Week one has certainly been an adventure. I have gotten pricked and scratched by what seems like every plant on the hill. I have been working in the two trenches that have been created by the temple. Before we could do anything with the them, they first needed to be cleared of all plants that called that rough patch of dirt home. These plants did everything they could to resist our enthusiastic attempts of removing them. By using clippers, picks, and very thick gloves we were able to hack and clip the prickly plants and removed all the green from the new trench. It was difficult to do this as many of the plants we were removing were located on the ancient wall that we are to be excavating, and had snaked their roots throughout the wall. I was mainly working on the northern trench, which took two days to completely clear. We then started removing the top soil layer which is the first 8cm of soil from the trench. To do this we are using the scratch and pull method with picks to clear that layer off. I found a nail in this layer! We also found pieces of glass and another nail. With all the prickly plants gone and the top soil layer almost finished, I am looking forward to continuing the excavation and seeing what we can find.
