1996 Excavation Opportunities
Dig Scholarship Winners
BAR is again offering travel scholarships to those who wish to volunteer on a dig. Last year’s winners—Tina Buker, an elementary school art teacher in Washington, D.C., Heidi Cron, a master’s student in theological studies at Harvard Divinity School, and Yisrael Dubitsky, a Bible and library student—share their experiences with us.
The Riddle of el-Ahwat
Last summer’s dig at Tel el-Ahwat, 9 miles east of Caesarea, presented us with a puzzle: During the early Iron Age (c. 1200 B.C.E.), an unusually strong wall, measuring 13 feet wide by 33 feet high, surrounded el-Ahwat, the northwestern-most Israelite settlement in the region of Manasseh. No other Israelite city is known to have had such a wall in this period, when the Israelites were not at war. So why such a sturdy fortification?
“Maybe the city was a prison,” I suggested. “Maybe the wall was used to keep people in, rather than out.” Everyone laughed and told me that only an American would think of such an idea. I had to agree.
Zoo, leper colony … We continued to propose fantastic identifications for the city and to scour the Bible for passages to support our theories. Finally, we scratched all our thoughts and theories onto one sheet of paper, which we slid into the wall for the next explorer to decode.
Churning Dirt at Chersonesus
Bottlecaps and erasers, c. 1950. Those were my first finds at Chersonesus, Ukraine, an ancient port on the Black Sea. Founded around 422 B.C.E., this Greek city was occupied almost steadily until about 1100 C.E.
Because I had previously dug at Yodefat, Israel (also directed by the Chersonesus dig co-director Andrew Overman, of the University of Rochester), I was made an area supervisor and was assigned, along with several American and Ukrainian students, to excavate a square beneath a “street” running in front of a Byzantine basilica.
While our first probe, into an area containing fill from a previous excavation, told us mostly about what people drank here 45 years ago, we soon uncovered a strangely curved rock attached to a wall. According to Miron Zolotarev of the Chersonesus Archaeological Preserve, the stone was probably part of a Hellenistic winepress.
My experience in the Ukraine was beyond my expectations. Although I went with a casual interest in archaeology, I left with plans to incorporate what I learned into my graduate studies of sacred space and ritual. I look forward to returning next year.
Walking Into the Past
“I did not believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes that not even the half had been told me … ” (1 Kings 10:17).
Having read numerous articles on archaeology and the Bible, I was eager to see for myself what a formal expedition is like. Thanks to a BAR scholarship, I was privileged to spend this summer with the dig led by Amnon Ben-Tor at Hazor.
I was assigned to area M, on the northern edge of the upper city. This area, archaeologists believe, connected the lower and upper cities of Hazor, which were settled simultaneously from the Middle to Late Bronze periods. Indeed, this summer we unearthed basalt steps leading toward the upper city, confirming, to some at least, the accuracy of the theory. Knowing that one of the few cuneiform tablets found in Hazor was from area M, I hoped my spade (yes, we really use them!) would strike the long-awaited royal archive of Hazor. Luck of the spade, however, was not in my favor in this case. But a more incredible find was excavated right beside the steps: a huge basalt podium, which may have supported the legs of a throne. Perhaps a civic leader once sat here while collecting tolls from civilians wishing to visit the royal upper city. Most intriguing, from my traditional point of view, was a residue of burnt stone that covered this level. Might this be evidence of the destruction of Hazor recounted in Joshua 11?
The last day of the dig yielded the season’s biggest find: part of the first monumental statue(s?) ever found at a Biblical site in Israel. No, it wasn’t in my area and, because it was the last day, most of us volunteers didn’t even see it, but we all felt excited to have participated in such an important excavation. While the statue definitely “made” the day—and season—worthwhile, I am only more eager to return to Hazor to search for the lost archive.
BAR Dig Scholarships: Apply Now
If you would like to join a dig but cannot afford the travel costs, you are eligible for a $1,000 BAR scholarship. To apply, send us a letter describing yourself, your financial need and where and why you want to go. Be sure to include your address and phone number; the names, addresses and phone numbers of two references; and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Send your letter to BAR Dig Scholarships, 4710 41st Street, NW, Washington, DC 20016. The deadline is March 1, 1996.