Breakfasts on the Tel

  Megiddo, Israel
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

When the breakfast call goes out at 8:30, we're usually very hungry, and very ready for a break. We tramp down the hill to the park buildings to an area shaded by trees, with numerous picnic tables. A long line of tables is set with breakfast. The line forms quickly. We pick up very thin plastic plates and ware. The plates are so thin we have to be careful not to lose food off one side of them as they are filled. First to come along are the ubiquitous raw vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, mixed together. Next up: hard boiled eggs. Most of us hunt for eggs that don't have broken shells. When those are gone, the next choice is those with the least broken shells, which selection continues until there are no more.
 
Then come choices between several kinds of sandwiches on hot-dog-like buns. The choices are usually tuna, cheese, or chocolate spread.  Some of us like to combine the above mentioned ingredients, making cheese, egg, tomato and onion sandwiches, which with a little salt and pepper are particularly good (in this author's opinion at any rate). Very small servings of cornflakes come next in small plastic containers with sealed lids. Plastic bags full of milk stand in plastic pitchers next to the cereal. The corners of the plastic bags are clipped so the milk can be poured out of the pitchers into the cereal containers which are then resealed to be carried to the tables. Last on the tables is fruit of some kind: plums, peaches and the like.
 
On a separate table some distance away are the hot drinks. There is a large electric coffee urn that keeps water boiling. One may choose tea, and two kinds of coffee: Middle Eastern and instant. Instant coffee is instant coffee all over the world. Middle Eastern coffee, on the other hand, is ground very fine, and poured directly into the cup without being filtered. Gravity pulls the fine grind down to the bottom of the cup, and the coffee is strong and delicious. One must take care, however, with this kind not to drink down to the very bottom of the cup, or the result is a mouthful of coffee sludge, which is quite unpleasant and remarkably difficult to entirely clear from one's mouth (someone told me about this you understand, I don't know from personal experience...). This mistake is not normally made more than once.
 
We drink the tap water, which I feared at first might cause a little distress in the lower digestive tract. We all seem to have adjusted right away however, and it is agreeing with us just fine. There is also a red-dyed, sweetened and flavored water available from a cooler, which has no nutritive or electrolyte value, but which appears to be rather habit-forming nonetheless.
 
One or two fellows are a bit ostentatious with their bottles of beer at 08:30, but as long as the digging gets done, Israel (or at least this dig) seems to be free and tolerant.
 
We sit at the different tables, mixing differently from day to day. It is quite an eclectic group and many languages are heard, though English is in the majority.

Breakfast at Megiddo

We also have pockets of Hebrew of course; there are Israeli supervisors and volunteers both. There is a small band of French-speakers, some full-fledged archeologists and some volunteer excavators. We also hear German, Italian, and even, if my ear is accurate, a bit of Chinese now and again. Professor Israel Finkelstein, the dig director, is Israeli and a native Hebrew speaker, but also speaks English and French very well.
 
Around 8:30 Professor Norma Franklin, who has lived in Israel for over 20 years and dug at Megiddo for about as long, but never lost her English accent, stands to make announcements. They include reminders about the evening classes and lectures, congratulations on birthdays, welcoming visitors and other such information. Then it is time to head back up the Tel to resume work. Some excavators head off quickly to the clean and luxurious bathrooms of the park service, so as to avoid having to use the plastic porta-potties up near the dig grids.
 
Walking up the Tel on a full stomach is a bit more challenging than walking down on an empty one. But after some huffing and puffing, and self-examination we arrive back at our work zones. By 09:30 the work of uncovering the fascinating history of Megiddo has begun again.