Reading Sheets entered
16. Pottery percentage reports created
17. Final report on computing submitted
18. Final Backups
19. Packing up
    

We are now at milestone 14. This is actually a pretty good place to be now: I figure we're one day ahead of my previous years' schedule, mainly due to the help of Joanna, Madeleine, Helen and Jessie. We have 40 Pottery Reading Sheets left to enter, 21 Registered pottery descriptions (3 pages each), and then a bunch of scanning (about 15 Top Plans and a Section Drawing, and the final Locus and Bucket summary sheets for each of the remaining 4 squares.)

I will need to do some data analysis and generating the factual portion of my report (spreadsheets, databases, etc) and then think about recommendations for next year for my verbal report.

Back to work - hoping to pass milestone 15 shortly!

John

Jerusalem Pictures

Here are some pictures of my weekend in Jerusalem and Herodion.
More on the actual trip coming up...

Busy, but happy

Well, I don't really have time to blog any of my thoughts, but here's a spreadsheet that illustrates that I and my team of data entry people have been busy:

Year	1999	2000	2001	2004	2005	2007*
# of Squares	8	6	7	4	3	5
Square meters	648	486	567	324	243	405
Loci	254	183	306	209	265	216
Buckets	840	530	906	548	317	538
Guphas	22725	9111	15574	9612	3441	5240
MC readings	1151	590	1407	754	472	761
Pottery readings	4910	4381	4663	2885	2149	3671
Pottery sherds	50261	38167	44939	36109	19563	45723
Photo (Mb)	151	141	417	742	556	995
Top Plans	160	120	140	80	60	100
Per 100 sq. m
Loci	39	38	54	65	109	53
Buckets	130	109	160	169	130	133
Guphas	3507	1875	2747	2967	1416	1294
MC readings	178	121	248	233	194	188
Pottery readings	758	901	822	890	884	906
Pottery sherds	7756	7853	7926	11145	8051	11290

Kibbutz impressions

Today I had these impressions about the Kibbutz and the excavation:

Cloudy, cool morning;
Clear blue sky afternoon;
Soft, gentle evening;
Full moon and planets vying for attention.

concrete tiles, 10cm on a side, on the floor of the room;
buildings built with such random orientation one wonders if a compass has found its way here;

cooing of mourning doves throughout the day, a virtual cacophany of calls in the early morning;
blue, cool water in the pool contrasting with the heat of the day;
playing basketball in the pool;

the crunch of white gravel under the feet as I jog around the kibbutz permiter;
the ironic strains of 'A Man of Sorrows' from Handel's Messiah drifting up from the Pizza barn as I jog past;
Dolly Parton remixed with a Techno beat at the Friday party;
Bob Dylan turned Israeli rasping out his best hits in Hebrew;

Little dogs, big dogs, cute dogs, ugly dogs, dogs that yap, dogs that yawn in the hot shade;
New paint, peeling paint, paint that begins to fade;

Schnitzel at noon, schnitzel at night - I couldn't eat another bite;
Dining hall food - workaday stuff; Guest house food - not so bad; Bistro food - how does he do that in that tiny kitchen?
If it's Saturday, it must be Bistro.

Afternoon naps, late night parties, cards at the tables outside after Shabbat meal;
Conversations with friends, taking a ribbing for my cushy job, unintentional segregation, bonding.
Intellectuals debating textual criticism, guys sharpening knives and drinking beer while watching NASCAR;

Snoring roommates; waking up before dawn;
The 3rd week depression; frayed nerves snap, friends growl;

Questions about pottery, unintelligible writing,
'The Routine': backups, entering Loci, Buckets, Pottery lines and Material Culture lines.
The yearly discussion with either Barbara or Sherry about classification schemata.

The two paths to the dining hall: shortest and most shade;
Scooters, bikes, 3-wheeled 'chariots', golf carts, tractors, strange small cars, the vans;

IMing and emailing and blogging to keep in touch;
It never really seems real, much
as I may try.

Half-done with the season - knowing the tsunami still awaits.

Note to the reader: This post is intentionally unedited and stream of consciousness. To make sense of it would be a contradition in terms. It was written at the beginning of the last half of the season, which should be sufficient to explain it.