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Ask almost anyone who has ever worked on a dig and they’ll tell you it was the experience of a lifetime. As we do in every January/February issue, we list here those digs looking for able-bodied and eager volunteers in the coming year. Whether you’re interested in ancient Israelite remains or early Christian sites, there is something here for you. The capsule descriptions below are followed by a chart listing contact information, and you’ll find more about these excavations (including links to their Web pages) on our Web page: www.biblicalarchaeology.org. Dig into this section so you can start digging for real!

Apollonia-Arsuf

Built on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean 9 miles north of Tel Aviv, Apollonia flourished from the 6th century B.C. to the 13th century A.D. and boasts a Crusader-era castle and a Roman-style villa with a peristyle courtyard surrounded by columns. This season dig directors Israel Roll and Oren Tal of Tel Aviv University, in conjunction with Katharina Galor of Brown University, plan to uncover more Roman and Byzantine remains south of the castle.

Bethsaida

“Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida” (John 1:44), and it was in Bethsaida that Jesus cured a blind man by spitting on his eyes and laying on his hands (Mark 8:22–25) and where he fed the multitude (Luke 9:10–15). Though an important Christian site, Bethsaida disappeared after its destruction by the Romans during the First Jewish Revolt (66-70 A.D.), not to be found again until the summer of 1987, when Rami Arav of the University of Nebraska at Omaha began excavating north of the Sea of Galilee. He uncovered a Hellenistic and Roman-era residential quarter; on a subsequent dig he and his team found an Iron Age city that contained the largest and best-preserved city gate yet discovered in Israel from that period. This season Arav and co-director Richard Freund of the University of Hartford will continue excavating the gate and the Hellenistic-Roman quarter.

Dan

The “House of David” inscription, which contains the only mention of David and his dynasty known outside the Bible, was discovered at this site at the foot of Mt. Hermon, 5 miles east of Kiryat Shemona, Israel. Dan was first settled in the fifth millennium B.C. and was inhabited as late as the Roman period. According to the Book of Judges, the city was the home of the Danites, one of the 12 tribes of Israel, who in the Iron Age migrated from the coast and conquered the Canaanites living in Dan (called Laish at the time). The Canaanites had erected a massive mud brick gate during the Middle Bronze Age that was still remarkably intact when discovered by famed archaeologist Avraham Biran in 1979. The gate, unfortunately, is now deteriorating and is one of the most endangered sites in Israel. This year’s dig, conducted by Hebrew Union College under the direction of David Ilan and Nili Fox, will concentrate on the Iron Age destruction level and the exposure of a neighborhood that was 029destroyed during the Babylonian invasion under Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.

Dor

“Solomon also had twelve district governors over all Israel, who supplied provisions for the king and the royal household. Each one had to provide supplies for one month in the year. These are their names: … Ben-Abinadab in the heights of Dor (he was married to Taphath, daughter of Solomon)” (1 Kings 4:7–8, 11). Tel Dor was King Solomon’s port city on the Mediterranean Sea and was occupied as early as the Middle Bronze Age. Located 15 miles south of Haifa, the Dor excavation has so far uncovered Iron Age gates, walls and monumental buildings and Hellenistic-Roman complexes and temples. The 2006 season will see continued work on structures from those eras. The dig is directed by Ilan Sharon of Hebrew University, successor to long-time director Ephraim Stern. The U.S. co-ordinators are Elizabeth Bloch-Smith of St. Joseph’s University (for the Bronze Age through the Assyrian period) and Andrew Stewart of the University of California at Berkeley (for the Persian through Roman periods).

Hazor

The head of the Canaanite kingdoms according to Joshua 11:10, Hazor was the only city that Joshua burned to the ground when he defeated the northern kings: “Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds—except Hazor, which Joshua burned” (Joshua 11:13). Hazor lies 20 miles north of the Sea of Galilee and is mentioned frequently in ancient texts until its destruction by the Assyrian ruler Tiglath-pileser III in 732 B.C. The site has an upper mound and a lower city; excavations so far have revealed 22 strata of occupation, with the earliest remains dating to the 18th century B.C. An impressive six-chamber city gate, usually attributed to King Solomon, is similar to gates at Megiddo and Gezer. (Hazor and Megiddo have recently been named World Heritage sites by UNESCO, as an honor that recognizes their cultural and historical importance.) The dig director is Sharon Zuckerman of the 030Hebrew University of Jerusalem, successor to longtime director Amnon Ben-Tor, and before him, Yigael Yadin. Zuckerman hopes to complete the excavation of the Bronze Age buildings on the acropolis and to find the Canaanite palace that is thought to be at the northern edge of the mound.

Hippos/Sussita

Just east of the Sea of Galilee, Hippos/Sussita is one of the Decapolis cities mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Excavations indicate that the site, which was founded during the Hellenistic period, was an important Roman-era town. The archaeologists so far have uncovered temples, fora, baths, a sacred enclosure and a decumanus maximus (the main east-west street in Roman cities). During the 2006 season, dig director Arthur Segal of Haifa University will continue to excavate the Roman remains.

