How a Dig Begins

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In 1972 Joe Seger was Archaeological Director of Hebrew Union College and director of the school’s continuing excavations at Tell Gezer, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Seger had been on the Gezer staff since 1966 and would direct its operation through the final season in 1974.

For almost a year, Oded Borowski, a coworker at Gezer and a former member of Kibbutz Lahav, had been urging Seger to visit Kibbutz Lahav on the edge of the Negev desert. “My kibbutz has a tell,” Borowski insisted repeatedly, “come have a look.”

Finally Seger took a busman’s holiday and visited Kibbutz Lahav and its impressive mound, Tell Halif.

As Seger walked over Tell Halif on that Sabbath afternoon in 1972 picking up pottery sherds in an effort to date them, did he think of Tell Halif as a possibility for his next dig? “The next dig is always there—somewhere in the back of your mind. You are always open to possibilities,” Seger told the BAR.

But he was not then looking for a new project and his short visit to Tell Halif might have been the end of it; however, within weeks of Seger’s return to Jerusalem, where he was living, he received a call from Avraham Biran, then director of the Israeli Department of Antiquities. Biran had heard of Seger’s recent visit to Tell Halif. Bulldozing operations for construction of a new road into the kibbutz had just opened some ancient burials in the shadow of Tell Halif, Biran told him. An immediate emergency salvage operation was necessary. Biran asked Seger to undertake the task on behalf of the Department of Antiquities.

Seger accepted. Over the next few months Seger spent whatever time he could at Tell Halif. In one weekend alone, Seger with a small crew found over 500 pottery vessels in three Iron Age tomb chambers. In the course of the emergency salvage operation, Seger learned more about the site and its archaeological possibilities. Gradually, he came to the conclusion that Tell Halif and its environs might be the “right” place for a new dig.

To be “right”, a site should contain historical periods or problems with which the director is prepared to deal responsibly. Since interpretation and publication of materials from a site is the eventual goal, the director’s own scholarly interests should coincide with what he is likely to find. “An archaeologist who has spent his professional life working on Bronze Age materials,” Seger commented, “is just not going to get terribly excited about a predominantly Byzantine site.”

The director, then, has to have a good notion of what is under the ground before the first spade of earth has been turned. How much can he know before a major commitment is made?

Actually, quite a bit. From ground surveys and aerial photographs, surface pottery and accidental finds (as in the salvage operation Seger conducted at Tell Halif), enough can usually be gleaned to determine the predominant periods in which the site was occupied.

Seger recalled what he had learned on his first visit to Tell Halif. “The obvious thing was that there was a tell. That was easily recognizable from the configurations of the land.” The identifying configurations were the mound’s sizeable flat surface on top and its regularly sloping sides. The flatness indicated successive building layers; the sloping sides, ancient fortification walls beneath the surface.

The potsherds from the surface of the mound confirmed occupation from the 033Bronze Age, Iron Age and early Byzantine period. From the standpoint of its occupational periods, the site appeared to match Seger’s interests. But there were other things right about it. Seger discussed the site with a Gezer colleague, Dr. Mary Elizabeth Shutler (head of Washington State University’s Department of Anthropology). Together they began to see intriguing possibilities of integrating environmental and ethnographic investigations into the excavation project. The Tell Halif region (in a strategic zone between the desert and the sown land) was ripe for environmental and ethnographic studies which could be coordinated with the archaeological work. An integration of disciplines like this had been in Seger’s mind for some time as part of “the ideal next dig.”

One more factor—and perhaps the decisive one—was practicality. The site could be excavated in a manageable fashion. “It is one thing,” Seger commented, “to sit around and talk about the ideal dig. It is another thing to do it. You can have the most exciting site in the world, but if you have to worry about the horrendous problems of just staying alive, going long distances for food and services, you might as well forget the whole thing.”

The cooperation of the people from the kibbutz was thus of extreme importance. “Once I realized that members of the kibbutz wanted to see the site excavated,” he recalled, “and that these same members could help us in a multitude of ways, then the whole idea became viable.”

Seger also looked forward to cooperation with the Joe Allon Center, which had been created to preserve the history and folklore of the Lahav region. The Center was about to build a local museum, and the people involved were intrigued with the research project at Tell Halif that was beginning to take shape.

By the spring of 1975, three years after his first visit to Tell Halif, Seger was ready to take the first practical steps toward attempting a pilot season in 1976. He knew that the site was right and that he had the resources, both professionally and practically, to excavate. He was also to discover that it takes more than archaeological experience and expertise to field an excavation. “If you want to direct a dig you’d better know how to write grant proposals, handle accounts, do fund-raising, and public relations work. It wouldn’t hurt to have some experience as a construction engineer and psychologist on the side.”

His first move was to enlist the assistance of two associate directors. Dr. Shutler would supervise the anthropological and environmental studies. She would organize the study of recent and current Arab and Bedouin cave habitations in the region. Dr. Dan Cole of Lake Forest College and a fellow member of the Gezer senior staff, would assist in supervising excavation in the field and establishing a field school program.

Decisions were made in consultation. Together, by telephone and correspondence, the three—Seger, Shutler and Cole—began to map strategy and make decisions. Who would comprise the remainder of the staff? What specialists were necessary? What would be the size and make-up of the field school with its volunteers? How would they screen and accept applicants?

They also had to devise a policy for bringing colleges and universities into a consortium arrangement that would be mutually worthwhile. And, of course, they needed archaeological sponsorship. They drew up a detailed budget and prospectus, and eventually were given the approval of both Hebrew Union College and the American Schools of Oriental Research. The official excavation permit from Israel’s Department of Antiquities came easily on top of that.

