Day Five

Tel Shimron and the Mystery of the Missing Shade Cloth. Or, what happens to a shade cloth when there is really strong wind…

Weekends are for travel, bookwork, catching up on all the sleep we don’t get during the week, and, sometimes, chasing down a missing shade cloth. Yesterday afternoon a group of supervisors headed to the field after the guard called to say the shade cloth from Grid 23/24 had gone sailing into the trees.

Grid 23/24

At first, it was thought the shade cloth had flown south into the trees on the southern edge of the site or worse, into the stand of protected acacia trees just beyond the limits of Tel Shimron. Fortunately, after scanning the site, supervisors realized the shade cloth had flown northeast to the top of the tel. In fact, they soon realized it wasn’t just the shade cloth that had taken flight—the wind was so strong it took the shade cloth as well as twelve of the poles that are supposed to hold it down along for the ride.

Grid 23/24 shade cloth stuck in the trees at the top of Tel Shimron

Up into the thorny plants they went and for the next hour or so, with the help of the intrepid guard who climbed into the tree to dislodge the last bit of cloth, they worked to retrieve the shade cloth and get it back into the grid.

Shade cloth in a tree

Dislodging the shade cloth from the tree

Staff roll the shade cloth up the hill towards the ATV to load it up for its trip back to the grid

Grid 23/24

First thing in the morning, the shade cloth will go back up and we’ll get back to digging.