Tel Kabri

The Middle Bronze and Iron Age site of Kabri was discovered in 1986 and yielded an imposing Canaanite fortress with an impressive, Minoan-style fresco. The death of one of the excavators brought the dig to a halt in the early 1990s, but last year new co-directors Assaf Yasur-Landau of Tel Aviv University and Eric H. Cline of the George Washington University renewed the dig; they re-excavated parts of the palace and found more of the frescoes and even a portion of what may have been an earlier palace. This summer the dig directors will expand their excavation of the palaces and hope to find the throne room. (For more on Kabri, see Cline and Yasur-Landau’s article on how to start a dig, “Your Career Is in Ruins.”)

Kedesh

Canaanite Kedesh threw its lot in with Hazor during Joshua’s battles against the northern kingdoms in the 12th century B.C. On the border of Israel and Lebanon, Tel Kedesh is about 7 miles south of Kiryat Shemona. Past seasons have unearthed a large administrative building with storerooms, an archive room and a bath complex with frescoed walls. Thousands of clay sealings (by far the largest such hoard ever discovered in Israel), which secured ancient documents, have also been uncovered here. The excavators, Sharon Herbert of the University of Michigan and Andrea Berlin of the University of Minnesota, have explored Kedesh’s role as a border town and the cultural interaction of Phoenicians and Jews there during the Second Temple period. This coming season they hope to clarify the layout and date of the administrative building and to expand their excavation of the bath complex.

Khirbat al-Mudayna

This site, in the Wadi ath-Thamad region of Jordan, offers volunteers a unique look into the history of ancient Moab. The Moabites controlled a region reaching from Madaba to the Dead Sea. Khirbat al-Mudayna is one of a series of fortified towns that may have run along the border between the Moabites and the Israelites. Excavations here have unearthed a six-chamber Iron Age gate, a sanctuary and a courtyard, and structures and instruments for weaving that indicate a textile industry. Excavators have also found a Late Neolithic (sixth millennium B.C.) village that included a burial—one of the few graves found in the Levant from the Yarmukian culture. During the dig this year the director, Wilfrid Laurier University professor P.M. Michèle Daviau, plans to uncover an industrial building, to complete the excavation of a Nabatean villa and to excavate the Yarmukian burial.

Kursi

“They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when He [Jesus] had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit” (Mark 5:9–10). Kursi, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is associated with the Biblical story of the demon-possessed man of the region of the Gerasenes and with Jesus’ miracle of casting the demons into a nearby herd of swine. The earliest phase found so far dates to the fifth century A.D. and includes a Byzantine-era bathhouse and a monastery with mosaic floors, indicating a large Christian complex. Excavators have also unearthed cooking utensils, intact jars and lamps and evidence of the Persian invasion in the seventh century A.D. Dig directors Charles Page and Paul McCracken, with the Jerusalem Institute of Biblical Exploration, successor to Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Vassilios Tzaferis, will be investigating the link between the bathhouse and the monastery, as well as a subterranean chamber found near the bathhouse.

Megiddo

“Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16). Megiddo—the site, according to the Book of Revelation, of the last great battle at the end of history—is one of the most famous, and one of the largest, archaeological digs in the Near East. Towering more than 100 feet over the Jezreel Valley 18 miles south of Haifa, Megiddo has recently been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (as was Hazor). The scene of many battles, the latest during World War I, Megiddo contains more than six millennia of history buried in the remnants of more than 30 different settlements. The city was conquered by Joshua, built up by King Solomon and was the site of the death of King Josiah. This year’s dig will focus on the floor of a temple hall, the late Bronze Age wall and a monumental chamber tomb first discovered by the earliest excavator of Megiddo, Gottleib Schumacher, more than a century ago. The dig is run by directors Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, both of Tel Aviv University, and co-directed by Eric Cline of the George Washington University.

Ramat Rachel

Ramat Rachel, home to a First Temple period royal palace, lies just south of Jerusalem. Finds so far have included seal impressions from the 031reign of King Hezekiah and seals from the Persian period, a Roman villa and bath house, and a Byzantine church with mosaics. The dig this season will focus on establishing the stratigraphy of the site and excavating the water system of the citadel, as well as on gaining a more clear understanding of the site in the eighth century B.C. The dig directors are Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University and Manfred Oeming of the University of Heidelberg.

Tell es-Safi/Gath

“So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, ‘What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?’ They answered, ‘Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath’” (1 Samuel 5:8–9). Tell es-Safi has been identified as Gath, which the Bible says was the home of Goliath, the place where David sought refuge from Saul and where the Ark of the Covenant was taken when it was seized by the Philistines. One of the cities of the Philistine Pentapolis, Gath was the largest pre-Hellenistic site in Israel. It saw near-constant habitation from the Chalcolithic Age to the founding of modern Israel in 1948. Last summer the excavators uncovered what might be the oldest Philistine inscription. This season dig director Aren M. Maeir of Bar-Ilan University will concentrate on exposing Bronze and Iron Age and Crusader-era levels.