What did not come easily was money. “As in just about everything else, money was the problem.” The first season was to be on a modest scale, but even so they had to find $25,000 to $30,000. The problem was where? Too late for major foundation support, the directors and newly committed staff members concentrated on raising money from any other available sources. Most surprising and rewarding were early gifts from former Gezerites and personal friends. The gifts were for the most part small but they gave a significant initial boost to the project.

“We were all in the uncomfortable position which comes from having your hand out. But we had begun to believe in this operation, so we did what had to be done,” Seger recalled. They did, devoting much of their time and energy to lecturing to interest others in the project, and following up leads on funding sources.

034Things looked promising enough so that in the summer of 1975 Seger decided to return to Israel from the University of Nebraska where he had been teaching, in order to revisit the site and discuss practical arrangements with kibbutz members. Questions such as the place of the camp had to be carefully considered even though the major question—Would they get into the field in 1976?—could not yet be answered.

That question finally was answered in the early days of 1976. They had everything they needed: archaeological sponsorship, official license, a consortium of four colleges and universities, a staff, a campsite—and almost enough money. That was still the big worry. “But,” Seger recalled, “the time comes when you just have to say that you are going to go ahead and commit yourself to it. There was a chance we might not make it financially, but it was a chance we had to take.”

The decision to go ahead propelled Seger and his associates into several intense months of making final and detailed arrangements: travel, field school, equipment camp and supplies. Dr. Seger and his wife Karen left the States in the middle of May to complete preparations in Israel, which included renting a pick-up truck and borrowing 035tents, cots and excavation equipment.

Seger placed the excavation camp close enough to the kibbutz to hook into their water supply, yet convenient enough to the projected first digging area. He made arrangements for an electrical generator, and for a cook and a kitchen. He made plans for the construction of latrines and showers and for salvaging abandoned army vehicles to use for work space.

Then, all the arranging and deciding done, it was time for the arrival of the staff and almost 50 enthusiastic volunteers.

There was, however, one last critical question—the strategic placement of the first digging fields. Underneath the seven-acre mound were ancient ruins. But which portions of the mound would the Americans investigate first? A well-planned strategy could save valuable time and money, to say nothing of insuring morale.

Seger and his associate directors had been discussing this question for almost a year. Both Seger and Cole had agreed beforehand that the first major field should consist of areas strung from the top to the base of the tell slope in order to intersect whatever wall lines were preserved. But at what point on the slope?

Seger had favored putting Field I at a point where the slope is quite steep because the steepness of the slope suggested wall foundations relatively intact beneath the surface. “However Cole noticed that the contour lines—on a less steep side of the slope—bulged out a bit. This suggested a gateway area,” Seger recounted. Since important architecture and artifacts tend to be concentrated in gateway areas, archaeologists like to locate such areas early. So Seger went along with Cole’s suggestion; the major trench went over the bulge. As a result, the excavations uncovered the corner of a 23 foot-wide tower, probably part of an Early Bronze Age fortified gateway.

Was the first season successful? “If you’re talking about finding a great horde of treasure, then the answer is ‘no’. But we found what we were looking for—and more,” says Seger.

036What were they looking for? In the pilot season, the principal objective is to locate and identify the site’s major building phases; this information will shape the work of the seasons to come. Identified in the first season’s work at Tell Halif were a domestic settlement of the Early Bronze I and II periods (c. 3000–2800 B.C.); a citadel of the Early Bronze II and III periods (c. 2500 B.C.); a Canaanite city of the Late Bronze II period, destroyed about 1200 B.C.; an Israelite city settled about the 10th century B.C. (possibly Biblical Ziklag); a settlement at the base of the tell from 100–600 A.D., probably the site of Jewish Tilla; and cave occupations beginning prior to the 20th century A.D. and ending in 1948.

Of these phases the most surprising was that of the Early Bronze Age fortification complete with glacis (sloping defense wall). This defense system raises new questions and will be the focus of attention in the current season.

Among small finds the most interesting was a jar handle from a 13th century B.C. store jar with three inscribed letters of Proto-Canaanite script, the earliest known alphabet. Its value for epigraphers is enhanced by its discovery in a sealed and closely datable context.

Disappointments? Field II, laid out at the base of a scarp on the surrounding terrace area, might seem to be a disappointment. Three digging areas uncovered modest walls and surfaces, but four other areas were painstakingly dug to bedrock without revealing any ancient remains. Even those negative results were useful, however, explained Seger, in the sense that “the limits of the terrace occupation have been defined.” Now they know where not to dig in future years.

“The real surprise to me,” said Seger, “has been what a rich experience it was. We learned more than we could have expected in a pilot season. We are further ahead in publication than we expected. Financially we are still alive. And the human relations—especially our relationships with kibbutz members—developed significantly.”

Back at the University of Nebraska, the pilot season behind him, Seger had little time to speculate about the future. He was once more raising money, lecturing, directing public relations, planning, arranging. To complete the project will take another eight or nine years. “But”, says Seger, “we will do it, the non-archaeological work along with the archaeological. In the end I guess you have to say we’ll do it because we want to.” The excitement and discovery of those few weeks in the field—and the hope of more in the years to come—had made all the months of planning and preparations worthwhile.

In 1972 Joe Seger was Archaeological Director of Hebrew Union College and director of the school’s continuing excavations at Tell Gezer, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Seger had been on the Gezer staff since 1966 and would direct its operation through the final season in 1974.