Camping in Ruins

Thursday of last week we went camping. It was fun. We camped in a soccer field. This was good because the fences kept the feral cows out of our way. No cow poop on us! It was extremely cold at night, but we didn't mind because we had zero-degree sleeping bags. Wool hats also helped.



For dinner, we didn't eat in tents. We ate with a family. Like many Georgian families, they had enormous trellises outside their house. Asa ate hundreds of grapes.



Instead of hiking, we went to see cool ruins. Here are Martin and Daniel standing in front of an old castle. The castle is 1200 years old.



We also went to Samtavisi church. King Vahktang Gorgosali ordered three churches to be built in ancient Georgia, in the fifth century. Samtavisi (literally head of the three) was built then. We joined Dato, an archaeologist who is excavating the site. He is helping the site to become a UNESCO world heritage site. He gave us spades and brushes and taught us to carefully dig into the walls. Monks and priests were buried in these walls--a great honor.



According to Dato, the original church was destroyed in a great earthquake in about 1000, and the current church was build in 1100. It is very large.


We found 1500-year-old knives.


We found lots of skeletons. Here, John and Michael are showing the jaw of a young man.

He had eight teeth on the right side and seven on the left. I think that this means that he was expecting another wisdom tooth, and was between the ages of 16 and 20. We were awed.


Asa excavates.