By Friday afternoon, many of us were getting anxious to get off the kibbutz. One student had asked permission to take a walk outside the kibbutz, and the stipulation was that he go with a group of us. I was definitely willing to join him, and five of us set out at 3:00 p.m., heading for the nearby ruins of a Byzantine-period church. The dig director had told us how to get there by following the road, but we were up for a little more adventure and decided to make our own way over several hilltops in order to get there. The hills were steep and quite difficult at points, but we made it to the site without getting lost. There was not much left, but the view from the hill overlooking the ruins was great. On the way back, we followed the road, arriving at the kibbutz at around 6:00 p.m.

On Saturday, the dig director led a walking tour to some points of interest in the immediate vicinity of the kibbutz. Our first stop was the ruins of a Byzantine-period synagogue, which had been dismantled by the bedouin to make barriers for sheep-folds adjacent to a few caves next to the synagogue. We poked our heads in the caves but were warned not to go inside for fear of catching "cave fever," a legitimate illness that is contracted by being in caves in the region and is characterized by repeated bouts of fever. We also stopped by a massive Roman-period wine press, which indicates that the area was an important viticultural center around 2000 years ago.

Before returning to the kibbutz, we also peeked onto some Roman-Byzantine tombs carved into the hillside limestone. Bodies were allowed to decompose for the first year after an individual's death, and then the bones were taken and placed into a small ossuary or "bone box," which was placed into the cubby-holes in the walls of the tomb.

Apart from these walks, I did a little bit of reading this weekend, but mostly I slept, which tends to be the natural consequence of reading after a day in the hot sun here.