Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 4, 1995 TAG: 9509060003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: STACY JONES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That is, if it weren't absolutely true.
The 40-year-old Bedford mother of two uncovered the foundation of a huge seaside temple built by Herod the Great, who was King of Judea just before the birth of Christ.
It happened while she was participating in an archaeological dig with her husband in Israel. The temple had been one of the key missing pieces in the decades-long excavation of the ancient Roman city of Caesarea Maritima and its harbor.
Admittedly a novice at the archaeology game, Hobson got involved mostly because of her husband, Greg, who was on his fourth dig in as many years. Currently employed as a sales rep for an exterminating company, Greg Hobson has plans to study for his doctorate in ancient history at the University of Maryland. He hopes to eventually become a professor.
``I was just coming along for the ride, and here I find this,'' laughed Diane Hobson. ``I feel really fortunate.''
``We were both in the trench digging,'' said Greg, wistfully. ``She just happened to be the one holding the pick at the time. Really, either one of us could have found it.''
For three weeks in May and June, the couple joined 83 other volunteers and staff members in the archaeological dig conducted by the Combined Caesarea Expeditions. The program, run jointly by the University of Maryland and Haifa University in Israel, enlists volunteers to spend from two to eight weeks excavating the Caesarea Maritima site, which is beside the Mediterranean Sea approximately 30 miles north of Tel Aviv.
Herod the Great built Caesarea between 22 B.C. and 10 B.C. to honor the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus. The city is important to both historians and archaeologists. It was where St. Paul the disciple was imprisoned by the Romans. It was the home of early Christian and Jewish writers and, much later, it was one of the places - according to legend - where European Crusaders searched for the Holy Grail.
The seaport was structurally advanced for its time. For example, Herod's workers were the first to use hydraulic cement, which hardens underwater, explained Greg Hobson.
The expedition is set up as a field school. Participants spend much of their time digging in trenches or washing and registering artifacts, though there remains ample time for lectures, workshops and independent travel.
The expedition was formed in 1972 with the goal of excavating all 8,000 acres of Caesarea Maritima. So far, about 30 acres have been unearthed. Most of the once-thriving harbor city, whose name means ``Caesar's City by the Sea,'' is now hidden beneath banana groves, palm trees and the Mediterranean Sea.
Diane Hobson, who works as a graphics coordinator in a financial consulting firm, went on her first dig in 1994. Despite her husband's raves about the experience, she was initially skeptical.
``When we got off the plane I was unimpressed by the surroundings,'' she recalled. ``I thought this is not the `land of milk and honey.' I was really underwhelmed.
``I thought, `I left my girls for this?'''
``Then she saw the site, walked past the Crusader walls and got a shot of the whole expedition,'' said Greg Hobson, 41, who works as volunteer coordinator for the expedition.
``I saw people of all nationalities working in the trenches. It reminded me of Indiana Jones,'' said Diane, who claims she was hooked from that moment on. At the site ``you could literally see the layers of the different civilizations. I told him [Greg] he was never going again without me.''
For Greg Hobson, the lure of the past caught hold of him as a child - and stuck.
``As long as I can remember, it's been in my blood,'' he explained. ``Instead of playing football and baseball like the other kids, I went out in the woods looking for arrowheads.''
But Hobson got sidetracked. Archaeology took a back seat to running his parent's pest-control business.
``My heart wasn't in it,'' he said. ``My heart was in archaeology.''
After his mother's death, he sold the business and focused again on his main interest.
``I was determined to go back after a 20-year lag,'' he said.
His achievements to date: two degrees, a working knowledge of Egyptian hieroglyphics and proficiency in Greek, Hebrew and Syriac (a language similar to Hebrew that is used in certain areas of Palestine).
Looking over the small living room of the couple's Bedford home, it's easy to guess where their passions lie. Pottery shards, glass, stones, coins and tile - mementos from Caesarea - fill two wooden shelves in a corner and are carefully labeled: ``Roman Period (63 B.C.-324 A.D)''; ``Byzantine Period''; ``Early Islamic Period''; ``Crusader Period.''
Diane Hobson's thirst for history now rivals her husband's. They speak of the past in mystical terms.
``When you uncover something, it's like a veil has lifted just long enough for you to grab a piece of history,'' said Diane. ``It's like a tease. It keeps you coming back.''
``When you find an artifact, you wonder how it got there, who used it, what were they like'' continued Greg. ``When you hear the sound of the surf you can hear the Romans walking around. It's like you're in another dimension.''
Biding their time until the next dig, the couple has returned to the normal routine of working and caring for their two daughters. But Diane Hobson's discovery remains big news in Israel and to expedition leaders.
``Now we're wondering who's going to play us in the movie,'' she joked.
by CNB