Moral Support?

Anyone want to give me some moral support as I try to finish this thesis up through the wee hours of dawn? Or should I just go to bed and do the rest tomorrow? I still need most of a chapter 5, though I have part of a chapter 3 now.

abstract!!!

Edit: Take 2
What is purity? Anthropologists have only started to investigate this question within the past century. Most work on this subject comes in the form of ethnographical studies of living cultures. But what about purity in the past? Can we study this from an archaeological perspective? Thus far, this is something that has rarely been attempted by archaeologists, although it certsainly is possible. This thesis addresses the problem of the lack of attention paid by archaeologists to purity, and attempts to rectify the situation by creating an archaeology of purity that can be used universally.

Beyond that, this thesis uses Judaism as a case study for the archaeology of purity. It addresses the question: what were purity beliefs and rituals in early Judaism, and how can we study this from an archaeological perspective? A look at the historical and archaeological evidence can provide us with a balanced picture. The historical evidence includes Jewish law, as well as extra-legal sources. The archaeological evidence is three miqva’ot (ritual baths) from ancient Palestine. After examining the evidence, we conclude that there is, in fact, heterodoxy in bathing practices in early Judaism.


How does that sound? It's 187 words, and the guidelines say the abstract should be 100-200 words. So this fits.

Chapter 5

I'm having major trouble with the analysis chapter of this thesis. The problem is that I'm having trouble looking at the sites as whole entities. Jerusalem itself is not contiguous as an excavation, because the dig was done in the old city, and not every area of the old city could be excavated, due to politics, construction, etc.

Problem 2 is the Hasmonean palaces. Here I have this tiny miqvah near the pools. But it turns out there were tons of miqva'ot in this winter palace complex. There was a large-sized one in the main palace itself. So what do I do with these multitude of pools considering I only look at Ritual Bath A(B)64 in my evidence section? Really I should be looking at every miqvah at every site. But I don't, because I don't have enough time to.

Maybe I'll edit CH.4 to reflect my new findings.

Anyone want to help me with ch 5? I still have 3 hours in which to finish this darn thing...

A newborn, premature and in neontal care, but he'll be fine

I handed something in. batshua is the most amazing person ever, for making me finish it and reading the thing.

If anyone wants to see Seth (my thesis) in his current form, let me know and give me an e-mail address to send it to (my comments are e-mailed to me so if you want to comment and delete, that's fine.)

I saw Ben on my way back, but he couldn't stop to talk. Which makes sense given that he's defending tomorrow.

I'm currently mashing. When I get out I could either celebrate or sleep. Anyone want to celebrate? I have wine and/or Godiva liquor...

And tomorrow I get to play the fun game of catch-up. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.