Welcome back, dear Dinosaur!

As Cameron already mentioned, today was cistern diving day, and I was excited! There's not that much to get excited about - it's just a big hole in the ground, with air that is even warmer and more humid than what we are surviving everyday on the top of the mountain, but for some reason it is fun. I am pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that I have a dinosaur headlamp (it actually roars when turned on) that I used 3 years ago and have been trying to convince Dr. Schuler to use ever since. It's a game: I get excited about the cistern and announce that I have my lamp if he needs it, and he rolls his eyes, shakes his head and says, "I am not wearing that." So I wear it, make it into a bigger deal than it needs to be and we giggle about it a little. Really, it has sentimental value to the first cistern I went down and the first reaction I got from Dr. Schuler when I finally unveiled the Jurassic headgear - it is the dinosaur's second trip to Israel, and although I know I will never win the "wear this, Sir" game - it doesn't mean I won't play.

I'd like to continue by telling you how absolutely amazing a cistern is and that there was actually a tunnel and caves and bones and gold and all kinds of other amazing finds, but it really is just a hole with a lot of dirt in the bottom. It is dark, the plaster is falling off the walls, and the walls are very lumpy. It is just fun to go down a hole using a rope ladder on an archaeological site.

This is one of the fun parts - things being lowered down via rope. In this case, my drawing board is coming down so I can take measurements and draw a floor plan and a profile of what the cistern looks like. It is one of the "perks" of being the illustrator - I was the second one who got to go down because I had to in order to draw it!

HELLO!!!

Awwww - isn't it cute?! Cameron and me in a cistern together all sweaty and dirty! Sweet!

Only 2 days left, and seeing as how digging and drawing are both slowing down, I will only be going up the mountain for the first part of the morning tomorrow so that I can come back and have time to finish my final drawings. I will be putting up pictures of the oil lamps I am drawing (and explaining more about them) and will show you a picture of a finished drawing so that you can see what I do here, so stay tuned!