Jeanne Ormsby on sun 23 mar 03
My husband is a volunteer at the National Museum of Natural History. He
let me know about a project at Natural History, and I went and visited with
the archeologist, Gus Van Beek. In the 70's Gus excavated ancient
granaries in the Gaza area, and sifted and saved every shard, piece of
bone, etc. Packed it all up and brought it back to the Smithsonian. Ever
since, volunteers have been putting the pieces back together. Almost all
of the pieces are functional, not decorative--but there are pieces of what
are called Assyrian Palace Ware(when the Assyrians conquered the area, they
brought their own potters to make "proper" dishes using local clay). Some
pieces go back to the time of the Patriarchs. The area was a crossroads
and continuously occupied for millenia. Gus showed me how the shape of
storage jars evolved over time, to make carrying them easier, and so they
would use up less space. I have the feeling you could pick Gus' brain for
hours--just pick up a pot and start asking questions.
Gus is also an authority on mud brick and rammed earth construction
throughout the world. The granaries were originally two story living
quarters built from mud bricks.
Gus is willing to give tours during the week day. If you are interested in
doing this, please email me off list at:
jeanne.ormsby@verizon.net
And, if anyone likes to do jig saw puzzles, Gus and his gang are always
looking for volunteers! If you are looking for volunteer opportunities, my
husband can attest to the variety of opportunities at the Smithsonian, the
wonderful staff there, and how well they treat their volunteers.
Anyway, let me know if you are interested and if we have enough people, we
can maybe do this in May before it gets too crowded at the museum. We
could do the tour and eat at the cafeteria, similar to the trek to the
Freer a couple of years ago.
Jeanne
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