Baha’i’s Most Holy Place

What would it be like if followers of Jesus, who walk the Way and live filled with Godโ€™s love and grace by His indwelling Spirit, were to embrace what that really means?

A Startling Image

Inside, we saw many of the kinds of things we've been digging up in Akko, amphorae, giant storage jars, ancient glass, and all kinds of pottery. We also saw finds from other local sites, and this one arrested my attention mid-step: Inside, we saw many of the kinds of things we've been digging up in Akko, amphorae, giant storage jars, ancient glass, and all kinds of pottery. We also saw finds from other local sites, and this one arrested my attention mid-step:

Mary of Magdala

Refusing to abandon Jesus in His darkest hour, all four Gospel accounts describe Mary of Magdalaโ€™s faithfulness and courage, remaining with Jesus, at the foot of His cross, until His death. She had accompanied Jesus and those who had come to know and love Him, on His way to Jerusalem for the last time, to celebrate the Feast of Passover.

Synergy

I canโ€™t publish the actual arrowhead, but this picture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art [CC0] is a pretty close facsimile. Evidently, arrowhead technology remained pretty steady for a good twelve or thirteen hundred years in the middle east and Europe.

The Crusades

As I sit here typing, the Muslim call to prayers is being sung in the minarets throughout Akko, and I think about those who are devoted to Allah, spreading their prayer rugs, standing, then bowing, then prostrating themselves toward Mecca, touching their foreheads to the ground in humility, saying โ€œrabbanฤ laka al-แธฅamd,โ€ meaning "O Lord, all praise is for you."

May This Never End…

As I listened to Rebekah's hauntingly beautiful voice, sitting in Zippori's open-air amphitheater, I closed my eyes, felt the heat of Israel's sun, and the soft current of Israel's breeze on my skin.

What Is It?

This morning, as we were sweeping the "top soil" off of an area in the excavation being prepared for pictures and measuring, a small, white chip caught my eye. Ordinarily, top soil is considered detritus, because it has no provenance. It could really have been swept in from basically anywhere on the site, and because it's at the top, it has long since been separated from the time layer it originally belonged to.

“Joanna! Look Here!”

My asthma had gotten the better of me yesterday--combination of lots of dust, hot sun, and exertion. So, today I stayed in the lab, and learned how to inscribe the pottery artifacts.

Akko, Israel

(Commentary on Genesis 6-11 will begin after these posts on the Tel Akko July 2019 Total Archaeology Excavation. Today's post was actually written June 29, 2019)