Digging @ Ashkelon: Post 2

Sifting is a process of great importance to the archaeological endeavor. After removing dirt and placing it in a floppy pail (called a goofa), excavators must sift through the dirt to see if there are any remains that may have been missed. Excavators are always placing pottery sherds and bones into buckets designated for the area where they are working. Beyond this there is a ratio of sifting corresponding to the importance of the area where they are working. For example in general fill material the sifting ratio may be 5:1 or 7:1. This would mean that of five buckets of material collected only one would need sifting. In more important areas the sifting may be more focused such as 3:1 or as I was doing on Thursday 1:1! The 1:1 sift is time consuming as one can imagine how quickly a bucket can be filled with dirt. Then after it is filled it must be sifted.

The sifting process is the dumping of a bucket into a sift (a hanging box with wire to allow small material to pass through, leaving only larger chunks to be observed). At the grid I am working in (Grid 38) we have two sifts that hang from a tree and are almost constantly in use. After shaking the sift to reveal the larger chunks that remain, I look through sherds of pottery and bone fragments to be taken back to my areas processing bucket.

Additionally, we also do fine sifting in cases where especially small material culture may be expected. On Thursday I was working in a peculiar room that as of yet is fully identified. We have found hundreds of tiny, multi-color beads in this particular room. I have the privilege of finding a handful of beads on Thursday that would have been strung on a necklace of some sort. The process of finding them involved this fine sifting that does demand a large portion of time. The rich benefit of the time is a step closing in understanding the function of the room in the daily life of the Philistines, who occupied this place.It is overwhelming at points to be looking at walls and floors and touching beads and other objects that a Philistine used back in 1100-1200 BCE.

An Ashkelon Biblical Tidbit:
Check out Joshua 1:1-3 and Judges 1:18-19. These verses first look to be in contradiction, but when read carefully it is interesting to see the perspectival differences of each. Judges seems to show a contradiction with Joshua in verse 18, but verse 19 explains the plains (where Ashkelon is) could not be captured due to a superior cultural/military ability of the Philistines.