Sepphoris

Built on a hill 5 miles west of Nazareth, Sepphoris was a bustling major city in central Galilee during the Roman period, when it was called Diocaesarea. The capital of Herod and Herod Antipas, it was a government town, heavily fortified but still beautiful enough to be called “the ornament of all Galilee” by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. The excavations have so far revealed a decumanus (the main east-west Roman road), a theater, a building dedicated to Dionysius (the god of wine), mosaics and a synagogue. This season dig director Zeev Weiss of the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University willl focus on furthering the excavations of the decumanus and the adjacent areas and of the houses found in the lower portion of the city.

Tamar

“This land will become your inheritance … On the east side the boundary will run between Hauran and Damascus, along the Jordan between Gilead and the land of Israel, to the eastern sea and as far as Tamar” (Ezekiel 47:13, 19). Biblical Tamar, 30 miles south of the Dead Sea, was one of the main cities on the spice trade. More than 25,000 objects ranging from the First Temple period to the early Arab period have been uncovered here, including a pit with Edomite cultic figures, Iron Age walls, gates and an altar, and a Roman fortress. Dig directors Tali Erickson of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Mark Shipp of Austin College and Craig Bowman of Rochester College will focus on the Iron Age walls this 032season. Tamar is one of the few sites where volunteers can dig for a single day.

Tiberias

“Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias …” and helped Simon Peter in the miraculous catch of fish, according to John 21:1. Thanks to its role as the most important harbor on the Sea of Galilee, the city of Tiberias gave its name to the entire lake during New Testament times. A major Christian center of pilgrimage through the tenth century A.D., Tiberias is also where the Palestinian Talmud was completed and was the seat of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court, after the destruction of Jerusalem. The excavations have so far unearthed a fourth-century A.D. basilica, the Roman corso (main street), a covered bazaar, a bathhouse and streets, shops and a theater. Dig director Yizhar Hirschfeld of the Hebrew University plans to further the excavations throughout the site. The dig at Tiberias is only in its third year, so there is much more to be discovered.

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Tel Tsaf

The 7,000-year-old site of Tsaf is one of the few locations in Israel that contains evidence of the transition between the Neolithic and Chalcolithic ages, periods about which little is known. Red and black geometric designs on a white background distinguish the pottery found at the tell, called Tsafian ware, from others found in Israel. Director Yossi Garfinkel of Hebrew University will focus this season on completing the excavation of a silo complex found during an earlier survey and on entering into a database the artifacts found to date.

Ya’amun

Ya’amun, in northern Jordan, is the dig for those interested in paleo-forensics. Almost 200 tombs dating from the Iron Age to the Byzantine era have been found at the site and, although most of the tombs in the necropolis have been robbed, several skeletal remains have been recovered. The site also contains wine and olive presses, indicating a commercial industry; Late Bronze Age houses; and a sixth-century A.D. church with a mosaic floor. This season dig director Jerome C. Rose of the University of Arkansas will search for more Iron Age tombs and hopes to expand the collection of Byzantine period skeletons for osteological analysis.

Yotvata

“They [the Israelites] traveled to Gudgoda and on to Yotvata, a land with streams of water” during their 40-year wandering through the desert, according to Deuteronomy 10:7. The modern site of Yotvata, 28 miles north of Eilat, may be the oasis in the Biblical account. It boasts a late Roman-era fort that contains a monumental dedicatory Latin inscription from approximately 300 A.D. The fortress, 130 feet square, was later occupied during the Islamic period. Last year dig director Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her team uncovered a previously unknown occupation level, and this year’s dig will focus on clarifying the sequence of the occupation of the site.

Zayit

At the crossroads of major roadways connecting Egypt, Philistia and Judah, Zayit was a site that saw much intermingling of cultures. Approximately 25 miles east of Ashkelon, Zayit boasts a large Egyptian public building from the Late Bronze Age (thought to be a garrison) and a Roman-period fortress. The site also shows evidence of two destruction levels, one dating to the 13th century B.C, and the other to the ninth century B.C., which may be the result of the invasion in 830 B.C. by the Aramean King Hazael (2 Kings 12:17–18). This summer, dig director Ron Tappy of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary will focus on excavating the tenth-century B.C. city and the ninth-century destruction level and will seek to clarify the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

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Scholarships

BAR offers travel scholarships of $1,000 every year to a few people who would otherwise not be able to volunteer. On page 32 are reports on the 2005 scholarship winners. To apply, simply send a letter to BAR Dig Scholarships, 4710 41st St. NW, Washington, DC 20016, stating who you are, where and why you want to dig, and why you need financial aid. We require your address and phone number and the names, addresses and phone numbers of two references. The deadline is March 3, 2006.