At first glance, I will admit that the archaeology which we practice on a day to day basis at Antiochia may seem a bit mundane. After all, digging up dirt in warm weather is probably not what most would call their “ideal summer”. A further lack of understanding due to popular depictions of “archaeologists”, especially in films, might make our work seem weirdly both fantastical and trivial to an observing audience. On the contrary however, the archeology we practice is all about mysteries, and our work is unraveling them. Take for instance, the area that I and my teammates have spent the past weeks excavating. As it turns out, despite our initial assumption that we were excavating a cistern, (due to its round shape), it is in fact a lime kiln. The process of discovering this was not simple, and involved taking layers of earth and rock from the site, recording their elevations, and collecting significant matter we find along the way, most frequently pottery sherds. We did this to ensure that we have clues and context, formed through the fact that deeper earth and rock is generally older, and also dating and evaluating objects we find. These not only allow us to piece together a history for our site, but also allow us to see critical differences between both layers as well as different areas of the site, often representing changing time periods or significant events. For instance, our first sign that our kiln was in fact a kiln came when we hit a layer of ash on one side of the inner circle, leading to new speculation over the area’s purpose. The obvious differences between this ash layer and previous layers signaled to us that some event must have taken place to form this ash, whether purposeful (burning marble into lime), accidental (the roof burning and falling into the site), or coincidental (a shepherd making camp in the abandoned pit one night). Only by continuing our investigations could we eventually figure out which of these scenarios was in fact correct. This constant pursuit of answers, or as close as we can get to them, is ultimately what archeology is all about. And when there is a good mystery to solve, digging up a little dirt to find the truth isn’t that bad after all.