It feels almost instinctual that the first order of business, before the sun even begins to beat down, is to lift and place shade cloths over the open squares. People begin to scatter to their respective spaces as the area supervisor, makes the necessary adjustments for the day and communicates with the square supervisors. Seamless rotations of who is picking and who is cleaning allow for needed water breaks as the level of ground slowly lowers. As we dig, our eyes become better at spotting the indicative sherds from the body sherds. A sharp jar goes up my elbow as I hit the stone that will be the first evidence of a wall cutting straight through our square. A loud voice breaks us from the focus, and everyone grabs their preferred breakfast items knowing what will sit well with still four more hours of digging. As I work with a patishe, I listen to the conversation of the Dig Director, area supervisor, and my square supervisor about the pattern of the walls and where we will need to open a new square. I check my watch and with not much time left to dig in the day I swiftly switch to sweeping the square starting in a corner to move cohesively with the others in my unit. What I thought was bedrock on day one I now know to be the packed dirt we will remove tomorrow. Many hands make the end of the day move faster as we organize tools, lower shade cloths, and pack up the cars. The drive back to the kibbutz involves more singing of childhood songs, laughing at inside jokes, and wistful longings of a post-dig ice cream.