Here is another blog post. Not sure how, but I'm feeling up for writing another one immediately after writing the one yesterday. Who knows, maybe I'll write another one tomorrow? First, I want to wish Melissa (one of the participants/interns) a happy birthday today. This week we have very early mornings and late afternoons, so we were unable to truly party with her today. However, we were able to have a small celebration after dinner.
We started the day going to Haifa University to visit the Hecht Museum of Archaeology. This free museum is dedicated entirely to archaeology of Israel relating to the people of Israel. Almost all of their materials were found in Israel. It is similar in its goals to the Rockefeller Museum, but significantly better planned and executed. The museum looked new, well-kept, and was presented in an interesting way. It was really interesting to see their exhibit and compare it to what we saw at the Rockefeller. They also have a 2,400 year old shipwreck. After we were given a tour of the museum (the tour itself wasn't so interesting) the expert in waterlogged material conservation talked to us about the process of conserving, restoring and preserving waterlogged and marine material. He was the one who worked on the shipwreck and taught us everything there is to know about preserving marine archaeological material. We went into his lab where he does the conservation, and learned a lot from him. Then we headed back to Akko.
Back in Akko (after eating a quick lunch) we had another tour by the Israel Antiquities Authority, this time focusing on wood conservation around the city. Avner, the 'tour guide', did more than just talk about wood, though. He explained how different buildings had been constructed, repaired, and preserved over the last hundred years or so. We started in the Efendi Hotel, a gorgeous hotel inside a large Ottoman house. The entire inside was decorated with floral motifs made of wood carvings, most of which were originals from when it had been constructed. Of course it had been repaired and conserved, but a lot of it was original or modeled after the original. We then walked through other parts of Old Akko as Avner explained the conservation process of the wooden parts of the buildings. We walked into some of the buildings so he could show us examples of what he was explaining.It was really interesting to see that almost all of the buildings were constructed in the same way, had the same decorations, and were experiencing the same problems. The Efendi Hotel was one example that has been well conserved, but the decorations inside were the norm throughout the city. It would have been amazing to see the city two hundred years ago, when it was in much better condition.
As I mentioned in the beginning, today is Melissa's birthday. After dinner we made a semi-surprise celebration for her. Two of the girls prepared fondue for dessert and stuck candles in a watermelon. It was a nice and fun ending to a busy day.
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